I was as pale as the dead and as bony as a skeleton. When I smiled—I stretched my mouth wide—my teeth were overly pronounced because my face was drawn. At least they were white and healthy though. My hair was thicker; it had grown out since Rosaria had convinced me to go for a bob. It landed below my shoulder blades, the center part still firm.
I went to put it in a high bun, allowing the little tendrils around my face to fall, but decided not to. The volume of my hair seemed to give some life to my face. The texture had become wavy, beach-tousled even. Running a finger around a strand, I watched as it became close to a curl without the aid of heat. “Just like Eva’s,” I said, not fully conscious that the thought had been summoned. Her hair had made an impression on me.
Eva.I thought about her for a minute, and then one thought seemed to connect to another. Catching sight of my face again, I found that I was frowning. I could hear Brando talking to the man who came to deliver our food. The man was explaining the different dishes to him.
When I went into the other room, Brando was checking out said dishes: a lavish spread of lobster on a platter, surrounded by halved coconuts, vibrant limes and oranges, and tropical flowers. Another platter sat next to it, full of baked yams, fresh bananas, pineapples, and mangos. A bowl full of coconut cream sat in the midst of it all.
Twobilos(coconut shell cups) sat on the table. They were filled with kava, a local drink that’s made with pounded roots of the kava and mixed with fresh rainwater.
I picked it up, taking a sip. It was definitely an acquired taste, but the pineapple seemed like it was picked from the hot sun a minute ago, bursting with sugar. I moaned and Brando grinned, offering me more.
We clanked our shells. “Bula,” we said at the same time, a Fijian word that means “to live.”
He tried the kava and scrunched his nose. It tasted earthy, almost chalky, but good enough, especially with the pineapple and bananas.
“Some people say it has an alcoholic effect,” I said. “It makes me feel relaxed.”
He held out my seat for me, and we sat in the bubble, close to the reef.
“If you can get enough of it down, I’m sure it does, Ballerina Girl.”
Brando cracked and cleaned my lobster. We had removed his bandages after the shower, and he was letting his wounds air out before we rewrapped them. It was hard to look at the battle scars.
I grabbed a small fork to tear into my yam. With honey, it was the best thing I had tasted in what felt like years. The meat of the lobster was tender, succulent, like sweet butter.
“You’re hungry,” Brando said, watching me. It was clear to see that he was starving for me to keep eating.
I nodded. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in months.” I waved the fork. “Do you need a dinglehopper?”
He took the kava from me, pushing it close to his side. He frowned. “What’s a dinglehopper?”
I laughed so loud that I was sure if the fish could’ve heard me, they would have swum away in a mad rush, hiding in their coral homes. “That’s what Ariel calls a fork inThe Little Mermaid. Except she thought it was a hairbrush.”
“Tell me more.”
“Her friend is a seagull, and that’s what he told her it was. He has names for all the things she doesn’t have names for, but they’re wrong.”
“Yeah? Well, pass me a dinglehopper then.”
I passed him the fork and our fingers brushed, a tiny little spark igniting under the sea. We set to work on our task then, making all the pleasurable noises that one does when enjoying delicious food.
I took a bite of lobster meat, sucking the salt from my fingers after. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
He didn’t look up from his plate. He scooped out some of the garnet meat of the yam. “About?”
“You knew that I was going to die.”
He went to dig out another bite and stopped midway. His eyes turned hard. “You didn’t.”
“Eva told you something, didn’t she?”
He put down his fork, wiped his fingers with a napkin, and sat back. I was sorry that I brought it up. I should’ve waited until after lunch.
“Keep eating,” he said, motioning to my plate. “And I’ll tell you.”
“All right.” I nodded, but suddenly there was a stopper in my stomach, and I wasn’t sure if I could fit in another bite. I grabbed a banana and began to peel it.
A man of his word, he told me what had happened. “Eva came to see me the night we went to the French Quarter. The night I went after Nick. She told me she had a dream of you. I’ll never forget it as long as I live.”
