24
“We need to tell Agwe and pack,” said Forest. Becca should be on the point now, right?”
I looked up at the sun overhead, drifting to the west. It made my eyes burn more. This was when she liked to lay out on the point, a small patch of sand at the southern tip of Agwe’s property. “Yeah,” I whispered.
“Let’s go,” said Forest.
We walked side by side in the sand. I could feel my calves starting to cramp. I thought back to the sandcastle. Kissing her only a few hours ago. Tears started running again, and I didn’t give a shit. Neither did Forest. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it wasn’t knowing I would be without her that caused me so much pain. It was the thought of hurting her that fucking crushed me. I knew at that point falling in love was an actual thing. I had always assumed it was just some bullshit people made up to sell roses and romance novels. I was wrong, very wrong.
“Fishing line,” said Forest. “Maybe a mask, coconuts. Those leftover muffins. You think we take that boat on the end, the one like Andros?”
“Yeah, but Agwe is going to tell us not to steal,” I replied.
“Let’s not mention the boat to Agwe,” he said.
I nodded. Forest pointed to the high grass, pine trees, and palms that lined the beach.
“Lots of places to hide,” he said.
I didn’t feel like talking. Fucking whatever.
“We get our stuff,” said Forest. “We find a good hiding spot off the beach and sit out the daylight. About 2 AM we swim up to that boat from the beach, untie it, and drag it out of the marina. Don’t need to start the motor. With this wind we can raise the sail and pull out of there silently.”
“Alright,” I said.
We reached the thatch hut and trail that led back to the old road. I walked toward the trail.
“No,” said Forest. “We stay off the road.”
I knew that would mean crossing through a long patch of mangrove trees and sharp rock. At least for half a mile until we got to Agwe’s beach and the trail up to his house.
“That’s gonna take a long time, man. Time we don’t have,” I replied.
“Better than getting caught on that road,” said Forest.
“We can run. Five maybe ten minutes. Through the mangroves could take thirty.”
“Yeah, okay,” said Forest.
As soon as we hit the packed sand on the trail, we started running. I felt a branch of thorns rip across my right leg. The sting was slight. I quickly looked down and saw dots of blood separated by thin red lines. My throat was completely dry with the exception of blood dripping from the inside of my mouth. The road was just ahead. Forest slowed to a walk and held up his hand to signal me. Part of me expected to look toward Agwe’s house and see police cars. We neared the edge of the high grass and cautiously looked to the right toward Queens Bluff and to the left toward Agwe’s.
“Clear,” said Forest.
He started running toward Agwe’s, and I followed behind. My mind flashed back to our sprint through the woods in Miami. The scene was almost the same, minus Becca. Then to the cave where she nursed me back to health. The sight of her face leaning closer and closer to mine until I felt her lips. I would never forget that. The experience was so intense that it seemed like more than a memory. That any time I could go back to that place and feel the same thing, at least I hoped.
Agwe’s house was in sight. It would have been smarter to take the ocean side, but this way there was a chance Becca might come back up for a drink or something. Then we would run into her and have to explain ourselves. I hoped. I hoped so bad that I prayed for a God up there to make her leave the point for just a few minutes to get something to eat, go to the bathroom, anything. Then I wondered if our souls were close, so close that I was now coming to her mind. That she sat up with a feeling that something was just wrong. Instincts. “Come back up the house Becca,” I whispered over and over.
We reached Agwe’s, and I didn’t see anyone. We startled a chicken that ran across the backyard. We both walked to the edge of the property where we could see the point.
“Is she there?” asked Forest.
“Yeah.” My heart fucking broke. I swear in that moment it was like a part of it went black and died. Maybe more than a part. Becca rested on her belly in the distance. I could tell the strap on her top was untied and she looked peaceful and asleep.
“Come back, Becca,” I whispered.
She lay there as if frozen.
“Come back.”
I bit my lip harder and tasted the blood. I clinched my fist and shut my eyes tight.
“Joey,” said Forest. He was already walking back around the house. I looked at him.
“Come on,” he made no sound, but looked like he was shouting.
I knew this was it. The last time I would see Becca, and it fucking tortured me. I watched her for a few last seconds and whispered,
“Don’t be mad at me, Becca, please. I love you. Goodbye.”
A switch inside of me turned on. Maybe it was a coping switch or something, but I was very familiar with it. My emotions went blank, and I felt more like an animal than human.
Forest and I walked back around to the other side of the house.
“Shit!” said Forest, pointing at the road. We could hear the sound of trucks approaching and saw a faint cloud of dust in the distance pushed up by the tires.
We bolted into the house. “Agwe!” shouted Forest.
He was sprinkling salt on some fish on the counter. Agwe jumped, and the glass jar rolled onto the floor. It smashed into several pieces, and salt showered onto the floor.
“You scared me, Forest!”
“We have to go, Agwe. Now. Take care of Becca. Tell her we’re sorry. We don’t have a choice,” said Forest.
Forest grabbed his blanket and started stuffing shirts into his backpack.
“What do you mean? Where are you going?” asked Agwe.
I grabbed half a dozen coconuts and stuffed them into a mesh sack on the counter. I could feel the numbness and tunnel vision. We just had to get out now. That was all I was thinking about.
“Wait Joey, wait,” said Agwe.
“The cops are coming right now!” snapped Forest. “We have thirty seconds, and we’re gone.”
“No!” shouted Agwe.
Forest stuffed some bread into his backpack and a few large papayas.
“Fishing line,” I said rummaging through one of the drawers.
“Shit, we’re running out of time,” said Forest.
“Forest, Joey, stop!” shouted Agwe.
We couldn’t listen. We loved that man but knew we didn’t have time to listen. It hurt like hell.
I grabbed a towel that Becca brought me home from Queens Bluff. Agwe ripped it out of my hands.
“Stop!” he shouted again.
I yanked it back. “We don’t have time for this, damn it. I’m sorry.”
We could hear trucks coming down the road. They were much closer now. In less than a minute there would be a knock on the door, or they would just ram it down. With our bags in hand we bolted to the back door. Agwe jumped in front of us.
“You gotta get out of the way, man!” Forest shouted and pushed Agwe aside. Then he tried to grab my arm and I flung his hand away. The second we stepped outside Agwe shouted,
“They aren't coming for you.”
We both froze and looked back at him. His expression unusual and serious.
“They are Agwe,” said Forest. “For the killings by the lake.”
Agwe shook his head. “I confessed to your crime.”
The trucks were coming fast. My mind was thrown into a storm of confusion trying to process what he just said. I knew we were supposed to run, but we just both stood there, stunned.
“Agwe,” I said. “What? Why the hell did you do that? Besides it doesn’t even matter. They’ll run DNA, blood tests. Your blood isn’t even there, man.”
“You’re wrong, Joey,” said Agwe.
> “What are you talking about?” I snapped.
Agwe lifted his hands revealing his palms.
“What?” I asked softly.
“My scars,” said Agwe.
“From the fight with that Blue Marlin,” I whispered.
“I didn’t go fishing that day, Joey.”
We heard the sound of multiple car doors opening.
Forest started to turn to the trail, not knowing what to do.
“We have to go then, Agwe. All of us,” said Forest. “Come on.”
“No. You’re done running,” said Agwe.
I suddenly felt like a fucking basket case and didn’t know what to do. Forest’s eyes were straight bloodshot.
“Agwe,” said Forest. “You’re the last person on earth that deserves to live in a cell. It can’t happen, man. Not while I’m alive.”
Forest pulled the knife out of his backpack. “Joey, we fight. To the death. Fuck it.”
Agwe approached Forest and grabbed hold of the blade so that it rested against his scars.
Forest immediately released the knife, and Agwe tossed it aside into the high grass.
“Give me a hug instead,” said Agwe.
Forest wrapped his arms around Agwe’s neck in a tight embrace.
“Forest,” whispered Agwe. “Do you see? Your heart is far more powerful than your fists. Use this instead. It will lead you to better places.”
“Agwe Manitoba!” shouted a voice from the front of the house.
“I am coming unarmed. I surrender!” shouted Agwe.
Agwe reached out his right hand and placed it on my shoulder. He smiled. Not the big grin that we always saw when he looked up at the sky or swam on the reef. It was different. It was a smile that looked like contentment.
“Goodbye, Joey. I left some notes and a letter for you under my book.”
I hugged him before he walked away and disappeared around the side of the house. He never did look back. We couldn’t see what was going on out front, we could only hear the sounds of clicking and car doors shutting. Forest and I stood in that backyard like statues. There was the sound of a vehicle peeling out on the gravel road and another followed. It became more and more quiet, until we couldn’t hear them anymore. There we stood. The wind was gently blowing the smell of sea salt onto our faces. I could hear the sound of small waves hitting the rocks at the point. I watched a seagull overhead and shifted my focus to the large white cloud behind it.
It was hard to take in what had just happened over the last few minutes. It didn’t make sense and sure as hell didn’t fit in with my understanding of people and how they act, what they do. Being still seemed like the only thing that felt right. Forest was the first of us to move. He tossed his backpack to the ground. I looked at it then at Forest. He was my brother.
We heard footsteps. I looked over my shoulder to the trail leading to the point. She appeared small beads of sweat on her forehead, a towel wrapped around her waist, her dirty blonde hair tied back in a bun. I didn’t know what to say.
We looked at her. Becca stopped. Her eyes bounced back and forth between us.
“I had a feeling something was wrong,” she said.
I nodded. “Where’s Agwe?” she asked.
“He took the blame for us. The police took him away.”
She showed no expression, but her eyes filled with tears.
“Why?” she asked.
It wasn’t a question that we could answer, and she knew that. But it needed to be said, and she said it for us. We sat down on the stumps in front of the firepit and said nothing. An hour of silence drifted by.
“What do we do now?” asked Becca.
“I don’t know,” said Forest. “I guess stay here until we get kicked out.”
“Can we? I don’t know,” I answered. “He mentioned some notes he left.”
Forest walked into the house to take a look. I grabbed Becca’s hand and strung her fingers through mine. We didn’t say anything, just breathed. Forest came out of the house holding some papers.
“What is it?” I asked.
Forest handed me an envelope. “A letter to Joey,” he said. I looked at it then folded the envelope and put it in my pocket.
“What’s the rest?” I asked.
Forest was shuffling through a dozen or so papers with text and diagrams.
We both looked on over his shoulder. “Wait, what’s that?” Forest held up a certificate that had a seal in the top left corner.
“Commonwealth of the Bahamas,” I read aloud. “One point eight acres. It has our names on it.”
“Something’s on the back,” said Becca.
We flipped it over and in large, messy handwriting were the words, It’s Yours. Live well.
“What the hell,” said Forest.
Becca had her hand over her mouth. “Let me see that again.” I took the paper and read back over the deed.
“It’s ours,” I said.
Forest quickly stood up and walked off to the trail that led down to the beach.
“Forest,” said Becca.
“Hey, you okay?” I asked.
There was no telling what he was about to do, so we chased him.
“Forest!” I shouted.
We came up to him on the beach. He sat there, in the sand, with his head bowed and hands over the back of his head. It seemed like a crime to see Forest crying, but he wasn’t crying, he was sobbing. We sat down next to him in the sand, a small wave pushed water over our feet.
Becca rested her head on his shoulder. I leaned up against him just like we did on the rock.
Forest lifted his head and stared at the blue water.
“This is fucking crazy,” said Forest. “Why the hell did he do that? Noone does that, man.”
“It is fucking crazy,” I answered.
“Love,” said Becca.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Forest. “Why would he love us?”
“I don’t know,” said Becca.
Forest stood up. “I’m going to take his boat out, get alone for a little while, and think. Look. Let’s take care of his house, fix it up. I don’t care what that paper says. We should consider it his, always. Let’s fix it up for him. If he comes back, I want him to be impressed, okay?”
“Yeah, definitely,” I replied.
“Let’s repaint it,” said Becca. “He said he always wanted to but never had the money to buy paint.”
Forest nodded and walked down the beach to Agwe’s rowboat called Cousin. The boat seemed mysterious and looked lonely now that Agwe was gone. Forest must have sensed the same and felt drawn to comfort the old boat.
“What does the letter say?” asked Becca.
“I don’t know yet.”
“I think I’m going to the point for a while.” She leaned over and kissed me. “I love you,” she said.
“Love you.”
I watched her walk down the beach toward the point. The ends of her hair danced in the wind and shone in the setting sun. She stopped and turned around.
“Is this really happening?” she asked.
“I think so.”
She smiled gently and turned away. I watched her take each step.
“I would die for you,” I whispered.
I sat alone on the beach. The letter felt awkward in my pocket, and I pulled it out. I started to tear the top right corner and stopped. I folded it and returned it back to my pocket, unopened. A school of ten small minnows were feeding on something in the sand in front of my feet. I watched them swim closer when a small wave approached and then back when it receded.
The sand felt cool in between my fingers. I formed a large mound like the one me Becca and I had made. There was a twig within reach that I used to poke hundreds of windows in the new castle. After outlining the roof, I made sure there were no walls or lookout towers. Instead a river flowed by it. I sat there until the sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, by myself, building a sand castle.
The Less Fortunates Page 24
