“Go ahead, Claire-Voyance, this is the Coast Guard. We have your location and are dispatching a crew. What’s your situation?”

“We’re an Oyster 625 in heavy rain and high winds. Four- to six-foot white caps and taking on water.”

“Roger that, Claire-Voyance. How many onboard?”

“Two,” she yelled over the roar of the waves. “We’re in a squall and taking on water. We’re heavily pitched to the starboard side.”

“What’s your timeframe, Claire-Voyance?”

“I’m not sure,” she said, as a wave crashed down over the bow of the boat. “My brother went below deck to find the source of the breach. To see if he could contain it.”

“Tell your brother to come above board. We’ll stay with you until our crew arrives.”

“We won’t have time,” Avery said as another wave engulfed the bow. “We’re capsizing.”

Avery bolted up in bed before she knew she was awake. It was her normal reaction to the recurrent dream, and she had determined it was a defense mechanism. Jolt herself awake so she didn’t have to relive the image of the Oyster’s bow dipping below the surface and then twisting vertically before spearing to the bottom of the ocean. Wake herself before her mind replayed her battle with the sea as she fought against the six-foot waves that did their best to drown her.

She lay back in bed and sunk her head into the pillow, pushing away all the confusing thoughts that hid in the shadows of her mind and waited to surface each summer when Avery made her trip home. She couldn’t allow those thoughts to distract her from what she needed to do. She had the summer to tie up the frayed and loose ends of her family’s saga. What happened after that would be out of her control. If, at that point, the floodgates opened and all the sordid details of her past spilled forth, at least she would have done her best for the ones she loved.

CHAPTER 8 - Sister Bay, WI Friday, June 18, 2021

CHAPTER 8

Sister Bay, WI Friday, June 18, 2021

A VERY WAS BACK ON THE ROAD BY 6 A.M. THE FOLLOWING MORNING with a tall coffee in the console—two creams, two sugars—smooth reggae on the radio, and open road in front of her. East of Denver she slipped onto I-80 where she’d stay for two days. Lincoln, Nebraska, was her second overnight. On Friday morning, she crossed the entire state of Iowa before finding the Wisconsin boarder. She headed northeast, conquering the state on a diagonal track. White cedar and jack pines soon dominated the landscape as far as the eye could see. The lodge pole pines reminded her of her teenage years and the summers she spent in this part of the country.