1.
The rain outside had been going on for days; the seaside town was slowly drowning. The winds had left boats overturned and hurricane shutters drawn, and it was only a matter of time until the downed trees took somebody with them.
Outside a cozy cabin, built ten feet off the ground, a small motorboat was moored. Inside, two women were sharing a jug of coffee.
Kaitlynn sighed. “Just… yeah, he could be, well, tempestuous, but…”
“Asshole. Asshole is the word you’re looking for, Kait.” Jesse sipped her coffee. “You didn’t have to deal with the tantrums. Hell, I didn’t need to, I just thought I did.”
2.
The island had been cut off from the mainland for almost a week. The ferry had stopped once the winds had started pushing the waves high enough to reach the deck; anybody left had stocked up on essentials well ahead of time. Jesse, Kaitlynn and Vaya were warming their hands, huddled around Vaya’s fire.
“Sooooooo……..How’s Josh?” Asked Vaya. Jesse shrugged.
“Why do you expect me to know? We broke up for a reason.” Jesse shivered. The heating had cut out last night, and so she had made the trek to Vaya’s, knowing that the benefit of the fireplace would outweigh the grilling Josh’s friend would give her. Her clothes were still wet, and she didn’t want to borrow any of Vaya’s. He had a small wardrobe and hadn’t been able to do laundry for almost two weeks due to the weather.
“Look,” Vaya said, “I just think it would be, you know, cool of you to drop by, see what’s up, you know?”
Jesse shook her head. “And let him suck me back into his life? The boy’s a whirlwind. So, let’s say we drop it for now. Ok, Vaya?”
Kaitlynn frowned at Jesse. “Vaya’s kind of right, you know, you two were -“
“What is wrong with you?” Jesse’s voice broke. “We are on an island in the middle of the storm, it’s flooding, there’s no power, and all we have is a bunch of canned soup that we have to eat cold because we ran out of propane for the goddamned camp stove, and all you can talk about is my ex and how great we were? What is wrong with you?”
Vaya opened his mouth to reply, but Kaitlynn shot him a look. “Yeah -no, you’re right. I’m sorry,” she said.
3.
Kaitlynn grabbed Jesse’s wrist. “Leaving, now!” Jesse could only scream as the twelve foot wave that had capsized Vaya’s boat came crashing towards them on the rocky shore. As it slammed into her, she felt Kaitlynn’s grip slipping. Her mouth filled with seawater, and as the air was forced out of her she took a reflexive breath. She regretted it. Everything was dark; little stars flashed in front of her eyes. A memory struck her -a swimming class, breathing exercises, and the rule of three -three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food. She had already sucked water into her lungs. How long did she have? One Mississippi….
Jesse felt herself spinning. She tried to open her eyes, then realized they had been open -she simply couldn’t see a thing. Two Mississippi….
Which way was up? Three Mississippi…
Her chest felt like it would burst. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Four Mississippi…
4.
“I’m sorry we didn’t tell you,” Kaitlynn’s hoarse whisper broke the silence.
Jesse kept staring straight ahead. Kaitlynn wasn’t sure Jesse had heard her. “I said -“
“I heard you.” Jesse’s voice cracked. She had vomited seawater. She had screamed. She had seen Josh rise from the waves on a skeleton of a boat, a wind pushing away everything around her.
The bottom of the sea was cold. Josh remembered enough about humans to keep a line of air from above circulating through the dark underwater chamber, but it created a breeze that, in their ocean-soaked clothes, did nothing for their comfort.
Jesse touched the wall of water that surrounded the women, gently. Her hand went through. From out of the dark, the shimmer of scales could be seen. Jesse pulled her hand back quickly.
Kaitlynn whimpered. “Jesus, Jesse! It could have been a bubble!”
“Hmm?” Jesse was still staring at the walls of their prison.
Kaitlynn sniffled. Jesse looked at her –she was actually crying, Jesse thought, after all this.
“You probably think we were- were bad people, to hide this from you,” Kaitlynn said.
“Yeah,” Jesse said absently. “I won’t say you’re wrong.”
“He -you just don’t understand. He was just uncontrolled as a kid, then he started dating and, well, when somebody like you -“
Jesse’s gaze fixed on Kaitlynn. “Somebody like me? You’re saying that this abusive asshole, who happens to be the local weather god, is a piece of shit because I had the guts to tell him I didn’t want to deal with his fucking tantrums any more?”
Kaitlynn shrugged and looked away. “When you put it like that…”
“Yeah. Exactly. So don’t blame me for the elemental crazy.” Jesse poked the wall of water again. “How deep do you think we are, exactly?”