We are bursting with life and love, surrounded by utterdesolation.
The total wreckage of the island cannot be overstated. Any paths we’d forged through the brush have been obliterated by the typhoon. Elephant ear plants wave like tattered flags of defeat on a deserted battlefield. Bushes lay upside down, roots exposed to the sky. Scattered rocks litter every surface, coral confetti from an unwanted partyguest.
I step on something sharp and wince. After yesterday’s bolt toward the caves, my feet are a tattered mess, covered in welts and scrapes that make even the slightest pressure unpleasant. Beck hears my muffled sound of distress and, without a word, drops to his knees to offer up his back. I roll my eyes as if he’s ridiculous, but that doesn’t stop me from looping my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist. I cling like a baby koala bear as he carries me along, picking our way slowly toward ourcamp.
Or, whatever remains ofit.
My hopes aren’t high by any means. Witnessing the devastation on this side of the island, it’s hard to believe there’ll be anything left at all in our unsheltered lagoon. We will have to start anew, armed only with the few possessions in our bags and the clothing on ourbacks.
Somehow, that challenge doesn’t seem quite as dire as it once might’ve. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that, this time, we’re unquestionably together. A single unit, forged by time and trauma. I know in my soul that we are stronger than whatever hurdles an unexpected typhoon can throw at us. No matter what the future holds, we will weather every storm and come out stronger on the other side, hand inhand.
It takes nearly an hour to find the beach. When we finally hit white sand, Beck sets me down. My eyes swing in an arc, taking in the whole span of coast, from the rainbow cresting over the distant horizon to the newly exposed bed of coral, stripped bare by the crashingwaves.
It’s just as well I’ve prepared myself to find our camp reduced to rubble. It is. Unfortunately, it’s something else, something I haven’t prepared for in the slightest, that makes my feet turn to stone and my heart clench into afist.
Oh mygod.
Isthat…
It can’tbe…
I hear Beck moving around the remnants of our cabin, searching for anything that can be salvaged, but I don’t look at him. I stand stock still, afraid to blink. Afraid to move. Afraid it’s anothermirage.
But, most of all, afraid that it’s actuallyreal.
“Hey, princess did you hear me?” Beck calls. “Your fishing rod is still in onepiece!”
When I don’t answer, he moves to my side. I feel his hand at my elbow, hear the concern in his tone, but I can’t bring myself to acknowledgeit.
“What’s wrong, Violet? Is it the camp? I know it looks bad, but we’ll make itright—”
“Beck.”
He stops short at my grave tone. “What is it? What’swrong?”
Shaking like a leaf, I lift my hand and point down the beach, past the other side of our inlet, to the exposed bed of reef. There, embedded on its side in the coral, mast snapped in two, is a wreckedsailboat.
I hear Beckgasp.
My eyes lift to his, wide with worry andhope.
“You see it too, don’t you?” I ask, unsure which answer I’m most hopingfor.
It doesn’tmatter.
I getneither.
He’s already running away fromme.
Chapter Eighteen
S A V ED
The sailboat is abandoned.
There are no footprints in the sand around the hull, no signs of life at all. Whatever poor souls once dwelled aboard are long gone, likely victims of the typhoon. As we approach, picking our way across the coral bed with care, I notice the life ring is missing from the stern — not a good sign. Someone went overboard, a rescue wasattempted.
Clearly, that attemptfailed.