He looked hurt and surprised. But I turned away, stared furiously at the brochures until he walked off. I wouldn’t let myself regret snapping at him. What right did he have? If he hadn’t married Kim, if things had been different—but things were the way they were.

Before lunch, Cole appeared at the booth.

“I’m sorry about last night,” he said. “That must have scared you.”

“It did.”

“I shouldn’t have stayed over,” he said. “Or at least I should have warned you about my sleepwalking.”

“That would have been a good idea.”

Lucas came around the corner and joined us.

“Wait, what’s going on?” I asked. “Why aren’t you at work?”

Lucas shrugged. “Taking the day off. Cole and I are going to the Cape.”

“The Cape? For what?”

“Just to look around.”

“Come with us,” Cole offered.

“I’m working.”

“Take the afternoon off.”

I grabbed a stack of brochures, shuffling them like playing cards. “I can’t take the afternoon off,” I said. “There’s no one to fill in for me.”

“There’s no one here,” Cole said, looking around. “No one needs you.”

He leaned against the booth. He had good posture, straight teeth. His features were symmetrical, his jaw strong and square. He was handsome, but it was a closed-off kind of handsomeness. It was impossible to learn anything from looking at him. He breathed in luxuriously. I pictured the world around him sucked into his powerful lungs: air, buildings, boats, booth, water, sand, flora, fauna.

“Oz is waiting,” Lucas said, looking at me shyly. I raised my eyebrows. It was strange to hear the teasing in his voice, see his shy, proud smile. He was trying out a new identity: ordinary person, normal brother, little devil, dangler of spiders, snapper of bras.

“Oz?” Cole said.

“The guy who works at the information booth on the Cape looks lionlike, like the lion from The Wizard of Oz,” Lucas said.

“He just has this mane,” I said.

“And Lydia likes him.”

“No,” I said. “Lydia does not like him. Lydia doesn’t know him. I just see him sometimes at the Ferry-All meetings, and I don’t know, I like the mane. Anyway, I’m not going. So it doesn’t matter.”

“That’s okay, Lyd,” Lucas said. “You don’t have to come.” He walked toward the Ferry-All office with Cole. “She can’t really leave the island,” Lucas said.

“I can leave the island,” I called. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

Cole looked over his shoulder. He didn’t say anything but I could see some realization crossing his face. Then he turned and said something to Lucas, too quietly for me to hear.

Chapter 10

10

It was hard for me to leave the island.

That was true.