I shake my head as I step back to the cobblestone street.
Alex pulls his phone from his pocket. “Behold! He did send us a fresh riddle.”
“I think we’ve done enough of that.” I laugh. “What does it say?”
India and China collide
Where a king is no longer inside
Alexander Benjamin Henry
You stay away from the beach!
“What in the world?” I ask.
“There’s a nude beach in Brighton. She wants us to go to the Royal Pavilion.”
“But steer clear of the naked people on the beach.”
“I shouldn’t have told you. You’re gonna want to go, aren’t you?
“I might be confident, but I’m not that confident. But mostly, I prefer my eyes unburned.”
“What?”
“I imagine some of the things there would make me want to burn my eyes,” I say.
“Burn your eyes? Wow.”
“There would be no other option.”
Alex shrugs. “I’m pretty sure I’d only see one person on the beach.”
“You don’t think it would be busy?”
“I’m sure it would be.”
Oh.
Alex looks at his phone. “It’s an hour and twenty minutes from here. What do you think? I could take you back, if that’s what you wanted.”
“No. I called Val this morning and she told me I wasn’t welcome back.”
“Have I told you how much I like your sister?”
I shake my head. “Let’s do it.”
Green rolling hills slowly turn into neighborhoods and then to a cityscape as we drive into Brighton. It’s a beach town not unlike ones I might find back home. Apart from, you know, a two-hundred-and-something-year-old palace, and such.
Alex’s phone has been beeping at us for the last several miles. I want to ask him if I can just read the messages to him, but I don’t want to overstep.
We park somewhere that’s supposedly not terribly far from the Royal Pavilion and walk. It’s lunchtime and I find a street vendor while Alex goes off to find a restroom. I’m standing in the Mr. Taco truck line when a man steps in line behind me.
“Hello, beautiful,” he says, and I’m not certain who he is talking to, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone else near enough. Iignore him.
“I’d love to buy your tacos,” he says, stepping forward to stand by my side.
I’m not sure if this guy is friendly and interested in me, or a creep who likes to pick up women at food trucks. I’m leaning toward the latter. He’s sort of giving off those vibes. Not that it matters; the answer’s the same either way.
