“Come on,” Eliza says. “Let’s go have a drink.”
We do, sitting on the quiet, dark deck waiting, until finally, about two hours later, we hear the quiet hum of the Zodiac’s motor.
I see it pull over to the Susannah first, watch Amma and Nico climb aboard, and then Jake is heading back toward us.
“Nothing!” he calls up almost immediately. “No boat, no asshole. Think Amma’s theory was right. This was one last ‘fuck you’ before he went crawling back to wherever he came from.”
It should be a relief, but I still feel anxious, scanning the shoreline like Robbie will come flying out of the jungle at any minute.
“Want me to take you back over?” Jake asks, and I look over my shoulder at Brittany, who has, somehow, managed to fall asleep on the deck and is now slowly coming awake, rising out of the little cocoon of towels she’d made.
“I’m ready,” she says, already grabbing her shoes, but I shake my head.
“Do you mind if I stay here tonight?”
If Jake is surprised, he doesn’t show it. “Fine by me.”
“You sure?” Brittany asks, stopping beside me. Her eyes are sleepy, her hair messy, and she smells faintly like the red wine we had earlier. “I can stay with you if you want?”
It might be nice, but that would leave Amma and Nico alone on the boat together. I definitely don’t want that. I shake my head.
“No, go on. I’ll be over in the morning. I just…”
I trail off, and she nods, leaning in to hug me. “You need a break. Got it.”
I watch her climb over the side and into the Zodiac, then sit out on the deck long after Jake comes back. There’s another cabin below, but I decide to stay out there, lying on the deck, watching the stars overhead.
I don’t think I’ll sleep, but somehow, I do. I wake up just as the sun has begun to rise, turning the sky overhead a soft violet-pink.
Quietly, I slip over the side of the boat, and swim for the Susannah.
The door to the cabin is open, probably to get more air, and I move quietly down the steps, thinking I’ll curl into bed with Nico after all, thinking that maybe, we can just move past this.
But Nico isn’t on the table.
I see Brittany’s dark hair spilling out from the blanket, and it feels like everything inside me has gone very still.
My footsteps are almost noiseless as I make my way to the cabin, my blood thrumming in my ears, my hands shaking as I push open the cabin door.
Nico is lying on his back, his feet pointed at the door, his bare skin very tan against the white sheet beneath him.
Amma is draped over him, her skin shining with sweat, a blue bead bracelet around her ankle.
It’s the only thing she’s wearing.
Hey Man.
Hope this gets thru, internet is kinda shit here but what can you do, right? Back in Teahupo’o, not sure for how long. Fucking surfers, can only take so much of those assholes. Riggs is in Uturoa right now, so I might try to meet up with him there. He says it’s not as crowded or touristy, but I gotta tell you, Robs, after Meroe? Everything seems pretty fucking crowded and touristy. I was only gonna stay like three days because I figured any more than that, you end up talking to a volleyball, but I was there for like a week, 8 days? HAHA, oh shit, I just looked at what day it is today, and Jesus, dude, I was there for eighteen days, that is fucking CRAZY. ISLAND TIME!
Anyway u gotta go. Beg, borrow, steal, make it haaaapppppen, brother, because it’s on this whole other level out there. By day three or something like that, I was like “fuck it with this ramen” and started fishing, started hunting. Caught this big-ass lizard and roasted it over a fire, caveman-style. （Tasted like ass but whatever.）
Only thing—if you go keep your mind CLEAR man because that place fuuuucks with you enough as it is. Seems like it would be awesome to get high on a deserted island but trust me, Robs, IT IS NOT AWESOME. I did it one night and ended up in some Apocalypse Now shit, stomping through the jungle with a goddamn KNIFE thinking there was someone out there. Kept hearing weird noises and not jungle noises like—person noises? If you feel me? Footsteps and shit, breathing. I’m telling you, it was WILD. I ended up finding this shack, left over from WWII probably, and I remembered a buddy of mine said a dude used to live on Meroe. Guess this was his house and it was SICK. I really thought about sticking around but I figured it was only a matter of time before some assholes showed up playing Gilligan.
Still Meroe is cool as hell. WEIRD as hell, so keep your head on a swivel, dude, but go. Trust.