The waves caressed the shoreline, and the black canvas unveiled the limitless universe. It was hard to say where the sky stopped and the ocean began. The moon seemed closer than ever, as if I could stand on top of one of the boulders and touch it. In the middle of nowhere, without city lights, the skies were an open window into the universe, with billions of stars and galaxies visible to the naked eye. So much was unknown. It was breathtaking, and I felt as if this island were a flowing part of the cosmos, a fragment of its mystery.
I spread the blanket I brought with me on the sand and sat. Monday kept on walking along the underbrush line. He stopped a few feet away from me, dug in the sand, turned around, and squatted over the hole.
“Nice,” I said, pulling my knees to my chest. At least one thing was the same here as in Miami: beaches were gigantic litter boxes.
I looked up at the sky and tried to pick out constellations. But besides knowing the names of the twelve that made up the zodiac, I didn’t know what I was looking for. Bambi had talked about stars a lot. Showing me how to find the Southern Cross by locating the two brightest stars (she used names, but I didn’t remember them now) and drawing a line between them, then extending it all the way to the horizon, and where the imaginary line crossed was the South.
She had tried to teach me more about how to identify different constellations, but I brushed it off even as I politely listened to her. Now I wished I had paid closer attention. She mentioned the North Star was a part of the constellation Ursa Minor, Little Dipper, and Big Dipper. Bambi also explained that she could measure angles between the stars and the horizon if she needed to figure out the latitude. She must have known what she was talking about if she had guided theBloody Maryfor two weeks without GPS toward the Cook Islands. She’d made a mistake somewhere because it took us nine days instead of seven, yet she brought us close to Rarotonga before the storm. If Bambi hadn’t gone overboard and had guided the boat through the storm instead of me, we would have landed in Rarotonga, I had no doubt about it. I steered theBloody Maryin the wrong direction, to the wrong island. Yet, nothing aboutit felt wrong anymore.
“Why aren’t you in bed?” Hunter’s voice startled me.
“Jesus.” My hand flew to my chest. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
I patted the spot next to me.
“Do you know anything about constellations? Isn’t one of them a hunter?” I asked, toppling sideways and resting my head on Hunter’s shoulder. The night wasn’t cold, but I welcomed the heat radiating off him as he nestled near me.
“All I remember from the astronomy class is that constellations shift seasonally. Some are unique to the northern or southern hemisphere. The Southern Cross is only in the Southern Hemisphere. I think Orion is in both.”
“Can you find it for me?”
Hunter chuckled. “No.”
“OMG, Hunter Holden. How can you take tourists on deep-sea fishing tours if you don’t know your constellations?” I said in a teasing tone. “What would you do if your modern navigation system broke?”
“I guess we would remain lost forever.” Hunter’s sigh turned into a yawn, and he rubbed his eye. “Why are you out here wondering about all of this?”
“I couldn’t go back to sleep. I was thinking about Achilles’ heel. Greeks associated the constellations with mythological gods and mythical creatures. Achilles wasn’t a god. He was a hero. Is Orion a god?”
“Well, Zeus is the king of the gods, and Hera is the queen of the gods. And if I’m not wrong, Athena is the goddess of war.”
I shot him a confused glance. “Wait, I thought Ares was the god of war.”
“He’s a god, and she’s a goddess.” Hunter kissed my temple. “Like you.”
“I’m a goddess of war? I’m a very peaceful person.”
“You’re a goddess of beauty and all that is good in my life.” He lightly squeezed my thigh. “Let’s go to bed.”
“Wait. What about Achilles? Is there a constellation named after him?” I stretched my neck’s stiffened muscles.
“Tomorrow, check the Greek mythology book in the hut. Maybe it mentions something about it.” Hunter yawned again and glanced at his watch, four twenty-seven lighting up on a green backlight. “Correction, you can check it today.”
“I already read it. There is nothing helpful.” I reached down and scratched around the snake’s bite on my ankle, trying not to scrape too much of the healed area.
“Does it still bother you?” He smoothed his warm palm over my ankle, gently massaging my skin.
“It’s a bit itchy.”
“Did I tell you about when a bastard snake bit me on my heel? It took weeks for it to—” His hand halted.
“Shit,” Hunter and I both said at the same time.
“Hunter,” I said with urgency, catching his eyes. Excitement shot like a pinball and bounced inside of me. “It makes sense now. He hid it with the snakes, or at least somewhere near them.”
“The ocean bow must have something to do with the water level. When the tide is low, it exposes more of the black rocks,” Hunter said.
I smiled so wide my jaw hurt. “Should we look now? Go get the flashlights.”
