Shark Lover (24 page)

            “We’re
not giving up on this beach yet. There’s still some more groups of surfers.
Someone might know something. It would be a complete waste of time if we missed
out on good information just because the first few guys didn’t know anything.”

            “Come
on Carly, you and I both know that this isn’t going anywhere. Plus we’ve asked
over fifty or sixty guys. I think we would have found some information by now
if they had it,” She said as she blew out a long and extended breath. “I mean
doesn’t this beach make you feel down?”

            “I
get your point, but let’s just ask this last group. Then we will go somewhere
else. And no it doesn’t make me feel down. It’s just a beach, Cathy. You and I
used to go here all of the time back when you were in high school. Why would I
feel down about it?”

            “Daddy!
Help us build a sandcastle!” She pulled her father up from his chair and
brought him to where she and Carly were.

            “Girls,
Daddy is tired. Can you play together for a while?” He asked as he stood up
shakily.

            “No
Daddy, you are the only one who knows how to build the princess castle. We
don’t know how. Plus Carly is just a baby. She can’t help me that much.” Cathy
took her shovel and pail to start building.

            “Alright,
but only for a few minutes. Daddy isn’t feeling so good.” He sat down again in
the sand as his breathing started gradually getting louder.

            “Daddy,
you never feel good. Did you ever go to a doctor? The doctor always fixes my
boo-boos. Maybe he can fix you too.” She looked at her father. Even though she
was a young girl, she could tell that something was not right with him. He
wasn’t acting like himself. She didn’t know what was wrong with him and it
scared her. Her father’s eyes had lost their light and he had lost the pep in
his step. Something was wrong.

            “Cat,
I’m fine. I promise I am fine. I don’t need to go to the doctor. If something
was wrong I think I would know.” He put Carly on his lap as he started to help
Cathy build sandcastles. “Now let’s build the princess castle. Are you going to
put Princess Jasmine in it?” He said pointing to her figurine.  

            “But
Daddy, something is wrong and you’re not telling me. I thought you said honesty
was the best policy. You should tell me what’s wrong, is it something with
Mommy and you? Is that why you keep fighting? Every night when I go to bed I
hear you both fighting. I can’t hear what you say, but it doesn’t sound good.”

            “Cat,
just drop it please. Your mother and I are fine. I love your mother very much
and I love you girls very much. No matter what happens I love all of you. Now
let’s build this princess castle. I want to see a smile on that little face of
yours.”

            “But
Daddy! I’m just worried. I want to know what’s going on!” She cried.

            “Now,
no buts or ands. You have to believe that everything is fine. You have to trust
me.” He took her in his lap with Carly. “Now do you know the meaning behind a
sandcastle Cathy?”

            “No
Daddy. What does it mean?” She squinted in the sun, still unhappy that her
father would not tell her what was going on. She figured that he was trying to
protect her, but she didn’t need protection. She needed the truth.

            “Cat,
a sandcastle asks you to be more creative with your approach to life.”

            She
got off of his lap and looked at him directly in the face. “Daddy what does
that even mean? I don’t understand.”

            “It
means that you try new things and you learn more about yourself than you did
before. When you are creative, it helps your imagination grow.”

            “Is
that what you do Daddy?”

            “What
do I do?”

            “Try
new things to learn more about yourself.”

            “Yes,
that’s part of the reason, but there’s more to it.” He paused as his blue eyes
focused on the ocean in front of him. He looked as if he was in another world.
Another time and place. “I want to make the most of my life. I want to make
every minute count. You never know how long you are going to live and I want to
make sure I get to do everything I want to do before I die.”

            “You’re
not going to die anytime soon though right, Daddy?” She asked her eyes full of
fear.

            “No,
of course not. You don’t have to worry about that right now. All you have to
worry about is helping me build this princess sandcastle.” He explained in a
calm voice and she almost believed that everything was alright.

            “Okay
Daddy. Sounds good.” She replied nonchalantly.

           
“You’re
thinking about Daddy aren’t you?” Carly asked her sister curiously.

            “Of
course. This was the beach. The beach he always took us both to. How could I
not think of him? Everything reminds me of him. Especially here. I was just
thinking of princess sandcastles.”

            “Oh
I remember those! It’s been years since I built one of those. I would ask you
to build one with me now, but I know we need to find Marc first,” she said. “I
know what you mean about Daddy too. Everything reminds me of him too. It’s not
just this beach either, just everything in life makes me miss him.”

            “Me
too,” Cathy said feeling gloomy. Just at that instant, her phone suddenly rang.
“Hmmm I wonder who that is.” She dug into her back pants pocket and took out
her phone. Officer Sanchez’s number popped up across the screen. “Oh it’s the
Officer. Maybe he has more information.”

            “Hurry.
Answer it!” She cried. “It’s probably important!”

            “Hello
Officer Sanchez?” She asked. Her hands were still shaking from the shudder of
the unexpected call.

            “Yes,
Ms. Montanan. It’s me again. We have gathered more information about the
disappearance of Marc Porter.”

            “Oh,
can you tell me? Can I help out with the search? Did you find him yet?” She
kept chattering on and on nervously.

            “One
question at a time. So we have finally been able to get ahold of the towing
company. They have stated that the car was found illegally parked near Stinson
Beach. We believe that was where Marc Porter was last seen. We have been
searching the area for a few hours now, without any luck yet. We will continue
to search the area and surrounding areas throughout the day and let you know if
we find anything that leads us to Mr. Porter.” He explained mundanely with a
professional tone.

            “Thank
you for letting us know Officer. Is it alright if we head to Stinson Beach as
well to help the search? We’re at Ocean Beach right now, we didn’t find
anything either.”

            “Who’s
we?” He asked questionably. 

            “It’s
my sister and I. We’ve already searched the university and now Ocean Beach. We
haven’t really found anything either. We would love to help search Stinson
Beach, if we would be allowed to.”

            “That’s
fine. You and your sister can help assist with the search. We often welcome volunteers
with missing people’s cases. All the help we can get is often beneficial.
Alright we will see you here later.”

            “Thanks
for letting us know Officer. We really appreciate the new information. We
probably would have wasted our entire day in the wrong locations if you hadn’t
called us.” Cathy explained with sympathy as she started to lead Carly off the
beach.

            “No
problem. You’re welcome. Have a nice day.” Officer Sanchez hung up quickly.

            “To
Stinson Beach we go. I wonder what Marc was doing there?” Carly wondered out
loud to her sister. “That’s a huge surfing beach. Why else would he go there?
Unless he wanted to surf again.”

            “Hmmmm,
yeah that beach is mostly for surfers,” Cathy said with thought. “I just don’t
think he would have wanted to surf again. He didn’t seem too thrilled to try
surfing again. The last time I talked to him, he had admitted that his father
had died surfing. I told him he should try surfing again, but I don’t think he
would have taken my advice that seriously. Do you?”

            “How
did his father die?” She replied as they walked off the beach and headed to
Cathy’s jeep. “And why in the world would you tell him to surf again Cathy?
Don’t you know that Stinson Beach is one of the most dangerous beaches in the
world? Shark attacks are always happening there, I don’t know why you would
have suggested that he go surf there. Not everyone is as daring as you are.”
She paused giving her sister a look that said she was being an idiot. “Oh and
did I say daring? I meant to say stupid. I can’t believe you, Cathy. This is
completely crazy!” She said throwing her arms up in the air.

            “Whoa,
whoa, whoa. Hold on Carly. Slow down, you are having a panic attack. That’s not
even what happened,” She said trying to calm her sister down. “His father died from
a shark attack a long time ago. The beach was closed at the time since sharks
were in the water. His father still went in the water, even though he knew that
sharks were there. Marc tried to save him, but he was too late.”

            “His
father sounds a lot like you. No wonder Marc likes you so much.” She looked at
her sister with big eyes. “But anyways, that’s really sad. I feel bad that he
had to go through that. Poor Marc. But still you shouldn’t have suggested that
he surf again. If anything happened to him, wouldn’t it be your fault?” She
said as she opened the passenger door to the jeep.

            “That’s
not the reason he likes me. We just get along. We have good chemistry. However
all of this isn’t important right now. Finding Marc is the most important thing
that we can do right now. It wouldn’t be my fault if he decided to surf. I mean
sure I would feel pretty guilty, but all I did was merely suggest that he
surfed again. You should have seen his face, Carly.” Her face took on a dreamy
effect as she remembered. “He just looked so empty, like something was missing
from his life. I told him that surfing again would make his father proud. I
could tell that he missed both surfing and his father. So I figured why live
life completely empty and broken? He could at least have one of the things that
he loved back.” She sighed as she started driving towards Stinson Beach.

            “I
don’t know Cathy. I just don’t know. I worry about you. Do you know that? I
know that you had good intentions, but it could be made out to look very bad
for you. I just don’t want you to get in trouble again. I don’t know if I will
be able to get you out of it this time. This problem is kind of bigger than
both of us. Sometimes I just wish you would think from your head and not your
heart.”

            “It
can’t be all my fault though. I just suggested that he surf again, I didn’t
force him into the water. I never would have told him to get in the water at
Stinson Beach. If he was going to take up surfing again, I wish he would have
discussed this with me. I would have told him not to pick Stinson Beach and to
pick another beach. I really don’t think it’s my fault though. I would never
want to hurt him. He is the love of my life. I only have good intentions and I
just want the best for him.”

            “I
know you do, Cathy. It’s just I...I…I…” She stammered trying to get the words
out.

            “Spit
it out Carly. I know you worry about me, but you don’t have to. I know what I
can and can’t do. I know what I can handle. You don’t have to spend your whole
life worrying about me. Mom already worries enough about me for the both of
you. Just don’t worry so much. Life is life. What is meant to happen will
happen.”

            “How
can you be so nonchalant?” She asked refraining from looking at Cathy. “This is
all more serious than you are making it sound. I was just going to say that you
remind me of Daddy. I was always worried for him. All the time. Even when I was
young, I was constantly worrying about him. He would never take things
seriously and he wouldn’t tell us when something was seriously wrong. Now
you’re doing the same thing, Cathy. I can’t go through that again. It’s just
all too painful.” She said as tears ran down her face.

            “Carly,
don’t cry. Everything is going to be alright. We’re just under a lot of stress
right now, but don’t worry. We will figure all of this out. I promise I will be
okay. I’m not fully like Daddy. I’m not going to put you through years of
nerve-wracking pain. I’ll promise you that much,” She said with a caring tone
in her voice. “Let’s just take a few moments to relax and enjoy this drive. I
think we are both stressed out and overthinking things. Just relax and take a
few deep breaths. I promise everything will be alright.”

            Driving
through the hills and the trees, Cathy couldn’t think of anything but Marc. She
already missed him. He had only been missing a few days, but it felt as if a
part of her had died. She didn’t know what to feel or think. As she drove, she
tried to analyze the facts that they had so far. The last location Marc
probably was spotted was Stinson Beach. On Stinson Beach Valley, there wasn’t
much to do except surfing. Based on their last conversation, Cathy figured that
Marc would never even think about surfing anytime soon. She tried to recall the
conversation in her mind, but came up with nothing. The thoughts flew out of
her mind as quickly as they had come. Her nerves were putting her on the edge
and she didn’t know what to do or think about anymore. She was losing it and
even her sister could tell.