The Talisman
By Minda Gunnell
She lay shaking on the ground, frantic. Groping at her neck, she realized it was gone. The terror of it all came suddenly to her. She panicked as she looked at Set-Sati, who was gasping for breath. “Laila,” he managed to say, his arms outstretched toward her. Laila leapt to her feet to reach him, but was knocked back to the ground. How could they know how to use its power so quickly? she thought. It all happened so unexpectedly that Laila hadn’t been able to see what exactly had attacked them. Hot, hateful tears streamed down her face as she stared toward the evil. Using all of her strength, she pulled herself up and realized she still had some power left within her. Running to Set-Sati’s side, she knew he did not have much time. She held his face in her hands; the fear in his eyes pained her. They had known it might end like this, but in their happiness they had pushed the thought far from their minds. He was slipping away. She kissed him and held him close, his warm body shaking with pain. There was nothing more she could do for him. He looked at her longingly. She did not know when she would see him again and then, just like that, he fell into the never-ending sleep that they had witnessed with so many others.
She was alone.
Chapter 1
Ile d’Yeu
I love the feeling of being in the clouds. The plane ride had already been seven hours and as we made our descent I looked down at the towns below. I wondered what their lives were like—probably much different than my own extremely boring life. Yes, it was true, that at this very moment I was embarking on something most people would wait a lifetime to do. But, for me it was not an adventure, but more like a prison sentence.
Spending a summer on a tiny island in France may have interested me, except for the fact that I would be living in the same house as my father and his new wife Simone. My best friend Dina thought I was crazy for not wanting to spend the summer with them. “Why are you complaining, Evie? A whole summer in France is so much better than hanging out here.” I wasn’t so sure. Okay, so the suburbs of Detroit were not exactly exciting, but spending the summer with Simone was worse than anything I could imagine.
She wasn’t an awful person; she was actually really nice. It was more that she was too perfect. She was half French—her father had met her movie star mother in Los Angeles and she had decided to move back to France with him. Simone was just as much American as she was French. She was exotic: dark complexion and long flowing brown hair. Her eyes were green like mine, and her body was flawless. Her father was a businessman; she followed in his footsteps. She was all business. Dad was taken by her immediately. She was the exact opposite of my red-haired, fiery mom. I think that is what attracted him most to Simone. She was steady and inviting.
She had spent most of her childhood as well as her summers on a little island off the west coast of France called Ile d’yeu. Whenever she talked about it I could see in her eyes that she longed to be there. “I haven’t been back to the cottage for a few years now, but I doubt anything has changed,” she said to me over the phone as she excitedly explained the plan for the summer. She and my father would travel from their apartment in Manhattan to Paris and then meet me there.
When the plane finally landed in Paris, Dad and Simone were there waiting. “Hey, Kiddo,” he said. I hated when he called me that.
“How was your flight, Genevieve?” Simone asked politely.
She insisted on calling me by my given name. This was probably the biggest reason I didn’t like her. Why had my mother chosen a French name? When Simone said it, it sounded even worse than when Americans said it. I preferred Evie. And I reminded her daily of that fact, but her only response was to say, “Oh, but Genevieve sounds so much prettier than Evie.”
So I stared at her like I didn’t hear her.
“Did you hear, Simone? She asked how your flight was,” Dad said, nudging me to answer her.
“Long,” I sighed.
“Well, you can sleep on the way to Brest. It is still a couple hours from here.”
I couldn’t believe it. I had traveled all this way and now she wanted me to forgo a shower, jump into a car, and drive all the way to Brest without even getting a chance to eat or brush my teeth.
“How is Barbara?” Dad asked. He was always polite to my mother although their relationship had ended terribly.
“Fine. She says hello,” I lied. Mom never talked about Dad.
“Tom, we better get going,” Simone said, grabbing Dad’s arm.
“Okay. This way, Mrs. Howard,” he said taking her on his arm and pulling one of my suitcases with his other hand.
Sooner than I had hoped we were in her car. It was a fairly practical car, just like Simone, a practical person—nothing over the top. She had some food for me in the car. At least they weren’t totally heartless, but sleep was the only thing that sounded good to me at that moment.
“I’m sorry we did not give you time to freshen up,” Dad said when I eventually woke up. “We need to get on the water soon; if we don’t, we could be caught in the storm that’s coming through.”
The next thing I knew we were stopped, so I assumed I had slept through the whole ride.
I had expected a nice boat, but nothing like this. It was literally the biggest boat in the harbor. There were—of course—big shipping boats, but this was the biggest recreational boat there. It was seventy-five feet long and had five berths (or bedrooms, for those of us who don’t speak boat) on board, three bathrooms, a galley, a dining area, and a sitting room. Saying that I was impressed would be an understatement. I knew Simone came from money, but she never really showed interest in things with this magnitude of opulence. Everything inside was so elegant that I was afraid to sit anywhere because I might get it dirty. There was a wall filled with beautiful pieces of artwork and a shelf that was full of little hand-blown glass bowls. They were orange and red and were illuminated by a back light. The illusion made them glow. They were stunning.
“Do you like those, Evie?” Simone asked me as she caught me staring at the artwork and glass display.
“They are very pretty.”
“Yes, they are the work of an artist named Chihuly. He was a friend of my father’s. They meant a lot to him. They’re priceless.”
I didn’t understand. If they meant so much to him, why would he would place them on a boat? Didn’t boats sometimes rock? And weren’t they afraid these priceless works of art would get destroyed? They must have had a lot of money if they didn’t care that much.
After my tour of the boat, Dad asked me if I wanted to help Simone get groceries for our trip. I declined his offer and decided to sit on the boat and sunbathe. He left with Simone while I found my suit and slipped it on. Mom had surprised me with a new red suit—she had told me we couldn’t afford it. But she bought it anyway handed me the present right before getting on the plane.
It somehow gave me the strength I needed at that moment. Simone was the only reason I didn’t want to be on this trip, so ignoring her and doing what I wanted would be my only way to survive the summer.
Simone had put a little care package together for me. It was sitting on my bed. I read the note attached. “Genevieve, I hope these help you on our trip.” Inside was a pair of boat shoes, which were so ugly I couldn’t imagine ever wearing, and a bottle of organic seasickness pills. It was just like her to buy me something practical.
The day outside was too nice to let me sulk for long so I grabbed a book and headed for the deck. I found a deck chair in a nice spot where the sun hit. The breeze was nice and I felt so warm. I must have been there a little while because my book was falling from my hands and my head was nodding to sleep. The loud sound of footsteps approaching awoke me from my sleep. As I opened my eyes the suns rays were darkened behind a silhouette. I had to blink for a moment to get the image fully into my mind.
“Is this boat from America?” A strong masculine voice asked.
“What?” I asked, still dazed from just waking up.
Looking up I saw a vision of beauty. He was tall—maybe 6’4 or 6’5—with perfect olive skin that accentuated his blonde hair. His facial features were so sharp and handsome my mouth almost dropped. He was wearing khaki shorts and a white, unbuttoned shirt on that revealed his perfectly sculpted abs. He looked like he had just stepped off of the runway.
“So, did this boat sail here from America?” he asked in an English accent pointing to the proudly displayed American flag.
“I don’t know,” I responded, “it’s not mine. I’m just visiting.”
“Oh,” he said. He continued checking the boat out as if it were a Swedish model. He didn’t seem too interested in me at all so I tried to keep my eyes focused on the book. Whenever I thought he couldn’t see me anymore I would steal a glance. Spending time with guys was not in my comfort zone.
“It’s a beautiful boat,” He said again in his gorgeous English accent. I wondered what a Brit was doing here on this dock in France.
“So, what brings you to France?” I asked trying to sound natural.
“I’m French,” he replied, holding back a bit of a laugh.
“But you speak English so well.”
“My mother is English, and my Dad is French.”
“Wow, that’s cool,” I said.
“I’m Luc,” He said as he boarded the boat and came closer to me.
I felt a little nervous. I was in a swimsuit on a boat, talking to a beautiful stranger. Was this real?
“I’m Evie. Nice to meet you,” I said as I tried hard to breathe. Wrapping my arms around my legs, I pulled myself up.
“Where are you headed? I assume you are taking her out for a spin.”
“Yeah, we are headed to some island. I forget what it is called. Wait a second, it’s on the tip of my tongue… Ile d’yeu, that’s the name.” I slaughtered the pronunciation.
“You are going to Ile d’yeu,” he said looking quite confused and pronouncing the name perfectly. “Why are you going there?”
“Why? Is it a bad place to go?”
“No, it’s beautiful. It’s just not what most Yanks go see while they are in France. It’s for the French, you know. We like to keep it a private place just for us.” He half smiled.
“Sorry, I don’t want to ruin your country, I’m just staying there with my dad and his wife; her family owns some cottage there.”
“What’s her name?” he asked.
“Simone Howard, but they just got married last summer. Oh, what was her maiden name… I really am better at remembering things when I don’t have jet-lag,” I responded.
“Is it Pomeroy?” he suggested.
“Yes, that’s it! How did you know?”
“The Pomeroy family has the cottage next to ours. I am spending the season in Ile d’yeu as well. I am on holiday from school and my family goes every year for a couple of months to enjoy the break. I guess I will be seeing you now and again.” Be still, my heart, this gorgeous specimen was going to be living next door to me all summer, I smiled at the thought. “We will be heading out today to beat the storm,” he said.
“That’s our plan, too,” I said, trying to hide the huge grin on my face. Why did I have to be such a dork? He turned away from me and continued his ardent investigation of the boat.
“So, you are Simone’s step-daughter? I think I remember my mother mentioning something about you. I think we are the same age.”
“I don’t know… I’m sixteen. You?”
“Sixteen, but I will be seventeen in the fall.”
Luc walked along the deck of the boat checking out the gadgets and captain’s area. “This is quite a beautiful boat, you know. You are lucky to get to sail on it.”
“Really, I’ve never been sailing before. I’m afraid I’m going to be sea sick.”
“You probably will be for the first day or so, but it will get better.”
I watched him as he made strides across the deck towards me again. His eyes were sparkling in the sun’s light. He had green eyes, just like I had. In fact, the shade of green was almost the same as mine. There are many people in the world with green eyes, but I rarely met someone with the same shade of green as I had.
“It was nice to meet you, Evie Howard,” he said as he made his way off the boat, his statuesque figure bounding off the side onto the dock. Then he turned and winked at me. My heart literally skipped a beat and my face went flush. I lost track of what I was doing and my book fell out of my hands. Did this gorgeous-beyond-description boy really just wink at me? I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest.
I watched him walk away down the dock and then when I couldn’t see him anymore I laid down. I was not able to get back into my book, so I just lay there, stunned. Things like this happen in movies, not to normal people. I let the scene play in my mind over and over. I couldn’t help but smile every time I thought about him winking at me.
Dad and Simone arrived a little later and I helped them unload the groceries. I kept wondering why although Luc knew Simone he didn’t recognize her boat.
“Did you get a nice tan?” Dad asked, making a face at my suit.
“If that’s your way of asking me about this suit, Mom picked it out, so I don’t think you have a right to get upset about it.”
He sighed and went back to unloading.
“Dad, I met someone while you were gone, and he seemed to know Simone.”
“Oh, really?” she asked, “who was it?”
“He said his name was Luc, but never told me his last name. He said his family owned the cottage next to your family’s, on Ile d’yeu.”
“Oh the Bontecou boy. Yes, as children my sister and I were friends with his father. He was quite older than we were, but he always found time for us.”
“He said he was also going to Ile d’yeu for the summer,” I said.
“Well, his family is there almost every summer; I expected them to be there. We will have to have them over for dinner sometime,” Simone added. “Actually, you might remember his parents. They were at the wedding last summer.”
I honestly didn’t remember much from their wedding. I tried to block it from my memory as much as I possibly could. I spent so much of it pouting and complaining that you would have thought I was at a funeral, not a wedding. It was embarrassing to remember how I had behaved. I hoped his parents didn’t remember me.
Now, suddenly, the idea of spending the summer on this island with Simone’s neighbor boy seemed a lot more enticing than spending the summer with my best friend Dina. Things were looking up.
