The Dream Jumper's Promise

Chapter 22

“Oh God!” Tina held the Lahaina News in her hands staring at the front page story.

            “What?” Katie stopped and looked over.

            “A shark attacked a tourist swimming off the Pali.” She sank to her chair. No one would want to dive for a week. Activities would suffer until a new wave of tourists arrived who’d never heard of the unfortunate accident. It might be a full month before the story cooled off. This would be a good time to escape to Seattle after all. Tina read aloud. “The victim was snorkelling into an area filled with sharks feeding on a dead whale carcass. The dorsal fins and thrashing on the surface was mistaken by the two women for playful dolphins, according to the survivor.” Tina cringed and continued. "By the time they realized it was a group of sharks, it was too late for one of the women.”

            Nausea rose to Tina’s throat. Another death in the ocean. Anther life claimed. The tragedy made her wonder about the horrific residual emotions of the friend who’d escaped death.

            After instructing Katie to tell potential customers that the victim swam directly into sharks feeding on a dead whale, and that boat diving was perfectly safe, Tina loaded Obi into the truck and drove to the vet. She needed to have Obi’s lump examined. Shit, she had to have that thing biopsied before she could think about leaving Maui.

            Putting one foot in front of the other, Tina marched up to the clinic’s counter and said in a clear, steady voice “My dog has a lump on his underside.” She’d rehearsed these very words on the drive in to Lahaina but every time Obi looked over and wagged his tail, she wanted to turn around and take him home.

            Fortunately, the wait was short at the Lahaina Veterinary Clinic. By the time the receptionist showed her to an examination room, she was perilously close to tears. But, the vet was a dog lover and he stroked her dog’s head while they talked. Obi was clearly not happy to stand on the cold, metal table and submit to the examination of his underside and when the needle poked him to extract a tissue sample, Tina buried her face in Obi’s neck and coo’ed her words of comfort.

            “You’re a good boy Obi Wan,” she told him. “Mommy’s gonna give you a treat at the house.”

            On the ride home, he hung his head out the truck window.

            “It’s all for the greater good, my sweet dog.” That expression seemed to be invading her thoughts on a regular basis. “You are really going to be upset if you have to get that thing removed.” She didn’t dare think about cancer. Not yet.

            Once back at her house, Tina headed for the bedroom, exhausted. She had to lie down for a nap; just an hour or two then she’d go back to the shop. Probably she was fighting the flu or some virus that robbed her energy. The last twenty four hours had been too much-- her father and Doc Chan ganging up, Noble agreeing. Then the emotion of taking Obi to the vet. Everything had taken a chunk out of her.

            Jamey hadn’t returned her call. She needed to give him a heads up about Seattle. Wait. If she left for a week or two, would Jamey still be here when she returned? The thought of not seeing him again didn’t sit well.

             Her mother had packed a bag and set it on Tina’s bed, alongside a plane ticket. Elizabeth Greene was confident of her husband’s influence. “I don’t know if I can be ready to go tomorrow, Mother. Maybe the day after,” she balked when her mother suggested she fly with them the next day. Little did her mother know that there’d been a shark attack, people were scared to dive and Tina was becoming more available by the hour.