The Enchantress of the sea

CHAPTER 4

The Dingle peninsula, which takes its name from the homonym village, embraces a part of the Atlantic ocean with its jagged coast, delimiting the southern coast of the bay of the same name. Its vast inlet forms myriads of smaller bays of striking beauty. They chose to go to Ventry, which was only ten miles from Dingle.

When I got out of the car, the sparkling and brackish air entered the pores of my skin, giving me a feeling of purity and vitality.

The white sand rose in a slight puff, while the crystal clear water shattered with lively and sparkling waves. Sometimes their distant voice comes with anger, sometimes with a whisper, but their clash is always eternal. At that moment the place was quite deserted, apart from a couple of wetsuit boys who ventured with the table. The sea was ideal for the dance of surfers, who wanted nothing more than to find waves to ride offshore.

Farther on, the beach continued framed by the green heather flowered hills, which alternated their color with that of the vast fields, under the sky streaked by vaporous waves. On the peaks, in fact, a pile of clouds obscured the light, while, going down, that dark green shone under the warm rays of the sun that had the courage to go out. I took a deep breath of the fresh air.

Ari and Melody laid out two beach towels, both in a single blue with a golden border and I sat down to the side to admire the landscape.

Melody was about to take her walkman when, at the sight of two girls walking on the sand, she exclaimed: "Mary! Julia! "

They were two red-haired peers and seemed to look alike a lot.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ari asked, seeing her run towards them.

 "They are my classmates, I'm going to talk to them."

As soon as she left I did not hesitate to express my disappointment at her behavior.

"Tell me, what are you afraid of?" I asked her.

 "What do you mean?" She looked down.

"I thought we made friends last night and today it seems that you are almost afraid of me and that you are trying to avoid me again ...".

"But I'm not avoiding you ..." She retorted embarrassed, putting her hair behind her ears.

"For example at the table and even now it seems that you can't keep my gaze and a little while ago you didn't want your sister to go away".

"Bryan, I had fun last night ok?" She said rubbing his hands on the blue jeans. "But then you will go away and honestly I don't want complications."

"Complications?" I asked, stunned.

"Your poem was splendid, your words touched my heart, but I prefer not to go further into this type of relationship." She was visibly sorry, yet her words irritated me.

"Ari, I wrote that poem to you simply because I think you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen and you have an effect on me, I dare say ... strange, magnetic ...".

"Look," she repeated. "That's what I'm referring to."

"Okay then," I said through gritted teeth, resigned. "I won't insist."

If that was what she wanted, I gave it up. I really couldn't understand her, much less how she could exert such an ascendancy over me that it made me feel bitter about her refusal.

Although we were standing side by side, we didn't talk to each other the rest of the time. I lay down on the towel, with my hands behind my neck and closed my eyes, listening only to the sound of the waves.

Her sister remained with her friends all the time, until, after an hour, Ari called her back with the intention of returning home.

When we got up to leave I saw a young surfer with long black curls who was ready to face the voice of the sea.

The journey home also continued in religious silence.

"Isn't your mother here?" I asked, finding the empty house on our return.

"She gives French lessons, but he will be back soon." Melody replied and went upstairs.

When I got out of the bathroom, I found Ari kneeling on the sofa, with her arms on the back and her chin resting on them.

"You made me a promise ..." She said, sketching a smile.

"And which one?" I asked, astonished that he had started talking to me again. 

“I really need a hand for the essay if you are an expert of literature ".

I made the mistake of looking at her in his penetrating eyes and her intense and enigmatic gaze made me feel light-headed, as if I were about to lose my balance. What did that girl want from me? Did she enjoy hurting me?

"Ari, you're going to drive me crazy ..." I mumbled, confused.

"Please don't take it out on me for what I said before..." she said, saddened.

"I’m only doing what you asked me to do, that is  leave you alone."

She stared at a point in the void. "Even if you can't understand it, what I said is not because I don't like you, I just think it would be better for both of us to stop here ...".  She continued to say an avalanche of confused and contradictory words.

"But now I just want you to know that your help would really please me now."

"I feel like I have two different people in front of me every time I talk to you and I dare say you're almost sadistic to treat me like that." I confessed, exasperated.

"I'm sorry, Bryan, hurting you is the last thing I want."

I sighed and went to sit next to her, ready to respect what I promised her.

"So what Shakespeare's work should you do the essay on?" I asked her, going to the extreme to avoid giving me a headache.

"On Hamlet but due to the task of history I was unable to finish the book".

I told her the ending and then we began to write the essay about the new topic of the investigation in Shakespeare's theater.

Russine smiled at us when she came home, saw that we were doing the homework together and did not disturb us. In fact, he brought us a tray with two cups of hot tea.

In an hour we wrote three sides of a protocol sheet and in the end Ari was satisfied with it.

"It is very fluent and exhaustive, I like it ..." she said, smiling.

Suddenly I felt a twinge in my leg that forced me to bend my lips in a grimace of pain.

"You tried too hard today, lie down." She added, thoughtful.

When I pushed, I hit my elbow with my crutches and one fell on the cup. I had already seen it broken into a thousand pieces, staining the carpet. At that moment, while the cup slipped from the table, Ari took it with an incredibly rapid movement and I saw the drops of tea that had come out, and then stopped and returned immediately to the cup. It was like a movie tape going back. I was breathless, shocked by what I had seen. "S-sorry but h-how the hell did you do it?" I asked her with my eyes wide.

"I acted instinctively and I was quick ... that's all," she said, shrugging. However, I read in his eyes the embarrassment of those who are discovered in a striking situation.

"That's all?" I repeated, still shaken. "Ari, the drops did not fall from the cup, I saw them ...".

"But no, it's that the cup didn't spill and the liquid didn't come out ..." she minimized, nervous. It was clear that he was looking for an excuse to justify the event.

"I’m not a visionary and what I have seen goes against the laws of physics." I repeated, annoyed. I didn't feel like being made fun of.

At that moment we heard the click of the lock.

"Ssst!" She whispered, as soon as we saw the door open and immediately afterwards Yagor came in.

"Hi Dad!" She exclaimed, smiling. "How did it go?"

"It was a tough day, but now I'm at home." He answered in a low voice.

He barely had time to hang his jacket on the coat rack and take off his holster, when someone rang at the door. A tearful man opened and appeared. He must have been a few years older than Yagor. He was bruised, his eyes sunken, in desperation that crumpled the lines of his face. He entered, dragging himself, while with his hands he dried his tears furiously.

"Robert, what happened?"

"My son drowned in the sea yesterday afternoon ..." He mumbled with

fatigue.

"What?"

"He had gone surfing at Inch beach ..." -

"This is terrible ..." Yagor exclaimed in shock. He patted him on the shoulder.

"But how did it happen?"

"Even his friends didn't understand." He answered alternating sobs. "He came in with the surfboard, he was about to go up and then they say they saw him walking out to sea" He stopped to take a breath. "Then a wave came and they never saw it again ...".

"So he didn't fall off the board?"

"No, they say they called him at the top of his lungs, but he didn't hear, he was as hypnotized ... they entered the water, but he was gone ...".

"Did you call the coast guard?"

"Yes, but still nothing ..."

None of us knew what to say in the face of so much pain. Ari looked into the father's eyes and they seemed to understand each other without speaking.

"Sorry," added the man. "I came here because my wife locked herself in the room and I didn't know who to talk to ...."

"Don’t mention it,  take a seat," Yagor asked kindly. "Do you want to drink a glass of water?"

"No, I don't want to." Then he put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Strange things have been happening at sea for a few days, fishermen have died and more surveillance is needed."

"I'll take care of it, don't worry." He reassured him. Without saying anything, the man went away.

The dinner was very quiet, the family exchanged only sideways glances. We were all sad and thoughtful, but I couldn't help but notice that their silent looks hid much more than they meant. I felt uncomfortable. Certainly not because I was afraid of them, but because I felt like the intruder, a stranger who forced them, at that moment, to keep quiet. I wasn't good at reading people, but every sigh of them was a message of forced tolerance in my presence.

After dinner, unable to cope with their mutism that seemed to shout "Go out of the way", I went back to the living room and turned on the TV. As I suspected, as soon as I left the room, I heard them whispering. I had to try hard not to go and listen, but then I realized that they had been kind to me, they had saved my life, without any obligation and the least I could do was bring them some respect.

On the BBC channel, the blonde reporter again came back to talk about the fishing boat.

"The body of the third fisherman was also found, however the face is disfigured and the body torn with bites. However, the animal that bit it is certainly not a shark that would certainly have devoured it. Further investigation is awaited for identification. "

I didn't know what to think, but the suspicion that the peninsula hid a secret was growing stronger in me. Too many coincidences, too many tragic events that had involved the waters of Dingle only within a couple of days.

I didn't even wait for the family to go upstairs. I felt tired in body and mind. I therefore decided to close my eyes and go to sleep.

For the umpteenth time I dreamed of her, her hair blowing in the wind and her overwhelming smile. She was sitting next to me on the beach and I listened to her sing like the first day I saw her; the distance between each other was a span. I hugged her and she moved to my lips, but suddenly I felt severe pain in my cheek. She parted from me with an evil grin and I saw her mouth smeared with blood. I opened my eyes suddenly, like when, asleep, you have the sensation of falling out of bed. The room was wrapped in darkness and for the first time that night silence frightened me. I was not a child, yet I had woken up with the feeling that something was waiting for me.

I sighed, laughing as I was ridiculous.

Come on, it was just a nightmare. I looked out the window, trying to peer into the night. The moonlight, veiled by clouds, palliudly filtered through the night mantle of the room, caressing what it could touch with silvery blue.

My mind was again stung by the nagging thoughts that had evidently not stopped even during sleep. I saw again the image of the cup that Ari had managed to grasp on her open palm and the tea that retreated into the ceramic as the sea does when it comes back. Maybe I was really going crazy. Already. The trauma of the shipwreck was making me lose the light of reason and make me imagine things. Yet the story of that man who had lost his son in that way, it was really too strange.

At that moment I heard footsteps going down the stairs and I wanted her to be again, taking it out on myself for the way I let myself be influenced. My stomach jumped when her face passed under the moonbeam, painting her ivory skin.

"Excuse me, if I disturb you, if you want I will go away." She said, embarrassed.

"Have you decided to organize night meetings with me?"I asked, embittered. "What do you want Ari?"

"I thought of you and ..."

"I don't feel like talking to you if you intend to lie again, I can no longer hold this back and forth on your part."

"I don't want to lie, but just ask yourself if you can let go of what's going on in your head today."

"So are you going to admit it wasn't a hallucination and explain to me?"

"No, I'm not going to explain anything to you, Bryan, because you just have to continue your life like you used to." She snapped, annoyed.

"Is this what you came to tell me?" I asked her, as irritated as she was. I had to check my voice to keep from shouting. "Well, then you could have spared it because, if you haven't noticed, my life has already changed after what happened!"

"But you can start again, take care of yourself ...".

Tired of her words, which seemed to me to be rash, I threw out what I thought.

"I really like you, the poem was sincere and I don't deserve you making fun of me like that!"

She knelt beside me. "No, in fact, you don't deserve it, I'm not the girl for you and I say it for your sake."

"Then why do you keep coming back to me?"

"Because, despite everything, I can't stay away from you."

Suddenly I calmed down and stroked the velvety ivory of her cheek with the back of her hand.

She closed her eyes, but didn't push my touch away. Indeed, she seemed to appreciate it.

"Bryan, so you make things more difficult ..." She put his hand on mine.

"Don’t oppose what your heart tells you - my mother always said to me - or you would regret it - and that's what I try to do ..." I whispered. I got closer and closer, until I was intoxicated by her sweet breath. I was a couple of inches from her lips and I felt her shiver as much as I did. I moistened my lips with my tongue and went over to kiss it. But she withdrew.

"I can’t". She mumbled.

"Are you so scared?"

"I'm not afraid of you, but for you." Sighed. "And the most frustrating thing is that I can't get enough willpower."

I took her hand in mine. "Then will you tell me the truth? You owe me some explanation. "

"Often it is better not to know the truth, believe me". The sentence was veiled with sadness.

I sighed and added: "I am a journalist, it’s true, but I would never endanger you and your family, I wouldn’t speak to anyone".

She looked at me and I saw in her eyes the sadness and resignation in front of something bigger than her. Something that reason could not suppress or control - Maybe the moment will come - she said going away - but for now let me live what I will keep as a beautiful memory, because tomorrow you could hate me.

Those words, one of his umpteenth enigmatic expression, left me puzzled. She went away, to go back to her room, while I stood still, dazed like an i***t, with my gaze lost in the void staring into the darkness.