“But you live right—”
“I don’t step foot in churches.” Hailey cut in. Her eyes remained straight ahead, her speed accelerating.
“Why not?” I asked, curious about this new vibe from her. Cool. Barriers slammed back up.
How was she able to do that?
Again, “Why?”
“Not my thing.” Which ended the conversation whether I wanted to or not.
Hailey was the worst driver I ever had the bad luck to ride with. She rode people’s bumpers. She blew her horn and muttered curses at innocent people who weren’t moving fast enough for her. She blew through yellows and I think a red while I clutched on to my seat belt and door handle for dear life. I was pretty sure nail marks were embedded in the leather.
“Could we please maybe slow down?” I flip-flopped betweensquealing in fear and sending up every prayer imaginable. “You don’t have to drive so faaaasst!” The last part just came out in a screech as Hailey floored it and cut off a Challenger to get in the left turn lane. All of my years passed before my eyes.
She didn’t hear me, or maybe she ignored me. Finally, we came to a squealing stop at the marina. We nearly hit the fence post in the process.
“You’re a terrible, horrible, no-good driver,” I informed her.
“Yeah, well, you’re welcome,” she returned, reveling in my trauma way too much.
She gripped her Grande coffee while she led me along the docks where rows and rows of boats bobbed happily in the water. We ended up in front of an empty space. Several wreaths of various colors looped over the thick, round wooden post that marked Luke’s empty docking space like a ring toss. Hailey stood solemnly in front of the memorial, pushing her large glasses flat against her face. I couldn’t see her eyes, but her whole vibe told me she was struggling.
I was about to say something nice because that’s what a decent person was supposed to do in times like this. But Hailey started talking.
“Going out on the water was his favorite thing, and he loved coming to this marina and talking sailing with everyone here. He’d been planning this night for so long for Naira. Like since the moment they started talking. I think he fell for her the minute he saw her.”
Hailey was probably the last person to see Luke and Naira. It must have weighed a ton on her. At least she got to see Naira happy. The last time I saw her, I’d basically told her to go to hell.
“Before he met Naira, Luke would just go to class, work with our uncle on the artifacts they found in excavations for the Endowment. Sail around on his boat. He didn’t have many friends.” Hailey snuck a look at me, and I could barely make out the outline of her eyes. She wiped at her nose with the back of her hand. “Did you know he took one of those tour ferries to your island?”
I stopped moving. I hadn’t. “I thought our graduation was the first meetup.”
“No,” Hailey said, pushing her glasses up so they sat atop her head. “He surprised her and came over. He said the island felt like it was made of magic. I always thought it was bullshit and that he was just saying that because he was so into her. Later, he told me the island was like heaven. You should have seen how excited he was when he got home. He couldn’t wait to tell me. Our uncle even made a comment that he’d never seen Luke look as happy as that before.”
Must have been nice hearing all that in real time. Naira kept her real first meet-cute from me. He came all the way to Golden Isle and Naira never said a word.
I pushed down the remorse. It was distracting me from what mattered. Hailey said Luke had been working with the Endowment’s artifacts. They were the ones owned by the lab where the artifacts were being restored, like from the picture Naira had sent me.
“You said your uncle and Luke work for the Endowment?”
“Our family is the main benefactor. My uncle Simon was an archaeologist and led a lot of the excavations. Now he oversees the entire program. Luke helped out a lot; he was pretty into thatkind of thing, like Naira. They used to debate about stealing and appropriating artifacts from other cultures. But I’m not involved in looking for the artifacts. Digging in dirt isn’t my thing.” She held up her clawlike red nails and smiled.
I sighed. I knew Hailey meant well, but hearing about this side of Naira that I knew so little about just made me feel worse. If only she’d told me. But if she had, would I have acted different? Or would I have been the same ass I’d been that night?
“What is the lab for?”
“Research. Where we work with the artifacts uncovered in digs.”
“Stolen stuff you all appropriate and then try to pawn off as discovered and give back to the true owners like you did them a huge favor.” I rolled my eyes. “You’re only doing what you should be doing in returning those artifacts. You’re not, like, doing some humanitarian service to the world. You won’t win the Nobel Peace Prize or some shit for doing what you already should.” Come to think about how big business worked, they probably would.
The jaw muscles worked under Hailey’s skin. I side-eyed her as she licked her lips while I braced myself for whatever she had coming.
“That’s fair. It’s what happens, right? Throughout history.”
She didn’t have to tell me about it. I knew the history. Ilivedthe history.
“Maybe we should try to find someone who might have been here that night,” I said.
