Selma Gonzalez- Chapter Three of Neighbor

Selma Gonzalez

By Sarah Witham

October 23, 2018

It wasn't that Selma Gonzalez didn't like the feeling of the sand beneath her toes and the smell of the salty sea breeze and the taste of the lemonade popsicles that little Charlie Alta sold on the beach. It wasn't that she was afraid of the sun or the rowdy teenagers or afraid of the way she looked in her bathing suit. It was just a feeling she got when she was on the beach that she didn't like. She felt as if she were in a big glass of milk teetering over and soon she would spill out of the milk jar if she got too close to the edge. That's how she felt, just on edge.

So in true Selma fashion, she parked herself as close to shore as the beach sand would allow. She spread out the beach towel and plopped down with her favorite book and her husband set up an umbrella to shade her. He kissed her and went off with their kids towards the water.

When little Chaz got a few paces away he turned back towards his mom, "Mama! You should come with us this time!"

And Selma thought about it, she really did. In her brain she thought about how she could spend quality time with her children and husband, splashing about in the water and really what was there to worry about. But a part of her brain and body she apparently couldn't control made the decision for her, the inevitable decision she always chose.

"Thank you for the invitation my darling child. I will sit this one out. Have fun with your papa!"

Chaz never really thought his mama would join them so he ran giddily to meet up with the others to splash about in the shallow salt water.

Selma had intended to read but found herself content to just sit and watch the world about her. From the distance she was at, it wasn't so bad and she could stave off her anxiety, push it to the back of her mind.

She scanned over the horizon at all the people, bobbing about like Cheerios in a bowl of milk. She looked at the dark green sails of the shipment boat which was awkwardly bobbing about in its own right, close to shore but far enough away that really no one paid it any bother. She wondered why it was near the beach and didn't anchor closer to the docks, but she knew nothing of ships and sailing so she figured they must know something she didn't. She also wondered why it had bobbed for so long out there, bobbing for three whole days with no movement or indication that there was any captain aboard or any indication that it ever intended to move again.

“What a peculiar boat.”

“Oh, hello Ana. How are you today?”

“I’m just peachy. How are you Selma, dear?” And Ana Stone sat down cross legged, eating a frozen lemonade and motioning for her own children to run along towards the others at the shore.

“You know, the longer I look at that boat the more peculiar it gets. It’s just bobbing around out there.”

“Yes, it is. It’s funny because the first time I saw it about three days ago I thought it looked like trouble. And then for some reason, because it didn’t move or do anything else at all, I just forgot about it. I could look at it all day long and still forget that it’s there. But when I really look at it now, I wonder how could that be. It’s so obvious out there.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. It’s just bobbing around out there, dark and peculiar. How could something so blatant be so easily ignored?”

“I don’t know. I guess because it’s not doing anything at all. Why is it just floating out there? What a weird place to anchor your boat.”

“I thought the same thing. But then I realized I don’t know anything about boats or ships or sailing at all. Maybe it’s not really a weird place?”

“Oh, I have no idea.” And Ana laughed at herself, realizing that she didn’t know a thing about boats either.

“But surely no boat has ever just anchored itself right there before. Surely. We’d have noticed wouldn’t we have?” And Selma wasn’t sure at all. She wasn’t immediately sure at all whether she did perhaps know a thing about boats- extraneous knowledge just absorbed from observing the world around her.

“You know, Selma, I don’t recall.”

“But it does make you a little uneasy right?”

“No, not really. It’s strange and peculiar and in a weird spot. And it’s strange that it hasn’t moved. But no, I don’t feel uneasy about it.”

“The longer I look at it and really think about it though, Ana, the more it makes me really, really uneasy.”

“Oh Selma, though, the world makes you uneasy!” They laughed because it was true.

But Selma watched the sails. Those peculiar sails. And she wondered why the rest of the world had ceased to care that they were there. Were they also having trouble remembering it’s there- so hidden but also in plain sight? And she wondered why she cared so much and why now. And she wondered who was aboard those sails. And the longer she looked at the sea that carried her sweet family and the longer they bobbed up and down in the waves and the longer those terrible waves bobbed those terrible sails up and down, never moving any closer nor any farther from the shore, the more uneasy she became.