“The ship’s approaching the island. It’s time to go.”
Yet, as they boarded the dinghy, he seemed different from yesterday. He only seemed to look at her out of the corner of his eye, like he was trying to keep watch over her every move without her knowing. But somehow, she knew.
He also kept his hand right around his chest area on whatever dangled around his neck, and he kept hidden beneath his shirt. Something had definitely changed, and an awkwardness set up an invisible wall between them. She’d noticed it first when she’d come back from the bathroom, and the captain and he had been in a deep conversation that had quickly ended when she’d approached the table.
It was making her nervous.
The captain pulled the small craft as close to the stony beach as he could, and said, “Well, good luck with your scientific studies, you two. I’m glad we didn’t kill you after all.”
Hollyn wasn’t exactly sure what to say to that. They’d never changed their story about being here to study the Saint Helena plovers. So, she raised her hand and said, “Thanks for the meal and the ride. And thanks for not killing us.”
The captain’s boisterous laughter rocked the tiny boat as he helped Hollyn swing her legs over the side and drop into the waist-high water. Kai quickly followed.
“I’ve dropped you on Sandy Bay. It’s one of the least populous places on the island. You need to try to stay under the radar, but if you need something, Jamestown is the best place to find it. Unfortunately, it’s on the opposite side of the island from where I’m leaving you.” He shrugged. “Oh, well. It’s just how the squid inks. Nothing we can do about it if you want to sneak in without anyone the wiser.”
Once they were sloshing through the water toward the island, Bertie flew on ahead, leaving them alone.
The dinghy began to move back toward the ship, and the captain called out, “Remember, Kai, you have to listen for it.”
She knew she hadn’t imagined the anxious look Kai shot in her direction at the captain’s words, but he nodded and waved in the direction of the retreating madman, slash, part siren.
“What was that about?”
“Hmm?”
“What do you have to listen for?”
He didn’t answer right away. He just kept making his way through the water toward the beach for a few strides before he spoke to the air in front of them. “I don’t know. Just the ramblings of a weird, old dude, I guess.”
“Do you think we’ll ever see him again?”
“For goodness sake, I hope not.”
“You two seemed to have a good chat when I left the table yesterday evening. Did he offer any insight? You know, about the plovers.”
That got the reaction she was looking for. He turned toward her slightly and gave a genuine chuckle. “No. We didn’t talk plovers. He gave me some insight about my possible origins.”
“What do you mean?”
He pulled in a heavy breath and blew it out slowly before he said, “Honestly, I have no idea where I came from.”
“Like, you’re looking for your birth parents or something?”
“Yes. Exactly that.”
“Oh, I see. I’m guessing it was a closed adoption. The agency can’t tell you who your biological parents were, can they?”
“I wasn’t exactly adopted through an agency. The parents who raised me were a retired couple who found me on the beach. They went to the police, but no infants had been reported missing in the area, and I didn’t match the description of any other reports. The couple petitioned to become my parents, and after a couple of months, they were allowed to foster me until the adoption went through. It was all a rather strange process according to my mother, but she thought I was a miracle. They hadn’t been able to have children of their own and never expected to experience being parents. Then, they found an abandoned child. To them, I was a gift. And, for my part, I couldn’t have asked for better parents.
“But I have a deep-seated need to get answers to the question of where I originated from.”
A sudden thought leapt to Hollyn’s mind. “The captain said there were creatures other than sirens who could resist the power of a siren. You wanted to know what those were.”
He grunted an affirmative answer to her accurate guess.
The water chased their ankles as they emerged from the waves and stepped over the piles of stones lining the beach. Kai stopped and looked up and then down the beach. He leaned to one side like he was trying to listen for something.
The captain’s words came back to her. “What did he tell you to listen for?”
