F3 The Green Flash

"Hello, Mom," I says softly.

She starts to slowly shake her head. Slowly at first anyway, then with a near frantic speed.

"No. You're dead. You're both dead!" she says, trembling each word.

"We survived the waves, Mom." Patrica says, as she starts to hold out her hand towards our mother. At the frantic shaking of Mom's head she lets it drop to her side again. I hear an anger come to her tone as she asks. "Why did you never come home?"

Mom doesn't answer.

The man, looking from us to her, finally finds his voice again.

"Priscilla?" he looks at her till she looks back. "You never told me that you had kids."

The stab of that is like a knife in my heart but nothing at all compared to what my Mom says back to him.

"I don't! I did, but I don't. They died," she says, her voice in tears.

"How can you stand there looking at us and say that?" Patrica asks with her voice hardening.

"You're not my kids. Their dead. They have to be dead!"

Before we could stop her she turns and runs through the glass door to her right. I watch, unable to believe, as she runs across the patio and then down the white beach towards the sea. I see her reach the water line then drop to her knees hugging herself. I can tell from here that she is crying.

Patrica turns loose of my hand. At first I think she is going to follow but then she stops at the window. Her hand comes up to touch the glass, almost like she's trying to reach out to touch the distant waves. It tears my heart to see her fingernails clawing at the glass. Looking from my sister I see the young man looking at me.

"Can you... explain... what's going on?" he asks with a shake of his head. "Are you Priscilla's kids?"

"We are," I say after swallowing down the lump in my throat. Looking past his I see my sister's shoulders trembling, her hand balling up like she wants to smash the window in front of her. Moving past him, I let my hand come to rest on my sister's shoulder. I can feel the muscle tension under my fingers. "It's going to be alright." I tell her in a whisper.

She shakes her head no.

"Well... um..."

I look over my shoulder back at him

"...look I'm Timothy Ross. I'm your mother's husband. I... I guess that makes me your... your stepfather. Ah... look I need to go see to her. Why don't you two have a seat." he gestures to his table. "Ah... order anything you like. I'll be right back."

Nodding to him I watch him follow the path our Mom blazed down to the water. Looking past his departing back I see her still kneeling at the edge of the wave line, clutching herself and rocking back and forth. The sandy foam rushing up to wet her knees even as he is reaching her.

"She didn't believe it was us?" Patrica shakes her head then turns around in my arms. Her hands clutch at my shirt. "Our own mother..."

"Shush, hush now. We just startled her. We've had days to get use to the idea that she's alive. It was just a shock to her is all." I hold my sister as she starts to cry. Looking up I see the reflexion of someone standing behind me. Glancing over my shoulder I see the waiter is looking at us anxiously.

"Can I get you something sir?" he ask looking at the table. "Are the Ross couple coming back?"

"They should be. Just... something to drink. Soda," I tell him softly. Turning back around I let my cheek rest on my sister's hair. I can still feel her tears against my chest though she is now silent. Her pain subsiding into shivers of agonizing loss.

Looking over her head I see again, in the reflection of the windows, that we are the center of attention from the other patrons in the restaurant. I don't care what they think, I just hold tight to my sister. I look past their ghostly images down to the beach. I watch Mom's new husband... Timothy... get her to her feet. He holds her to him then starts to make his way back towards us. She stops after a few steps, shaking her head. I see him talking to her even as my tears fall unheeded into my sister's hair. He leaves her standing there and comes back up towards us alone. Looking past him I catch my Mom's gaze for a moment then she turns and looks back out across the waves.

"He's coming back," I whisper to Patrica, softly.

"How about her?"

"No."

She takes a deep breath then turns to stand at my left side. I rest my arm around her back.

A few moments latter, the door opens and I look up at my new step father. He stops, looks at us then gives a big sigh.

"Priscilla... your moms really upset. Um, look why don't the two of you meet us here for breakfast tomorrow morning?" he pauses to sigh again. "She just has to have some time."

"Time?" demands my sister.

"Easy Patrica," I rest my hand on her hip and pull her in tighter to my side, then look at him. "We'll be here."

He nods, then after a second where he clearly can't think of what to say, holds out his hand to me.

* * * * * *

With a smile I wrap Sori into my arms, even as a wave of children breaks past me to hug Patrica. I love the sound of my sister's laughter as she hugs them all back.

"It is so good to see you again, Corbin." Sori, lightly pops my chest. "YOU should have come to see us. It's not like we are all the way around the world. Just halfway!"

Laughing, I hug the tiny woman again, then hold her out at arms length.

"If I had remembered how beautiful you were I would have."

"Shameless flatterer!" she says with a grin. "Come, dinner is nearly ready."

With a small army of kids following us we make our way into Eazier's small house. It's looks so very different from when I saw it last, but then it had just been unburied from the mud and still had a wrecked boat leaning against the side of it the last time I saw it.

Eazier seeing me looking around and smiles.

"See, I told you. If you went home, I could take care of the rest." he hold his arms out gesturing to the repaired home.

I look over at Sori.

"So, how long did it take him to get all the work done?" I ask her grinning.

She laughs.

"About two more months, after you left," she tells me with a shake of her head. "Then, after we moves back in, it smelled of tidal mud for years. I must have burned a wagon-bed worth of incense to try to get ride of that smell."

Patrica is there then, she lets her hand come to rest on the tiny woman's shoulder. Sori turns to look at her then opens her arms wide for my sister to hug her. The two women are teary eyed as they embrace. In the days that followed the tsunami Sori had become a surrogate big sister to me. To Patrica... she was even more.

She had became the mother we had lost.

"Every... everything looks beautiful," she tells our hostess. "If I hadn't see it I would never know it had been... damaged."

Sori pulls back and just looks at Patrica's face. Under that soft loving gaze my sister face begins to break. After the first tears start to fall, Sori takes my sister's hand and leads her into the small back bedroom. When the door closes I hear my sister start to cry.

Eazier shoos his curious kids out the door to go play at the neighbors across the street. When he looks back towards the closed door and the sound of crying, he sighs.

"I take it things did not go well?" he asks softly. He holds out a glass offering me a drink.

"Thanks. No, things went pretty bad," I meet his concerned gaze. "She took one good look at us, then ran out the room denying it was us."

"How could a mother deny her children?"he asks then shakes his head. "I am sorry. I should not have said that. I don't know what she has been through, I have no right to judge."

"You have children. If Sori was dead, and you believed that they had died with her... what would your reaction be to seeing them alive?" I ask trying not to let the bitter resentment I feel show in my words. I'm sure he can hear it though.

Eazier sighs.

"It is not my place to judge... but come my friend, no such dark thoughts. Dinner is nearly ready. This is the first time in ten years you have been under my roof again! And I promise this will be a better meal than the last we shared here."

Laughing, I nod.

"I could tell that even as we walked up to the door. It smells wonderful."

After a few more moments the door opens and the ladies rejoin us. Holding Sori's hand Patrica looks red eyed but much better. She is soon laughing with the rest of us as Eazier offers to go get some canned meat and soda crackers. The memories of that meal so many years ago comes back. I love the way her face brightens again.

Then we are again inundated with a hoard of children, both Eazier's and now the neighbor's. Patrica and I are the center of childhood curiosity. Their parent's have always forbidden them from bothering the tourists, but as Sori tells me, given that we are eating dinner here we are not tourists. Over the next few hours, with Eazier's children sometimes translating, we answer question after question. What is America like? Whats it like to live not on an island?

Then they find out I'm an actor. Oh lord.

Finally, when dinner is a memory, Sori grabs her broom and with a threat centuries old and understood across many lands scatters them home.

Eazier is trying to apologize for their children's behavior but Patrica and I are laughing too hard. He then smiles and joins in. Sori, in mock threat, takes after him with the same broom. Defending himself he finally manages to catch the broom. He pulls his tiny wife to his chest, and leaning down kisses her nose.

Looking over at my sister I see her smiling but it slowly slips a way. The beauty of their family life when held next to what has happen to our is stark. Then she looks over and see me watching her. Slowly her smile reappears, then turns into a grin. With her eyes twinkling she rushes forward, catches the broom from Eazier's hand and comes after me with it!

"I'm borrowing your broom, Sori," she says over her shoulder as I run out the door. With her swinging at the back of my head I can't see their reaction but I can hear their laughter. I finally manage to turn enough to see them waving at us from the front door. I can hear their laughter even as I run out into the street with my sister in hot pursuit. Then the kids in the yard next door, Eazier's included, see us and decide that I'm a new game. Suddenly it's not just my sister but a whole crowd of people chasing after me, with Patrica at the lead swinging the broom at my head still.

I run just ahead of them laughing the whole time.

As we near the pier out to our bungalow I 'let' them catch up with me. Before she can hit me more than twice I catch the broom and take it away from her. Picking my sister up I spin her around and around as quickly as I can tills she is begging me to stop, she's so dizzy.

With her leaning against me to keep from falling, we watch the hoard of children go running back up the street. They are led by Eazier's children clutching their mother's broom like a band major's baton. They make it all of about fifty feet then one of the kids in the front is 'it' and off they go with the broom just a swinging.

"We may owe Sori a new broom," I say softly, then start laughing. Walking with Patrica under my arm down that long wooden pier to our room we take our time. Slow steps, often lurching from side to side as one of us looses balance. As we get close she pulls in tight to my side. In the far distance the laughter of the children is fading away to nothingness.

We begin to hear other sounds then. Sounds from the bungalows we are walking past. Soft music and conversation. Loud music and laughter. No music... but moans and breathy grunts.

Patrica giggles and hides her face against my chest till we are well past that last one. Then we are walking out to ours. There is no music here. No laughter. No conversation even. Just a silence broken only by the sounds of the waves.

Just silence.

I looked down at her face then. I could see just how strongly that silence was weighing on her. On my beautiful sister. Why I did it latter I couldn't say but at the time it seemed appropriate. Leaning in I kissed her. Not a soft gentle peck but a true kiss. Her lips are incredibly soft against mine, carrying with them some of the spices from dinner. She tastes of coriander, and cumin, strong peppers and warm curries.

After a stumbled pause she began to kiss me back. Then her hands were on me pulling me in closer to her. Her face tilted and her lips came alive with an inner passion I didn't know that my sister had. To my surprise and delight her tongue brushed my lips, asking to be let in. Even as I open my mouth to that silky greeting I hear a soft moan come from her lips.

Slowly, kissing each other as we go, we back into our room. Then there is a bed at the back of my knees, and before I can stop us we tumble into the mass of twisted sheets. There is a moan from her then that rivals our neighbor's in both volume and intensity. I realize that her legs have parted to either side of mine and than my thigh is pressed hard into her. I can feel a warm heat from her thighs against my skin and a silky feeling that can only be from her panties.

The gasp as we hit the mattress parts our lips. As we pause for breath we look into each others faces. I notice then that I have half of her breast cupped.

"Corbin?" she looks at my shadowed face. "I...I want.. I'm sorry."

Patrica goes to pull away from me but I catch her by her arms and pull her back.

"Don't, it's okay. I understand," pulling her in close I bury my nose in her hair. The shampoo smell is gone but a deeper scent, a more personal scent has taken it's place. "It's okay."

After a moment she chuckles.

"What?" I ask brushing her hair with my fingernails.

"Do they teach kissing in acting classes?" Looking up, she brushed her finger across my lips. "You're a good kisser."

Chuckling, I answer.

"No, that was a learn as I went along skill. I've gotten only a few kissing scenes so far. I was too nervous for any of them to be great." I have to laugh at the memory of the first one. "My first one was fun though. The director made us do about seven takes. She asked for am eighth, but he told us to get a room."

"Well, it sounds like she was having fun. I can understand that. Is she famous?" Patrica props her head up on her hand and looks down at my face. She starts to play with the buttons on my shirt. "Do I know her?"

"Not yet and no. She may become famous though. She has a lot of passion for acting," I shrug denying anything else happened, but my smile tells other wise.

"Passion for acting?" Patrica asks grinning. "How about passion for you? Did you follow the directors advice?

Shaking my head, I brush her hair again with my fingers, trying to get it out her face. She moves it back behind her ear, then lifts an eyebrow wanting her question answered.

"We just had dinner together."

"Just dinner? No after dinner desert?" she asks, biting her bottom lip in a teasing grin.

Chuckling, I deny anything else. This time my eyes aren't giving away secrets, none I don't want them to give anyway at least.

My sister and I talk about my sometimes career for the next hour or so. It's when I'm telling her about my time as an extra on one film that I notice her eyes have closed. With a smile I lean in and place a soft kiss on her lips. Then I settle myself next to her, covering us both. She make a soft sound and snuggles into me tighter, as a cool breeze ruffles the curtains. We fall asleep in each others arms; her soft hair blowing into my face.

* * * * * *

A scream wakes me, then as I turn I'm being clutched at by Patrica! Her hands are clawing at my shirt trying to pull me. I realize even as I'm waking she's trying to save me from drowning...again.

"It's okay, It's okay. It's just a bad dream," I tell her softly trying to calm her with my tone of voice.

Her wide eyes take in my face, her mouth is parted as she pants. Pale and trembling in terror, then turns to crying in painful loss and memories. I pull her to me, holding her warm body against mine. Her body shakes against me as I feel her bury her face into my chest.

"The waves. The waves," she whispers into my shirt.

"Shush, it's alright. That was ten years ago. It's just a bad dream." I rock her in my arms against me a little as she continues to cry. "It's okay baby, it's okay. We're okay."

I hold onto Patrica as she cries herself out and slowly drifts back to sleep. I wish I could follow. Not dreams but memories keep my eyes open till I see the first rays of pink beginning to lighten the sky. Only when I can see that the sea is where is should be do I close my eyes and fade back into sleep. My dreams are dark and formless.

* * * * * *

The restaurant is nearly full, with people eating their breakfast, but the two people I'm expecting to see are not here. The table they had yesterday is already taken by a couple in their mid to late sixties. The flowered shirt the older man is wearing catches my attention from across the room.

"Well, maybe I'm early." I mutter to myself as I start looking around for a place to sit and wait. I notice then a few of the people are some of the ones from when we were here yesterday. They are looking at me, without looking like they are.

I wish Patrica had come, but after this morning's nightmare she said she couldn't handle any more. I left her half asleep, with a promise to bring back breakfast for her.

"Sir?"

I turn to look at the waiter.

"This was left for you, this morning," he holds out a tray to me with a white envelope laying in the middle of it. I notice my hand is shaking as I reach for it.

~.~.~ Corbin, Patrica, I love you both. YOU are my Children and I will always carry a bit of you in my heart. I've spent ten years trying to come to accept that I lost you that terrible day. I'm sorry that I am not the mother that I should be, the mother that you needed me to be. I was too young when I married your father, too young when I had you, and far too young when I lost all of you. If you remember I was not much older than you are now and I lost every thing I loved in moments. The fact that I wasn't there beside you when it happened tore me to pieces. That I had run off because your father had made me angry seems silly now. That I never said goodby to you two before I left broke the pieces into pieces. It took me years to get those pieces back into some semblance of order and now when I thought I was finally healed... I saw you standing there. It brought back all the pain, the loss, the guilt I felt. It showed me that I was never truly healed from what happened. I need time. Time to accept in my heart the knowledge that your alive. That my children are alive. You, are both adults. You, don't need me to take care of you anymore. I promise right now you can do a better job of taking care of each other than I could do as I am now. I want you both to know that I love you still, very much, but at this time I have to take care of myself. Priscilla. ~.~.~

The paper crumpling in my hand, I turn to start for the door. Patrica is standing there looking at me. She holds out her hand towards me.

"Let me see it, please," she says with no emotion to her voice.

Reluctantly, I hand it to her. She smooths out the crumpled paper and begins to read. I watch her face expecting almost any emotional outburst from rage to tears. I can tell when she finishes the short letter. She lets it fall to the ground, from her fingers. Then she slums to the floor following it. Like a wet puppet with it's strings cut she collapses.

"Patrica!"

My sister does not respond to my voice or to my shaking her shoulders in anyway. Her eyes are open and she's looking off into space, her face blank of any resemblance of life. Only her breathing convinces me she hasn't just died.

"Sir? Sir, should I call for a doctor?"