12 Hours In Paradise (16 page)

“Why would you think you need to give me something? I don’t want anything. And besides, you have my number. You can text me. You can even call sometime if you want.”

That’s what I really wanted. Not some…
thing
. I wanted to be able to hear Arash’s voice. To talk to him like we were talking that night.

“Of course, but—”

“And you did give me the flower.”

I was still holding the plumeria, tenderly cupped in my palm.

“But soon that will wither and die, and technically it’s already dead. I need to give you something permanent.”

“The dress?”

“You’ll throw that away before you get back to your hotel.”

“Probably,” I admitted. A rumpled, soggy aloha dress I didn’t have the day before might be hard to explain once I got back to Reno.

“Wait here.” He stood. He seemed so excited for what he was about to do.

“Where are you going?”

“Over there.” He pointed vaguely down the beach. I knew there was a hotel beachside restaurant in that direction. I also knew it was closed, along with almost everything else. Walking through the streets on our way to my hotel, we’d only seen one open business—a 24/7 chain restaurant.

“There’s nothing open down there.”

“Not every gift is found in a store.”

“Okay, but hurry. We have to finish the questions and I really don’t need a gift.”

“I will.”

He jogged happily down the strip of sand still lit by floodlights. I wondered what time those would turn off. I watched until I couldn’t see him clearly anymore. Then I just waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until I started to think this was his way of saying good-bye without saying good-bye.

And it made total sense when I thought about it. I’d be left with a happy memory, Arash jogging away to fetch me a present. Something to remember him by. Something sweet. We’d be spared our good-byes.

I’d be spared my broken dream.

I’d be spared my tears.

Except I wouldn’t.

Finally, I stood up and walked in the direction where he’d disappeared from my sight. I was nervous about being nearly alone on the beach, and I was sick at the thought of our night coming to an end this way. My eyes stung with the salt of unshed tears. My heart felt like an empty hole where the ocean breeze gusted through the place it used to be.

Maybe it was a good idea.

A perfectly Arash kind of thing to do.

I should rise to the occasion and relinquish control. Enjoy it for what it had been and move on.

But how could he do this to me?

Suddenly, I just wanted to be in my bed in the hotel, my face buried in the pillow that would soak up my tears and stifle my sobs. I stopped in my tracks and turned around.

Good-bye, waves. Good-bye, sandy beach. Good-bye to the beautiful bright arrow that had pierced my heart.

“Dorothy, where are you going?”

I swiveled my head to the sound of his voice only yards from where I was standing. Arash emerged from the surf, the hems of his shorts dark with moisture.

“Where have you been? I thought you’d left me.”

He seemed surprised by the accusation.

“I’ve been here the whole time searching for your gift. Didn’t you see me?”

“I watched you go down that way until I couldn’t see you anymore. I can’t see that far. I’m supposed to wear glasses for long distance.”

He was standing right next to me by then, and he put his arms around my waist. I leaned my forehead against his chest and tried to control the quaver in my voice.

Get a grip, Dorothy. Don’t embarrass yourself.

“I wouldn’t leave you, Dorothy. Not without saying good-bye. Especially not here on the beach with the likes of Buster and his family about.”

“You hinted you might do that when we were in the elevator.”

I kept my forehead firmly planted on his chest and mumbled at the ground.

“I was
kidding
.” He stroked my hair, gently pulling it away from my face. “I would never do that. If you’d simply looked to the side, you’d have seen me plain as day. But you only looked where you assumed I’d be. I was almost in front of you the whole time. I was keeping my eye on you.”

By then his voice sounded like the purring, soothing sound a parent uses with a scared child, and I felt silly to have overreacted. I cleared my throat and straightened up.

“I mean, we have to finish the questions.” I laughed with a lightheartedness I didn’t feel.

“And so we do. But first I have a present for you. Three actually.” He reached in his pocket. “This is the best shell I could find. There don’t seem to be any shells on this beach, and I’m not actually sure this is one. But it’s the best I could do.”

I took it from him and examined it closely as though he’d presented me with a diamond ring. I was pretty sure it was a broken piece of coral.

“It’s wonderful. Thanks.”

“But that’s not all.” He held a piece of beach glass between his thumb and forefinger. It was green and about the size of a quarter. “If you hold it in a certain way to catch the light, it’s quite beautiful.”

I held it up toward the sky and then rotated my body until I finally caught the glint of a spotlight.

“Like an emerald,” I said.

“And last but far from least. In fact, last but best.” Another plunge into his pocket produced a single, slightly rusty key.

“The key to a treasure chest?” I asked hesitantly, unsure why this gift inspired so much enthusiasm.

“Maybe,” he said. “But I think it’s the key to my heart.”

He pressed it into my open hand and curled my fingers around it.

“I’ll treasure it forever, in that case.” I slipped it inside my bra, close to my own heart.

“Please take care of it,” he said. “Until…”

“Until what?”

“Until we meet again?”

It was a question.

“Will we?”

“I hope so.”

“Me too.”

“Now shall we finish the questions?”

“We’d better if we don’t want to run out of time.”

I was starting to get nervous about the late—or early, depending on how you looked at it—hour. I didn’t want to ask the time, but I knew we couldn’t possibly have more than an hour. Was the sky a bit lighter than the first time we walked this beach, or was that my imagination?

“This is the last question in set two. ‘How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?’”

“Walk or sit?”

“Let’s sit. I’m pretty tired from walking.”

“How do I feel about my mom?” I mused. “I love my mom of course.”

“Of course.”

“We have a pretty chill relationship. She trusts me, and when it’s just the two of us she usually lets me do whatever I want. I guess sometimes I wish she’d stand up more to my dad. He’s a little on the bossy side and can kind of be overwhelming, although in a nice way. But I wish sometimes she would speak up more with her own opinions.”

“Do you think they’re happy together?”

“Oh yeah. It’s subtle. You probably wouldn’t even notice. It’s just that my dad’s decision is always the last word, and sometimes I want her to take my side against him and she never does. But it’s not like he’s mean or anything. I don’t know. How about you and your mom?”

“We have what I would characterize as a very close relationship. Perhaps sometimes too close for the good of either one of us. But I’m sure that will change once I start college.”

“Next question. Hurry.”

“First question of set three. ‘Make three true “we” statements each. For instance, “We are both in this room feeling…”’”

“We’re both wearing the same-pattern clothes,” I said.

“We’re both sneaking out at night.”

“We’re both…in high school.”

“We’re both in danger of serious punishment if we’re caught,” Arash took over.

“We’re both feeling slightly nervous about it.”

“We’re both feeling something we’ve never felt before…and I’d like to add that we both need to wear glasses although only one of us actually wears them.”

“Question twenty-six?”

“‘Complete this sentence: I wish I had someone with whom I could share…’”

“That’s hard. I feel like I’ve shared
everything
with you tonight. But I guess I wish I had someone to share babysitting duties. My parents expect me to watch Chester a lot when they go out at night.”

“And I wish I had a sibling to share the strain in my family. You’re lucky to have Chester, Dorothy. One day he’ll be an adult and your relationship will be on a whole different level. He might even turn out to be your best friend.”

“Chester, an adult. What a funny thought.”

“We’re making incredible progress. Next question…‘If you were going to become a close friend with your partner, please share what would be important for him or her to know.’”

“A close friend? In that case, I guess you should know that I’m addicted to skinny vanilla lattes.”

“Phew, I’m glad you got that off your chest. That could have been a deal breaker. And in return, I’d like you to know that I still have a fondness for video games. The war-games ones. I don’t admit that to many people, but if you’re going to be my friend, you should know that about me.” He looked over as if to judge my reaction. “Sorry,” he added.

“Nothing I can’t forgive,” I said. “Chester likes them too. What’s next? I’m proud of us. Once we set our minds to it, we can roll through these questions.”

“I’m not sure that’s the point, but the next question is…‘Tell your partner what you like about them; be very honest this time, saying things that you might not say to someone you’ve just met.’”

“It seems like we answered this question a while ago, but I don’t mind answering again. I love how smart you are. I love how easy it is to talk to you. I love how you really listen to me, and a lot of guys don’t do that. I love how you’re funny in both senses of the word. And there’s a bunch more stuff, but I don’t want it to get to your head.”

“Are you sure? I could listen to you go on like that all night.”

“It already is
all night
or I would.”

“My turn. I like how deeply you feel things. I like how open you are to trying something new. I like that you’re not afraid of being introspective. And most of all, I love those little freckles on either side of your nose.”

“Most of all, huh?”

“Most of all.”

I glared at him until his smirk turned uncertain.

“Okay, I
hate
those freckles. Don’t care for them at all. But I like everything else about you that I just said.”

A tiny finch-like bird landed on the beach just a few feet away from us. It paused only briefly, looking slightly puzzled as though it wasn’t sure where it was. It darted off into the darkness.

“Arash, do birds fly around at night?”

“No. Birds are the first to sleep and…”

“…the first to wake up. It’s going to be daylight pretty soon, I think.”

“Do you notice the difference in the sound of the waves? They’re waking up too. Maybe we should go back to our hotels. I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“No, we can’t. We’ve gotten this far, so we have to finish. We have to get to the part where we look in each other’s eyes.”

I brought the plumeria up to my nose, being careful not to bring it too close. I imagined it being carefully cut and woven into a lei that would eventually be placed around the neck of a visitor awestruck by the beauty of this remote island of volcanic rock and lush greenery. Razor-sharp mountain ranges and water as blue as robin’s egg. Sky that one minute seemed to go on forever and the next minute curdled with clouds. I imagined the blossom falling from the wreath, dropping to the ground where it lay unnoticed as thousands of bare and sandaled feet trampled back and forth from bed to beach and back to bed again. The visitor’s lei discarded by now. Her focus already turned back toward the continent. Toward her home. I let the scent rise up to meet me. Was it already growing faint?

***

We were sitting on the beach, facing the waves side by side getting ready to answer question number twenty-nine when who should come strolling down the beach but the zombie-surfer guy and his lady friend. And Buster of course, smiling as wide as a kid at his own birthday party. Smiling like a shark, Arash suggested. But I told him to look deeper into Buster’s soul the way he’d looked into mine. I knew he was trying but maybe not quite succeeding. Anyway, Buster plopped himself right down beside me. He seemed really tired. They had been walking around much of the night, just like us. I scratched him behind the ears for a few seconds and he was out.

“Well looky here,” Zombie Guy said when he finally caught up with Buster. “Long time no see.” He cackled, revealing his partially toothless smile.