Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103620 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
I nod. “Bru.” I nod at his wife as well. They are both working hard to understand and also refrain from asking the myriad questions I can see running through their mind.
Accidentally, completely without meaning to, I notice that we have encircled them. The five of us. We are standing around these three, trapping them in, inadvertently holding them hostage by the shape of our quintet.
“Okay, cool,” says the mom. “Oh. You know what? I just remembered that our flight got switched.”
“What?” Laura, the daughter, asks.
“Oh, shoot, you know, you’re right,” the dad says. “We got an alert a bit ago and I totally forgot. We’re now supposed to leave much earlier in the morning. I don’t think you actually can spend the night, kiddo. We have to get to the airport tomorrow.”
“But—” their daughter starts to dispute the brazen lie her parents have just concocted.
“Yeah, ugh, bummer, but you got Liz’s socials, right?”
“I don’t have that,” Lizzy volunteers.
“Oh,” the dad says.
“We’re not big into social media,” Christine notes.
We do not tell them it’s because all of us attempt to stay off the grid—whatever grid that might be—as much as possible.
“Oh,” the mom echoes. “Oh, well, you can get her number and…” She drifts off.
I look at Christine. I look at Danny. I look at Andra and Lizzy. We all grin a knowing, shared grin that looks so very much like one another’s, before I step back, creating a door of sorts, allowing the three khakis passage from out of our circle.
I don’t say anything and neither do they. They just look around with the anxious energy of people who find themselves somewhere they don’t entirely belong, and scurry away down the beach back to whatever cottage they’re staying in.
Once they’re gone, I assume my place in our formation once more, effectively closing the door I opened and leaving us to one another again.
“Sorry, honey,” Christine says to Lizzy.
“Eh, it’s okay.” Lizzy shrugs. “They weren’t really our people. Y’know?”
She takes her mother’s hand and gives it a squeeze. Then she reaches out to hold her sister’s with her other hand. Andra, in turn, takes mine. I, seeing what’s evolving in the moment, reach out and take Danny’s. He, in kind, grasps hold of Christine’s free hand.
And we stand there.
Holding hands in the dark.
Billions of white-hot stars blaze in the infiniteness of the night sky overhead, making untold formations that defy definition, but that are eternal.
And wondrous.
And impossibly beautiful.
EPILOGUE
The bonfire sends cinders crackling into the black and disappearing into the night sky. Seems like the whole town is here, milling about, drinking, laughing, wishing Andra a happy birthday. She and Lizzy giggle and chase each other the way sisters do.
Alec and Christine are closer to the flames, but I sit on the beach back where I can see everything. The whole picture. The entirety of the scene. Just watching and aimlessly swirling my toes in the sand. Christine looks over, sees me sitting there, and she and Alec come to meet me, joining me to sit on either side.
“Whatcha doing?” she asks after a moment.
“Nothing,” I say. “Just… being here.”
“What’s that?” Alec asks, pointing at where my toes have dug into the beach.
“What?”
“That that you’re drawing.”
“I don’t—I was just… I’m not sure. What does it—?”
When I look at what they see, my breath catches in my throat.
It’s a triangle. Just like the one on Alec’s back.
Except… except that’s not all.
Inside, I’ve apparently etched out a square.
And that’s not all.
Inside that… is a circle.
I had no idea I was even doing it.
Maybe I wasn’t. Or, at least, maybe it wasn’t just me doing it.
Who knows?
And as we all stare at the curious design that’s been engraved onto the earth at our feet, Alec and Christine press their heads against mine without saying another word.
We rest there, listening to the sound of our children playing by the bonfire and our friends laughing as, out of the crowd, I see my mate William approaching, beer in hand, wide smile plastered across his face.
“Danny, Christine, Alec. You throw a fine party.”
“Thanks, bru, we try,” Alec says, slapping hands with him.
William bends over and gives Christine a kiss on the cheek and then slaps his palm into mine as well, and when he pulls back, I notice his smile has been replaced by a look of curiosity and bemusement.
“What?” I say. “What is it?”
He points at the sketch in the sand near my feet. “You draw that?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe. Why?”
“It’s a Philosopher’s Stone.”
“Philosopher’s Stone?” I repeat. He nods. “Huh.”
“Alchemists used it back around the sixteen hundreds. Believed it would bring about the merging of the mind, body, and soul. Especially in relationships between people. It’s supposed to indicate that you’re whole, complete, and free all at once.”
Alec, Christine, and I share another look and I nod. “Cool.”