Daughter Unmoored

by Ly Ann

Part 1 appears in this issue.

conclusion

I woke feverish and dazed, sleep and consciousness blurring together as the morning sunrays bored through the leaves, heating my face and bare arms. My satchel’s strap was tied around my waist; at least I remembered to attach myself to the koa tree trunk before passing out from exhaustion. My dress was still damp from last night. I swallowed the last gulp of water and hooked the milk container handle on a branch.

Time crawled away from me, and the sun now towered in the cloudless sky at its highest, burning my parched skin, extracting every speck of moisture from my dress and body.

“Hello? Are you here?”

The intruder.

I remained still, holding my breath as it picked up something white.

My milk container. The wind must have blown it onto the ground.

Its gaze met mine. No. It saw me.

“Hey!” it said. “My dad got bitten by a snake. He can’t breathe. He threw up twice. Have you brought anti-venom with you?”

I rummaged through my satchel and touched the pouch that contained the anti-venom.

Losing a parent made everything sad. Food, books, even catching a big fish. The pain was always there. Sometimes so small that you almost forgot. Sometimes so big you couldn’t breathe.

A stupid part of me wanted to throw the intruder the kit. I couldn’t forget how dangerous they were. Especially now. It had to know it was me who got its father bitten. It would not hesitate. I hadn’t.

“My name’s Leo, by the way. What’s yours?”

I couldn’t speak.

“¿Hablas español...? Ōlelo Hawai’i’oe...?”

“Kaia.” My name slipped out, even though I had promised Mom I wouldn’t talk to them.

“Nice to meet you, Kaia. I’m sixteen. You must be about my age, right?” It paused. “Do you live alone? How long have you been on the island?”

Its friendliness had to be an act to get me to trust it.

“Kaia? Are you okay? Wait. I’m coming to help you.”

Leo climbed the tree all wrong, wrapping its arms and legs around the trunk. It got two feet high and fell on its behind.

I let out a giggle despite myself.

It dusted off its pants. “You seem fine, all right. Just shy. I’ll continue searching the resort for anti-venom for my dad. I’m leaving my water bottle for you.” It walked away, only to come back. It fished something small and black from its pocket, dropped it next to the bottle and jogged toward the resort.

I had stopped sweating, my body now completely dry and moments away from heatstroke. Leo’s water had to be laced with poison, so I had to fetch water from my pond. My head pounded, and my toes and fingers tingled. Did I even have the strength to walk there?

I surveyed the ground and listened to forest noises: nothing but the mongooses’ grunts, bird twitters and cicadas buzzing. I detached the strap securing my waist to the tree trunk and dropped down slowly, struggling to hold my weight with my weakened arms and legs. I would pass out on my way to the pond for sure.

I couldn’t drink Leo’s water. I looked around as if a puddle would magically appear in this dry heat. What else could I do?

I shoved Leo’s bottle and the thin black rectangle into my satchel and climbed back up.

I unscrewed the silver bottle and inhaled, then tasted a drop. No foul taste, but poison could be tasteless. If I didn’t drink soon, I could pass out and die here. I took a tiny sip. My mouth felt normal. My throat too. No burning or tingling. If I didn’t throw up, I would drink a little more.

I pulled the hand-sized, shiny black rectangle from my satchel, then shook and poked it. Little colorful squares popped up. I touched the one above the word Picture, and Leo appeared on the rectangle. I almost dropped it. I couldn’t help but stare at Leo smiling in its red cap. Warmth snaked inside me.

A rhythmic beat burst out of the rectangle as if someone were pounding something metallic melodically. I had almost hurled the thing when two circles appeared on it: one with the word Accept, the other Decline.

I tapped Accept.

“Kaia? Can you hear me?”

My hands shook.

“Any advice for snake bites?” Leo asked. “I can’t live without my dad. And it’s even worse for my baby sister. She can’t grow up without a father.” Sniffling came through the rectangle.

Leo was crying.

What if intruders weren’t all beasts like Mom said? There could still be nice people like me and Mom out there.

“I’ve got anti-venom,” I said without thinking, and I could no longer take it back.

“Really? Where is it?”

“I have it with me.”

“No way! I’m coming right now.”

The rectangle turned black. I pulled the yellow anti-venom pouch from my satchel, holding the one thing that could prevent Leo from losing its father. Not its father, his father.

Leo zigzagged between the trees. He stopped right below me, hands raised, waiting.

Break the vials, Mom screamed.

“Sorry, Mom,” I whispered. I let the pouch drop into Leo’s hands.

“Thank you!” He raced toward the resort.

What if it was too late? It was my fault. Taking someone’s parent. I was the intruder.

* * *

My back hurt, and my skin was impossibly dry and itchy. I had spent the rest of the day and all night curled in my tree, haunted by visions of Leo’s father dying. The anti-venom was older than me, and I had waited way too long to give it to him. If it had worked, Leo would have come back to tell me by now. Please be okay.

I couldn’t stop looking at Leo’s face on the rectangle. There were a lot of pretty things on my island, but nothing made me feel fuzzy like that, same as when I read about a couple kissing.

“Aren’t you tired of being up there?” Leo asked from the ground.

I flinched and turned the rectangle to hide his picture. “How’s your dad?”

“Much better, thanks to you. Why don’t you get down so we can talk?”

“You’re not mad?”

“Oh... About the bucket. My dad didn’t tell me until this morning. He said I shouldn’t be mad. You were just scared. Besides...” He shrugged. “You gave him the anti-venom.”

I had nearly killed his dad, and he forgave me? Impossible. “My mom said intruders might act nice at first.”

“Wait. Your mom’s here?”

“No...” A part of me wished she was still alive. That one day, she could come back. But she had been gone six rainy seasons. If she were alive, she would have been with them all that time. I couldn’t wish for that.

“I’m sorry.” He sat, back slumped against the tree. “You know, it’s been so long since I’ve talked to someone my age, and it’s driving me mad. I can’t imagine how lonely it feels to live on this island by yourself. When my neighbors got shot, my parents freaked out. They bought a boat, and we searched for an island no gang had claimed.

“My friend Ramiro’s been living with his younger brother ever since his parents got killed by gangs. One night, we invited a bunch of friends and dropped acid. I was so wasted the next day that I fell asleep behind the counter, and a customer left without paying. My parents were pissed.”

Dropped acid? What did those two words together mean? Leo continued telling me about his life back home, sometimes using words I didn’t understand. His voice was making my stomach queasy, even more than his picture.

Leo talked for so long that I began to feel he would always stay with me. When he left, it hurt. Not as much as when Mom left. That pain crippled me for an entire moon cycle. I had lost so much weight that I could feel my rib cage. Leo’s leaving was more like the light dimming and a sudden cold breeze. Part of me wanted to go to him.

What was wrong with me? I couldn’t trust myself around him.

I slid down my tree and ran away in search of a new hiding spot where he wouldn’t find me.

* * *

I lay on my back in my new hideout, nestled at the top of a tall and bushy Hawaiian rose tree that bloomed with red spiky flowers. I spent my nights fishing in the cold ocean with only the moon for company. It had been two moon cycles since I had seen Leo, and my memory of him had blurred as if I had dreamed him up. But, on nights like tonight, the haze of light and music drifting across the island proved he was real. And I still had Leo’s black rectangle as evidence, though it no longer showed his smiling face when I tapped it.

A huge drone passed over the island, dropping nothing new onto it as always. No nuts, no clothes, no yogurt. Nothing. I didn’t even feel like waving at it anymore. I stared at my bag of fully mended clothes hanging on a branch, then brushed the carvings of Mom’s and Leo’s faces in the tree bark. My gaze shifted to the light spilling from the main building. If I returned Leo’s black rectangle to him, he might be able to fix it. Once the music stopped, I climbed down from my tree.

After avoiding the main building for two moon cycles, I scurried there in the dark, careful not to make a sound. I reached the two pools in front of the entrance. The stench of rotten fish was gone. The swampy water had been drained. The moldy furniture had been removed too. I pulled Leo’s black rectangle out of my satchel and placed it on a lounger next to the fire pit.

As I was about to leave, I smelled something weird. The scent led me to a black bag dangling from a branch. I scaled that tree, pulled the bag to me and dug inside, pushing aside plastic tubs and cartons. The aroma made me salivate. It had to be leftovers. But it didn’t look like real food. More like super long white worms in red sauce. I licked the sauce and jerked back. So bizarre. I hurried to my hideout, bag in hand.

Perched on my branch, I snatched a handful of the saucy strings and took a small bite. Best food ever. I shoveled in mouthful after mouthful down to the last morsel. I wiped my hands on my dress and smiled for the first time in forever.

* * *

Six nights passed, with more songs drifting through the forest, teasing me with Leo’s presence so close. Six nights I resisted going near the main building. But tonight, I craved more of the white strings in red sauce.

I climbed down my tree in the middle of the night and rushed to the resort. I went to check the lounge chair next to the fire pit, and the rectangle I had left was there. It sat on a see-through plastic container that seemed to hold the same meal as before. Leo had left it there for me. I grabbed the rectangle and container and sprinted to my hideout.

Still panting from my run and the climb up my tree, I lifted the container’s lid: white strings in red sauce. I licked the tub clean in seconds. I tapped the rectangle, and the squares were back. Leo had fixed it. This wasn’t fair. I had taken his food and rectangle and hadn’t given him anything in return.

Before the sun was up, I rushed to the sea and caught a yellowstripe goatfish. Then I rubbed sea salt on it and left it on the lounger, along with my favorite novel.

* * *

Music woke me. The melody came from Leo’s rectangle on my chest. I must have fallen asleep looking at his picture. The screen showed two circles like before, and I poked the green one.

“Hey, Kaia. Thanks for the fish and the novel. I’m already on chapter two, when the couple meets in the cove.”

“Oh, yeah. I love when they say, ‘Where the moonlight grazed the tide, where the wind whispered their secrets, cold hands moored to each other, finding their place in the world.’”

“That’s dope.”

Dope? It probably meant great. “Hey, how’s your dad now?”

“Tip-top shape.”

Leo talked nonstop. He explained that the rectangle was called a phone and the meal was spaghetti, and I vaguely remembered hearing or reading those words before. As time passed, talking to Leo became as easy as talking to Mom. Leo and I spoke so much that day that we broke the phone. I brought it back to him, and the next night, he had fixed it.

Our trade began: spaghetti for fish and phone for books. For fifteen nights, it continued. But tonight, no fish took my bait. Leo’s boat bobbed in the shallows, safely anchored to the island.

Shivering waist-deep in the cold waves, I searched for Leo on the beach as the sun faintly warmed my face. After three moon cycles of hiding during the day, I was finally fishing in morning sunlight again. I should have gone back to my tree, yet I stayed in place as if I no longer minded Leo finding me.

A silhouette with a cap appeared on the sand farther down the beach. Leo.

I rushed to the shore, ready to dart back to my tree. But then my feet remained stuck in the sand, my gaze fixed on him as he approached.

“Hey,” Leo said. “I was worried something happened to you when I didn’t see your fish this morning.” His eyes flicked to my dress. “So, how was the spaghetti?”

“Ama-ma...” I coughed and stared at his hole-free shoes. “Amazing.”

He chuckled. “I can see that.”

I followed his gaze. My dress was streaked with brown spaghetti sauce. I crossed my arms to hide the stains.

He extended one arm in front of him. “Nice to finally meet you.”

I stared at his hand, unsure what to do.

He lowered it. “Do you want to walk on the beach?”

I nodded.

We strolled side by side, though I kept a safe distance, ready to bolt if needed. While I had become comfortable talking to him on the phone, speaking in person was different. Even he had turned silent. It was as if we no longer knew each other.

As we neared the lobby, a loud bang locked me in place. A gun?

My mind dragged me back to that night in the forest when Mom got attacked.

“Kaia. Kaia!” Leo held my shoulders.

I pulled away, ran to a tall tree and climbed up.

“That banging was just my dad fixing a step,” he said. “Did something happen to you?”

I wanted to talk, but words wouldn’t come out.

“My friend Ade killed a guy who broke into his house,” Leo said from the ground. “He had nightmares for months and jumped every time he heard a loud noise. Can you come back down so we don’t have to shout?”

I descended slowly and looked at my worn shoes. “Did your friend get better?”

“He did but that took months. He said talking about it helped.”

We walked in silence. With Leo beside me, I felt light on my feet. Our green forest seemed brighter, as if a cloud had drifted away from the sun.

“Do you have any spaghetti left over?” I asked.

“No, but I can make you some.” He smiled, a genuine one, sweet and playful.

So many times, I had begged the drone to drop something on my island, and it never did. No nuts, no clothes, no yogurt. But then Leo came, and that was more than anything I could have imagined.