Return to Cancún (3 page)

They made it to the sand. Terra took her
shoes off. The warm sand felt like fine sugar as it seeped between
her toes. She felt an immediate sense of peace and serenity. She
remembered the feeling from last time—the sense that this was a
magical place. A place out of time. A place that touched her
deepest desires.

Nik nudged her, looking up. She saw Spidey,
the howler monkey, scurry half way down his palm tree. He raced
around the trunk, screeching. He stopped and looked at Terra,
squealed louder as if berating her, then scampered back up the
tree.

“He actually glad to see you. He upset you
take too long to come back. He’ll forgive you.”

“Hola,” Terra called up, as a peace gesture.
Spidey gave her a final reprimand, then disappeared among the
palms.

When they got to the deck of Nik’s house, a
man came out and approached them, smiling. He was dark, wearing
only swim trunks, with an athletic body and dreadlocks past his
shoulders. “Hola,” he said to Nik.

“Hey, Carmine, this is Terra,” Nik said. The
man’s smile widened. “Ahhh, the mythical Terra! Hello, hello!” He
took Terra’s hand and put his other hand on it, holding it
warmly.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Terra said. His soft
brown eyes had a gentle warmth to them. “You have been the topic of
many a long conversation around the fire with my good friend Nik,”
he said. “Stop it,” Nik said, pushing Carmine’s shoulder and
looking off, clearly embarrassed. “No, no,” Carmine said, still
holding Terra’s hand. He leaned in closer to her. “You have him
under your spell. In Jamaica, we call that Majik. It’s like owning
a soul. Big responsibility.” He let go of her hand with a knowing
nod. “So what take you so long?” he asked Nik.

“Motor bike broke down.”

“Ah, crap, man. Where is it?”

“I had to leave it in town and get a
cab.”

“Ah. Let me know where and I’ll see what I
can do.” He turned and stepped off the deck onto the sand, looking
up at the sky. “Fire time,” he said as he wandered off, leaving
them alone.

“Fire time?” Terra asked.

“You’ll see. Come on,” Nik said, leading her
inside the house.

The kitchen was alive with activity. A large
group of people, talking and laughing, were cooking and preparing
food. Music was playing from a portable stereo, giving the place a
party like feel. It was very different from the quiet, serene place
Terra remembered from her last trip.

Her throat tightened as her insecurities
grabbed hold of her. She was never much for crowds of people,
always feeling out of place in cliques. She’d been surprised to
find that college wasn’t much different than high school, with its
fraternities and social groups—it seemed like just a more
formalized version of the high school social scene. She’d developed
a distrust of cliques. Now, when she saw the group in the kitchen,
her first instinct was to withdraw.

“Hey, everyone,” Nik called out, his arm
around her. “This is Terra.” Everyone looked, flashing big smiles.
“Terra! You exist! We were beginning to wonder,” a girl with wild
red hair shouted.

“Hey Terra, grab this, would you?” said a
portly guy with a shiny bald head, handing her a large plate of cut
vegetables as he walked past her.

“Guys, we just come from airport, let her at
least use the bathroom before you put her to work,” Nik said.

“No, it’s okay,” Terra said, taking a deep
breath and dropping her shoulder bag. “I’m good. Where should I
take this?” she asked the bald guy. “Ask Red,” he said over his
shoulder as he went out to the deck.

“Over here,” the girl with the red hair said,
waiving Terra over as she swung her hips to the music. They soon
had her cutting vegetables and mincing garlic. Someone poured her a
glass of wine. Nik joined in, telling Terra who was who as they
peppered her with questions about college and recent news from the
States.

More people came in from outside, grabbing
beers, bottles of wine, stacks of plates and cups, hauling it all
outside. Everyone wore bathing suits and sandals, or went barefoot.
Most of the guys didn’t wear shirts. There was a mix of
ethnicities, but most seemed to be in their twenties or thirties.
There was a casual, sexy, summer camp for adults feel to it.
Everyone was relaxed and friendly, greeting Terra with warm smiles
and friendly handshakes, going out of their way to include her.

It was nice to see Nik in a group of people.
She could tell everybody liked and respected him. His easy laugh
and comfortable charm seemed to bring out the best in everyone. It
didn’t take long before Terra felt like she was part of the group.
It was the only time in her life she felt a real sense of
belonging, like she just naturally fit in.

Terra loaded up with all she could carry and
followed the others outside while Red gossiped with her about
Soren, a Swedish hunk that was methodically seducing all the women.
“Including you?” Terra whispered. Red gave her a knowing smile.
“Well, he’s quite persuasive. I’d say watch yourself, but I think
you’re the one girl that’s safe.”

Stepping off the deck, Terra was surprised to
see an enormous beach fire going. There were more people around the
fire, setting things up. A couple was just coming in from the
water, walking up to the fire as someone threw them a towel. Terra
placed her plates on the table along with the others. It was a
dizzying amount of food. There was fresh-caught fish, mounds of
pasta and rice, and large loafs of fresh baked bread. The bald guy,
who Terra now knew was named Allan and used to be a banker in
Boston, was roasting whole onions with some elaborate method using
sticks and foil. There was a whole table of just fruits and
vegetables that Terra later learned came mostly from Carmine’s
garden and green house.

As soon as the stack of plates was set down,
everyone grabbed one and started piling on the food. Someone set
the portable stereo on the end of the table and turned it up. They
ate while sitting on the sand in circles or standing up, mixing and
mingling. Everyone seemed to have the big appetites that come after
a long day of hard work.

Smelling all the delicious food, Terra
suddenly realized she was famished. She had skipped the iffy
looking plane food, so she hadn’t eaten since the day before.
Everything tasted so delicious she had to force herself to slow
down. After a steady diet of bland dorm food, it was like her taste
buds were screaming for joy.

Terra eventually was introduced to everyone,
trying hard to learn their names. Nik stayed at her side the whole
time, giving her a needed sense of security. After eating, they
walked down the beach together.

Settling on a driftwood log, they could still
hear the music and laughter drifting down the beach, and could see
the soft glow of the fire.

“I’ve never in my life had food that good,”
Terra said. Nik smiled.

“It’s become competitive. Everyone try to
outdo the other with what they cook best. But I guess we all
benefit, yeah?”

“Yeah. Was it a special occasion
tonight?”

“No occasion. We do that every night.”

“Really? With the fire and everything?”

“Well, sure. Unless it rains, then we all
cram into the house.”

Terra playfully pushed her feet through the
wet sand as the waves lapped the shore just a few yards away.
“Everybody here is so… nice,” she said.

“Yes. Everybody really wants to be here. I
think they all feel they be a part of something special.”

“Because of you,” she said.

“No. I just started it, but once more people
came, it became… something different. More than I ever imagined.
It’s becoming a real… ah, what is the word?”

“Community.”

“Yes,” he said, looking at her.
“Community.”

“You’ve done a great job,” she said, touching
the back of his head, stroking his hair.

Down the beach the beach fire grew as someone
added more wood, illuminating Nik’s face in soft strokes. He looked
at her in the same way he did in the taxi, as if he was trying to
find the words to say something important.

Terra looked into his eyes, glowing in the
firelight. Tension pulled at his face. She leaned closer to
him.

“I…” he said, struggling.

“Shhh,” she said, tracing her fingers over
his lips. “Later. Okay?”

“Yes. Okay,” he said, relieved. She
intertwined her toes with his, pushing them into the sand,
initiating a toe fight.

“Hey,” he said, looking back at her, “do you
want to go for a dive?”

“Love to,” she said, grinning.

~ ~ ~

They walked hand in hand back to the fire.
Terra wondered what time it was—it had been dark for a couple of
hours. Then she realized she really didn’t really care what time it
was. She noticed earlier that nobody here wore watches. The others
were still around the fire. Nobody seemed to think it was strange
when she and Nik went to the boat and pushed off.

Nik tacked the sailboat along the coast. The
boat’s light illuminated the face of the white cliffs that dropped
dramatically into the water. When they got to the bay, Terra could
hear the sounds of the island before she saw it. She remembered it
from the last time—a nighttime chorus of birds and animals. The
sound instantly brought her back to last summer. As the boat got
closer to the island, Nik turned on a second light, illuminating
the shore and the line of trees set back on the beach. The sounds
got louder, as if welcoming the two of them back. “I guess they’ve
been expecting us,” Nik said.

They anchored in the calm water just off
shore. Nik pulled out the water lights and some masks from the
hull’s storage. Without a word, they both took off their clothes
and dove in.

While Nik dove down to set up the lights,
Terra floated on her back in the dark water, looking up at the
stars. Her naked body felt the welcome caress of the warm saltwater
supporting her. It was hard to believe that it was just yesterday
that Vicki drove her to the airport, through the sweltering, urban
streets of Detroit. Terra smiled, remembering Vicky’s admonishments
as she swerved her truck through traffic.

“Call me when you land. And
every other day. At least. No,
every
day.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You better be or I’ll come there and drag
you home. Don’t do anything stupid. Use your common sense.”

“I thought you always said ‘normal rules
don’t apply’ when you’re on vacation.”

“That’s only when I’m with you. I’m a badass
from the streets of Detroit. You’re a prissy white girl from the
suburbs of Ann Arbor, so all the rules apply to you. You hear me?
Every goddamn rule applies to you. And rule number one is, don’t
get hurt. And that includes your heart.”

“I won’t,” Terra said softly, not sounding
too sure.

“I’ve got a few years on you, you know? I’ve
been to the love rodeo a few times. I’m just sayin’ be careful. I
don’t want you living on saltines and soda water again.”

The water around Terra suddenly lit up,
pulling her from her daydream. Another light went on, then another.
She rolled over, looking into the brightly lit water. Swirls of
fish in vivid, rainbow colors fanned along the bottom. Nik was down
on the reef. He looked up at her and kicked for the surface. When
he broke the surface, he took her hand and stroked a few yards
closer to shore where they could stand in the shallower water. He
held her diving mask. “This reminds me of the first time we met,”
he said. “The girl with no spit.” He handed her the mask.

“Um. When I first saw you, I honestly thought
you were the most beautiful person I’d ever seen.” She spit in the
mask, swirling water to clear it. He spit in his own mask, doing
the same. “Do you remember?” she asked, tentative.

He nodded as he slid his mask on. “Oh, I
remember. I remember every second of every moment we spent
together.” He rolled over and dove down. She took a deep breath and
followed him.

They dove off the reef. He showed her some
free-diving techniques. He seemed capable of holding his breath for
as long as he wanted, like he was half fish. He showed her how to
walk the reef to go deeper, which reminded her of a kind of
underwater rock climbing.

Eventually they went back to the boat and sat
on the bow, drying off. Nik made birdcalls, getting the island
birds to answer him back. He went back and forth with them, like
they were having a complex conversation of squawks and screeches.
“They be used to it,” he said. “I tell them all my hopes and
plans.”

“Hopes and plans?” she asked, feeling the
warm night air drying her skin.

“Yes. You know, my dreams.”

He turned and looked at her
with that same expression. One of the birds squawked again, left
hanging in the middle of their conversation.
Say it,
she thought as she looked at
him, her stomach tightening into a fist.
What is it? What do you want to tell me?
After a moment, he called back to the bird. The bird made a
chuckling sound, as if laughing at their exchange. Or teasing Nik
for being a coward.

Nik stood and reached down, taking her hand.
He led her down the steps into the hull of the boat. There was a
small, cozy sleeping room, about the size of a large closet, barely
tall enough for him to stand in. A low, wide bed was built out of
the sidewall. Nik led her to the bed and laid her on her back, then
slid in next to her. There were small oval windows along the wall
next to the bed, at about the same level as the water. The surface
of the water bounced against the windows, giving her glimpses of
the illuminated, underwater world, and brief peeks of the island
beyond.

Nik traced his fingertips along the length of
her body, from her knees, over her groin, along her belly and
breasts, and all the way to her neck. He danced his fingers over
her face and over her lips. Though his touch was as light as the
flutter of a butterfly, she felt like there was an electrical
change coming from his fingertips. As his hand fluttered back down,
her body arched up, eager for more contact.