Free Trying the Knot by Todd Erickson Page B

devoured
the breezes that swept off Lake Huron. She clutched her sweater
between her fingers, which were still shaking from her
confrontation with Ben.
    They crossed Main Street and meandered their
way through the little town time forgot until Chelsea made an
impulsive left and headed east to the beach. She would not endure
moseying past all the empty downtown buildings. It was the quiet
well-manicured neighborhoods that soothed her nerves. She
considered Portnorth the most splendid spot on earth, in spite its
warped affliction of habitually vomiting out its brightest and best
while suffering a case of constipation when it came to its
less-than-desirables. However, its easy simplicity and slow pace
never failed to resuscitate her frazzled nerves. The fresh air of
Portnorth was her drug of choice.
    As they walked toward the marina, Thad
pointed to the cloudy pink horizon and said, “Red sky at night,
sailor’s delight; red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning.”
    “What?”
    “It’s just what my granddad used to say,”
said Thad. “It’ll storm later.”
    “I hope not. For Kate’s sake, ” she said.
They climbed onto the rocky limestone breakwater, which sheltered
the marina from an ever-encroaching Lake Huron. The air felt still
and heavy. “Remember when we used to play ‘The Day After’ in the
woods at lunch recess?”
    “Yes, we’d pretend we were sickly sole
survivors of a nuclear war.”
    “Don’t you think this morning has the same
apocalyptic feel?” Chelsea asked.
    “It might be we’re still drunk from last
night,” Thad rationalized, straddling two limestone boulders. He
looked tired and hung over. Chelsea squat next to him, and they
watched the blue-green waves beat tirelessly against the rocks.
    “It’s the lull of the waves. Once they lure
you in, there’s no escape,” she said cheerily.
    Thad thought it sounded morbid, and asked,
“Did you mean what you said earlier, about dropping out of law
school?”
    “Of course,” she said. “I can do the work
easily enough, even though Torts were a torturous bore, but it
doesn’t interest me. Truthfully, there are enough lawyers in the
world. The thought of jumping on some Yuppie bandwagon makes me
sick.”
    “What’ll you do? You’re so smart, it’s a
shame to let all your brain power go to waste.”
    “Now you sound like my mother. She acts as if
I’m a genius,” she said uneasily.
    “Well, what do you really want to do with
your life?”
    “I don’t know, settle down on the outskirts
of town with a farm boy.”
    “Gimme a break,” Thad scoffed. “For as long
as I’ve known you, you’ve always wanted to be a full-blown native
of this godforsaken no man’s land. Trust me, being white trash
isn’t such a romantic notion.”
    “Well, it’s not as if my family came over on
the Mayflower,” Chelsea said. “Who’d want to be a descendant of
those persecuting Puritans anyhow?”
    “Kate,” Thad answered. “Her mother always
aspired to be an upper-crust, pillar of the community. We were
always the poor relatives.”
    “Hardly,” Chelsea protested.
    She continued squatting on the rocks and
silently wondered what was up with Ben. No one else thought it
strange Ben found Vange at six in the morning. There were a lot of
unanswered questions floating through her mind, and they required
her sole attention. Why didn’t Vange call anyone? Who was the
father of her miscarried baby? What was she thinking in those final
moments? And, most importantly, what would Kate do when she found
out about Vange’s final fling with Nick?
    Thad mistakenly assumed Chelsea’s eyes were
transfixed on the cigar-shaped, rickety sailing vessel tossed on
the rocky shore. “It’s an old fishing tug.”
    “What?”
    “The boat is a fishing tug,” Thad said. “My
grandfather used to sail on it, before working on a freighter.”
    Chelsea said dully, “Oh, I never knew.”
    “My grandma used to smoke some of the fish he
caught, and my mom and