Free The Eclipse of Moonbeam Dawson by Jean Davies Okimoto

line.
    â€œMum?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œCan I have my basketball?”
    She handed him the ball. Moonbeam started to toss it on board, but then set it down and reached out to her. She hugged him tightly, clinging to him. “Be careful, Moonbeam.”
    â€œI will. You, too.”
    She stepped back. “I’ll be okay.” She looked away, trying to hold herself together. “Mind your manners.”
    â€œThe Queen might be coming, right?”
    â€œShe might.”
    Moonbeam picked up the ball, got the line from Jim, and climbed aboard. “See you soon, Mum,” he shouted as the boat backed away from the dock. He stood on the stern and watched the small figure of his mother walk slowly up the hill to their truck and felt his own tears. Why did she have to be so miserable? It wasn’t like he was going to another planet. He’d see her every week. She went away herself to live at that boarding school when she was his age. Why’d she have to make this so hard?
    He worried about her all the way to the island. Any fears he might have had about what lay ahead for him were lost in his worries about her. He’d been looking out for her for as long as he could remember, and he realized that just because he wasn’t going to live with her, the worry couldn’t be turned off so easily. Like turning off water in a faucet.
    As they got farther from Tofino his worries began to get specific. What if there were some rotten, drug-crazed people on Palmer’s Land there among the kindred spirits and they would hit her over the head and steal the truck to buy dope? And that Harvey guy, what if he had women all over the place, women everywhere stashed on these little islands he visited for his research project and his mother was just one of hundreds, just waiting for him to dump on her. What if the truck broke down again and this time a deranged cougar with rabies came and mauled her? Or what if a dead tree fell on her cabin and she was pinned under it and there was no one for miles around to help her?
    By the time they reached the island, Moonbeam was almost ready to tell Jim Goltz that he had changed his mind. There’s just been a little mistake here, and we have to turn the boat around so I can save my mother from the drug-crazed people and the deranged cougar with rabies. Sorry about this. Nice knowing you. Good luck with the lodge.
    â€œMoonbeam, grab the line on the cleat, will you?”
    â€œSure, and it’s Dawson. Not Moonbeam, okay?” Moonbeam jumped to the dock and held the stern as Jim brought the bow in close to the dock.
    â€œRight, Dawson it is.” Jim threw him the line from the bow and then began unloading Moonbeam’s gear. “We’re putting you in apartment three, on the ground floor, closest to the kitchen. The top ones are all taken; I guess folks prefer not to have people over them. But it’s still pretty quiet.”
    â€œFine by me.” Moonbeam hoisted his gear on his back and followed Jim down the dock.
    The morning’s drizzle had finally let up, but the mist still clung to the island, blurring the horizon and north tip of Stere as the sea and the sky fused together in a mass of gray. Moonbeam looked back in the direction of Tofino, but the mist had rolled in over the dock, obscuring most of the marina. The island seemed even more cut off from everything; a separate, isolated world floating in the fog.
    â€œWe still have those few empty units.” Jim pointed toward the south end of the employee building. “But I expect they’ll be filled in a few weeks when we’ve got everybody on board.” Jim stopped at the last door and took a key out of his pocket. “Nobody locks up much, but when we’re at the height of the season it’s probably a good idea.” He unlocked the door, then handed the key to Moonbeam. “Guess I mentioned the other day that it’s furnished. Even the bedding is