One of the dogs has rolled over onto her back to show herspeckled pink belly. I scratch her chest and she bats one of her back feet like a rabbit, drunk on affection.
“Can we drop it, please?”
“You heard him, buddy,” I look towards the brown dog who’s now sitting politely with his stick, ready to play. “Drop it!”
The dog does no such thing. Instead, he noses Caleb in the knee, smearing mud over his tan swim shorts. Caleb’s frown deepens.
I snort with laughter and grab the stick from the dog, tossing it back towards the river bed. All five of them take off in pursuit, their paws kicking up grass and mud as they tear into the jungle.
“So, is it the chaos that offends you, or are you just allergic to affection?” I ask smugly.
We duck under a clothesline strung between two houses and head towards a group of girls sitting together in the grass.
“I’m glad you find it so amusing.”
“Sharks, fine. Tropical storms? No problem. But there’s nothing scarier than—“ I lose my train of thought. “Patricia!”
“Huh?”
I break into a run towards the young girls in the grass. Because seated between them on the ground, a half-finished shell necklace in her hands, is none other than Harry’s mother.
“Bula!” one of the littlest ones shouts to me as I approach.
“Stella!” Patricia waves as soon as she sees us. “Look what we’re making!”
She beams at me, holding up her necklace for us to see.
I barely believe what I’m seeing.Even more surprising than the fact that Patricia is sittingon the groundis that she looks like she’s actually enjoying herself. Her perpetually unamused lips are curled into a genuine smile as she lets the girls help her string the tiny shells onto the wire.
“We wondered where you’d gotten off to,” Caleb tells her as he saunters up. “Arthur’s quite worried, I’m afraid.”
“I told him where I was going!” she says. “I swear, that man has a memory like Swiss cheese. Adi and her sister found me on the beach and invited me to join them for some crafts. I just couldn’t say no to that face.”
The girl I take to be Adi smiles so widely I can see two missing baby teeth in the back of her mouth. I think we may have actually found the ice queen’s soft spot.
“I can certainly see why,” Caleb smiles. He bends down to a crouch until he’s at the girls’ eye level. “But we might want to get moving before they send out another search party.”
Adi tugs on Patricia’s silk sleeve.
“Can we finish the necklaces first?”
“Of course!” Patricia gushes. If she didn’t have so much filler in her face, I’d think she might actually be smiling.
“I’ll just radio the rest and let them know we’re coming,” Caleb tells her. “You’ve got quite the search party out for you.”
Caleb steps away and speaks into his walkie as I sit down hesitantly between the girls.
“You know Stella,” she says without looking up from her shells. “I was a little hesitant when you first mentioned this plan of yours.”
If bya little hesitantshe means outright horrified, I agree.
“But the whole experience has been quite delightful. It’s good for Matthew to see how he can give back. It’s about time he put his energy towards something that doesn’t come clad in a rhinestone bikini.”
Hold the phone. Is Patricia, queen of callousness, sworn enemy of the progressive working class, actually…thankingme?
“I’m… so glad you think so,” I choke out. “I’m really impressed by everything Joanna and Chris are doing for the ocean and the community.”
“I agree,” she says. “What they’re doing here is very special.”
