Rainy Rendezvous 4: “Destination Unknown”
This is part 4 of a 5-part mini-serial. You can read all episodes by going to the “Rainy Rendezvous” page or by navigating using the menu above. You can listen to my audio recording by pressing “play” on the AudioBoo player below and/or read the full text that follows.
“Rainy Rendezvous: Episode 4 – Destination Unknown”
by P.J. Kaiser
Stephen worked long hours each night that week to finish his work and have Sunday afternoon off. He didn’t see Katie that week. He obsessively checked for messages throughout the week and was constantly disappointed in having none. He thought about calling her, but couldn’t really see the point. If she didn’t want to spend time with him, then that seemed to him like the end of the relationship.
He still felt a guilty knot in his stomach about his planned rendezvous, but what could be the harm? They were just going kayaking, not to a drive-in movie, after all. In the early afternoon, he pushed his kayak into the water at Renton and began the trip to the island off of Seward Park. Sunlight glinted off of the water all around him as though the waves were encrusted with diamonds.
He had thought about driving around to Seward Park and putting in closer to the island, but it was a gorgeous day and so he decided to kayak the distance. He checked the map and couldn’t find any mention of an island, but he had an idea of where the island must be. A tall stand of evergreens formed the southern border of the park and he had a close view of those evergreens when he put his kayak into the water the previous Sunday.
Stephen quickly found a paddling rhythm and his kayak cut through the calm water. In forty-five minutes he approached the stand of evergreen trees. His heart pounded in his ears as he scanned the water for the island but he saw nothing. He checked his watch: 2pm. He was supposed to meet Joanie at 2:30pm. Moving the kayak closer to the shoreline along the park, he skirted the coast. He made it around the tip of Seward Park but didn’t see any sign of an island.
He started to get an uneasy feeling in his stomach. He decided to take another pass along the length of the park, all the while surveying it for any rocky outcroppings. He didn’t see any patches of land on Seward Park that had limestone formations like those where he and Joanie had sat. He completed this second pass and saw a group of fishermen with waders standing in the water near the evergreens at the southern end of the park.
Stephen drew his kayak closer to the shoreline and shouted, “Excuse me, guys. Do you know of any island just here off the shoreline of Seward Park?”
The man closest to him had just cast his line into the water. He laughed. “No, sir. There are no islands here – are you blind? Just Mercer Island over there.” The man waved a hand towards the north.
“No, it was just a small island…” The words drifted out of Stephen’s mouth as the reality hit him. There was no island. There was no Joanie. Had he been hallucinating? But she had given him her card! He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the ivory card. The words and contact information imprinted on them last week were gone. In gentle handwritten letters, it simply read: “Please be more careful next time.” A tingle ran up his spine.
One of the fishermen called from the shore, “Hey, buddy, you OK? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
Stephen nodded. “Yeah, I’m okay. Thanks, guys. I hope you catch some fish today.” He poked his oar in the water and turned the nose of his kayak back towards Renton. The revelations of the day – and the events of the previous Sunday – swam in his mind. He wanted nothing more than to talk to Katie. He found himself paddling faster and faster and rehearsing in his mind the words he would say to her.
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