by Jill Myles
“What do we do?” I said to him, keeping close.
“We wait,” Salvador said, sword at the ready.
I didn’t know what we were waiting for, only that I had to keep pace with Salvador or else we’d be T-Rex kibble. So when he pulled me forward, I followed.
We circled like this for quite some time, and when I was beginning to tire and grew dizzy, the tyrannosaur lunged. I fell backward with a tiny yelp, just as Salvador’s sword slashed down. The whole world seemed to fall and tumble at the same time, and the next thing I knew, Salvador had scooped me up off the ground and was running out of the clearing.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked over his jostling shoulder. The Tyrannosaurus Rex was half-stuck in the ground, one of his legs trapped in the pit as he bellowed and bellowed over and over again. He thrashed his body, unable to get up or roll forward to free himself. I saw the long, shiny blade of Salvador’s sword jutting from the creature’s side. “Your sword,” I murmured, clutching my lovely conquistador tighter to me.
“He can keep it,” Salvador replied, his arms tightening around me as he ran. “Do you promise to never leave the camp without me again?”
I buried my face in his neck. “How about if I promise never to try and rescue anyone without your help?”
“I agree.” He paused, readjusting me against his side, then slung me over his shoulder. “I’m sorry I did not believe you.”
“I don’t care about that,” I said. “It doesn’t matter. I love you, Salvador.”
“I love you too, Diana. Never leave me again.” His fingers tightened on my legs so painfully that I winced, an indication that he felt much more strongly than his calm, easy words suggested.
“I won’t. I promise. We’re in this together from now on.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“I see white,” Mr. Wingarde said. “I think it’s a boat.”
It was early in the morning, a good week or two after we’d returned from rescuing the others. Mr. Wingarde and Susie were well on the way to recovery, though they were both too thin and tended to scare easily. Susie had taken to Eustace’s attentions like a starving woman takes to bread, and I rarely saw the two of them separated. They were, even now, huddled at the far side of the cave, cleaning the food for the noon meal today and whispering to each other. As I watched, Eustace reached out and fingered a lock of Susie’s golden hair, and she giggled.
“It’s a ship, I tell you,” Mr. Wingarde said, sounding annoyed. “Doesn’t anyone in this love-infested cave pay attention to me?”
“I’m sure it looks like a boat,” Olivia said cheerfully from near the fire, but didn’t bother to get up from her sewing. She was busy making Eustace and Susie a thicker blanket for their small cave, the scraps from my old skirt readily pieced into the existing fabric.
Susie looked up from where she was peeling fruit over one of the helmet-bowls, her attention momentarily drawn from Eustace’s ministrations. “What do you mean, a ship?”
Mr. Wingarde rolled back the palm canopy and pointed off in the distance. “I mean what I said,” he said irritably. “I see white. I think it’s a sail. It’s got to be a ship or a boat of some sort. Perhaps it’s a rescue party.”
Eustace looked at Susie with a look akin to dread, and got to his feet, heading over to Mr. Wingarde’s side. I followed close behind, wiping my hands - I’d been curing hides for our bed, and that was messy work – and heading over to see.
The shoreline was little more than a blue and yellow ribbon from our vantage-point in the cave, and I idly scanned the forest below instead, looking for a familiar tawny head, waiting to see the flashing smile of my conquistador as he headed in with the day’s food. Maybe he had one of the fat island lizards, I thought, my mouth watering at the thought. The meat was so pale and tender.
When Mr. Wingarde pointed again, though, my attention was drawn away from the trees, and I put a hand to my eyes to shield them. Sure enough, on the horizon there was the faintest glimpse of a triangle of white, and then it vanished again. “It is a ship,” I said, excitement leaking into my voice. “Oh my god! A ship!” I looked over at Susie and Olivia in happiness. “We can leave!”
But while Susie’s eyes shone with happiness, I noticed a singular sort of dread in Olivia’s eyes. She smiled at me, briefly, and then went back to her sewing. “I imagine we’ll need to check it out when Salvador returns,” she said, shooting Eustace a meaningful look.
He said nothing, merely returning to Susie’s side.
I wondered at the oddly pensive air in the cave. This should be a time of happiness, not worry – we were about to be rescued.
The heavy mood in the cave lingered, even when Salvador returned. He dropped his kill off at the fire and immediately moved to me, sweeping me up in a long, thorough kiss that I was happy to give him.
“I’ve missed you, belleza,” he said against my lips. “Did you miss me?”
“Always,” I said, sliding my hands around his neck and leaning against him. I grinned like a lovesick fool. “Did Eustace tell you the news?”
“There’s a ship on the shore,” Eustace said flatly.
Salvador had something akin to the same reaction. He stiffened against me, then looked down at my face with a heartbreakingly tender look. “Then we must go and check things out, eh, belleza? Perhaps there will be more survivors.”
“Or perhaps they’re here to rescue us, fools,” Mr. Wingarde said with a sneer.
Eustace glowered at him, and Olivia shot him a concerned look. Mr. Wingarde was the one unhappy dark spot in our otherwise cozy little cave. Susie and I tried to help around the ‘house’ and offered to do chores, but all Mr. Wingarde did was sit around and complain, and it bothered all of us.
“Come, let us go and examine it for ourselves.” Salvador detangled my arms from around his neck, and he gestured at Olivia. “Pack the water-skins and let us bring some dried food for a long journey.” He looked over at Mr. Wingarde. “Just in case.”
We gathered our things and headed out from the little cave, all of us. It was a half a day’s walk to the portion of beach that we’d seen the ship at, and, while normally our jaunts were filled with chatting and laughter, today’s walk was quiet and pensive. Only Mr. Wingarde seemed in high spirits as he led the way towards the beach, a mere step behind Salvador.
I’d been pushed back to somewhere in the middle of the train, next to Olivia, and she stopped repeatedly to give me a wan, tremulous smile.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her once, but she didn’t respond, only shook her head.
As we approached the shore, it soon became very obvious that it was, in fact, a sailboat. Mr. Wingarde let out a whoop of joy and dashed for the beach, and I found myself running after him as well.
It was a small craft, no more than twelve feet long, with the name of ‘C-Spryte’ peeling off the back of it. It had beached itself on the shore by some miracle of the tide, but didn’t seem to be any worse for the wear other than that.
The small craft was entirely deserted.
Curious, our small group crawled all over the boat, looking for people, or clues as to where they might have gone. The only thing we were able to notice was that the sail itself was completely soaked with sea-water and the controls were water-damaged.
“It is always like this,” Salvador admitted to me. “Sometimes we find a ship, but never anyone else. It’s like it’s been swallowed by the ocean and spit out for us to find.”
We spent the better part of the afternoon getting the small craft out onto the water again, to see if it was seaworthy, and by the time the sun went down, Olivia had a nice fire built on the beach, and the small ship bobbled on the shoreline, anchored close by.
“I can’t believe it,” I said, happiness seeping into my voice. “A ship. A real ship.”
“The controls are shorted out,” Mr. Wingarde added, his voice singing out happily. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ve been sailing since I was a young boy, and I’m sure I c
an direct that thing back to land simply by following the North Star.”
Salvador and the others said nothing, simply allowed us to chatter happily to ourselves, discussing the plans for the ship well into the night. The bright fire on the beach kept away all scavengers, and there was no sign of the T-Rex. I wondered if he’d managed to free himself yet.
When we lay down to rest, Eustace offered to take first watch, and I snuggled in close next to Salvador. “Aren’t you happy?” I said, lost in my daydreams. He merely kissed my hand and smiled at me.
Lost in my daydreams, I didn’t notice his quiet demeanor. We’d get out of here, I mused, and I could go back to work. Salvador could live with me, and we’d get married, maybe have a couple of kids. He didn’t have any practical skills for the modern world, but I was sure he could find a job doing something – teaching Spanish or history, maybe – and oh, it would be such fun to show him and Olivia my world. I snuggled into his arms and went to sleep, thinking of all the wonderful things we’d experience together, the feel of his lips pressed against the back of my hand following even into my dreams.
The next morning, I was the last one to awaken. Groggy with sleep, I rolled over and looked into Salvador’s charming green eyes. He gave me a gentle smile, then reached over and kissed me, ever so softly, on the lips. I stretched underneath him, twining my arms around his neck and pulling him down for a more lingering kiss, and we enjoyed each other’s company for long, lovely moments, and I thought to myself that I’d never been happier.
My conquistador was with me, my fellow travelers were safe, and we were about to be rescued. Life did not get much better.
“We should join the others,” Salvador said, his voice carrying a hint of emotion I couldn’t identify. Reluctance? Perhaps he was worried that once we got off the island, I’d forget about him. I squeezed his hand. Not a chance. He and I were going to be together, always.
I followed Salvador down to the others on the shore. Eustace, Susie, and Olivia all stood on the shore, talking quietly, and I noticed that Eustace clutched Susie’s hand tightly in his. I smiled at that, slipping my hand into Salvador’s larger one.
“Where’s Mr. Wingarde?” I asked, putting my hand to my eyes to shield them from the bright sunlight on the water.
Olivia pointed at the small sailboat. “He’s making it ready to sail. No water leakage overnight, so he wants to leave before the sun gets too high in the sky. He says he’s already plotted a course and everything.” She squinted and glanced over at me. “We gave him one of the compasses we had in the caves.”
It was a little scary to think about setting off without having any working equipment. “I suppose the compass will work once we get out of this region, hmm?”
Olivia shrugged.
“Well,” I said brightly, hoisting my pack over my shoulder. “What are we waiting for? Shall we get aboard?”
Salvador lifted my hand to his lips and brushed a soft kiss on it. “Belleza,” he said, his voice husky, his green eyes intense with emotion that I couldn’t name. “You know I will always love you and cherish our time together,” he began.
I cut him off with a nervous laugh, and jerked my hand out of his. “Come on,” I said. “That sounds to me like you’re not going with me, and we both know that’s ridiculous.”
“I’m not going,” he said quietly. “None of us are.”
Olivia’s sad eyes brimmed with tears and she ran off, heading down the beach, back towards our campfire.
Perplexed by her reaction, I focused in on Salvador, trying not to get too anxious over his words. “What do you mean, you’re not going? It’ll be scary to be back in the real world, at first, but you’ll soon adjust. Isn’t that right, Susie?”
I looked over to the flight attendant for confirmation, but she shook her head and leaned in to Eustace. “We talked about this last night, Diana. I’m not going to leave Eustace here. I’ve got nothing back in the real world waiting for me except massive student loans and alimony payments to my ex-husband. I’d rather stay here and take my chances in the wild. I wish you the best, though, kiddo.”
And with that, she and Eustace walked hand-in-hand, down the beach, without a backward glance at me and Salvador.
Panic rose in my throat. “I don’t understand. Why are they staying? How can they possibly want to stay here?”
“It’s their home,” Salvador said simply. “As it is mine.”
I reached for him, put my hands on both sides of his face, my fingers running over his beautiful mouth as if I could memorize it with my touch. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ll be with you the entire time, and it’ll be fine. We’ll get back to the mainland, and we can get married, and you’ll live with me. It won’t be so bad. I promise—“
“Belleza,” he said softly, his hands cupping my face. He looked down at me with such tenderness I thought I would cry at the sight of it. “It is not that I would not leave with you. It is that I cannot.”
Tears threatened, and a hard knot formed in my throat, and I swallowed repeatedly. “I...I don’t understand. Why can’t you?”
“Think,” he said softly. “Even if I had lived to be a hundred years old – an ancient man – I would still be dead many times over. On this island, time does not pass. I am young, and I am healthy. But once I leave...” he shrugged. “I will age within days and die.”
“That’s not true,” I protested, fear prickling at his words. “You don’t know that will happen.”
“I do know it will happen,” he said firmly. “Harold came to the island only thirty years after Eustace and Olivia. He was only a few years older than Eustace when they landed. Fifty years ago, he made a raft and left the island, seeking to return to the mainland. He returned a week later, aged as he is now. Had he stayed out later, he would have died.”
I gasped at the horrible story, thinking of Harold, so fragile and old. “No,” I breathed.
“Yes,” he said firmly, his hands resting on my arms. “You see why I cannot leave. I would age away within a matter of days, leaving you nothing but a memory.”
“You’re leaving me nothing but a memory now,” I said, my heart aching. The tears that had threatened spilled over, and I began to cry. I didn’t want him to age and die. I wanted him to be as he was now, always golden and beautiful. “It’s all right, then. We’ll stay here. I’ll go back to the cave with you, and we’ll live out our days here.”
“No,” Salvador said in that heartbreakingly tender voice. “If you had a choice, belleza, you would go back home. I would not take that choice away from you. I would not force you to a life here, not when you can still leave.”
I sobbed. “It’s not fair,” I said. “I don’t want to leave without you.”
“I am sorry,” he said in that heartbreakingly gentle voice, pulling me close to him. “Know that I will always love you. Know that I will always think of you, and your sweet face, and the way you smell, every time I wake in the morning. Know that I will think of you when I look at the stars at night, and thank God that he has given us this short time together.”
I said nothing and clung to him as I sobbed. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair. I had love, and I was about to lose it.
Eventually, my tears died down to nothing but hiccups, and my sobs down to a dry ache at the back of my throat. Salvador said nothing, simply stroked the wetness away from my cheeks and kissed my face so tenderly that it made me cry anew. “Go, belleza. I would not condemn you to this life, just to keep you at my side. You deserve to go back to the life you love, and to live a full dream.”
We slowly separated, and I glanced back at the ship waiting in the water. Mr. Wingarde waved from the deck of the ship, then pointed at the sky and the boat. His message was clear – we needed to leave soon. The wind was picking up, and whipped my hair around my face.
Salvador opened his pack and handed it to me. “I want you to have this, belleza.” Inside, I saw a good portion of dried fruit, a corked bottle of Olivia’s fruit win
e, and my heart nearly stopped at the sight of the log book, tenderly tucked away inside.
“Your log book from your ship,” I said, looking up into his face with searching eyes. “Why?”
The smile he gave me was soft, heart-breaking. “So you have something to remember Salvador Diego de la Cuerva by. So you will know this was not just a dream.”
I clutched it close to my chest and leaned into him once more. “It was the best dream ever, if it was,” I said, trying not to cry again.
His fingertips touched my chin, and he lifted my face for one last kiss. “You must go, belleza. I will not keep you.”
And just like that, he stepped backward, leaving me alone on the shore, the bag in my hands. I swayed for a moment, nearly ill with the thought of leaving him, and then straightened. I turned and headed out to the surf, wading out to the ship.
The water was no more than waist-high when I made it to the edge of the boat, and climbed the metal rungs to get over the side. On the boat, Mr. Wingarde was busily tying knots into the sail and puttering around. “We ready to go?” He said, smiling cheerfully at me. “If this good wind keeps up, we might hit shore in Bermuda in no time, once we get our bearings.”
I looked over at the shore. Salvador stood there, stoic as ever, his arms crossed over his chest, unmoving. He’d stay there until I was out of sight, I knew. He’d stay there until I was no more than a speck on the ocean, and long after that. He’d wait until I was no more than a breath or a whisper of a dream, and then he’d make the long, lonely walk back to the cave, and return to his endless life.
Without me.
I felt hollow inside. Empty, and hollow. “I’m ready,” I said dully, tears sliding down my cheeks.
I sat there like a lump as Mr. Wingarde pulled up the anchor and adjusted the sails, catching the wind. “Good sailing weather,” he declared, as cheerful as could be.
I was dying, but I forced myself to smile at him. “Great weather,” I echoed.
The wind snapped into the sails, and the little boat slid out into deeper waters, slowly, agonizingly. Yet, it was too fast. We were going away too fast, and I watched as the island began to recede behind us. Unthinking, I uncovered the book that Salvador had sent with me, and nearly wept at the sight of the beautiful embossed cover.
