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The mist swept onto the beach, driving away the hot sunshine. Cool droplets washed over Katie’s skin, forming goose bumps. She stood up, leaving her son to build his sandcastle. A shiver vibrated down her spine as she watched the waves wash onto the sand. Tendrils of fog danced on the water’s surface.
“Come on, Lincoln. Let’s go to the car,” Katie said, bending to collect the toys. She winced as Lincoln began to squeal, tears forming in his eyes.
Snot had begun to bubble in his nostrils, a total meltdown building within him.
“I know you’re upset about leaving, darling, but we need to go. This fog is scaring me! I want to go find the car and go home. We’ll stop and get a burger and chips on the way home, how about that?” Lincoln nodded. Katie peered through the mist towards the sea. Earlier, she had seen the horizon, the light blue of the sky darkening as it moved down behind them.
Now, she saw only a blanket of mist, shades of grey embracing them on the sand. She reached down to pick up her bawling son, who thrashed in her arms.
“My shovel!” he squealed into her ear. “Bucket!”
“Okay, darling. You’re okay. I’ll get your toys,” Katie said. As she squatted down to pick up the sand-covered toys, a dark shadow caught her eye. She paused, squinting into the fog. The silhouette of a tall ship emerged through the misty curtain.
It must be some kind of pleasure cruise, Katie thought. Off-course or searching for land and unable to see? With Lincoln jerking in her arms, struggling to escape her clutches, Katie waited, watching the ship. She had only ever seen ships like these in movies and photos. The novelty of its appearance piqued her interest.
“Mummy! Mummy! What’s that?” Lincoln asked, stopping his struggles to watch the intruder to their secluded beach. Katie put him down, where he wrapped his arm around her leg, his head resting against her thigh.
“It’s a ship, darling. Like in your pirate stories.”
“Are there pirates, too?” he asked, his embrace tightening.
“I don’t know,” Katie said, too quickly. “No, it won’t be pirates.” She didn’t want him scared. He’d be even more difficult to manage then. Clingier. Whinier.
The ship moved slowly, edging through the water, its sails looking ripped and torn. It didn’t look like it was stopping. No way could this ship be a pleasure cruise.
“Let’s move back a bit, hey?” Katie said. She began moving back, her son still clamped to her leg, his feet dragging in the sand. Their movements were tracked in the beach, scattered among the demolished sandcastles.
“One. Two. Three. Four.” Lincoln was pointing at the ship.
“What’re you counting there, munchkin?” Katie asked, peering through the haze.
“Ten! There’s ten sticks coming out of the side of its pole, Mummy!” Lincoln declared.
“Mast, darling. It’s called a mast.”
“Where are all the pirates, Mummy?”
“There aren’t any pirates, darling. But I don’t know where the people are,” Katie admitted. He had a point: Where was everybody? Had the ship brought the fog with it? Or did the fog bring the ship?
The ship’s keel ran aground, continuing up the beach with a loud scraping sound. As it moved, the wooden planks began to break noisily, splitting, collapsing beneath the weight of the ship. Fog swirled around the slowing movement, and Katie could see the wood had rotted. She was surprised it had lasted so long in the water. The ship leaned forward as it came to a stop, resting on the crumbled ruins of its hull.
“Mummy, I’m scared!” Lincoln declared beside her.
“I know, munchkin. But it’s okay. It’s just a deserted ship.”
“It stinks. I wanna go home!” It did reek. It smelled like her bin a few weeks ago when she hadn’t emptied it, and the chicken carcass had begun to decay. That was the morning she didn’t need coffee to wake up. The maggots crushing under her feet were enough to freak her out, with more crawling from the bin. She’d been late to work that day, having to vacuum each slimy bug. She’d watched them wriggle in the dust as she emptied the chamber into her wheelie bin, where they had evolved into small, dark flies.
Is it just rotting wood, or is there something else aboard? Katie wondered as she began walking after Lincoln, who had started moving away.
But something drew her back. Something was emerging from the foggy wreck. Is that an arm?
She stopped. She felt as if she was being dragged toward the wreck, like an invisible rope was wrapped around her. As she got closer, more limbs began to emerge from the mist, dangling lifelessly through the cracks in the hull. The skin was white and wrinkly, with black bruises blemishing the limbs, scattered among pus-filled lumps. The misty tendrils thickened around her, sending another shiver through her body.
“Lincoln,” she called. Her eyes remained focussed on the bodies. Silence echoed around her. “Lincoln!” she called again, desperation etching deep grooves into her voice. When she peered through the milky air, she could see nothing but the mist. She thought she could see dark figures drop from the ship and stumble past her. She backed away and spun around, becoming disoriented in the surrounding mist.
A piercing scream cut through the vapour. She could identify that voice anywhere: her son.
“Lincoln!” she called, spinning around, trying to get her bearings. “Lincoln, where are you?” Fear gripped at her heart, threatening to tear it from the arteries and veins and out through her chest.
“Mummy!” Lincoln squealed. Katie began running in the direction of his voice, stumbling through the thickening mist. “Mummy, the pirates have got me!”
“Shit,” she muttered, her head swivelling around, searching for any sign of movement in the swirling fog. Katie began running forwards, unsure if her direction was correct. She didn’t want to just stand around and wait for something to happen. Lincoln’s voice began to drift away so, turning on her heels, she began running back the way she had come. Or was she? It was hard to tell.
“Mummy!” Lincoln’s voice was getting louder again. Quickening her pace, Katie felt her feet struggling in the sand, her legs burning with exertion. The hulking silhouette of the ship began to fill the mist in front of her, and as she approached it, she began to see a hustle of movement. Her feet began splashing in cold water and she slowed her pace, looking up. Lincoln was looking over the edge of the ship, screaming for her help.
But she had no way to get to him quickly.
A sinking feeling overwhelmed her gut. She had failed as a parent.
A new determination steeled her muscles and she began wading through the water towards the slowly departing ship. If she moved fast enough, she could reach it. She could see a web of ropes dangling down, and the rotting wood formed a series of footholds to help her ascend to the deck. As she watched, the ship seemed to repair itself. The rotted wood replaced piece by piece with fresh timber. Holes in the hull were filling with wooden planks.
Katie blinked with confusion, feeling as if her eyes were imagining it all.
Ignoring the chill of the water, icy against her hot skin, she continued pacing through the rippling water. With each step the depth increased, creeping further up her body until she was forced to start swimming. Salty water splashed in her mouth as she tried to keep her head above the surface, watching as the ship swept further from the shore, the mist obscuring her vision. Further from Katie.
Further from safety.
She needed to keep moving, summoning strength and speed to get closer to Lincoln. Her soggy clothes dragged her down, making her feel sluggish and uncoordinated.
Hope drained away; dread swamping her with the cold water soaking her clothes. Her muscles burned—contrasted against the icy water.
The ship’s shadow disappeared in the mist ahead, increasing Katie’s feeling of hopelessness. Her hair hung wetly on her face, searching in her mouth for warmth, making her taste the saltwater.
Finally the mist began to thin, the sun lighting up the sea in bright glittery sparkles. Katie stopped swimming, searching for the ship. For her son.
It had disappeared. Her son had disappeared.
The horizon was clear, solid light blue over the dark water, broken only by the glowing patches of the sun. She turned around, searching for Lincoln.
Where’s the ship? Where’s Lincoln? Behind her, the wall of mist rose to infinite heights, swirling tendrils probing the water as far as she could see. Unless the ship had travelled sideways, it had disappeared.
The water felt warmer past the fog, yet Katie still felt cold as she paddled in the water, stagnant. Memories of Lincoln raced through her head, clashing with images of him fighting against kidnappers. Lonely and desperate, she whirled around in the water, searching for any clue of the ship’s whereabouts, where it could have gone.
The wall of fog drifted away from her. Or was she drifting away from the fog? She couldn’t be sure, but she knew she didn’t want to go back into the fog and possibly feel lost forever. The sea extended endlessly on either side. With tiring muscles, Katie decided to continue swimming further to sea, hoping to find some sign of her son or the ship.
If she couldn’t find Lincoln, she would die trying.
Katie bobbed on the swells of water, pumping her limbs to propel her away from the fog. The sun began to drop below the haze, shining in her eyes when she turned to check the distance of the mist. If it wasn’t for the retreating fog, Katie would have felt like she was making no progress in the water, with no other markers to help her judge the distance.
A sudden thought made her stop. What if the ship had sunk and was now lying on the ocean floor? Surely it couldn’t have just disappeared into thin air, or some kind of portal? She had seen no sign of turbulence in the water, no sign of the ship lying deep below the waves.
After looking around her for flotsam in the water, she began dipping her head beneath the surface until she needed air. The water was murky, as if the mist had spread through the sea, down to the sandy depths of the ocean floor. Katie continued searching, diving deeper, moving back towards the fog, hoping to see some clue of the ship beneath the water.
With every dive, Katie felt heavier, struggling more against the pull of the water, like a magnetic force. Salty air filled her nostrils as she breathed heavily, exhausted and desperate, wanting to find some sign of the ship, but seeing nothing. Dusk had fallen as the sun dropped behind the wall of fog, the sky darkening more quickly.
There would be no way she could find Lincoln in the darkness, and the thought stunned her into a numb stillness. She felt the ocean embrace her and let it take her down, eyes closed against the darkness, hoping when she opened them again she would see Lincoln smiling back at her. She held her breath until her chest burned, panicking only slightly when the water flooded her lungs, and the blackness took over her senses.