“Yeah …” She nodded, still panting. “But … that’s what the sharks are after, too.”
Now, Annabelle, I must share one more thing, and then I will rest. The writing takes a lot out of me. Processing thought. Thinking about anything besides water and food. I helped Geri pump air into the repaired tubing. It took us an hour. Then both of us fell back under the canopy. Even that simple act was draining.
Still. Last night, in a moment of grace, we witnessed something otherworldly. It was after midnight. As I slept, I felt a sensation through my closed lids, as if someone had turned on the lights. I heard a gasp, and I opened my eyes to witness an utterly amazing sight.
The entire sea was aglow.
Patches below the surface were illuminating the water like a million small light bulbs, casting a Disneyland bluish white all the way to the horizon. The ocean was dead calm, as if it had parked itself in place, and the effect was like looking at a massive sheet of glowing glass. It was so beautiful that I wondered if my life had ended and this was what came next.
“What is it?” Jean Philippe whispered.
“Dinoflagellates,” Geri said. “They’re like plankton. They glow if they’re disturbed.” She paused. “They’re not supposed to be this far out.”
“In all my life,” Jean Philippe marveled, “I never see anything like this.”
I glanced at the Lord. Little Alice was asleep next to him. Wake up, child, I wanted to say. See something astonishing before we die.
I didn’t. In fact, I barely moved. I couldn’t. I kept staring at the glowing sea, awestruck. At that moment, I sensed my insignificance more than at any other moment in my life. It takes so much to make you feel big in this world. It only takes an ocean to make you feel tiny.
“Benji,” Jean Philippe whispered to me. “Do you think the Lord created this?”
“Our Lord?” I whispered, nodding backward.
“Yes.”
“No, Jean Philippe. I don’t think he created this.”
I saw the blue light reflecting in his pupils.
“Something must have.”
“Something,” I said.
“Something magnificent,” he added. He smiled. The raft rocked gently in the water.
The next morning, Jean Philippe was gone.
Land
LeFleur and Commissioner Sprague watched the man in the blue blazer approach the orange raft. LeFleur shifted his shoes in the sand. There was no way this guy knew about the notebook, right?
“You think anyone from the Galaxy actually made it to that raft?” Sprague asked.
“Who knows?” LeFleur said.
“Crap way to die, I’ll tell you that.”
“Yeah.”
LeFleur’s cell phone rang. He glanced at the display.
“My office,” he said.
He turned his body and lifted the phone to his ear, keeping an eye on the man by the raft.
“Katrina?” he answered, low-voiced. “I’m busy now …”
“There’s a man here for you,” his assistant said. “He’s been waiting awhile.”
LeFleur glanced at his watch. Damn it. Rom. He had told him to be there by noon. LeFleur watched the blue-blazered man lean into the raft and run his hand across the edges, near the now-empty pouch. Was he stopping? Did he notice something?
“Jarty?” Katrina said.
“Huh?”
“He asked for an envelope. Is that OK?”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever …，” LeFleur mumbled.
The man stood up. “We need to transport this thing out of here!” he yelled. “Can you get a truck?”
“Right away,” Sprague yelled back. He waved a finger at LeFleur.
“I gotta hang up, Katrina,” LeFleur said. “Tell Rom not to go anywhere.”
Eight
Sea
This is what I found in my notebook the morning Jean Philippe disappeared.
Dear Benji—
When you were sleeping, I think a lot. I reach into the water to touch the blue light. Suddenly, I see a big fish. It swims close to the boat. I take the paddle and I wait. It comes back and I hit it hard. I hit it just right. It stop swimming and I grab it.
I feel happy because there is fish to eat. But sad because I kill it. I don’t want to be in this world anymore, Benji, taking things. I want the last thing I do to be giving. You and others please, eat the fish. Stay alive. I want to be with my Bernadette. I know she is safe. I think last night she let me see Heaven. She is saying God waits for me.
I pray you get home. I leave the fish in the bag.