I turned and carried Elva toward the deck. Julian stayed behind, looking down at the mess that was once Elva’s castle. I had thought he would have followed me. I felt bad now. I should have said goodbye. But, hauling Elva around, I didn’t really want to go back and forth. Julian would understand
Elva glanced up at Veronica and her laughter stifled. “What’s wrong?” she asked. Veronica startled a little, then tried to smile again. It wasn’t as big as before. It barely twitched her lip, and certainly did not meet her eyes. “Nothing’s wrong,” Veronica said. “I’m glad you liked the trick.”
It was difficult to wait the hours needed for everyone else to have gone to sleep. I couldn’t stop thinking about Nicholas, and being in his arms again. A late night swim sounded dangerous but I trusted him to keep me safe. All I had to do was wait. Finally, after Elva was deeply asleep and the
By now my legs had resumed some basic functionality so I nodded. He released me and I stood on my own. Then he took my hand in his and clasped it. Side by side, we slowly waded into the water. The waves were mostly calm now. As the water reached our stomachs, the waves simply lifted and lowered us
The next morning, after dressing in my one piece swimsuit, I stood in front of the vanity in the bedroom, trying to decide how best to wear my hair, as to eliminate the most friction and increase my speed in the water. Swimmers, I knew, wore swim caps to cover their hair, but lacking that, I wasn’
I’d promised to be careful, and I would be. But I didn’t know how careful I could be when I was swimming out in the ocean, unable to fully take notice of my surroundings. To have a friend like Veronica, someone I trusted so implicitly, guarding my back, gave me relief without measure. “Thank you
Holding Elva’s hand, we followed Bridget around to the side of the mansion. A camera crew followed us, with their cameras trained on Bridget, Elva, and me. I tried to keep my head up high and my grip firm on Elva’s hand. Constantly having cameras watching was unnerving. It felt like I was constant
Bridget, Veronica, me, and Jessica lined up at the starting line in that order. By now the camera crews were ready and waiting. Many were dotted along with beach with a few others out in the boats around the designated racing area. Nathan directed us where the path would be, showing us both on a m