Second Visit: What Happened on the Beach?
942 Words
“Why should we head to the beach?” Maxwell asks Detective Guber as they exit the WIC station.
Detective Guber shrugs. “Just a feeling I have.”
“A feeling that we should head to the beach?”
“Yea. You have visited the beach twice since you’ve returned.”
“How long have you been watching me?”
“Long enough. Long enough to get a hunch.”
“What’s your hunch?”
“You are retracing your steps. Going back to places that mean something.”
That’s why I need to go to The Villa. I feel drawn to it.”
“In time. Today we will visit the beach.”
***
Every few metres they walk, Detective Guber stops Maxwell to ask if he has remembered anything. The detective taps the tip of his pen incessantly on his notepad, leaving a peppering of black ink spots on the page. The tap, tap, tapping of pen on paper is near soundless against the crash of the surf and the chattering of beachgoers, but to Maxwell, it's too loud, deafening. Detective Guber is eager to chronicle what Maxwell can’t remember - no matter how much he pleads with his mind.
They’ve come to the end of what the beach has to offer. Ahead of them is the solitary palm. Beyond it, is only yellow sand. Maxwell wonders if he will have to circle the island - walk all its beaches - to appease Detective Guber. Who is he kidding? He’s not only doing this to appease the Detective; he’s also trying to satisfy himself. Although with tired legs and a frustrated mind, he can’t say that he’s pleased.
Maxwell has the urge to count it as loss, give up, and toss Detective Guber’s notepad and pen into the sea. Just as he’s about to take his frustrations out on the pen, he steps into a memory. He sees himself fishing the ring from the sand. The sea and sky change; he smells his mother. He pays closer attention to her riddles. Maybe he has learnt enough to decipher them. He’s still confused. Stay close to the old woman. But why?
That memory morphs into another: he sees himself stepping onto the beach, making a beeline for the palm tree. He knows what’s there before he sees it. Patricia had already shown it to him. But how? She’s dead. Despite his fights and protests, Maxwell has become his mother. Patricia used to claim that she got messages in dreams from her dead mother. Other families bequeath earthly wealth; his, handed down a line of communication with the dead.
He leaves this second memory resolute. If he has access to the dead, he should at least heed their warning. It doesn’t matter what Detective Guber thinks, he’s going to find the old woman.
Maxwell tells Detective Guber about the ring. He tells him where he’d found it, but is sure to leave out the part that his dead mother led him to it.
They head back to The Inn. Maxwell packs a bag; with or without Detective Guber he’ll head to The Villa.
Someone clears their throat, alerting him to the open door. Didn’t he close it?
Detective Guber knocks, steps in. “Running off?”
“I’m…There’s something I have to do.”
“I thought we were a team. Partners.”
Where is his actual partner? “We are. But this part I think I have to do alone.”
“What are you not telling me, Max…well?”
Maxwell eyes his suitcase. If he tells Detective Guber the truth, he could be ruled insane. That could help his case. “I saw my mother,” Maxwell says.
“Okay?”
“She showed me where to find the ring. I found it before I found it.”
“Umm.”
Maxwell scratches his head. “It was like a dream, but I wasn’t sleeping.”
“What does all of this mean?”
“That I’m crazy.” Maxwell shakes his head. “My mother is dead.”
“So you had a dream about your dead mother?”
Maxwell shakes his head. “She led me to the ring.”
“Maybe it was a lucky guess.”
“No.” Maxwell walks to the window. “It’s more than that. I know for sure now that she’s dead.”
“Ah.” Detective Guber stands as well. “Technically she is missing.”
“She’s dead. I’m sure of it.”
Detective Guber closes the door, walks back over to Maxwell. Maxwell turns to face him, lifting his brow.
“Did she do anything to you in this dream?” Detective Guber asks.
“What?”
“Did she do anything?” Detective Guber moves closer to Maxwell. “Did she say anything else?” Closer. “Nothing is insignificant.” He’s so close Maxwell can taste the heat radiating off the blue spot on his head.
“What? Nothing?”
“Are you sure? Tell me. Max. Even if it seems crazy.”
“Nothing.” Maxwell backs into the wall and window.
“I know crazy, Max. Remember the woman I told you about? I know crazy. I will believe anything you tell me.”
“She didn’t tell me anything else! Why are you acting like this?”
Detective Guber smiles.
Do I know him from somewhere else?
“Max, I really wish you had made this easy on yourself. Now we have to do this the hard way.” Detective Guber turns to the door. “Come in!”
- Writer
