the boat was filling with water. She started to cry, because her wedding dress was going to
get wet. Bill Fraser had bought it for her and now he was going to be angry with her.
She wore a wedding gown because she and Bill were in a church and the minister
who looked like Bill’s father said if anyone objects to this marriage speak up now or…and
then a woman’s voice said, now, while she’s asleep, and the lights went out and Catherine
was back in the cave and Larry was holding her down and the woman was throwing water
on her, drowning her. She looked around for the yellow light in Bill’s house, but it was
gone. He did not want to marry her any more, and now she had no one.
The shore was very far away now, hidden somewhere beyond the beating, driving
rain, and Catherine was alone in the stormy night, with the screaming, banshee wind of the
meltemi in her ears. The boat began to rock treacherously as the huge waves smashed
against it. But Catherine was no longer afraid. Her body was slowly filling with a
delicious warmth, and the rain felt like soft velvet on her skin. She clasped her hands in
front of her like a small child and began to recite the prayer that she had learned as a little
girl.
“Now I lay me down to sleep…I pray the Lord my soul to keep…If I should die
before I wake…I pray the Lord my soul to take.” And she was filled with a wonderful
happiness because she knew at last that everything was all right. She was on her way
home.
At that moment a large wave caught the stern of the boat, and it slowly began to
overturn in the black bottomless lake.