that bell so hard the island practically shook down around me. I rang like I was going to tumble into the ocean. I rang it and rang it and rang it.”
“You did ring it,” Itime agreed calmly.
“And then the red skies cleared. I took a lunch break, rang it until the sun went down, and somehow I made it out of the crater without breaking my neck. The next morning, red skies again, so I went back up into the crater. Five days of this I battled the red skies, and on the sixth morning, they cleared. And on the seventh day, who hails me on Bex’s broken radio?”
Stevie raised his hand. He sat on a mat at the firepit. The crew of his chartered boat sat beside him enjoying Angie’s island wine. They’d contributed johnnycake, crisps, and a tub of chocolate ice cream for Meg.
“It was loud,” Stevie agreed. “And, suddenly, our equipment started working.”
“What about your anti-squid devices?” Dannika asked.
“Oh, they got retired. It turns out I’m a videographer, not an expert in battling megafauna.”
“And so that was that.” Val brushed her hands together and kissed her lips. “I did something useful without meaning to. The end.”
The women rushed to thank her.
“You saved us,” Meg assured her. “You thought you didn’t, but you did.”
“Your ringing came at the most opportune time,” Ciran affirmed. “I had run out of ways of delay the king. The bell pushed undecided warriors to join our side.”
“Yeah? Well, all righty then.” She sighed happily.
Stevie’s pocket rang. He took his cell phone out and handed it to Val. “For you. Again.”
“Oops, that’s my wife.” She put it to her ear. “Hey there, love. You caught me telling stories around the campfire. Yep, tooting my own horn again.” She grinned at them, staggered to her feet, and limped on her thick metal-lined boot to give herself privacy.
“But Bex is below ruling the oceans, huh?” Stevie sighed ruefully. “She always was doing something.”
How unfortunate that his twenty-year search should end so close to his goal. The families talked it over after the crew retired, and Konomelu sent secret word down to Lusca. Dannika and Ciran delayed their departure long enough to receive an answer: Bex was on her way up. And so Stevie waited and finally saw her.
When she finally saw him and learned about his enduring rescue efforts, Bex was touched and overwhelmed.
She expressed it in her usual way. “Wow. I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it.” He grinned and took her under his arm. “Here’s a video of my wife. I met her on my second assignment, which I got, by the way, because I’d spent so much time studying the oceans thinking about you. She’s a marine biologist. That, there, is our daughter.”
Bex had shaken her head. “She looks happy.”
“She is. We’re a cheerful bunch.” He faced her seriously. “I know you’re surprised I’m here.”
Bex shrugged. “You were always a good kid.”
“Right, but I know. You were only married to my dad for a couple of years, and I was already in high school. But you knew my parents. My mom was obsessed with revenge, my dad was obsessed with his image, and all their ‘friends’ were like them. But you didn’t care about any of that. You pursued your own interests, rebuilt your dad’s sailboat, and didn’t care what others thought. You were the only normal person in my life.”
Meg waved from the shelter to tease Bex. “I’m marking it in the journal. Today someone called you normal.”
Bex grinned.
Stevie laughed. “So now you know how messed up my childhood was.”
They spent the rest of their brief visit catching up on people they’d both known.
Stevie’s father, who’d once threatened Bex’s life to avoid a messy divorced, had finally gotten his comeuppance. He’d threatened a colleague who outperformed him. Instead of looking the other way, new management had taken the colleague’s side, and he’d finally lost his all-important job.
And then he’d really lost it.
He’d never been charged with threatening Bex’s life, but after a year of increasingly maniacal plots to get his job back, they finally arrested him on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. They had captured him trying to flee the country and he’d died in jail.
“He died of a broken heart,” Bex mused.
“Broken ego,” Stevie corrected. “The heart died, well, I don’t remember ever seeing it.”
Meanwhile, Bex’s cat had lived to a ripe old age with her lawyer friend. Hunter S. Thomcat had dined on the finest Meow Chow while Bex had been