When they got to the cabin she went quickly inside. Michael sat at the picnic table out front, trying to read under the weak orange light of a lamp attached to an awning post, the night deepening around him. Once, he thought he heard Bella crying again. Closing the book, he sat still for a time, listening to the darkness. Crickets were fiddling. The ceaseless, distant whispery rumble of the sea was there. Now and then a coyote howled in the hills. Standing abruptly, he stepped through the bead curtain into the room, intending to say something, but saw that Bella was asleep. She lay face down on top of the covers, still wearing her fleece vest and white capris. Michael observed her briefly. Then he went to where his backpack lay on the floor, bent down to rummage in it, and went out again, closing the door quietly behind him. It was a short walk down to the beach. Michael felt his mind to be calm and clear, but his heart beat rapidly. Automatically stepping out of his sandals on reaching the sand, he was mildly shocked by its coolness. It had burned his feet in the afternoon. The sound of the sea seemed louder now than during the day. The tide coming in? Michael was vague on how the process manifested itself aside from the water rising. He wasn’t really a man of the sea. Though its strange power was not entirely lost on him. Those endless, regular, indolent, insentient, futile yet unstoppable blows. He could see where, after the breakers hit, the black water slid along the smooth slope of wet sand like warm oil on a pan. Nearer, the shapes of the umbrellas in their geometric arrangement were drawn in chiaroscuro. Their tops resembled witches’ hats also, Michael realized, with their elongated, curving, pointed tips. From the far end of the beach came the yellow twinkle of a campers’ bonfire. It meant they too would be able to see a flame at this distance. Michael’s mind was working with great speed and lucidity. We all look for what we need most, he thought. Bella’s need wasn’t money, that’s why she chose me. Then he thought, When another’s suffering so far exceeds your own you are under an obligation to help share the load. I know the help I offer will cost me something too, but I am certain the net change will be toward happiness.
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