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“Now, what the fuck is going on?” Edmund asked.
AJ looked at the teenager, whose face was still very pale in the gray predawn light. “You could start by telling us your name and what you were doing in the water if you can’t swim.”
“Yes, ma’am. Thank you so much for rescuing me. I’ve never been so scared….” The boy gulped some more coffee and then very obviously pulled himself together. “My name’s Murray Reynolds, and I’m staying here with my uncle for a week. I’ve been wanting to see the sandbar and the next bay, and at low tide I thought I’d be able to walk out right to it. Well, I waited and waited, and I could wade out to it, and it was awesome walking along it, and seeing the beach and all. But… likely I took too long looking, because when I came to wade back, the tide was coming in real fast and….”
“And you almost drowned. Why didn’t you wait until someone who could swim went with you? Or someone could take you out on a boat?”
The boy blushed and hung his head. “My uncle doesn’t know I can’t swim.”
They all started talking at once, Edmund topped off their cups of coffee, AJ toweled her hair dry, and when the noise died down, she said, “Tomorrow at ten you be here on the beach, and we’ll start teaching you to swim. Meanwhile, promise me you’ll never do anything that stupid again.”
“Yes ma’am. Truly, I’m grateful to you all for rescuing me. I know I was pretty stupid and could have died. In fact, I was pretty certain I was going to die. Likely I would have, if you hadn’t found me right then. And if you’ll teach me to swim, that’ll be beyond awesome.”
“Okay, I think that’s enough for tonight. Utah and I’ll walk you home. Kristien, if you and Drew will take all this stuff and AJ back to the house?”
AJ let Drew haul her to her feet while Kristien shoved wet towels and used coffee cups back into the basket. As soon as she started walking, her legs started aching. “Oh, ouch!”
“Yeah, we’ll give you a massage when we get home. You swam a lot faster than we did, and you had the weight of the boy and the task of holding his head up all the way back too. I bet your arm muscles are going to hurt like hell tomorrow as well,” Drew said.
“Gee, thanks. More aching muscles, just what I needed,” she joked.
Mavis was pacing the kitchen when they got back. A huge plate of freshly made sandwiches was sitting on the table, and more coffee was bubbling in the pot.
“How….”
“Utah heard you leave and guessed what was going on. He woke Edmund and they made coffee and collected towels. The smell of the coffee woke me, so I thought you might need more when you got back. Now. Tell me, what on earth were you racing off to do in the middle of the night? It’s all this emerald-protection thing isn’t it?”
AJ sank onto a chair and took a sandwich. Suddenly she was ravenously hungry, and when Mavis handed her more coffee, she drank it straight down. Meanwhile Drew and Kristien told Mavis what had happened.
They’d just finished talking and were eating sandwiches when Edmund and Utah walked inside. “Oh yum, I’m starving,” said Edmund, giving Mavis a kiss. “You’re a wonderful sister.”
She smiled at him. “You know, I think I’ll start teaching John about swimming tomorrow too. It’s not too soon to give him some water awareness training and to teach him to float. In a way, this disaster has made me see he’s not a tiny baby anymore. I need to adjust to that and start seeing him as a little person.”
“We’ll help you. Drew and Kristien are going to be busy protecting AJ as she comes into her full psychic powers, so Utah and I will be here to help you and John,” said Edmund.
Mavis looked around the room smiling at each one of them. “You’re all wonderful. I’m so glad you’re in my life.”
AJ nodded. “We’re privileged to share your life with you. And you and the baby brought me Kristien and Drew, which has made me happier than I could ever have believed I’d be.” Tears misted in her eyes as she gazed at Drew and Kristien. Her life. Her future. Her happiness.
Drew grinned back at her while Kristien gave her a wink.
The End
