Chapter 23: Celebration Day

Heather pulled the car to a stop in the beach lot, and quieted the engine.

“Sure you don’t want to go home and sleep?” she asked.

“No, I’m feeling better already.”

Heather smiled at me. “Okay.”

“I never thought the talk with Julie was going to be easy,” I said, “but that was definitely way more than I expected!”

“I think Brian’s trying to leave his legacy as being the town’s biggest asshole ever,” Heather said acerbically. “And he’s doing a good job of it, too.”

“Do you think he’s going to cause more trouble?”

Heather thought for a moment. “I don’t know. You’re only here a few more days, so I wouldn’t worry about it. Besides, his problem is more with Julie than with you.”

“I think his problem is with himself, actually. Do you think he’ll do something to her?”

“I don’t.”

“Because he seemed like he was pushing her around a bit, on the pier,” I added.

“Well, that’s bad news for him, if Bill finds out.”

“Bill? Your Bill? Why?”

Heather chuckled. “Didn’t know he was ‘my Bill’. But yeah, Bill and Brian had a little run-in a few months ago.”

“Really? Bill doesn’t seem the fighting type.”

“You don’t want to mess with Bill. He’s trained in martial arts.”

I frowned at her. “Really?”

“Serious. He’s one of the top artists in the Northeast.”

My stomach twisted up. “Ugh. That makes me feel great, considering I stole you from him. I’m surprised he didn’t bust out the nunchucks and kill me in the drugstore, when he had the chance,” I lamented. “He must be waiting to get me alone.”

Heather laughed. “No, Bill’s not like that. He likes you. If he didn’t, you would’ve known by now.”

“Great. That makes me feel better.”

“Just a little incentive to treat me nice,” she teased.

“Oh, believe me, I don’t need Bill as incentive to treat you nice.”

Heather smiled sweetly.

“So what happened with Brian and Bill?” I asked.

“Mm, let’s just say that if Brian keeps bothering Julie, he’ll have some new bruises to match the one you gave him with your fishing pole.”

I sat quietly, somewhat relieved that Julie would have some help dealing with Brian. I also realized I was concerned for Heather’s safety, and this news was helping quell that fear as well.

“Do you still have feelings for him?” I asked.

Heather held my gaze. “He’s one of my best friends,” she said simply. “But if you’re worried that I want to get together with him while you’re gone, the answer is no. Neither of us would do that.”

I nodded. Somehow, I knew it was true. I found it odd that this relative stranger was so beneficial to my life, but I wasn’t about to complain.

“If...” I started.

“What?”

“No, nothing,” I dismissed.

“What were you going to say?”

“It’s stupid.”

“Tell me,” Heather pressed.

“If you see Bill...” I paused. “I mean, just tell him thanks. Or don’t. He won’t even know why I’m thanking him. But if it comes up...”

Heather just looked at me and then nodded.

“And thanks for making me talk to Julie,” I added. “I feel better, even though we didn’t really talk about anything.”

“But at least you’re talking again. At least you cleared the air.”

“What did you two talk about when I was sleeping?”

“What else would we talk about? You, of course.”

I felt a flutter of nervousness. “What about me?”

Heather smiled. “Girl stuff. You don’t want to hear it.”

“But I—”

“And I’m not going to tell you, anyway,” she continued. “Nothing bad, don’t worry.”

“So secretive.”

Heather shrugged. “The two of us had some talking to do too, and I’m glad we did it.”

“All right. You didn’t call Lara, did you?”

“No. I thought about it, but I figured she would’ve had to tell your parents what happened and get a ride, or have to walk at night. With Brian pissed and on the lam, I decided not to call. You still feel all right?”

“Yeah, the dizzy spells have gone away for now. Headache is killer though.”

“You should get to sleep.”

“Soon, yeah. I’m really tired all of a sudden,” I admitted.

“I can tell. Come on, I’ll drive you home,” Heather said, firing up the engine.

“Will you come in, if my parents are up?”

“Of course.”

“Sorry tonight wasn’t very fun.”

“I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt worse.”

“Me too,” I said, wincing as I flexed my hand.

I woke up late the next morning and immediately started peeling the bandages off of my arms and hands, since they were making me itchy. My wounds were remarkably healed. Though they were still sore and sensitive, they weren’t the scabby mess I was expecting to see. The cuts and punctures were still visible, but for the most part I looked like I’d walked bare-armed through a bramble patch, and not as if I’d had a bad accident juggling with large knives. My head held onto a simmering headache, but otherwise, I felt all right.

When we had arrived at Aunt Beth’s house the night before, the adults were all awake, sitting in the dining room playing cards. Despite the temptation to make up a story about being bitten by some unknown and vicious sea animal, I told them the truth. After they showed some concern about the amount of bandages I wore, I was able to convince them that it looked worse than it really was. In the relatively faint lighting, no one noticed the bump on my forehead.

Heather was graciously by my side as I told of my not-so-noble defense of Julie, and her and Heather’s subsequent care. Aunt Beth was still shaking her head in disbelief when I finally went off to my room to sleep. Hans and my parents seemed to find humor in the situation, in that the women in my life had had to come to my aid, once again.

Heather didn’t stay long. After helping me gingerly change into pajamas and get into bed, she covered me with a sheet and gave me a gentle kiss. I could feel the touch of her soothing lips on mine long after she left, and even after I’d fallen into a deep sleep.

The morning light brought new sobriety to the events of the night before. Despite Heather’s assurances about Bill, I wasn’t so sure I wanted to meet Brian again. Bill could be the world’s best, but that wouldn’t help much if I ran into Brain in a bad mood. I really hadn’t enjoyed the pain of removing those barbs, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to try being a punching bag again either.

When I ambled into the kitchen, my parents and Aunt Beth swarmed to me like bees. After checking over my arms and giving horrified looks at the dark blue bump on my forehead, they had me sit while they went about fixing me breakfast. I didn’t protest, enjoying the attention. It was nice having my food and Tylenol brought to me.

Fortunately, the women sensed my desire for quiet, so after setting the eggs and bacon before me, they retreated to the porch to chat. I ate slowly, thousands of thoughts going through my head.

“What happened to you?” Lara asked as she emerged from her room and walked over to examine me.

“They didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” Lara frowned. “I was sleeping when you got home last night.”

“Fight,” I explained.

Her eyes widened. “With Julie?”

I laughed. “Yeah, she beat me up bad.”

“What the—? Quit messing around, Matt! What the hell happened?”

Lara was examining my cuts closely now. She delicately touched around my head bruise as I took a big bite of food.

“Arrgh!” I exclaimed, as she pressed too close to the sore spot.

“Sorry, sorry. Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“Let me finish this bite,” I said unclearly through the mouthful.

As usual, Lara was impatient. “Wait, did you get back together with Julie, and then Heather found out?”

I rolled my eyes, chewing faster since too many rumors were getting started. Finally, I swallowed and briefly related the events on the pier.

“Damn! Brian sounds like a real dick,” Lara cried. “I can’t believe Julie would go out with someone like that!”

“Me neither. Somehow she got trapped by him, though.”

Lara sighed heavily. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“It’s over now, I hope. I just want to lie low the next couple of days, and hang out with Heather.”

She nodded, rubbing my back gently as the adults returned to the kitchen.

“Do you want to invite Heather’s family for dinner?” Sarah asked.

I looked in surprise at my mom. “Um, I was thinking of taking Heather out to dinner tomorrow night, but...”

Melissa shrugged. “Well, whatever you like. Although if they will be coming to visit this winter, it would be nice to get to know them a little before we leave.”

I nodded thoughtfully. It seemed like it should be a big deal, having her parents over to meet mine. Usually, popular belief held that this was a big event. But for some reason this seemed very natural.

“All right, sure,” I said. “Maybe tonight?”

Melissa eyed the clock and shrugged. “There’s time to make something good, yet.”

“I can help,” I offered.

Beth narrowed her eyes at me. “I don’t think you’ll want to be getting those cuts near any food.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“I’m happy to cook,” Melissa said.

“Something simple is fine. I don’t want you to work hard on my account.”

“I’ll help today,” Lara chimed in.

“How about we all cook?” Aunt Beth suggested.

Happy agreement went around the room. Before I knew it, the four ladies were preparing to head to the market to get the meal started.

“Um, shouldn’t I see if they can come over first?” I called out as they grabbed purses.

That stopped them in their tracks. After exchanging looks, they exploded with laughter. I just smiled and shook my head as I reached for the phone.

As luck would have it, the Martins were able to come for dinner. After getting off the phone with Heather, having our parents get together seemed less normal than it had sounded twenty minutes earlier when my mom had hatched the idea. Aongus and Sarah had met briefly on the pier, and that was fine. But spending a meal around a table was a different deal altogether, especially given my parental situation. It could be a couple of uncomfortable hours, if they were disapproving of my family. I just hoped Heather would tell her parents before they showed up.

I spent the afternoon watching the women work in the kitchen. Guitar playing was out, since my right hand hurt too much to make even a light fist. I figured going for a swim in salt water would be at least as painful as falling on the hooks again, even if most of my cuts were closing up. Heather was working, so there was no entertainment to be found with her. I was prohibited from lending a scratched-up hand with the food preparation, but being present at least made me feel like I was participating in the meal a little bit.

Melissa again was in her element, with three assistants to help her work her magic. I had a feeling that my mention of how much I’d liked Aongus and Mairead’s cooking a few nights earlier had fired her up. She was nothing if not competitive, although it was in a friendly fashion.

I did take a nap, during which Mairead had phoned to see what she and Aongus could bring. After insisting nothing was necessary, Melissa had relented and asked them to provide the wine for the meal.

Forced to be an observer for the afternoon, a few things suddenly struck me. There was a strong interest on the part of my parents, aunt, and sister to make this a nice meal, and it was because they really liked Heather. More than once in the last few days my parents had referred to her as ‘sweet’ and ‘kind’ and though at the time those seemed like tossed-off compliments, I came to realize over the course of the meal preparation that they were not off-hand at all.

I found out that my mothers also had their own agenda. Not that it lessened their eagerness to do well for my sake, but there was an additional incentive. When I was allowed to set the table, there was an extra place setting in the stack of silverware and dishes they handed me. I didn’t realize it at first, but when space grew tight around the large oval table, I noticed I was trying to squeeze ten settings in.

“There’s an extra plate!” I muttered, half to myself. I started to collect the tenth setting.

“No, no. Frej will be joining us this evening,” Sarah explained.

“Frej?” I echoed, surprised at the news.

“We figured we should invite him, since he was so nice to take you all out on his boat. I guess you were napping when we called him.”

“Okay, cool with me,” I said, nodding in agreement.

The invitation seemed slightly out of the blue, but after returning to my kitchen stool to watch the main dish go into the oven with a cheer, I remembered my mom’s banter with Frej on the dock the other night when she dropped us off for the trip. Something had seemed different. They were flirting, I suddenly realized!

A little while later, Lara and I went for a beach walk, since the various courses were either ready or cooking in the oven. I shared my epiphany with her.

“Do you think Mom was flirting with Frej on the docks the other day?”

“Well, yeah! She almost left without saying goodbye to us.”

So I was right! I was most pleased at my perception.

“Did you just figure that out?” Lara asked, her brow arched.

“All by my damn self!” I exclaimed.

She chuckled. “Oh, Matt, you are funny. Maybe we’re rubbing off on you, a little bit.”

“Hey, for someone who didn’t know that Julie liked him for the last two or three years, and for someone who didn’t find Heather’s phone number for six months, I thought it was pretty good that this only took me a few days.”

“All right, I’ll give you that,” she admitted, laughing easily.

“Thanks.”

“Although there’s still plenty of things you haven’t figured out yet,” she added cryptically.

“Like what?”

“I’m not telling,” Lara murmured, her eyes soft.

“Oh, thanks a lot.”

“You’ll figure them out when the time is right.”

“I hope so.”

“Me, too,” Lara said quietly.

Hans was relatively well built, but when he stood next to Frej, he seemed rather small. They both had the same handsome Scandinavian looks, though. Hans’s frame was leaner, from years of hitting balls over tennis nets. Frej was heavier, from years of hauling in fishing nets.

I realized how one little piece of information could make everything else become so obvious. From the moment Frej entered and was greeted by Sarah, I could see the connection between them. It was quite strange, since I’d never seen either of my parents give anyone those kinds of glances, except to each other.

Heather and her folks arrived soon after Frej. Even though I was wearing a long sleeve shirt and Heather had told her parents about my incident, there was still much concern on Mairead’s part when she saw the bruise on my forehead. When she came close to inspect the battle scar, I could see the same glint in her eyes that Heather’s often held. It was not unpleasant to be so close to her, nor to feel her touch the side of my face with such kindness.

The three men took to the living room couches while Mairead mingled in the kitchen with the women, serving the wine she’d brought. Melissa made some last-minute culinary adjustments. Since the house was crowded, Heather, Lara and I went out to the beach. The topic of Frej and my mother flirting immediately came up.

“I didn’t notice that the other night,” Heather admitted. “I must have been getting the lines unfastened. When I heard he was coming, I figured it was just because he’d taken us out on the boat.”

“That’s part of it, too,” Lara said.

“I did tell them about you having two mothers who lived together,” Heather said. “Frej, too. He was at the store this afternoon.”

“How did they react?” I asked.

“No problem.”

I nodded in relief.

“Was Frej disappointed?” Lara asked.

“Disappointed? I don’t know. I didn’t really pay attention to his reaction. Like I said, I didn’t know what was going on. But now I do!”

There was some quiet as we stood in the sand.

“Do you think it’s just flirting, or something more?” Heather asked. “Are your parents looking for someone?”

It was a completely foreign question. Lara and I glanced at each other, shrugging.

“It’s always been just the two of them,” I said.

“But given their situation, you know, with how they were with your dad, it seems possible that they would be open to ... having someone...” Heather trailed off, unable to find the right words.

“But here? In Montauk? We’re leaving in just a few days. Seems rather strange,” Lara said. “I think they’re just having a little fun.”

“True,” Heather agreed. “Frej is a man of the sea. He’d never live in the mountains. I don’t know that he’s ever been more than a few dozen miles from the ocean in his life.”

“Unless my parents are considering moving here!” I blurted out, a little too excitedly.

Lara patted my arm gently. “All right, all right. Now we really are in fantasy land. It’s just flirting.”

“I know,” I said somewhat ruefully. “It was a cool idea, though.”

Heather smiled sweetly at me, just as from the porch my aunt called for us to come to the table.

Frej was a master storyteller. If something had to do with boating or fishing, he’d done it. Often he had some exceptional story to tell about it, too. He was quite different from the oft-nostalgic man he’d been while out on the fishing trip. I wondered if being in the presence of new people, particularly my mothers, made him so entertaining and cheery. Aongus and Mairead had surely heard these stories many times, and perhaps even watched them stretch taller over the years. Yet they were laughing as heartily as the rest of us.

“What’s the most exciting fishing experience you’ve had?” Sarah asked Frej at one point.

The sailor looked at the ceiling for a moment. “You know, every fish is different and has its own particular attraction. Most exciting, though, would probably have to be fishing for giant sharks.”

“Ooh, sounds dangerous!” Melissa said, her eyes glittering.

“More than dangerous,” Frej confirmed. “One time Aongus and I were out...” He trailed off, grinning as his eyes slid to Mairead.

“Oh, go ahead,” she muttered, shaking her head. “I don’t know why you two are so proud of this story, when you should really be ashamed. Foolishness!”

Aongus and Frej laughed richly as the rest of us waited expectantly.

“We were out with our friend Paul off the coast of Cape Cod one morning chumming for shark,” Frej began. “Aongus and I wanted to offer shark fishing to our clients on charters. Neither of us really had much experience with it, but Paul had been out for them and we thought he knew what he was doing. So we asked him to come out with us and show us the ropes.”

“Now Paul is a decent fellow, but prone to exaggeration as is wont among some fishermen,” Aongus added.

“Exaggeration?” Mairead protested. “Turns out he had no idea about shark fishing, really!”

Frej and Aongus grinned sidelong at her before Frej continued.

“The waters were very rough that morning. Those long waves that really get the hull sideways, you know? Aongus hooked into a shark after a couple of hours of drifting with the chum.”

“She felt like a big one, by the pull, but I didn’t know how large,” Aongus said. “Luckily we were set up with decent tackle, or surely she would have gotten free right off.”

“After a good bit of fight, the line went slack,” Frej continued. “Paul was sure that Aongus had lost her.”

“I wasn’t so sure she was gone, though,” Aongus said. “The tension didn’t come off sharply, like a line snap. I thought she was coming toward us, but Paul didn’t think she could swim that fast, so he put the boat in idle and had Frej replenish the chummer. That was a big mistake.”

“Aongus, meanwhile, was reeling as quickly as he could, but the line was very slack all throughout. It seemed Paul was right about the fish. Still, there was this eerie feeling in the air. Then, not a hundred feet off the side of our boat, a huge Mako shark leapt out of the water, shaking and twisting its head! You should’ve seen this thing thrashing. It was glorious! We had been looking off the stern since the line was stretched that way, but she was impossible to miss when she cleared the water.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Aongus said, his voice reverent. “The jump was incredibly violent. The splash was like that of a truck landing in the water. The shark had to have jumped over twice its length up in the air. Maybe twenty-five feet!”

“Twenty-five feet?” Lara cried, disbelieving.

“Oh yes, at least. Paul called out that we had another shark in the area and to get another rig ready,” Frej said. “But it wasn’t another shark, because just then Aongus caught up the rest of the line and it whipped around to where the shark had jumped: she had swum beside us, still hooked!”

“And in no time at all!” Aongus added immediately.

“I yelled at Paul to get us out of there,” Frej said, his voice becoming more animated. “It was no secret that Makos would jump right into the boat if they got too close. Believe me; you do not want that to happen.”

Mairead had put her face in her hands. Everyone else listened, riveted.

“We had to stay ahead of her and again the line loosened as the shark came toward us. While Aongus reeled in at full blast, I climbed the fly bridge and took the helm from Paul, who had apparently turned to stone,” Frej said with a laugh. “And just as I set the boat in motion, Aongus gave a warning yell.”

“I was watching the water to try to catch glimpse of its location,” Aongus explained. “And then a dark gray shape suddenly came into view, approaching vertically from the deep water, right toward me! Incredible! Those fish are so strong, and so fast!”

“The Mako jumped again, not more than a few yards behind us,” Frej said. His voice was urgent, and he gestured colorfully with his arms. “She blotted out the light. Spray was everywhere, little diamonds in the sky. I swear she was right over top of Aongus, thrashing her tail through the air. Right at eye level with me, and I was up on the bridge!”

“If Frej hadn’t started moving the boat a moment earlier, she would have surely come down right on top of me,” Aongus said.

“Did it land in the boat?” Sarah asked.

“As she fell, she smashed her tail against the transom and rocked the boat violently. Paul was thrown off the bridge from the shock, landing down on the deck behind me,” Aongus said. “The corner of the boat got underwater, and I swear on my child that I was standing at forty-five degrees to the deck as she rolled. Luckily she got straight again and I wasn’t thrown into the water.”

“The most amazing part of it was that Aongus never stopped reeling in!” Frej exclaimed triumphantly, with a hearty laugh. “As I tried to keep my footing on the bridge, I could still hear the clicking of the reel. He didn’t even take a hand off the fishing pole to brace himself!”

“Stupid man,” Mairead said with a sigh, to which everyone laughed.

“Did you catch the shark then?” I asked.

“At that moment, all I could think of was to get us out of there,” Frej said. “If that monster got into the boat, the damage would be horrible. We might not be here today. Paul had managed to stay in the boat and the fall must have finally knocked some good sense into him. He took the gaff handle and cleared the fishing line from getting pulled to the propellers, where it might have been cut.”

“You call that good sense?” Mairead asked, exasperated.

“He was trying to keep the line intact,” Aongus explained with a shrug. “We had a monster fish on the hook. It would have been a shame to lose her for a silly error like that.”

“Then we were out of there,” Frej said. “Within seconds, the line tightened as the Mako took off for the bottom. The reel was screaming as she tore a hundred yards of line off.”

“I think she was very, very angry,” Aongus said exaggeratedly, nudging Mairead gently with his arm. She only rolled her eyes and huffed.

“How long did we end up fighting that fish?” Frej asked Aongus, a little more calmly now.

“Oh, it was five or six hours before we finally tired her out, I’d say.”

“Five or six hours!” I exclaimed.

I thought the five to ten minutes it took to land the stripers a few nights earlier had been a good fight.

“Yes, it was well after noon when we got her close to the boat again,” Aongus said.

“And?” Lara asked.

“And she was relatively calm by then,” Frej said with a large sigh, his voice returning to normal.

I could see everyone relax in their seats a little.

“When we got her back to port, she came in at 694 pounds.”

Frej grinned broadly at the gasps of surprise. Hans let out a low whistle. My parents looked at each other with mouths wide open.

“That’s not so big,” Aongus said dismissively. “They get up into a thousand, twelve-hundred pounds.”

“Not so big, he says,” echoed Hans with an incredulous laugh.

There was a moment of silence as everyone replayed the story in their heads.

“By the way, dinner is excellent!” Frej said cheerfully, raising a glass to the ladies still stunned by the story.

“Wow,” was all Sarah could say.

The wine flowed freely. Even we three kids were allowed a glass with the meal. The food, of course, was a smash hit. Melissa had once again made everyone at the table jealous of her family, who could eat like this every night.

“Well, not every night,” Melissa had protested somewhat quietly, but it had been lost in the chorus of a Danish song that Frej had started up, celebrating the chef, and her assistants, of course. Wine glasses clinked and then Frej had another story at hand.

The hours passed quickly. I looked around the table more than once, completely content. To my right, Heather gave me warm smiles all evening long. Under the table, we held hands for most of the meal. Hans found kinship with Frej’s stories, having to wipe tears of mirth from his eyes more than once. To my left, Lara was glowing in the soft light of the room. Beside her, my parents and aunt grew progressively more flushed. Their eyes shined with each sip of wine and each morsel of tale. Across from me, Heather’s parents and Frej enjoyed themselves fully.

I felt kingly, being able to indirectly host such a feast and such a gathering. There was never once any long silence. All thoughts I’d had of potential awkwardness were so unfounded that I smiled at my silly worries. I felt almost like an adult.

Conversation had stretched long past the time when the last bites of flan were spooned from the dessert plates. When Beth suggested moving to the living room and the comfort of the couches there, Aongus and Mairead considered heading home instead. They had to work in the morning, since they’d given Heather the day off to spend with me.

While the adults still conversed at the table, reluctant to end the evening, Heather and I said goodnight to everyone. They didn’t really need us there anymore, so we headed out the back door to the beach. Heather kicked off her shoes and held them at her side as we strolled across the cool sand. The moon was just starting to make its way up the eastern sky, and wispy clouds occasionally fogged its pale yellow face.

“Well, that was fun,” I said earnestly.

“Yeah. I haven’t seen Frej so happy in a long time.”

“You think it did him good to come out tonight?”

“Oh, yeah. Definitely.”

“He told me about his wife, when we were on the boat the other night,” I said seriously.

“Yeah. She died when I was six. I remember her pretty well. My dad says that Frej really changed after that. He became much more reserved, and his eyes were always looking at something far off in the distance when he talked. I think he’s recovered a lot in the last few years, but he is still haunted by her death. She was only in her early thirties.”

I shivered. “I can’t imagine what that’s like. In some ways I’m glad I was too young to know when my father died.”

Heather pulled me a little closer to her as we walked.

“I’m not saying that I wish I hadn’t known him,” I continued, “but if he had to go, it would’ve been much harder for me if it happened later in my life, I think.”

“I understand,” Heather said softly.

“Some of those stories Frej told were crazy. Are they for real? The ones about thousand pound sharks?”

“Yeah. You’re lucky. You got to hear the rare shark story.”

“Rare?”

“My mom banned talk of it a long time ago. It totally freaks her out.”

“Freaked me out, too.”

“My dad and Frej still pull it out for special occasions, when they get hyper.” Heather chuckled. “But the stories are true. Frej has pictures at home of him standing next to some pretty big fish.”

“Have you ever been out with him for sharks?”