What took longer was my body.
The sedatives cleared quickly.
The anxiety did not.
For weeks, I could not drink from a glass someone else poured.
At restaurants, I watched waiters open bottles.
At home, I checked seals twice.
I woke at night convinced Adrian was beside me.
Then remembered he wasn’t.
My father wanted to sell the Mercer Star.
The first time he asked, I said yes.
Immediately.
I hated the vessel.
The corridors.
The cabin.
The dining room.
The place where Margaret carried tea.
Then three months later, I changed my mind.
“Don’t sell it.”
My father studied me.
“Why?”
“I don’t know yet.”
That answer worried him.
It worried me too.
Eventually I returned.
Not alone.
My parents.
Two friends.
The same captain.
Mara, the nurse, came for lunch at port.
No Adrian.
No Thomas.
No Margaret.
The Mercer Star left Bellmere on a bright morning and sailed toward the outer Evermere Isles.
