Magpie Tales-Siren Song

Long Island Sound was like a blue green mirror frosted on its edges. An azure cloudless sky the ceiling of a vast room framed by land as we sat talking and laughing. Three friends recently graduated from high school and celebrating the first day of summer and freedom.We had always been together since kindergarten.

My best friend, Gwen, who was everything I was not, tall, blond and rich, was off to Brown. Meghan, a redhead, who could curse like a sailor much to her mother's dismay, would be going to SUNY. I would be waiting tables for the crowds at Southampton working for my cousin's catering company hoping to earn enough to pay my way to county college.

We were moving at nice clip when the wind suddenly died down and Gwen noticed the clouds coming over the horizon. Life vests on, we moved into position, just as we had been taught. Meghan stood to look for the shore and I pushed her down, shouting to Gwen to point us home. We sat in the boat as it rocked, manning the sails as the sky grew dark, the hail raining down as a curious song rang in our ears. Cold and shaken, we finally docked the boat in Port Jeff. The dock felt different when our feet hit the wood this time, hands clasped and staring out into the horizon, soaked, lightning flashing and thunder rolling across the sound.

We meet each year, twenty-five and counting, but rarely talk about the song we heard that day.

This siren song is courtesy of Magpie Tales!