Edward couldn’t control the sneer forming on his lips as he looked over Isaac. Isaac was shorter by about five inches but bulkier. Edward pressed his fingers into his palms and stood straight with his arms slightly out. Isaac teetered, his stoned eyes appearing focused on Edward’s chest. Edward couldn’t hear anything but the oohing and shouting from Isaac’s friend and the fire burning inside himself, his own voice telling him to get it started.
“Boy, I tink you gonna miss da boot.”
Isaac kept his mouth open, running his tongue across his lips and sucking in air. Edward could smell the alcohol on his breath. Edward watched as Isaac made to turn to his friends, but then made a sudden half-lurch at Edward. The feint was inhibited and slow and Edward half expected it. He didn’t react except for blinking. But even that was enough. A smile grew across Isaac’s face, his friends whooped, and the fire inside Edward grew. He filled his chest with air and started pulling his right fist back. Mary grabbed it.
“Let’s go!” She pulled him around to face away from Isaac. “Come on. Or you can spend the night here.”
“What?”
“Are you coming with me or staying? I will leave you here.” She started walking away.
“What? Why are you yelling at me?” Edward spoke over his own heart beating in his ears. He started after her, sure she would stop. But Mary kept walking.
“Mary, wait.”
“Dat’s right, boy! Get back on da boot!” The jeers and laughter rose, continuing until Mary and Edward were two streets away. Edward looked back after he was beside Mary. Isaac had returned to his seat on the top of the steps, and the heckling pattered off into single insults and supporting laughter.
“Why did you stay there? You want to fight?” Mary snapped at Edward.
“If that guy touched you—”
“He wasn’t going to do anything – and I don’t know why you had to get in each other’s face like that.”
“Well, he was harassing you—”
“He called me out. I turned around and had to talk to him. But that doesn’t mean I can’t just walk away.”
“Now, wait a minute, you make it sound like that was my fault—”
“It was your fault for startin the fight—”
“I was protecting you—”
“Oh, pleassse! Don’t say you were protecting me, ‘cause you were only protecting your own pride.”
“Hey, but if he touched you—”
“If he touched me, I can take care of myself. I don’t need a reckless bodyguard lookin to start trouble every time someone speaks to me. I’ll have you know, these islands aren’t as big as what you think. We have to all get along together and that means we leave each other alone and not walking around askin for a fight. Hmmm.”
“But—”
Mary waved a hand in the air to stop him from speaking. She kept walking, entering the gate to the pier where her boat was tied up. Edward sighed, and quickly followed.
Several times on the ride back to his house he tried to argue that he had only been defending her. Mary ignored him, staring straight ahead over the wheel with a potent silence that worried him.
Standing on the pier, he watched her boat disappear into the darkness near the mouth of the bay, and rubbed the back of his neck. For a while he stayed there, pulling the hair on the back of his head, trying to figure out what had just happened and how such a perfect night could end in such ruin.
~~18~~
The old phone rang like a bicycle bell, and for a moment, Edward looked around for the source of the sound as he stepped up the line of dunes on the south side of the property. He heard it through the open kitchen window and knew what it was – even though it was the first time he had heard it. No one had ever called him and he had come to think of the ancient black rotary phone as not real, just repurposed décor from the 1960s.
He ran down to his house and into the kitchen to grab the receiver. Cautiously, he placed it to his ear.
“Hello?”
“So, you decide to answer your phoon now, do you?” The powerful female voice didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, I callin you for two hour and you doonh answer. Where exactly you been Mr. Tache? And I doonh need no excuse cuz it waste me time—”
“Ms. Sarah?”
“Of course it’s Ms. Sarah. Who else callin you? So, you doonh even know your phoon workin? Well, juss make sure you doonh be occupying dis line.”
“But I haven’t used the phone—”
“I know you haven’t use id cuz you avn’t answer me calls. Been callin you all morning and nooo one answer. Now stop talkin and start listenin. George say he saw the shutter broken on the main ‘ouse. You ‘ave to get dat fixed, Mr. Tache. Dat part of your dooties.”
“George was here?”
“Yes, he deliverin your supply. He told to leave dem supply dere if you’re not around. So, where were you, den?”
“I was just walking around the south beach where the road ends—”
“Please shut up. Now, you need to see bout fixin dat shutter on dah ‘ouse. George say he see dat screw type and say it need a special tool dat not in dah toolbox. If you must, you need to get on over to Road Town and buy whatever tool George is talkin bout. Are you capable of doing dat, Mr. Tache? Den you keep dah receipt and I reimburse you later. Do you understand?”
“Yes. Sure, I can—”
“You ‘ave to do it soon. Dooo not waste time. If dah owners see deir ‘ouse all fallen apart, and complain to me, do you know what happens, Mr. Tache?”
Edward waited a few moments before answering in case the question was rhetorical.
“You won’t be happy?”
“Dat right. You gettin smarter every day. And if I’m not ‘appy, den I lookin for a new caretaker. You got it?”
“I got it.”
Ms. Sarah went on a minute more before hanging up, talking about checking plumbing and dusting. Afterwards, Edward put away the supplies that George had left him on the pier, and then went out to inspect the window.
The storm had ripped the top hinge out of the wall, and now the shutter hung at forty-five degrees across the window. Edward wondered why he hadn’t noticed it before, putting it down as one of those things hidden in plain sight or perhaps he had subconsciously thought it just wasn’t his responsibility. He looked around in the sand, and after some time found one of the screws. The screw was an odd bolt with a square depression in the head. He would need a square screwdriver to fix the hinge along with putty for filling the hole.
As he turned for the house, a blue dash caught his eye. He looked up to see Mary’s boat at the far end of the bay. He watched her in the shade of the main house as she tossed a cage overboard, his heart pattering. She hadn’t entered the bay since they’d run into her ex, three days before. He held his breath. Mary slapped her hands clean, looked up for a second, and then moved to take the captains seat.
Edward quickly lifted his arm, giving her a tentative wave – more of a request than a greeting. Mary didn’t respond. She put the boat in motion and turned for the mouth. She hadn’t seen him because of the glare or because he was in the shadow of the house. He was sure of it.
Edward felt like he’d lost all the air inside his lungs as her boat disappeared behind the western dunes. The pang in his chest was too much and he wouldn’t accept it. He dropped the screw into his pocket, ran to the house, put on his tennis shoes and a shirt, stuffed his wallet into his back pocket, and then started at a jog towards the village.
Twenty minutes later, when he reached the village, sweat drenched his shirt. He felt he had made good time, but Mary boat wasn’t at the pier. She hadn’t stopped, probably heading straight for Road Town instead. He looked off toward Tortola and Road Harbour where two slanted pipes and top decks of a cruise ship peaked over the southern promontory. He walked down to the policeman’s booth on the pier and asked when the next ferry would arrive. Not for another hour. He paced the pier two times and then walked down to the beach.