Coraline nods like she was waiting for me to ask. “Why don’t you sit with me on the beach? Kavya, you go to work. I’ll be on the sand if you need me.”

Kavya gives her mom one last hug before she runs inside. Coraline motions for me to follow, leading the way through the sand, past tourists and beachgoers, then settling into one of the club cabanas that face the ocean. Neither of us says anything while we walk, or after we settle in, just listening to the sound of the surf.

It makes me miss home so much. I haven’t come down here these past few weeks for this very reason. I don’t want the reminder of the Blue when I can’t dive back in yet.

“It’s the best sound in the world, isn’t it,” Coraline says.

It is. Out of all the sounds I’ve ever heard—whalesong, dolphin clicks, seal barks, Sean’s laugh—the sound of the Blue is my favorite.

“How could you give it all up?” I ask.

Coraline smiles. It’s not one of those condescending smiles the Elders can give. It’s more knowing, self-assured, more understanding than that.

“I think of it less like what I gave up and more what I gained. I met Avani all those years ago, and had never felt a love like that before. It was hard, fast, mine. And I needed that. The Elders are all about giving of yourself, but I realized for the first time I’d get to build a life for me, not for an idealistic vision of the future I’d been told to want. I needed to know what other types of futures were out there. And I gained the opportunity to see them up here.”

“But don’t you ever miss it?”

She gazes out at the Blue, watching surfers and swimmers and knowing that if she chose to jump in and join them, she’ll never be able to experience the water like she once did. And she seems to be okay with that.