Harbors

Chapter 1: Departure

Chapter 1: Departure1782

It had just turned dark, and the man stood in the graveyard looking at the newly laid stone in front of him. Forty-five years. It was hardly fair, but then he had refused to allow Canan to help. Canan bent down and traced the letters and then the numbers on the grave. They couldn’t be made more perfect. This was all that he could do for Salem now. Canan had held him when he’d the left the world, but now Salem was gone, and Canan was all alone.

“You’ve done beautiful work,” a woman’s voice said from behind him.

“But what macabre work,” Canan said as he turned to see Rosetta. She was bundled in a black shawl covering a black dress. Her stomach protruded, and Canan thought of the life growing inside of her.

“But necessary,” Rosetta said. “He would have loved it, as far as these things go. I like your choice. There’s not another like it, and this graveyard has filled fast this winter.”

Canan looked at the grave stone. He had tried to make each of them unique when he had come to the island. So many in such a small place had perished so quickly, and for once, he had nothing to do with it.

“May I touch it?” Rosetta asked.

When Canan nodded, she stepped toward the stone. Her fingers traced the shape, surprised at how smooth the top was.

“A heart,” she said.

“It’s what he was to me,” Canan said.

Rosetta placed her hand on his shoulder. “I know.”

They stood in silence for a moment, looking at the heart-shaped gravestone, this last testament to the man he had loved, Salem.

Canan turned to her. “The others, do they know as well?”

“We’ve always known. From the night you arrived, we saw the way you and Salem looked at each other. It was only a matter of time before you saw it yourselves. He spent every night watching you work until the late hours. This island is too small, and we are all too close for us to look poorly upon our neighbors. And so many of us are kin. As Salem’s sister, I’ve always known that it would be a man that drew him. We were all joyful when you found each other.”

“And the rest?” Canan asked. “Salem told you that as well?”

“He told me, but no one else. And he didn’t need to tell a soul. You’re not the first of your kind to come here, only the gentlest. When you came, we needed you. Someone needed to make our gravestones as this fever spread. You’ve never harmed us, and we learned a long time ago how to protect ourselves from your kind.”

“Yet you’ve never tried to harm me. You could have while I slept.”

“We know, but we never wanted to, and if we had, Salem would have stopped us. He watched over you like a hawk,” Rosetta said. “You’ve protected us from others who came to our island to do harm. We found the body of the man who’d waited for us in the forest, for us to be alone.”

“I hunted him down the first night Salem told me what happened.”

“And we are grateful for that. The girl got away, and you stopped the man from harming any others.”

“You weren’t angry when you saw what I did to him?”

“We would have done worse,” Rosetta said.

Canan considered what she said. “You’re a tough breed.”

“Like you, we’ve had to be. We’ve fished these waters of the Chesapeake for generations. It’s not always been easy, and from the stories I hear, it wasn’t easy for our ancestors who came here. Many of them were running from the same sort of intolerance that I imagine you face quite often. We believe in survival, for ourselves, and for others.”

Canan considered what she said. He’d expected the island to be full of small-minded people, people whose ideas had never been challenged, but instead, he had found a place that had accepted him, and given him a love so beautiful, that now he could see nothing but a life full of mourning.

Canan looked at Rosetta. She had always been kind to him, and not just because of Salem. Before Salem, he had met her first. She’s the one who had put the ad in the Baltimore paper. She’s the one he’d corresponded with, worked the arrangements of what he’d need if he came to the island. She’s the one he’d been sent to when he arrived on the island that first evening.

“You’re the leader here?” he asked. “I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before.”

“Yes,” Rosetta said. “Should outsiders ask, we say that it’s my husband, but on the island, it’s different. We’ve always believed in female leaders.”

“You practice the old ways?” Canan asked. “Salem never told me.”

“He took a blood oath not to share our history. Those who don’t are sent from the island when they come of age. We don’t welcome them back, and should they cause trouble for us on the mainland, they’re never heard from again. We don’t practice it like our ancestors did. It became inconvenient over the years, and we started to marry out, with people from the mainland. The ones we marry take the oath as well. The old ways are no longer our religion. Most of us don’t practice any religion, but we have the skills, and we use them when needed.”

Canan laughed. “I haven’t met anyone like you in a very long time.”

“Or so you believe,” Rosetta said. “Friends on the mainland recommended you. Many people wrote to me about that advertisement. You were the one we chose.”

Canan shook his head. “Because you knew I had a secret as well.”

“Yes, and we imagined you would be more worried about guarding your own than looking to see what things lie in our closets. Although we were a little surprised that you never recognized us. Our people, and your people have known each other for years.”

Canan laughed. “It explains why everything Salem did seemed so magical and free.”

It was Rosetta’s turn to laugh, and she did with a deep laugh that shook her body, and moved her belly.

“There was no one like him,” she said.

“And there never will be again.”

They were silent for a moment, and Rosetta reached her hand out and placed it on Canan’s arm. “You’re going to live a very long life. Don’t close yourself to love now. You’ll find it again.”

“I don’t want to,” Canan said, looking down.

“We never do,” Rosetta said, moving her hand from Canan’s arm to his chin, and lifting it. “Did I ever tell you about the husband I had before this one?”

Canan shook his head. “No.”

“I’ve never told the husband I have now about him either. He’s the type who would worry. My first husband was from this island. He died in the boats, and I mourned him for years. Too many years, to be honest. I’m the leader of this group, and I needed a child, someone to pass things onto. Perhaps in a few generations the people of this island won’t need a leader, but for now they do. And they may when I pass. I come from a long line of women who bear daughters, all of them meant to lead. I knew that when it is my time to go, I wanted to leave this island with someone who cares about it, so I found my husband. I took a trip to the mainland and found a doctor. He was a widower. We fell for each other rather quickly, and we’ve learned a lot from each other, not only in medicine, but in love. Salem wasn’t your first love. Don’t make him your last.”

“Yes, but unlike you, I don’t have a legacy to carry on. Men in my condition cannot father children.”

“No, but you have a life to live, and living it alone is not what Salem would want for you. Which why we want to offer you a home here.”

Canan looked at Rosetta carefully, feeling the earnestness in what she said. Then he looked around the island. Since receiving Evening Life from Ranesh, he could not recall a time that anyone had offered him a home. He had always been a man on the move. Still, that was exactly who he needed to be right now.

“I can’t,” Canan said. “As much as I want to, I can’t. This island reminds me of Salem. It would continue to, and I would only see my loss if I stayed here.”

Rosetta nodded her head. “That’s what I thought you would say. I saw you packing your boat today. Canan, there are other islands on this bay. Some of them are more secluded than this, different. Like us, they would keep your secret. I know of ones who still practice the old ways. They would welcome you when I tell of them of your help to us.”

“I would love to find a home,” Canan said. “And I thought I had. I felt better with Salem than I had in a long time. Still, no matter what the island is nearby, I would still think of him. I know how I heal. I need to be away from this place.”

“You’ll go back to Baltimore?”

“No, I’ll go far away. I’ll find a place I haven’t been, or visit one I haven’t seen in years. I’ll find my friend Ranesh. Like you, he’s a healer in his own way.”

“I imagined you would leave,” Rosetta said. “When my first husband passed, I had to build a new home. The one I live in now. Still, I want you to know that you are always welcome while I live.”

“I don’t know that I’ll be back during that time.”

“Well, I’ll pray, in the old ways, that the island will bring you back when you’re healed.”

“Do we ever really heal?” Canan asked.

“We grow and we love,” Rosetta said, leaning up to kiss Canan’s cheek. “Let me walk you to your boat. I’ll wish you good winds.”

“I could use them,” Canan said. “I’ll need some help launching her.”

“I’ve already sent young Matthew to gather a launch party for you,” Rosetta confessed. “I was fairly certain you would leave today when I saw you set the stone. You should be careful doing such things off the island. Men who are not like you could not move such things by themselves.”

“But women like you could,” Canan said with a chuckle.

“We have our ways,” Rosetta said. “Ways I don’t show off the island either.”

“I’ll follow your advice, and watch my ways,” Canan said as they neared the shore.

Almost all of the village had come out that evening for him.

“I can get most of it myself,” Canan said quietly to Rosetta. “It’s cold in the water, and the island already knows what I am.”

“Yes, but we want to help you, Canan,” Rosetta said. “Now climb aboard your boat, and let us send you on your way.”

Canan hugged her one last time, and climbed aboard his boat. He watched as the islanders moved the boat into the water, wondering how much was natural, and how much was those skills he’d never learned of until today. As he released his sails, he saw Rosetta and several others raise their arms. They were summoning the winds. He’d seen it done before, but it had been years.

Several of the islanders held torches, and they reflected some light. He focused his eyes to see more clearly in the dark. A mixture of tears and laughter filled his face as he watched the islanders wave to him in the ever darkening night.

“Goodbye, Salem. Goodbye, love,” Canan whispered as he turned his boat away from the island.