Marigolds in the Storm

I found her standing at the shoreline at dawn on the first day of August, 1997.

Every dawn. I had only woken up so early the second day to see if she would appear again, and sure enough, I found her at the edge of the water.

I never missed it, determined to see the strange girl dressed in the blue gown. Something about her mocha-brown hair and delicate hands that whispered across the top of the rolling waves entrapped my attention more and more the longer I gazed down at her.

It only took 4 days for me to decide.

On the 5th, I set my alarm to vibrate for 5 AM. With my anticipation, I hardly slept a wink, yet surprisingly found my eyes opening just 10 minutes before the alarm. I rushed to throw open the window and sure enough, that same blue dress flowed in the cool ocean breeze, melding into the water as if they were kin.

Dressed in my sleep-shorts and t-shirt, I made my way down the stairs, ever mindful of the creaking fourth and 5th steps, and took the kitchen door onto the path leading down to the beach.

"I was beginning to wonder when you would come to visit."

Her voice rang like silver bells, soft as a feather and light as the air that carried it to my ears. A hint of a smile adorned her lips and those pristine blue eyes twinkled like the stars above.

"Why do you stand here everyday?" I asked. In hindsight, a fairly understandable first question given our brief history, but in the moment my face burned red with stupidity. Surely, I had no place to inquire into her daily habits.

"Well, it is rather peaceful. I used to come here often, and now I just seem to be...trapped here, I suppose. Something keeps me coming back. Would you like to join me? I haven't had company in ages. Last I came here it was with...a friend, but he..."

"Hey," I said, with a smile that could only hope to outshine her own. I sat in the sand and gestured for her to do the same, "I would love to, for a few hours at least, but I'll come back. You can't get rid of me that easily!" I laughed.

"Well, I certainly would hope not."

We talked for hours, past the sunrise, and it felt as if I'd learned everything there was to know about a person. She loved barn owls and merlot, summertime and watching the boats bob lazily on the horizon, reading fairy tales with a slice of chocolate cake in the evening.

Her words enchanted me, and the tales she told of her days as a younger girl were woven as if they were a fairy tale themselves.

"Well, I'll be going soon, but don't worry. I'll come back. I would love to talk with you some more. This is the most fun I've had in years!" she cheered with a sparkle of a laugh. I looked down at my watch. How was it already 8:00?

"Hey, wait...What's your name?" I asked, hiding my own laugh.

She wasn't quiet about hers. "How have we talked for so long and skipped that part?"

A thoughtful expression, and a hand slipping underneath the neckline of that gown and pulling on a golden chain I somehow hadn't noticed. She undid the clasp and dropped the charm into my hand, enclosing it with her own hand set on top.

"My name is Mari."

She turned and walked away down the shoreline. I opened my hand and examined the pressed marigold flower preserved in resin.

"Hey...wait, my name is-"

I turned in the direction she had walked off in to find an empty beach. "...Stella."

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"You're back. I was hoping I would get to see you again."

"How is your morning going? It looks beautiful out here."

"It does," she mused with a hum, settling her skirt beneath her legs as she took a seat in the sand. "I wonder, though...do you only wake up so early every morning to see me?"

I sat beside her, eyes sailing over the water. "Well, I do wonder why you only come around the beach at dawn. Most people would be sleeping still."

She smirked, eyes skirting over in my direction playfully, clearly enjoying the back-and-forth banter. "Which brings us back to my original point." She rose from the sand and walked until her toes were dipped in the waves, glancing back at me. "You aren't."

I sighed with a hint of a smile, eyes unmoving from the horizon. "It's been happening for a few days before I came out here, about a week. I've been waking up around at dawn every single morning. One morning I happened to look out and see you, and you piqued my interest, but before then I would just wander the house. I felt...lost, like something was out of place and I couldn't figure it out."

"I understand," Mari uttered, taking her place beside me and leaning her head on my shoulder. "I don't remember when I started walking this beach or why at dawn, but it feels like I'm...constantly forgetting something that I just cannot place.

Silence for too long, neither of us knowing exactly what to say. Eventually an awkward silence turned into a comfortable one as we let go of our suspicions and questions and turned to watching the sunrise.

"Well, I suppose we will be doing this again tomorrow morning?"

"I will see you then," I agreed, hand ghosting over the necklace clasped around my neck.

She smiled at the gesture. "Take care of that, won't you?"

I nodded, and she walked off into the distance. I checked my watch instinctively. 8:01.

What was so special about 8:00?

I decided to leave it alone. She had a life, of course, that must be it. I looked up again to find she had disappeared, and made way up the stairs to the kitchen door.

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I woke again at dawn, but this time instead of my alarm it was to rushing winds shaking the windows. I threw off the covers, running to the window and looking down at the beach. This time it was empty, but looking across the water I saw a raging spiral of clouds on the water and a small dot of light blue.

"Mari...no!"

I raced down the stairs and outside, thrown back by forceful winds and stumbling my way to the beach. "Mari!" I knew it was a long shot, one confirmed when she didn't move towards my voice.

Why isn't she moving?!

Finally, I saw it, and wondered how I hadn't noticed before. Her arms, not simply swimming, but thrashing, partially lost in the churning waters. Her skirt didn't help, dragging her down. I ran towards the water, still shouting her name, and finally did she look in my direction.

Just as she opened her mouth, eyes wide with panic, the water surged forward and took her under. I froze on the water's edge, staring at the spot she had just occupied.

She's not coming back up-

Kicking off my slippers, I surged forward into the water, the force stinging my eyes as I peeled them open and searched for Mari. I spotted a shadow and moved towards it with lightning speed, grabbing her hand and kicking up towards the surface. As we broke through, I felt the winds pulling us away from shore.

"Mari? Can you hear me?!" I shouted, ears ready to burst from the pressure. Her eyes were closed, drops of water delicately encasing her lashes, falling down her cheeks like teardrops.

The wind came back for a second round, knocking the lights out of me, but in my haze, I knew one thing was certain. I was losing my grip on Mari's hand...

I held on with everything I had, reached my free hand out and brushed it against her cheek. Pulling away, I took the marigold necklace in my hand and held her close as the water pulled us away into darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What do we got?"

"Two females, possibly mid-twenties, swept up onto the shore. Probably got pulled into the water during the storms this morning."

"ID's?"

"Mari Swenson and Stella Woods. The house is Stella's, we don't know how Mari got caught up in all of this, but it seems they might have been together when the water took them down."

"Alright, get them out of here. Have your reports on my desk by noon."

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"Tonight, we bring you to more damage of the recent Hurricane that swept the south-Eastern coast of Florida on August 7th. The bodies of two young women were found at a beach residence along the coast..."

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"I was beginning to wonder when you would come to visit."

Mocha-Brown Hair, sky-blue dress and matching eyes, a voice like silver bells, and...

I lifted my hand, her eyes following the gesture, and brushed against the necklace. She gave me a warm smile. "You..."

"My name is Stella."

She laughed, shaking her head. "Of course."

"It's alright, I..." I stopped at the look on her face, her eyes looking somewhere no longer at me. I followed her gaze over my shoulder and looked at the house.

Swept off its foundation, lying in shambles on its side against the line where the grass met the sand, yellow caution tape littered about. I stumbled towards it blindly, stopping only when Mari reached out and took hold of my wrist.

"Take it easy."

I nodded, shaking my hand from her grasp and moving forward towards the structure. Waving in the rubble, I found a discarded torn newspaper.

August 1st, 2002.

"2002...No, that's not...What happened?" I asked, turning to face Stella, who had a knowledgeable, warm smile on her face.

A single finger pulled out the necklace beneath my shirt. "I told you that day I felt trapped here. I kept coming back, because I didn't want to accept what happened. When I heard that someone new had moved into the house, I guess I had to, but I kept coming back. I couldn't leave. 10 years ago, my family lived here. My brother was out swimming when a storm hit, and I tried to pull him in, but I couldn't reach him in time. They never found him.

"I started coming down here at dawn because it was his favorite time of the day. Sometimes he would sneak down here. I've been coming every morning I can for a few years. Then, one morning, you came along. I started coming more often, it being the anniversary of his death, August 7th. He died at dawn. When I met you, it was something special. So, I gave you this," she explained, gesturing to the necklace.

"That morning when I came to see you...the storm..."

"I knew the storm was coming," she blurted out. I stood in disbelief, then understanding, but she continued regardless. "I planned it that way, but I didn't plan on you. I couldn't see you down there, but I remember feeling something tugging me towards the surface. That...that was you."

"So it's been...5 years?"

"We didn't make it through the storm. I didn't mean to drag you into this, and...I am so sorry, Stella." Tears filled her eyes, and she turned to walk away.

I reached out, grabbing her wrist. "Hey, wait!" I smiled, reaching up and wiping a tear from her cheek. "At least...we have forever now, right?"

She smiled mixed with a hint of a laugh. "Yeah. Forever."