T. Bunn - Drummer in the Dark

Wynn heard the prison gate clang behind him and took a free breath. He walked to the car to find Jackie cutting the connection on her cellphone. He asked through the open window, “Anything wrong?”

“Colin’s been offered a job with some group that does internet monitoring for the fibbies.” Jackie’s face had grown pinched during Wynn’s time inside. “He wanted my advice.”

Wynn climbed into the car. “It’s done. Shane is to be released on parole.” When she did not turn from watching the sunlight and shadows dance upon the windshield, Wynn asked, “Do you regret doing this?”

“Maybe a little.” Her reply was a sigh, not of fear but release. “Could we leave here, please?”

Wynn drove them back to the Beeline, hesitated only a moment, then pointed the car eastward. Toward Merritt Island, the ocean, and home. A rising wind turned the marsh grasses and palmetto stands into silver blades, framing lakes the color of hammered tin. Clouds raced one another across the blue horizon, and not even the packed highway could overtake the perfume of storm and sea.

Jackie continued her silent perusal of the clouds and the light. Wynn’s nerve held until they approached the toll booths. After he paid, he pulled over to the side of the highway and asked, “Where exactly are we headed, Jackie?”

She slid across until she was more in his seat than her own, as though she had been waiting all along for him to make this exact move. “I guess sometimes the only way forward is by finding space for the impossible.”

Wynn nodded slowly, glad she could put words to concepts that remained for him only half formed. Jackie seemed pleased with his silent assent, for she wrapped one arm around him and used the other to finger-trace the hair off his forehead. “Do you know a place that rents sailboats?”

“Down on the coast, sure.”

She kissed him then. Just a brushing of lips, the moment too full for anything more. But she must have felt the current too, for she shivered slightly in his arms. “I think it’s time you had your first lesson in how to ride the wind.”