“So we’re decided?” Mariana said. “We aren’t leaving himbehind to save ourselves?”
A bird took flight, and Claire saw a flash of cardinal red. Other birds were calling to one another, and a squirrel rustled in the branches of a nearby pine tree. The lake was peaceful today, its surface smooth, with only an occasional ripple from the wind. It looked far too idyllic for terrible life-or-death decisions. But was there really any decision to be made?
“I’m not my parents,” Reyva said.
“I never want to become mine,” Mariana said.
Claire still couldn’t imagine her parents leaving a friend. Maybe they hadn’t known what they were doing. Maybe it had been an accident. Or maybe the spirit had clouded their minds. Regardless, now that she knew the truth, there was no real other choice to make, if she wanted to be able to live with herself. She knew she’d never be able to look Mariana and Reyva in the eye again if she chose to consciously and willingly leave anyone behind, even Jack. “We’re decided.”
“Glad we all agree,” Reyva said. “Because I see something.” She pointed with her good arm up the shore.
Squinting, Claire followed her finger to rocks jutting out into the lake. Impaled on the rocks, upside down... “Jack’s boat?”
“Please, oh, yes, please, let it be real!” Mariana cried.
All of them hurried toward it. Claire felt hope pounding so hard in her throat, but her brain whispered:The spirit is not going to let you leave. It can make storms. It can capsize you. You can’t escape by boat.
She tried to argue back: Here was aboat! A way off the island! It was a gift, a miracle, and she shouldn’t be looking for ways todeny it.
They reached it. It had been flung up onto the rocks, probably in one of the recent storms. If they’d been in this boat when the water had tossed it to shore... She shuddered, thinking of how they would have been tossed with it, their bodies thrown against the rocks and trees. She wondered if the capsizing had been natural, or if the boat had been targeted. She wondered what had happened to Jack’s father’s body—had it sunk into the lake, or would they find it along the shore? She hoped that Jack wouldn’t be the one to find it. No one deserved to see that.
Reyva slowed. “Look.”
The side of the boat had been torn apart.
No, Claire thought.No, no, no!
They hadn’t been able to see it from a distance, but the impact had shredded the hull. The fiberglass had been gouged so badly that it looked as if a wild tiger had ripped through it. She touched the edge of the hole gingerly. It wouldn’t, couldn’t, float like that. Hope burst like a bubble.
Mariana dropped to her knees and stared up at the damaged boat. “You know, for a minute there, I thought the universe had given us a gift.” She sounded close to tears.
“Me too,” Reyva said, putting her good hand on Mariana’s shoulder.
It couldn’t be over.I won’t let them give up, Claire thought.
She examined the boat. Maybe they could fix it? With what, though? And how? It was missing a huge chunk. Even if they could flip it over and get it back in the water, it would instantly sink. “We could build a new boat,” she mused. “Use the engine.”
“Can’t exactly order parts from my car parts dealer,” Mariana said.
“Not a fiberglass boat. A raft. There are trees here. Vines. We can lash the logs together like Huckleberry Finn, using Mariana’s knots.” Claire ducked underneath the part of the boat sticking off the rock. Near as she could tell, the engine was still intact. “Untilitcauses another storm and tosses us onto the rocks, of course.”
“You think you’re a pessimist, but you’re not,” Reyva said. “You’re a planner. A puzzle solver. Come on, Claire, talk us through what you’re thinking.”
I’m a puzzle solver, she thought, turning the words over in her head. She liked that a lot better than “paranoid mess.”I’ve hidden who I am and been ashamed of who I am for so long...
But I’mnotweak. Maybe I’m broken, maybe I can never be “fixed,” at least not enough to please everyone, but I am not fragile. I am not powerless. Iamstrong, no “despite” or “except for” or any other conditionals. I am enough exactly as I am.
I can figure out this puzzle, and we can survive this.
Thinking, Claire bit her lower lip. “It’s evil. Whatever ‘it’ is. Old and evil. I felt that in the cave.” The sense they all had that something else was there... that something was wrong... Now that she’d seen the dead man, she could believe they’d felt the residue of whatever was animating him. It explained why they’d all felt so certain they weren’t alone. It had a power that they could barely comprehend. “I don’t think we can stop evil with evil. And that’s what giving it Jack would be.”
“Yeah, we already agreed we’re not going to do that,”Mariana said.
“It said it can send storms,” Claire continued, “and we saw proof of that. If we try to escape across the lake, it’ll drive us back to shore, if not sink us.” It controlled the island, which meant they couldn’t play by its rules. If they did, they’d lose.
“So we can’t give it what it wants and we can’t escape it... so, what do we do?”
“We stop it,” Claire said. The words felt wild and unruly in her mouth. She wasn’t certain she was allowed to say a sentence that implied such optimism, but what other choice did they have? All the other options were beyond terrible.
