“Where are you going? Get back here!” I yank the pot off the potbelly stove and chase after her. Getting to the beach, zigging and zagging through the brush, takes me longer now. She’s darted down the old path.
When I catch up to her, she’s barking at the waves. “Have you got dementia, old girl? They won’t be back for a—” The tender appears on the horizon. It’s too far away for me to pick out who’s in it other than Haley. Her hair keeps getting blonder the longer we’re here, and it’s waving in front of her face. Another second and I realize it’s Sam and Zane too. This can’t be good.
I wade out, ready to take the rope from Zane. Their faces range from stoic to devastated. I have to really focus on holding Haley’s eyes. This is bad. Really bad. I look away to haul on the rope. I get ready to loop it around the big rock, figuring we’re going to need it to go back out soon.
“Don’t tie it off. We need to haul it up. Hide it even better than normal,” Sam says.
“Okay, you going to tell me what the hell is going on?” I’m holding tension, anchoring the tender as best as I can against the waves while Zane helps Haley out. She’s loaded up with the backpacks they took for the day. All the supplies are dry, but the three of them are not. “Did you flip out of the tender?”
Haley shakes her head, her hands over her mouth. “Rock Candy is gone. The only thing we found were cut ropes and a life jacket in the cave. WaveRunner’s gone too.”
“Fuck.” My stomach tightens. “Pirates?” I don’t know why I’m asking because of course it was fucking pirates. Calvin and Easton didn’t just take the rotting hull for a joyride. Damn them.
We all knew the beach was a safer place. And yet Calvin had to work all night.
“Let’s get the beach clear and then fill Dante in with the rest we know.” Sam’s already working on the outboard motor.
Zane comes shoulder to shoulder with me, his arms full of the bags. “I’ll help you with that in a second.” He places the bags above the tide line. “Little Bird, why don’t you take Penny back to camp? We’ll be up as soon as we can.”
“Zane, I can help.” Haley picks up all the bags Zane dropped. “I’ll be back for a second load.” Her shoulders are slumped, and her eyes are red. But she’s not crying. Not yet.
“Thank you, Haley.”
“Come on, Penny.”
I ache to go after Haley and pull her into my arms. She’s tough, too tough for her own good. I should know. I’ve pushed my own emotions aside during too many tragedies, but it’s different when you watch someone else do it.
After she disappears into the undergrowth on the way to camp, Zane turns to me as we guide the tender in. He shakes his head no. Like that’s enough of a fucking explanation.
I grunt. I grunt in a very Calvin way. “There’s no fucking way the two of them are dead. They would have figured a way out.”
Sam, being Sam, has the outboard motor all by himself as he sinks into the sand with each step. “It’s possible. But not probable.”
“What the fuck, Sam?” I’ve got the side rope of the tender, and Zane’s got the other half. It takes us a minute to catch up to him. When we’ve got the tender positioned to get ready to cover with brush, I tap Sam’s shoulder. “I said what the fuck. Do you have any evidence that the Viking and Swimmer Boy are dead?”
“No,” he says.
“Well then, that’s what we’re going to go with. If we act like they’re dead, it will crush her. So they’re not dead.”
“What are you, the bloody King of England?” Zane tosses another brown palm frond on the tender.
“No, but I’ll protect Haley’s heart like I’m an emperor. So don’t push me.”
“She’s an adult. Treating her like a child isn’t going to help anything,” Sam says, his hands on his hips. “We need to pull up the fish weir.”
“Fuck we do.” Has he gone completely mad?
“We can’t let them see where we are,” Zane says. He’s on the side of the captain, of course. He’s still got some hero worship going on.
“It’s sticks in the beach. Come on, man. If the pirates have any sense about them, they’re not going to believe that boat got here by itself.” I’m not letting them touch the damn thing. We’ve finally got it perfected so it doesn’t capture too much.
“We’re going to have to move it eventually anyway, Dante.” Zane’s looking over at me with his big brown eyes.
“Stop. Just stop.” I grab both Sam and Zane by their wrists. Sam’s eyes flick to where I’m touching him, and I let go. “Fine, just come down here with me.” I march to the beach and turnback to face the jungle. “We’ve done too much damage. Pulling up the fish weir isn’t going to make this place look wild and untamed. Look.” The two of them look up at me. The area along the jungle’s edge is trampled. It’s going to take years for it to appear the way it did before we came here. The dead fronds on top of the tender look like a pile of dead fronds covering something. There’s nothing natural about it. “Sure, if someone just glances over, maybe they wouldn’t notice anything, but if they have half a brain cell, they’ll figure it out. Pulling up the fish weir—how we get most of our food—means we’ve got half a brain cell.”
Sam shook his head. “Damn. Can’t you just follow orders?”
“Not when they’re fucking stupid.” I turn to Zane, who is looking at where the jungle hits the beach.
