Running after my father as he rolled his suitcase to the car.Don’t go. Please. Don’t leave.
Moti, Moti, Moti.The incessant chanting of the kids when I’d gone back for another slice of birthday cake.Fatty, fatty, fatty.
Prem Prakash Pyarelal.Who was he? I couldn’t remember.
My memories slowly seeped into the water like indigo ink from purple starfish.
Come on. Hand it over.Isabelle grinning, as I fumbled in my bag for something. For what?
Love you, beta,Dolly said.Finallysaid.
Dolly had said to stay away from the water.
As the sea rushed into my lungs, one final memory floated up from the darkness.
Don’t you dare leave me now,Alex said, water droplets glistening like little crystals on his eyelashes.I know it’s hard, but this is it. You give up right now and you’ll be giving up on yourself.
My eyes flew open, my chest convulsing as my lungs fought to expel the water.
Take my hand, Moti. You can do it. You were already doing it. You were floating.
I reached my arms up through the darkness.
No, I told it, even as the sea flooded into my lungs.Not now. Not yet.
Something propelled me upward. The dying person’s abnormal surge of well-being. A brief burst of energy before death. Perhaps the black dot that Dolly marked me with. Or the bracelet I wore to ward off the evil eye. Someone’s prayer. Or my own will to survive.
This is not how my story ends.
The first breath was like fire scorching my airways. Air and water collided in my throat, my nostrils, my lungs. I gagged and went under again. The current wrapped around my body like a python ready to devour its prey. I felt its grip around my chest, squeezing out the air I’d managed to steal.
When the water closed around me again, I knew it had me.
As the world dimmed around the edges, everything fell silent.
Like a bubble rising to the surface, one final thought:
Alex?
I’m listening…
I’ve never been happier than the time I spent with you.
She told me she was going to die in the water. It was written in the stars the day she was born. I dismissed it, the same way I dismissed anything that defied logic. I should’ve listened.
I couldn’t explain why the hair on the back of my neck stood when she was around. Or how, when she smiled, my heart felt like it had been hit with a million jolts of electricity. There was no logical reason to explain why pieces of me were dying alongside her still, limp body, and yet it was as real as the air I was breathing. Air that she was not.
I should’ve fucking listened.
The kicker was that I’d watched Moti go in the water. I told Eddie I’d keep an eye out for the flag, signaling a pick-up request, but really I was stalking their goddamn picnic. I picked up the binoculars a hundred times. I had a clear view from the galley and at one point, I saw her sitting on the rocks. Maybe the glint from the binoculars caught her eye or maybe it was my imagination, but I could’ve sworn she looked directly at me.
The next time I checked, she was wading into the water. God, she was beautiful, in her striped swimsuit, with droplets of water dancing on her skin. The thought of saying goodbye sat like an undigested lump in my stomach.
Panic started to set in a few moments later. Why the hell was she going in deeper? And where the hell was Nikos? The second I saw her clutching onto the rock, I knew she was in trouble.
I bolted for the tender, pushing Dolly out of the way as I swarmed the deck.
“Excuse me?” she exclaimed.
