Bluedawn (A Watermagic Novel, #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

room, Hailey.”
    Nervously, Mom wrapped a blanket around me
and they helped me to the car. Mom sat in the back with me as Dad
drove. Now that I was with my parents, I felt soothed. The wounds
were painful, but manageable. I could deal with that. Mostly, I
just felt this terrible guilt for treating the boy who saved me
twice so outrageously.
    I explained everything to my parents about
what happened to me tonight in the forest. How a wild animal
brushed against me. How the guy carried me to safety even when I
was kicking and hitting him. Then I told them about the rainy
evening in town years ago when he saved me from being hit by a
car.
    Dad looked sympathetic, but Mom still didn’t
like him and forbid me to ever go near him. She didn’t even want me
to thank him. If anything, she owed him an apology as much as I did
and certainly she should show him some gratitude, but she disagreed
entirely. I couldn’t believe how irrational she was. She wouldn’t
even discuss it.
    I was pouting by the time we got to the
hospital. I didn’t understand Mom sometimes. But we didn’t have to
wait long in the emergency room. And the chaotic setting redirected
my thoughts. The doctor stitched up all the gashes. He said I
should stay off my feet and elevate my legs as much as possible for
a few days.
    My parents rented a wheel chair for me.
“Don’t worry, Hailes,” Dad said. “We’re still going to have a great
vacation.”
    “We will simply wheel you around,” Mom
whispered.
    I felt bad. All I wanted was to give them a
good anniversary and now I was ruining it.
    ***
    As I flipped the last burger on the barbeque,
I looked over at Mom and Dad chatting at the picnic table in our
campsite. Two love birds. Today was their anniversary. It was hard
to believe after twenty years of marriage, they were still in love.
Even the sky was their friend on this special day. It caressed
their arms in pink light as the sun set brilliantly on the Pacific
Ocean below our campsite.
    For the past few days Mom and Dad wheeled me
around from shop to shop in the touristy areas of Carlsbad. We
didn’t spend so much money because we were on a budget, but Mom had
her hair styled and bought a new dress. Dad purchased some cigars
and aged wine. We even had ice cream on the boardwalk a few times
and tried out some of the local diners.
    The doctor was correct—my ankle was basically
healed by the third day which was a relief to everyone because that
meant we could engage in Mom’s and my favorite activity—swimming.
Today, we spent much of the day in the ocean and lounging on the
beach. I didn’t fumble that up too badly. Whenever we were in the
water, everything went smoothly, but once on land, I created a few
mishaps.
    The first thing that went wrong was when we
were laying out on a picnic blanket on the sand while Mom played
her antique guitar. Stupid me—I got up to get a soda from the ice
chest and fell on the instrument, breaking it right in half. Mom
went crazy for a minute yelling at the heavens. Telling me how the
well-crafted thing was over three hundred years old and had been
passed down to her through her dear family.
    Okay, so that was a pretty big bummer.
    The second thing that went wrong was when Dad
told me to order takeout to be delivered to us on the beach. He
said to spend no more than sixty dollars. But when I was placing
the order on my cell phone, I happened to notice the dark haired
boy surfing with his friends out in the ocean.
    They were there and when I looked back they
were gone. That was the third time I had seen him since he rescued
me in the forest. The other two times that I had noticed him were
both in front of the mini-market where he seemed to hang around a
lot. But Dad just drove past and I couldn’t say anything to
him.
    I got distracted from my phone conversation
as I looked around for the boy in the ocean and I must have
misunderstood the Chinese guy with the thick accent who was taking
my takeout order. It sounded like