Though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I slipped back down in the dark, silky water and kicked toward the cave with the others. It was a narrow slit in a high cliff face of columnar rocks. Was Emily sure this was safe? It seemed so dark inside. I paused, treaded water, caught my breath. In the distance, I heard the sound of a boat, friend or foe, I didn’t know. More likely to be foe. I glided into the slit. The walls around me were high and dark. The whole island was made of these tall columns. I hoped there were no jellyfish in there. The centre of the cave formed a dome, which I could barely make out from the reflected moonlight that somehow slanted its way in. I flipped up onto my back for the briefest moment, to admire the beauty. Then cold and fear got the better of me, and I rolled to my stomach again and swam forward. I’d always liked to swim. It turned out I was the strongest swimmer of the four of us. Emily and Courchene, with little Raymond on his back, paddled behind me. It amazed me that Raymond hadn’t drowned. When I came up for air, I could hear him squealing, though whether with delight or fear I couldn’t quite tell.

On the east side of the island, those strange basalt cliffs loomed twice as high. But jutting out toward the next island over were more of those flat rocks, wide enough to sit on. We clambered onto them.

I caught my breath, exhausted. I wouldn’t have been able to go any farther. I was so tired, and wanted to sleep, but I was too cold, soaking wet and wearing nothing but a soggy bra, an undershirt, and underpants. I dozed for a few minutes.

I woke up shivering in the dawn light, alone on the cold rock. “Emily? Bill?”

No sign of them.

I climbed over two more flat rocks. My foot slipped and scraped against a jagged edge. I’d cut it. A thin stream of blood ran over the small toe. I checked to make sure it wasn’t serious, then pulled myself up onto a taller rock. There they were, several stones over, still asleep. I scrambled over to them. “Have you seen anyone else?”

Bleary-eyed, Courchene opened his eyes. He nudged Emily. Raymond began to cry. “No, I haven’t,” he said.

I bit my lip.

“It’s incredible that we didn’t drown,” Emily said. “We’re probably the only ones who made it.”

I couldn’t stop shivering. Emily and Courchene shivered too, and little Raymond, cradled in his shaking mother’s arms, wailed himself blue. We’d come this far, but we might still die of exposure out here, unless a Japanese patrol boat put an end to us some other way. My stomach grumbled with hunger.