Chapter
Twenty-One
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Chapter Twenty-one |
Time stopped.
Claire trembled. The howling
wind ceased and silence blanketed the beach. Both Jack and Claire stared at the
flat gray stone.
Lifeless. Dead.
Had they truly witnessed what
they thought?
Jack held her tight as she
rested her cheek on his heaving chest. Neither dared move for several minutes. Neither
wanted to risk letting go of the other, not fully comprehending what had just
happened. Finally, Jack’s hushed voice came to her. “Who is he, Hannah Claire?”
“It’s very complicated, Jack. Let’s
go home and I will tell you.”
Drawing back, she looked into
his face. His glazed eyes bore down on hers. “Let us go.”
****
She sat on the edge of their
bed, her back ramrod straight, and watched Jack pace across the small cabin
floor. He didn’t, or wouldn’t, speak to her. Just paced. Occasionally, he
stopped to stare at a wall, contemplate some new thought, and then resumed his
nervous pacing. Finally, he pulled a ladder-back chair away from the table,
rotated it face out, and then sat.
He studied her face for a
moment and then glanced away. “Why didn’t you tell me this before now? Why didn’t
you tell me he was on the ship?”
She swallowed hard before she
began. “There wasn’t time. I never intended to keep it from you, Jack. I would
have told you sooner, but we just…we were so happy to get away from there, to
have each other again. And then on the beach we got carried away and, frankly,
we weren’t doing a lot of talking.”
Pursing his lips together, he
rose, walked the short distance across the room and crouched in front of her. He
took both her hands into his and laid them in her lap. His thumbs caressed her
knuckles as he watched and then looked up into her face.
“Did he…? Did that monster…?”
She shook her head. “No,” she
whispered. “No.”
Jack closed his eyes in relief and
then snapped them back open.
“He is the man. The man you
loved in your time.”
She nodded.
“You said you didn’t love him.”
She broke away from his grasp. “No.
I don’t love him. I left him, Jack. Don’t you see? It’s him. He wants me back.”
She scooted closer, found his hands again, and looked intently into his eyes. “I
don’t want him. I want you. Never underestimate that statement, Jack. I love
you.”
Bone-melting relief softened
his features. A hand went to her cheek and stroked. “Hannah Claire, my sweet
woman, I love you, too.”
Pulling her closer, he lowered
his face to capture her lips in his. She could still taste the salt on his
lips, relished in the sting of that, and let her lips mingle with his for a
moment.
They parted and Jack studied
her. “But what about…what we saw?”
She knew that was something
else entirely. She wasn’t sure what the hell they had seen.
“I do not mind to tell you,
Hannah Claire, that I am a believer in the Lord and the Devil. What I saw out
there tonight frightens me. A severed head cannot speak.”
“And people don’t travel
through time, either.” She knew he sensed the irony.
“That man must have been the Devil
himself.”
She agreed. “According to
history, Blackbeard was sometimes referred to as the Devil. He was an evil man.
But he is gone, now.”
Puzzled, he returned, “Tell me.”
“Blackbeard is dead. On
November 22, 1718, he was beheaded in a battle with soldiers sent down from
Virginia. I imagine the ones for whom you piloted the ship. You had a hand in
that, Jack, and you should be proud. I’m sure that is the battle we heard early
this morning.”
A faraway glaze drifted over
his eyes. “Maynard and his men finally defeated the bastard.”
“Yes.”
He laid his head in her lap. She
gently ran her fingers through his long, unbound hair, and then dropped them to
his shoulders, massaging. He moaned and burrowed deeper into her lap, his arms
reaching out to surround her waist as he clasped her to him. She knew he was
having a hard time comprehending all that had happened. It was difficult for
her to grasp as well.
A surge of desire raced through
her, easing away the tension. As one small tear after another rolled down her
cheeks, she felt her compassion for Jack deepen. Within an instant he rose,
gently nudging her body onto the bed as he lay beside her, wrapping her within
the protective cocoon of his arms. “This curse. I just don’t know.”
Claire held onto him all the
more. “I’m not leaving you, Jack. Never will I leave you.” Immediately a pang
of fear jolted up within her. She hadn’t made any decisions. Why had she just
assured him that she wouldn’t leave? What was she thinking?
“But the curse…”
“The curse is just a silly
thing to try and frighten us. It’s nothing. Forget it.” Was she reassuring him,
or herself?
He fell silent. “I think it is
a thing to be reckoned with, Hannah Claire. I think we have to do what it
wants. I don’t want to risk it.”
She drew back from his embrace,
placed the palms of her hands on either of his cheeks, and looked deep into his
eyes. “But how can we do such a thing? Why, in order to get the head back we…”
“…we’d have to travel to your
time.”
“No,” she returned abruptly,
shaking her head. “We’ll not do it. We’re staying here.”
Jack sat up in the bed. “We
have to do what the curse says. I do not want our love damned nor the love of
our children. We have to break the curse.”
She stared at him, shaking her
head.
“We have to do it,” he told
her.
“You are sure?” she whispered.
“We have to steal the head.”
“But how? I don’t know where we’d
look first.”
“Find him. You’d have to find
this…Rick.”
“He’ll know we’re looking for
him.”
“Yes.”
She paused. “You’d go back with
me?”
He nodded. “To break the
eternal damnation of our love, and for our future children, I’d go anywhere
with you.”
Her brain raced with the
probability of what he proposed. “It’s much different, you know, than here. Much.”
“I expect that it is.”
“I’m afraid you don’t expect
anything like what you’re going to see, Jack. I need time to prepare you. The
culture shock could be a little much for you.”
“More so than it was for you
here?”
“Perhaps.”
Jack shook his head and sat up.
“We can’t wait long. The longer we wait the greater chance we will never find
him.”
She bit her lip. “You’re right.”
Taking a deep breath, she continued. “We must go right away. Tonight. I’ll use
all of today to prepare you for my time. Tonight, we travel to the future.”
****
Standing on the perimeter of
the stone, Claire looked at Jack and wondered if she had prepared him for what
was to come. She’d tried to tell him all she could about the future—fast cars, planes,
space shuttles, and even cyberspace—but she knew there was no way on earth she
could fully prepare him.
She took his hand. Behind him,
she noticed the stars on the horizon and thought they had never looked so
bright, so clear, and she wondered if she ever again would see them in such
splendor. At once, a pang of despair ran through her. Would they ever be back? What
would happen to them on the other side?
She looked at Jack and knew he
wondered the same.
“We’ll be back,” he whispered
into the still night.
She nodded. “I hope we’re not
making a mistake.”
He shook his head. “No, we are
doing the right thing. I need to see, Hannah Claire. I need to see what makes
you the way you are. I need to see where you come from. But most of all, we
need to settle the curse forever.”
“Yes.”
Then, as if drawn by some
unknown force, their gazes tore from each other and landed on the stone. Jack
dropped Claire’s hand and placed his arm around her waist. She did the same. In
a simultaneous motion, they stepped forward.
Each placed one foot on the
center of the stone. At impact, the now familiar throbbing began, the low hum
invading their senses. The building pulsation of colors and lights and sound
resonated across the beach.
As they stepped into the
center, Claire clutched Jack and held onto him, fearful some power would rip
him from her grasp. Every crisp and shining star around them on that clear
night suddenly took wing and surrounded them in a blaze of swirling pinpoints
of light. Either the whirling of the stars or a sudden influx of wind, she wasn’t
sure, whipped around them.
“I love you, Jack,” she
whispered into his chest, shutting her eyes against the torrent.
“I love you, too, Hannah
Claire.”
His arms tightened around her,
giving strength and comfort, providing reassurance of the power of their own
unique love. One they were each willing to die to save—for the present and for
the future.
Suddenly, dark silence
surrounded them. For what seemed an eternity, they stood there, arms around the
other. Waiting. Finally, she looked into Jack’s face. Their gazes locked, and
then they both glanced about.
In a rush of relief, Claire
giggled. “We’re in the lighthouse.”
He nodded. “I remember.”
Breaking away, she glanced
around the circular structure, finally resting on an open space immediately
behind her. In fact, they were practically standing in it. The crack! The
bright light of the moon flooded in over their shoulders. She looked at her
feet and nudged him.
“Look, the stone is built into
the foundation of the lighthouse.”
He looked down and then
crouched to touch the stone. “You’re right. It is the magic stone.”
She ran the palm of her hand
over the crumbling bricks around the crack. An aura, a mystical power emanated
from the area.
Jack rose and she looked to
him. “I think the stone’s power has caused these bricks to crumble. I’ll bet
the energy force surrounding this thing is so powerful that all the mortar and
bricks in the world would not keep it closed. What do you think?”
“I think that you are right.”
Taking his hand, Claire led the
way through the crack into the dark night. As they walked around the
lighthouse, she once more noticed the stars above her, and although they were
the same stars, they did seem to have lost their brilliance. For a brief
moment, sadness filled her.
Wary of her surroundings, she
glanced right and left as they approached the house, on the lookout for Rick. She
didn’t trust him, didn’t know how far he planned to take all this. He would
expect her to follow him. Wouldn’t he? But not seeing any trace of him, of
anyone, she tentatively moved forward, hoping he was long gone and far away by
now, reveling in the fact he possessed that stupid head.
****
She watched Jack sleep that
night, hoping they had done the right thing. Even if they couldn’t find Rick
and Blackbeard’s head, she had a chance to finalize things here in this
century. They were together. And as soon as they had settled this thing with
Rick and the curse, she had to confront her own personal dilemma. Could she
reconcile her life here, and prepare to leave forever? Would she go back with
Jack to lead a lonely and limited life on those islands, satisfied only to have
his love?
Could he stay here, with her?
Or would she send him back
alone?
****
“Vick? That you?”
“Claire! My God! Where in the
hell are you!” She listened to Vicki’s voice pitch higher with each syllable
over the telephone.
“The Outer Banks. Where did you
think I was?”
“For all I know you could be in
Taiwan! I’ve been calling for days and days. Your mother’s been worried, but I’ve
tried to play it off. Your cell phone doesn’t pick up.”
“I threw it into the sound. I’m
sure it’s fish food by now.”
“I’m sure that was a good
environmental move.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t
really thinking about that at the time, Vick.”
“Never mind. It’s not an issue.
Just call your mother. She’s worried sick.”
“I will.”
“I’ve given her just about
every excuse in the book. Frankly, I was about to go to the police. Where have you been?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I
told you.” Claire eyed Jack coming across the room. Thank goodness she’d
remembered to explain about telephones. Land lines, anyway. Still, he threw a
puzzled glance her way. “How is Mama, Vicki?”
There was a slight pause. “No
worse. You know your mother. Still gathers the eggs every day, no matter what.”
“But how is she feeling?”
She heard the sigh through the
phone. “She’s doing okay, Claire. But not hearing from you had her worried.”
She knew it would have. “I
know. I’m so sorry. I’ll call her right away.”
“Who are you talking to, Hannah
Claire?”
She placed a finger to her lips
and shook her head.
“Who is that, Claire? Is it
him? What was his name…Jack?”
She patted the couch beside
her. Jack sat, watching her intently, and intertwined his fingers with hers. She
made a mental note to call her mother immediately after hanging up.
“Yeah. Uh, Vicki, listen. This
whole damn thing is too complicated to go into over the phone. We’re probably
coming to Cincinnati very soon. Got some things we need to do here first, but I
was just wondering…have you heard anything from Rick lately?”
“Rick?”
“Yes. Has he been around?”
“Claire, why are you worried
about him?”
“It’s complicated, Vicki. Have
you seen him?” She twisted her body to lean back against Jack’s chest and
propped her legs up on the arm of the couch. Jack folded his arms around her,
and she smiled.
Vicki exhaled slowly. “I haven’t
seen him for several weeks. Heard he quit his job just about the time you left.
What’s going on?”
“Nothing I can tell you about
right now. If you hear anything about him, or see him, you call me here, okay? I’m
hooking up the machine. I might not be here, but I’ll check my messages. And I’ll
keep in touch.”
“All right.”
She thought for a moment before
going on and then bit her lip.
“Vicki? How’s the baby?”
Vicki bubbled over the phone. “Oh,
honey, she’s great. Had an ultrasound last week. It’s a girl.”
Laying a hand on her own
abdomen, Claire smiled. She wondered what it would be like to be pregnant with
Jack’s child. “Happy, aren’t you?”
“Ecstatic. How about you?”
Reaching up to cup Jack’s cheek
in the palm of her hand, she broadened her smile. “Fine. Just fine.” Then she
paused for a moment before turning her attention back to Vicki. “I’m going to call
Mama. I’m telling her I went on a spontaneous cruise down the coast, which
actually, is pretty close to the truth. When I get back to Cincinnati, I’ll
tell you the rest.”
“You’d better. When did you say
you’re coming?”
“Umm, can’t say for sure, but I
want you to meet Jack. I will let you know. Listen, I have to go.”
“Okay. Don’t wait so long to
call next time, promise?”
“Promise.”
“See you.”
She replaced the receiver and then
leaned back against Jack and closed her eyes. “You okay?” she whispered as she
laid her arms over his and squeezed.
His cheek nuzzled hers. “Yes. Seems
not so different. Just a few things are unsettling. The inside privy that does
not smell. The music that comes out of a box. The magic of light at your
fingertips. The other box that cooked our breakfast this morning…and what was
that we ate?”
“Pop Tarts. Sorry, it was all I
had.”
“Yes, but what was it made of?”
Claire sat up and faced him. “I
don’t know. Pastry and jam, I guess. Nobody knows what’s in a Pop Tart, Jack.”
“Nobody?”
She shook her head. “Uh-uh. It’s
kind of like Twinkies. Nobody knows what’s in them either.”
“And people eat these things?”
“All the time.”
“Odd.”
She smiled. “Think you’re ready
for the big time?”
“Big time?”
“Yeah. We need to hit a mall
somewhere before we get started trailing Rick.”
“Hit a mall?”
She reached over and pinched
his cheek. “Shopping. Buy clothes, shoes, underwear, whatever. Your clothes
aren’t bad, but they just won’t go in this century.”
Jack glanced down at himself. “What’s
wrong with these?” Reaching over to the V formed by the opening of Jack’s
shirt, Claire slipped her hand inside. “Nothing wrong with them, Jack. I’d just
like to see you in something a little more modern.” Leaning forward, she placed
a kiss on the hollow of his neck and listened to his groan.
Pulling back, she planted a
quick kiss on his lips and then plopped beside him again on the couch. “I’ve
got to call my mother now. She’s been worried about me. After that, we’re going
to make a twenty-first-century man out of you.” She saw the alarm in Jack’s
face and whispered, “Even if it’s only for a while.”
****
“All right, Mama. I promise. I
won’t do it again. Yes, yes. In a few weeks. Well, I can’t say for sure, but I’ll
try. I know. I love you, too. Uh-huh. See you soon.” Claire slowly replaced the
phone.
The ocean view beckoned outside
the window as she sat, staring at sand and sea. She missed her mother. She had
sounded so frail. How old was she now? Sixty-five? Sixty-eight? Yes, that was
it. Not old. But with every year, her mother’s health seemed to fade.
Of course, there was the
cancer.
The irritating drone of the
news on the television penetrated her musings. She broke her gaze away from the
ocean and glanced at Jack sitting across the room, mesmerized by the
television.
Smiling, she rose and joined
him. He sat on an ottoman, legs spread, with an elbow perched on each knee, his
chin in his hands as he stared at the news.
She slipped her arms around his
neck and leaned into him.
“Whatcha watching?”
“The weather witch in the box.”
She glanced at the
meteorologist going over the local forecast on the weather station. “Weather
witch?”
Jack nodded. “‘Tis the
strangest thing, Hannah Claire. The weather witch can foretell what is going to
happen tomorrow with the weather. He says today will be partly sunny and dry,
but tomorrow will be hazy and wet. Possible thunderstorms. And then the next
day and the next will be the same. What he calls the five-day forecast shows
that…”
Claire playfully bit Jack’s ear.
“Interesting isn’t it?”
He nodded.
“Do you understand it all? I
mean television and everything?”
Jack stared ahead at the
screen. “Some. Not all.”
“I know. It will get easier. The
thing is this has been simple here. We’re still isolated, but we need to get
moving, Jack. I think we should pack up what things we’ll need for a few days
and get over to the mainland. We should start searching for Rick. We can buy
you a few things up in Nags Head or Kill Devil Hills.”
She rose and crouched in front
of him. “But remember. It’s much different up there. Lots of people and hustle
and bustle. Not at all like life here on Ocracoke. It might be a bit confusing.
If you don’t understand something and we’re alone, just ask. If we’re out among
people and you don’t understand, squeeze my hand.” She cupped his face. “And
don’t forget, I was pretty scared sometimes in your world, but I feel I know
you so much better for living there. I want you to know and experience my
world, so maybe you can understand me a little better.”
Claire watched a smile crack
his face. “Quite a little adventure we’re about to embark on, eh, m’love?”
Claire grinned back. “Not
nearly as adventurous as pirates and time-travel, but, I’m sure there are a few
excitements in store.”
“I’m ready.”
“Are you frightened?”
Again, the smile broadened. “I’m
excited to see you in your world. I need to do that.”
She gave him a soft kiss on his
lips. “I’m glad.”
Not long after, they stowed
their bags in the trunk of her car and began the short trek up Ocracoke Island
to the ferry. Their final destination for the day, Nags Head.
Jack sat motionless in the
passenger seat of her late model sedan, properly belted, his gaze never lifting
from the dunes that whizzed by the side window. Periodically she glanced at him
and smiled. After the initial shock over the vehicle’s speed, he had relaxed,
some. The ferry ride jittered his nerves at first, but as soon as he’d gotten
out of the car and stood at the rail staring over the inlet, he calmed, seeming
perfectly at home on the open sea. Only a few other cars occupied the ferry at
that crossing, so as the tourists fed snack foods and breadcrumbs to the gulls,
Claire ushered Jack away and softly spoke to him about what to expect the
further north they drove.
He seemed composed for the
remainder of the trip. He watched intently as they passed through Hatteras
Village, Frisco, Buxton, then further north through Salvo, Waves, and Rodanthe,
all small villages settled on the ribbon of sand between Pamlico Sound and the
Atlantic.
She pointed out various items
of interest to him, trying to initiate him to the modern islands. Out of the
corner of her eye, she watched as mile after mile, his body seemed to tighten.
Finally, they crossed the
bridge joining Hatteras with Bodie Island, quickly closing the distance between
them and Nags Head. The two lanes suddenly widened into four, and after
whizzing past one beach rental after another, they were soon within the midst
of the Nags Head-Kill Devil Hills-Kitty Hawk vacation strip. Restaurants,
shopping centers, condominiums, small hotels and more beach rentals surrounded
them. She had deliberately slowed her pace, but other vehicles raced past, well
within the 50 miles per hour speed limit allowed on the by-pass.
Jack’s white-knuckled hand
gripped the seat cushion beside her. She turned off onto Beach Road and
followed the lesser traveled two-lane that bordered the beachfront rentals.
She watched his jaw tighten. “You
okay?”
He nodded, still looking out
the window.
She pulled off and parked at a
small beach access parking lot. “Come on.”
He looked at her in wide-eyed
astonishment.
“It’s all right.” She held out
her hand to him. “Come on.”
His face softened, and he
nodded and turned to open his car door. Hand in hand, she led him through the
opening in the dunes to the beach. Upon immediate impact of the spectacular
sight, she felt Jack relax. Slowly, they walked down the shore. This time of
year, the beach was nearly deserted.
“You see, it’s still here.”
He breathed deeply of the salty
sea mist and then looked to her. “Yes, it is. But ‘tis not the same.” He
glanced over his shoulder at the row of beachfront houses and then to his feet
where he kicked at a plastic lid from a soft drink bottle.
She watched his eyes fill with
longing. “No. It’s not, is it?”
“But it will do,” he returned
quietly.
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