Chapter 46
He hookedhis hands through the fence, and planted his feet wide to lower himself, near eye to eye. “God, I’m so glad to see you. Luna, this isn’t how this was supposed to. . .”
“I know. . .”
“I’m so sorry.” Beckett scanned the pen. People were huddled, dripping, wet, cold. He looked back at Luna, her hair was plastered down, sopping, her clothes too thin, stuck to her shivering skin. “I’m so sorry. Were you scared?”
Luna nodded. “Really scared — about a lot of things.”
“About me?” Rain dripped down his face, he wiped his face and shook his fingers spraying water away.
“Yes.”
“That I was okay?”
“Yes and. . .”
“More?”
She chewed her lip. “That I had made a mistake. That I traveled here, across the ocean, just because you asked, that it was too much for me to do.”
Beckett nodded. “Yeah, I get that. This is not—” He rattled the fence. “Not at all.” Beckett leaned his forehead on the fence. “I won’t be there. You heard that I have to go?”
“For six whole months?”
“Yeah, I’m so sorry. How do you stick with me after all of this? How do you trust me?”
Luna smiled sadly and joked. “I don’t see how, you promised me you’d drive me and my paddleboard home on your motorcycle. I’ve been looking forward to watching you work through the logistics of that promise.”
“I’m not sure that’s exactly what I said.”
Luna asked, “Do you see all these people behind me? They’re Waterfolk. Just like me, like my family.” She turned and pointed at a group huddled under the trees in the far end. “That family’s surname is the Hymenopteras. I found out that they are actually distant cousins. One of the men was very fond of my uncle, and I don’t even have to ask. I can join them. But I won’t.”
Beckett watched her face and asked, “Would they go back out?”
“Yes, once they’re released. They’ll get their boards back, and they’re gone.”
He blew out a gust of air. “I bet you could ask them to take you to Sky’s family. I mean, you should, six whole months I’ll be gone.”
Luna squinted her eyes. “Are you taking away my home? You freaking promised me a home, are you taking it away?”
“No never I just wonder if you would be happier.”
Luna sighed, “Beckett, I’m standing in a cage, I came all this way, what are you even talking about? See that family there, the Celastrinas, they have a son, Springer, they’d like me to travel with them, because they think he and I should be together.”
He said, “Oh god.”
“Yes, exactly Beckett, but I’m staying. I’m telling you this because I really need you to understand why. To not have any doubts.”
Luna wrapped her fingers around his in the fence links. “The truth is that I have family and fellow Waterfolk over on that side of the pen, it’s familiar, and it’s drier there, shadier, but this is where I’m standing. Over here by you. This is where I keep standing, talking to Chickadee, listening to my new friends. They love you so much and now they love me too, so though I’ve given more thought to a good hitch knot than I gave to coming to shore, I’m not scared about it anymore, about you. I’m here, and you weren’t here, you won’t be, but it’s okay. I’m here. And I’ll be waiting for you when you get home.”
Tears welled up in Beckett’s eyes. “Thank you.”
“Do you feel better?”
“Yep, by degrees.”
She shivered.
