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Excerpt
Through Thick and Fin
by
Cara Preston
Tossing and turning, Marina lay
half-naked, loosely wound in her red satin sheets. Breaking into a
sweat, she felt both excited and breathless. She woke with a sigh,
remembering the mermaid dream. It was the one that kept coming back.
Vivid and colorful, the dreams were
like sensual fantasies in her mind. She could see herself rising
from foam crested waters to greet the moon, water sparkling all
around her. Not a care in the world, joined by the merman of her
dreams. The only thing was she couldn’t be sure what his face looked
like. Could it be that she hadn’t found her soul mate? Maybe she
needed to drop her obsession with Dave and get on with her life. Was
he even available any more?
With less sleep than she would have
liked, she started getting ready for the beach when the telephone
rang.
“Are you up for this, Marina?”
Celeste was already awake, dressed and on the phone. “We’re going to
have so much fun today, girlfriend! Look out Virginia Beach, here we
come...”
Wiping the sleep from her eyes,
Marina tried to get her wits about her. Taking a deep breath, she
thought about what the day might hold.
“I’m going to find my own King
Neptune.” Marina had a lilt to her voice. Part of her wanted to
crown Dave as King Neptune, but if another one came along to steal
her heart away, maybe she’d be open to it. “Buzz on over. I’m
looking forward to it,” Marina said, laying her phone down on the
table.
Packing her beach bag, she made sure
to carry extra sunscreen as the rays would be burning hot. Pausing
to glance in the mirror, she checked out the string bikini she wore.
Maybe it should have been a fashion ‘don’t’ for her. Oh well,
whatever. I’m sure there will be others there who look a little
pudgy in their suits too. She turned sideways to check out the
profile of a tummy that looked too puffy. I’m sure I’ll be in
good company. She continued throwing things together so she’d be
ready when Celeste got there.
Celeste wore a one piece black suit
with a deep plunging neckline with her shorts on over it.
Always one to rush around at the last
minute, Marina was still grabbing what she needed. “Sunglasses,
magazines, Ipod, camera…hmmm…what else do we need? I think this is
more of a tankini day for me too,” moaned Marina.
“Oh stop...” Celeste smiled at her.
“You look great. You always do.”
“Humph, glad somebody thinks so.”
As they headed for the beach, they
saw a number of cute looking guys going the same direction, armed
with surfboards and boogie boards.
“Check them out.” Marina pointed in
the direction of the surfers. “They’re cute, but I probably have
fillings in my teeth older than some of those guys.”
“Ha ha, you’re probably right about
that. Total jailbait, I’m sure. Hey, check out that red
convertible.” Celeste practically drooled.
After finally finding a parking lot
that wouldn’t charge them an arm and a leg, they pulled up beside a
black convertible BMW.
“Wonder who you belong to, little
car.” Celeste leaned over and gave it a pat.
“Are you nuts? What if the owner saw
you do that?”
“Well then, I guess it would give him
a reason to talk to me, wouldn’t it?”
“Maybe that’s good reasoning... Now
let’s head down to check out the sand sculpture contest.” Marina was
anxious to see who was participating in the contest and the art
vendors with their work.
From a distance, she saw sand
sculptures that would be tough for any judge to make a decision
about. Straining her eyes, she thought she saw a mermaid sculpture
that looked surprisingly like her. “Wow, I wonder who made that?”
“Made what?”
“That sand sculpture over there.”
Marina pointed in the direction of the sculpture.
“Who would have made a sand sculpture
that looks so much like me?” she asked Celeste, knowing it was more
of a rhetorical question since there was no way Celeste could have
known immediately who the artist was.
Walking over to check it out, she got
admiring glances from people around them. “I wonder if they
recognize me as the model of that sand sculpture.”
“Possibly, but not so likely,” said
Celeste. She didn’t want to pop Marina’s bubble, but she was trying
to be realistic about things.
Getting closer to the mermaid, Marina
noticed the title So Close and Yet So Far Away. “Did you
notice the title of that sand sculpture?” She felt a flush come over
her. At one point in her life, she had worked on a novel that bore
that title. No one knew that but Dave, the man she missed. The man
who pushed her buttons and completely blew her away. The man who
always kept her on an emotional roller coaster, seemingly whisked
away by someone else. It hurt. She was still reeling from the
experience.
But how could the sand sculptor have
known anything about that book title?
Celeste noticed the silence that had
come over Marina and stepped over to her. “What is it? Why the
silence all of a sudden?”
“Oh, no reason really. Just
thinking...”
“Yeah? About what?”
“Dave’s the only one who knew I was
working on a novel with that title. Yet here it is, the same title,
and it’s with this sand sculpture.”
“Well, it has to be a coincidence,
don’t you think?”
“Part of me wants to think that, and
the other part says, no, we really are destined to be together.”
After that statement, she looked
through the crowd and thought she saw Dave making his way through
the mob. He was tall, handsome, dark haired and self-confident.
Looking at him walking through the crowd made her heart skip a beat.
He held two drinks in his hands, as though he was taking a drink to
someone.
Let one be for me. Let one be for me.
http://home.earthlink.net/~ajax21/wordsatplay/id6.html
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