Nightmares By The Sea

Chapter 10--Epilogue

“The weather vane/It’s silver tongue/Lulls the world/With heathen song” Elysian Fields “Black Acres”


Dungaravan, Ireland - One Year Later

Evangeline stood in the window, letting the cool sea air blow her hair away from her face. Drying her hands on her apron, she turned back into the house and set the table for dinner. The house had been Sarah’s. Having no other family at the time of her death, she’d left everything to Evangeline’s parents. There was some land attached to it, which she used for gardening and keeping a small flock of sheep. Set away from the town, the house was on a cliff over looking the sea. She was gloriously happy. Jack, she worried, was another matter.
He had caused quite a stir when they arrived in the small, Catholic market town. His exotic appearance had earned them suspicious stares every time they left the house. Given the conditions of their arrival there, they both decided the less attention they drew to themselves the better. He cut his hair and shaved his beard and began wearing the plain broadcloth clothes they sold in town. They started going to church and soon they made friends and the priest asked them every Sunday when they’d bless the parish with children. To anyone who cared, Jack and Evangeline Kenny were fine, upstanding citizens.
Jack worked at the docks, loading and unloading the ships that came there with goods. She had hoped the close proximity to the ocean would quell the need in him to wander, but lately she had seen the joy leave his eyes. He was still a kind and attentive husband, but he seemed….less than he used to be. She had recently been very startled to discover he smelled different. He used to smell like salt and spice and sandalwood, but that had been replaced by a darker, loamy smell. It reminded her of the earth she turned in her garden. Terrestrial, rich, solid, but not Jack. Her friend Siobhan had told her two weeks ago that her husband had seen Jack at the docks looking very excited, handing a piece of paper to a man there. When she asked about it, he shrugged it off and had refused to talk about it since. He had been acting strange since then, too. Spending more time at the docks and always gazing out the window. One night, a week ago, he had come home extremely happy, but wouldn’t tell her why. She even thought she’d seen him throw something into the fire, but he’d denied it. Truth be told, she was sure she was losing him.
Evangeline sat down at the table and began her dinner alone. Jack should have been home an hour ago, but lately it was after dark when he got in. There was still a few hours left in the day. She sighed and got up to put Jack’s plate in the rubbish bin.
Just then, Jack burst through the door, looking wild. Evangeline put the plate down and he grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her outside.
“Jack!” she protested.
When they got outside, he stopped and turned her to face him.
“Would you follow me if I asked you to?”
“Of course,” Evangeline answered.
“How far?” he asked.
“Jack, I’d follow you to the ends of the world and back.”
“Funny you should mention that.”
She gave him a questioning look and he turned her towards the sea.

There were black sails on the horizon.

“What if you slept? And what if, in that sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in that dream, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you woke, you still had that flower in your hand? Ah, what then?” Samuel Taylor Coleridge


FIN