But he wasn’t looking at her as he scrambled to his feet.
Beth followed the direction of his eyes up the beach, where a dark mass lurched and twisted on the shore near the calf.
‘She’s re-stranded, ‘ he said, stumbling away a few steps, his voice thick from their kissing. Or from the agony of having failed to save the whale.
When he turned and reached out his hand, she waved him off. ‘I can’t, Marc. I hurt too much. You go. I’m going to need a second.’
It was a measure of their past friendship that he didn’t falter and worry about helping her up. If anyone had ever respected her independence, it was Marc. Just another way he used to show his belief in her.
Pain came in all shapes and sizes. As Marc found the strength to run up the beach towards the beleaguered whale, stooping to grab his whale-washer from the shore, Beth knew she’d have to too.
They were in this together. Ready or not. And she was not about to let him down for a second time. Not when he was the only man she’d ever known who had ever believed in her.
She cried out as she straightened her tortured spine, an anguished mix of pain and frustration and self-recrimination. Then she lurched up the beach after him, the golden glow of his kiss feeding her the necessary strength.
Just.
THEY hadn’t spoken in an hour.
Not because they were angry with each other, Marc knew. Not because there was weirdness after their kiss, which had happened so naturally. And not only because their spirits were broken by the return of the whale they’d worked so hard to save. It was just that they were both putting all their energy into the endless drag-and-slosh—slower, shorter, choppier. Eternal. At least there was no blazing sun to contest with now.
The whale could see her calf from her new beach position and Marc wondered if the stillness of her body meant she knew it had died. Attributing human qualities to it was as pointless as it was hard not to. Beth’s eyes followed his to the whale’s small round ones.
‘Why do they do it—strand themselves?’
Marc shook his head. ‘No one knows for sure.’
She blinked her fatigue. ‘Do they want to die?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Can’t they see the land?’
‘Some blame our electromagnetic technologies which throw their guidance systems out of whack. Others say their inner ears are damaged by under-sea quakes which mess with their ability to navigate.’
‘What do you think?’
‘I don’t know. I just know what it does to them.’
Beth stroked the whale’s cool skin. ‘I think she came back for her baby.’
Marc nodded. ‘Could be. I’ve seen mothers and calves together in the deep water creches, the bond is definitely strong enough.’
‘Maybe she just wanted closure.’
Beth’s dark head tipped back, rolling gently on her shoulders to ease the ache. His eyes followed hers upwards. It seemed bizarre to notice, through the death and the pain and the blistering cold, how pretty the night was. It truly was a beautiful Australian night. More stars than he’d ever seen in his life—that was what he’d thought when he’d first moved to the deep south of the state. The Milky Way in all its blanketing glory. It was kind of nice to see someone else appreciate it.
Beth arched her head back so far she almost stumbled. He twitched to race to her—even knowing he’d never get there—but caught himself just as she did.
‘We’re so small,’ she murmured, regaining balance, her face still turned heavenward. ‘Do you think that there’s a Marc and a Beth and a whale somewhere out there fighting for life, just like we are?’
Marc followed her glance up to the sky. ‘I guess … statistically. Could be.’
Her thoughts were as far away as those stars.
‘It seems impossible that life could only exist on one planet out of a million twinkling lights.’
‘You aren’t seeing the planets. Only the suns in solar systems full of other planets.’
She turned cold-drugged eyes on him and considered what he’d said for an age. Marc frowned. Her speech was getting slurred, her lids heavy. He’d have to get her out of the icy water soon. She was turning hypothermic. And talking about space.
‘We’re such an insignificant part of an insignificant part of something so big, ‘ she murmured. ‘Why do we even worry about things that go wrong? Or things that go right. Our whole drama-filled lives are barely a blink of the universe’s eye. We make no difference.’
Marc stopped sloshing. ‘It makes a difference here and now. And life is not about how long it is. It’s about how full it is.’
‘Full?’
‘Full of love. Joy.’ He looked back at the whale. ‘Compassion.’
She lowered her face to look at him. ‘Even if it’s only a blink?’
‘I’d rather have a moment of utter beauty than a hundred years of blandness. Wouldn’t you?’
Her eyes blinked heavily. ‘You would have made a good astronaut, ‘ she mumbled.
Marc frowned.
‘Fourth grade. You wanted to be a space-man. You thought there was a space princess you were supposed to save.’ Her teeth chattered.
A numb smile dawned. ‘I haven’t thought about that for years. I can’t believe you remember it.’
She returned her focus to him. ‘I remember everything.’
She’d driven him crazy in the playground, insisting on being the astronaut and refusing to be the princess. Was that the beginning of her tomboy ways? An insane glow birthed deep inside him that she’d held on to those memories. It suggested she hadn’t stopped caring when she’d pulled the pin on their friendship. She’d just stopped being there.
His smile withered.
‘So tell me about your mum, ‘ she murmured.
His gut instantly tightened as she forced her eyes to focus on him.
‘What happened between the two of you?’
His heart started to thump. Hard. ‘Didn’t we already cover this?’
‘Nope. I asked, you hedged.’
‘Doesn’t that tell you anything?’
‘It tells me you don’t want to talk about it.’
‘Bingo.’ He glared at her. ‘But I’m sure that’s no deterrent to you.’
The more defensive he got, the more interested she got. It seemed to slap her out of her growing stupor. ‘Not particularly.’
He threw his shoulders back and shot her his best glare. Subtlety was wasted on Beth. ‘If you give me a few minutes I’ll see if I can find a stick for you to poke around in that open wound.’
Her face was a wreck. Grey beneath the windburn, shadows beneath her eyes. But she still found energy to fight him on this. ‘I’m more interested in why you have an open wound in the first place.’
Because my mother is a nightmare.
‘Family