They took the east path, which led across the island to Spyglass Station. The jungle thickened, and the stars disappeared behind the forest’s dense canopy. Insects chirped, lizards squawked, and birds rustled and peeped. It had been seven and a half years since the cyclone, and most of the tropical vegetation had fully recovered, and the trees they’d planted had done well.
“When our grandparents came to Respite not everyone thought it was the right thing to do. My mom told me about the fights her parents had. How helpless they felt,” Randy said. He ducked below a huge green leaf and lifted it for Hazel as she passed.
“It couldn’t have been an easy thing,” Hazel said. “I remember questioning it all when I was younger.”
“I still question a lot of it,” Randy said.
Stone steps appeared, the jungle fell away, and Spyglass Station loomed in the darkness. “Let’s cut down the back way to the beach,” Randy said. “I don’t want anyone to see us.”
Waves crashed on shore as they broke free of the jungle. A thin line of white sand stretched in both directions, and the torchlights of Citi glowed on the mountainside. Starlight lit the beach, everything dappled in silver.
Hazel stayed quiet. She looked out on the ocean, the wind tossing her long blonde hair. Laughter floated to them from Citi, the old cement walls of the ancient resort echoing the crowd at Old Days pub.
A loud snort of laughter rose above the rest, and Randy said, “And that would be Leonard.”
“My mother still questions whether alcohol should be allowed on Respite.”
“Let her question. Why would you want to take away our escape?” Randy said. He winced. She’d led him into this trap before.
“And what is it you need to escape from?” Hazel asked.
“You know what I mean.”
“No I don’t.”
A lizard bleeped, and insects hummed.
“What are we, Randy? You and me?” Hazel said.
Randy sucked his lips. There it was. The purpose of the verbal sparring revealed. This kind of conversation never ended well for him. “I know we’re not enemies. I know we’re both stubborn as tree roots. What are we? I don’t know. I think I know what I want us to be, but after everything that’s happened, and the way our lives are hammered together, I’m not sure. You have to admit we haven’t exactly been lucky.”
That got a smile. “Well, you could say we’re the luckiest humans ever.”
“I suppose you could,” Randy said.
Waves crashed, and white foam raced toward them and was sucked back into the dark water. Moonlight lit Hazel’s freckled face. She looked a little like a rabbit, but she was no male. Randy’d known from the first moment he met her that his attraction to her would provide her a permanent advantage in the never-ending negotiation of their relationship.
“Your grandmother goes back to port as planned and you and I wouldn’t exist. Even if everyone on the ship was somehow spared, they wouldn’t have stayed together,” Hazel said.
“Sounds like bezoomny religious talk to me,” Randy said.
“Why? That there might be a plan and everything happens for a reason? That makes it religious?” Hazel said.
“In a way. If some god planned what happened to the gone world, I say piss on him. We know what happened to bring us here, but we didn’t live it. We didn’t have to fight to survive and watch the world die. People who call themselves friends on Respite wouldn’t have even known each other in the old world,” Randy said.
“So many things had changed for them. People who didn’t know each other were forced to be family,” Hazel said.
“Just like a real family,” Randy said.
“You don’t get to choose your family,” Hazel said.
They sat in silence for a long time as the moon glared down like an accusing eye. They’d talked of these things before, but Randy felt things were different this time, though he didn’t know why.
Hazel motioned toward the forest. “I remember what it was like after the storm. I still have nightmares.”
The island had settled in for the night. Sounds of merriment no longer floated down from Citi, and most of the town’s torches had been extinguished. A bird chirped, and insects buzzed and tittered as a steady wind blew down the beach off the ocean.
“One hundred and eighty-nine people made it through The Day,” Randy said. “And our grandparents and my mother Milly were among them.”
“Your grandmother certainly took care of some people,” Hazel said.
He’d loved Hazel from the moment he saw her, but he had no illusions. Her grandfather was Ben Hasten, and their families were so twisted together they couldn’t be separated without breaking someone. “Well, what we believed isn’t exactly true.”
“So said your mother, who was a young child at the time,” Hazel said. “Like you also said, we didn’t live it.”
“But can we get past it?”
“The past and our families aren’t the only things in our way,” Hazel said.
“Sure doesn’t help.”
“What happened, happened. Can’t change that,” Hazel said. “I’m not sure I’d even want to.”
“That’s easy for you to say. Your folks aren’t exactly innocent,” Randy said. He knew he shouldn’t have said that. It would make her angry. It was much easier for her to see his grandmother and mother as villains, people who’d wronged her and those she loved.
“Your family rules the roost around here, what are you bitching about?”
“Not bitching, but your father, Sir Peter Hasten, didn’t tell the truth. As long as grandpa Gary lived, Ben controlled my grandmother because of their affair, and that let him unjustly influence things,” Randy said. It was all out there now, but she didn’t react with fury as he’d expected.
“I think about that sometimes. About how I have that running in my
