Keeper of the Light

The first fisherman reached over the railing with the net as Lacey pulled the bluefish from the water. “Eight pounds, I’d say.” He scooped the fish up easily and lifted it onto the deck.

“Don’t let it jump back in!” Lacey screamed, and she lowered herself next to Alec, holding on to the fish with a rag while he extracted the hook from its mouth. One of the young men lifted the lid of the cooler, and Alec dropped the fish inside. Then, with one last look at Lacey, the fishermen returned to their own poles at the stern.

Alec and Lacey baited their hooks again and took their seats. Lacey was smiling.

“That was good work, Lacey,” he said.

“We don’t have to eat it, though, do we?” she asked.

“No. We can give it to Nola. She loves bluefish.”

“Noler,” she corrected him and he laughed. Annie, with her Boston accent, could never master those open “a”s. “I’d like you to meet my friend Noler and her daughter Jessiker,” Lacey said, mimicking her mother’s husky voice.

“She wasn’t quite that bad,” Alec said.

“I’m just glad she didn’t name me Melissa or something.”

He smiled at a memory. “She wanted to name you Emma, but I refused. I told her I’d only go along with it if she could say the name for a week straight without turning it into Emmer. But of course, she couldn’t do it.”

“Emma. God, Dad, thanks, you saved me.”

The young man who’d called her a real beauty walked by, and Lacey turned to smile at him.

“I should tell them you’re barely fourteen,” Alec said.

Lacey shrugged. “Well, Mom was only fifteen the first time she…you know.”

“How do you know that?”

“She told me.”

“She did?” Thanks, Annie.

“I mean, she said it wasn’t good to do it that young, but she turned out all right.”

“She was lucky she didn’t get pregnant. And there are diseases around now that she didn’t have to worry about back then.”

“I know all that, Dad.”

He couldn’t see Lacey’s face, but he could practically hear her rolling her eyes, and he waited a moment or two before he spoke again. “So, does that mean you’re planning to have sex next year when you’re fifteen?”

“God, Dad, that really isn’t any of your business.”

He stopped himself from telling her it most certainly was his business. This was too good. She was actually talking to him. He probably should say something about birth control. If he brought it up, though, wasn’t that tantamount to giving her the go-ahead?

“Jessica’s done it,” Lacey said suddenly, her eyes glued to the water.

“What?”

“God, I shouldn’t have said that. You won’t tell Nola, Dad, will you?” she pleaded. “Please don’t. Jessica would kill me.”

“No, I won’t.” Could he keep that promise? He would have to. He tried to picture sultry little Jessica Dillard in bed with someone and could not come up with a clear image. “Is she…being careful?”

“I guess.” Lacey sounded irritated by the question and he decided not to push her further.

They caught a second and third bluefish before the rocking of the boat took the pleasure out of fishing. Alec was relieved when the captain turned the boat around and headed back to shore. Most of the other fishermen had reeled in their lines and were sitting down. A few of them moved inside the cabin as the wind whipped up.

“You’re supposed to watch the horizon if you don’t feel well, right?” Lacey asked.

“You’re not feeling well, Lace?” He did not feel that well himself.

She drew her windbreaker tighter around her and shook her head. A rain was starting. He could see droplets of it fill her hair and sparkle in the light from the cabin.

Lacey suddenly moaned and stood up, grabbing for the railing. He stood next to her, lifting her thick hair away from her face as she got sick, and he remembered doing the same for Annie when she was carrying Lacey. A horrendous pregnancy, although she had always told Lacey it had been a delight-filled nine months, as though she was trying to change the memory of it in her own mind.

Alec took his handkerchief from his jeans pocket and wiped Lacey’s eyes and mouth. “Let’s move over here,” he said. They sat down on the deck, leaning against the cabin to give them some protection from the wind and rain. Her teeth were chattering and he put his arm around her, pleased that she didn’t protest.

One of the fishermen was getting sick somewhere on the other side of the cabin. Lacey whimpered at the sound of his retching, and leaned against Alec.

“Daddy,” she said, “I feel so bad.”

“I know, sweetheart.” He looked out at the horizon. Through the haze he could make out the string of lights along the shore and, to the north, the pulsing beacon of the Kiss River Lighthouse. “Look, Lace,” he said, “we’re almost home.”