|
Excerpt:
Dreams of the Deep
By Liz Isola
Chapter
One
Dolly
swam with slow strokes toward Lookout Rock, a great monolith that
appeared to have been dropped on the beach by a careless giant hand,
the granite remnant of an upheaval even the rock was too old to
remember.
She
always experienced a momentary sense of wonder that the massive
chunk of granite could be there, alone, at this incongruous spot
surrounded by nearly two miles of sandy beach and sea grass. Just
now, the tidal flow reached halfway up the rock as Dolly began her
transit of its perimeter.
The
sun was full strength, unusual on this customarily foggy stretch of
New England coastline. Dolly extended herself to her full length on
the waves and let her body rise and fall with the movement of the
water. The bobbing motion, the coldness of the northern Atlantic
water and the warm sun on her exposed skin sent shivers of pleasure
over her.
Light
glinted on each ripple as she gently stroked to orient herself with
the lip of the rock shelf. Droplets of water along her arms sparkled
multicolored as precious offerings from the sea.
She
pulled herself up to her favorite spot, using the power in her arms
to haul herself up from the water onto the rock. She rested on a
dry, warm ledge with her back against the side of the rock shelf,
catching her breath while sitting quietly in the sun.
Her
favorite place to play as a small child, she had come here to this
spot with her parents during many a holiday. It was still her top
choice of location to sit quietly and watch for dolphins, seals and
the occasional whale at the edge of her vision.
Even
in winter, she loved the way the fading waves frothed, formed tiny
crystals of ice along their edges as they kissed the black rock and
then the sand that waited to meet them. After a few moments of rest,
she sat up straight and glanced around.
Unexpectedly, on the short span of beach remaining on the other side
of the vast rock as the tide rose, stretched the body of a man.
Curious, Dolly hitched herself over the rock verge. Very quietly,
she shifted a little closer, hoping to see but not be seen. He
looked asleep with his head resting directly on the sand, tilted
just enough in her direction that she could see most of his facial
features.
She
gasped. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Even
though his eyes closed in sleep, she was certain they would turn out
to be blue, the greenish blue of the ocean on a sunny day such as
this. His golden flesh and pale wavy hair only added to the
whimsical sense of fantasy which overwhelmed her.
Who
was he? A Viking king cast from his ship in a great storm at sea?
Poseidon, ruler of the waves, come to life in this somewhat desolate
spot? Of course, she assured herself, he was neither. Somehow, the
idea of a Viking king or a sea god clad in modern swimming trunks
asleep on the sands beside Lookout Rock was more than even she of
the vivid imagination could accept. He was long and lean, the bare
flesh of his back and legs golden in the sun. Even asleep, he
impressed her as powerful as well as beautiful.
For
her entire lifetime she had considered this beach pretty much
exclusively hers, a section most often bathed in fog and difficult
of access. It lay at the end of a long dirt track not well enough
formed to call a true road, and few people ventured there. She
wondered how he had happened to arrive at to her private place and
if he planned to do it often. She turned over to rest on her stomach
with her head on her propped up hands and watched him sleep.
Suddenly, the man flipped from his back to his front, placed his
hands on either side of him and shoved his body into a push-up. Then
he repeated the movement two or three times. Startled by the sudden
movement and afraid he might turn and detect her presence, Dolly
held very still and waited to see what he would do next. He lowered
his body to the sand again and turned slowly onto his back.
PDF Ebook
HTML Ebook
PRINT
|
