Locked Doors

1718.

Passing the southern tip of Ocracoke, we finally reached the inlet, where ocean and sound collided in a series of deadly shoals and currents. Waves pounded the sides of the boat and spindrift whipped off the whitecaps. We were exposed now to the full force of the nor’easter, the rain driving sideways into the plastic drop curtain with such fury we could see nothing of Ocracoke, its lighthouse, or the blue water tower just a few hundred yards back. The howling grayness enveloped everything, reducing our world to a cold angry sea.

The boat rose to the crest of a wave and slammed down into its trough, nearly jarring us from the padded seat. Charlie looked back at me and shook his head.

“Worse than I thought!” he yelled above the roar of the motor. “We got no business being out here in this! I don’t know if I can dock her!”

I glanced down at Violet. Her poncho was drenched, her hands cold and red. She stared out to sea as she’d been told. Her lips moved. I wondered if she were praying.

When I gave her a gentle squeeze she looked up at me. So delicate.

“Cold?” I asked. She nodded. I pulled the arms of her poncho down over her hands and almost told her that she was safe.

We struggled on through the chop.

Waves swelled.

Violet trembled and I stared ahead into the deluge and the cold chaotic nothingness of the storm and the sea, as scared and alive as I’d felt in a good long while. But I didn’t savor the adrenaline. I’d have taken the boredom and solitude of the Yukon wilderness any day.

We’d been on the water for twenty minutes when Portsmouth appeared suddenly in the gray distance. Several wooden structures stood near the bank and they looked long deserted. Glimpsing the ghost village through the pouring rain and the scrub pines flailing about in the wind like an army of lunatics, I filled with foreboding. This north end of the island looked utterly haunted. Had I not known the history of Portsmouth, one glance at those abandoned dwellings would have told it all.

My dread was palpable.

I didn’t want to set foot on that island.

It was forsaken.