I woke with a start to the sound of laughter coming from behind the wall my wicker headboard rested against—the wall I shared with the girls’ room. I knew in an instant it was Savannah’s laugh, though I had never heard it so uninhibited. The sound was delicious.
My head longed to go spinning off into romantic fantasies all revolving around the girl on the other side of the wall. So to hold onto reality, I tried to remember what had kept me away from Savannah in the first place—the actual cost of a real relationship with a human. It would mean a complete, permanent severing of all communication with home to stay on Earth, breaking ties with every one of my family members and friends forever. Indeed a high price to pay for the girl I barely knew.
The best option for everyone involved, of course, was to get Savannah to go back to her home, wherever that was. Then I would go home myself when the time came.
And then what? Get married, settle down, have kids—with some other woman? That didn’t seem quite fair to my future wife, to have my thoughts light years away.
No, I’d get over this crush. I would go back to Zhimeya, fulfill my obligations to the Masters and the Tribunal, and be with my family again. The decision was made.
After pushing the upsetting tangle of thoughts away with some effort, I got on my knees and put my ear to the wall. It hadn’t even occurred to me to wonder why she was laughing in the first place. As I listened closer, I heard Claire talking in a low, exaggerated masculine voice. It only took a few more seconds of listening to realize she was doing a very poor imitation of me.
What the …
I thought, of all people, Claire would try to make me look good in front of Savannah. I guessed I was on my own in that department.
I banged loudly on the shared wall and heard Savannah gasp. There was a silent pause, and then both of them dissolved into laughter at getting caught.
“Oh, come on, I don’t sound like that!” I shouted through the wall.
“You know you do! I was telling about when you almost got thrown in jail for yelling at the Swiss Guard outside of St. Peter’s.” The laughter started again as Claire jumped up and down on her bed, mimicking the flood of insults I’d unleashed at the guard in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the holiest sites in Christendom, when they wouldn’t let me in because I had the wrong stamp on my documentation. It was a pretty funny story now that I was in no danger of being jailed for threatening the Holy See.
An hour later, I found everyone in the hotel’s tiny restaurant. Claire’s feet were resting lightly on Chase’s lap, her head lolled back, relaxing. The brothers were bowed over an intricate map of roads, and Savannah was sitting next to the only empty chair at the table. Claire had probably orchestrated this seating arrangement as an apology for this morning.
“So,” Savannah said as I took the seat next to her, “you swear like a sailor in front of churches? Now, is it just churches or elementary schools too? How about nursing homes?”
“Hey, had you been there, you would have understood.” I smiled back at her teasing. She lightly kicked my calf with the edge of her boot.
The inn was almost crowded this morning. A soccer team had come in from a neighboring village to play the local team, and much of Akumal had been flooded with newcomers for the games. I gratefully loaded our bags into the Jeep, happy to get out of the crowd.
The three-hour ride to Chichen Itza passed quickly enough. The boys blared their favorite music, and the girls chatted. I was free to add in my comments and relax.
The desert seemed to fight with the jungle for dominance over the landscape for miles until the jungle finally won out as we encroached further into the heart of the Yucatán. Spindly arms of tall cacti mingled with palm trees, mangroves, and ferns, creating an impenetrable wall of fresh yellow-green on either side of us. I enjoyed the rough feel of the unpaved road under the heavily treaded wheels. It was wilder than the silent drive of urbane asphalt highways.
When Claire’s favorite song came on, she screamed, stood up on the seat, and stuck her torso out the sunroof, singing at the top of her lungs:
“First I was afraid …”
Savannah laughed and followed her.
“I was petrified …” she chimed in.
“Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side!” they sang in unison.
I suddenly realized how upsetting it might be for Claire when she would have to say goodbye to Savannah, the first friend she’d had outside of me in two very long years. But, on the other hand, this whole arrangement was Claire’s idea in the first place. She should share in the negative effects of it. Served her right.
“What’s wrong?” Claire asked, seeing my unexpected downturned expression as the song ended. I just shook my head and she left me alone.
The Jeep pulled off the road when a large hand-painted sign directed us to the villas I had booked. The hotel was quiet and clean with a small pool in the courtyard. It looked like the jungle was having a tense standoff with the hotel’s groundskeeper—barely being kept on its turf and seemingly ready to swallow the buildings whole at the first sign of weakness. Vines crept up the sides of the stucco walls where it would be hard for a human to reach. Trees leaned heavy and unrepentant on the outer walls.
Geckos and lizards ran over the stone floors, much to Claire’s chagrin. I wondered how often I would be called into the girls’ room to shoo out a wayward spider. I hoped it would be often.
Even though they were well over a thousand years old, even after the great fall of its people, the mysterious temples of Chichen Itza rose majestically out of the surrounding jungle. The intricate statues and columns were highly weathered, their delicate features having melted away with the elements, and only in a few places were hints still visible of the colored paint that used to adorn the stones. Even still, the grandeur of the ancient city was indisputable.
My favorite building was easily El Caracol, the crumbling observatory dedicated to studying the stars, a subject that I loved dearly. I felt an immediate kinship with these ancients, realizing the time and energy they had expended decoding the cosmos.
El Castillo, the largest and most impressive temple, overshadowed all of the other buildings that surrounded it. Of course, the Mayans had a different name for this important temple: the temple of Kukulkan. The legend of this temple’s namesake was the reason we were here.
The most striking features of Kukulkan’s majestic four-sided stepped pyramid were the enormous carvings of serpents that ran down the length of the stairs on each face, mouths open at the bottom, hissing, daring anyone to climb to the temple’s summit. The Mexican government outlawed tourists climbing the temple when a woman fell to her death while making the treacherous ascent. Savannah was visibly disappointed when she learned she wasn’t allowed to climb it. I wondered how much it would cost to have the caretakers look the other way.
We explored the grounds, listening to the native guides taking tourists around the sites. Researchers before us had found that was the most effective way of learning about Earth.
Savannah ghosted behind us, never asking questions or complaining, seeming completely content just to have someone to walk next to. A few times she retrieved the worn sketchbook from her bag, walked a few yards away from us, and drew, like she had in Jerusalem. My curiosity, as always, drove me half-crazy. I wondered if I would ever get a chance to see what she was drawing.
When the tours became less frequent, Claire, Savannah, and I finally sat on the sprawling lawns to rest. We had been silent for hours, listening instead of talking, but right now, it was too quiet. That, of course, meant Chase and Mateo weren’t nearby. I became more consciously aware that I actually hadn’t seen either of them for a while.
“Claire, where are the boys?” I asked. She just smiled, looking over my shoulder. Sure enough, they were coming out of the trees, covered in mud.
“Where the—” I started.
“We got bored,” Mateo said.
“So we struck out into the jungle. Guess what we found,” Chase asked with excitement.
“I haven’t the slightest,” I said dryly.
“A cenote about half a mile away. No tourists, no locals, no ‘do not enter’ signs!” Chase said gleefully.
“Not that a sign would stop us, anyway,” Mateo added. “We’re gonna change and go back. Anyone else want to come?”
“I’m in,” I said, jumping off the ground. I had been in planes, cars, and cramped hotel rooms too much lately. Doing something kind of stupid sounded absolutely necessary.
“Wait, where are you going?” Savannah asked.
“A cenote, sen-o-tay,” Chase pronounced slowly. “It’s pretty much just a sinkhole. There’s a lot of underground water here, and sometimes the earth above gives way, leaving big exposed pools that people with no sense of self-preservation are going to go diving into!”
“Can’t we just go swimming in the hotel pool instead?” Claire asked plaintively. She knew she was outnumbered as she looked at all the excited faces around her, especially Savannah’s. “Fine,” she sighed, playing the martyr. “I guess it gives me an excuse to wear my new swimsuit. Oh, Savy, you’ll love it! I got it in Italy. Ryen says it is scandalous, but it looked so good on me …” And she was off, chatting all the way back to the hotel.
The cenote really was just a massive hole in the ground, fifty feet across, thirty feet straight down to the water’s surface. What made it mysterious were the dark, dripping vines and thick roots that hung down in heavy curtains all around the opening. The whole atmosphere was intensified by the setting sun’s dying rays just leaving the water’s surface, making the pool dim and shadowy.
I took the thirty-foot plunge first, tearing through the water’s peaceful surface. I swam to the other side before coming up for air, checking for dangerous rocks hiding beneath. I looked up to see both girls peer timidly over the edge. Out of nowhere, Chase scooped Claire up in his arms and held her high over his head.
“Vengeful gods of heaven and earth,” he yelled toward the sky in a deep, solemn voice, “accept this virgin sacrifice!” Claire writhed and screamed in his steely grasp, trying to right herself. Her cries fell on deaf ears as Chase ceremoniously threw her off the ledge, still chanting into the sky. He dove in right after.
Savannah started picking her way down the rocks. Mateo followed silently behind her. When she was about fifteen feet from the surface, he rushed forward, grabbing her up in his arms. He winked at me as she pleaded not to be sacrificed like Claire. She clung to him, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. I had to remember she clung out of fear, hoping she would have done the same to me if I had grabbed her like that.
Mateo finally jumped with Savannah still wound around him. When they emerged, the look on my face made him quickly place her on a rocky outcropping at the water’s edge and swim away. I wasn’t as bulky as Mateo was, but he knew I was just as strong.
We jumped a few more times into the water from different heights. Mateo and Chase both swung like monkeys from the ropelike hanging vines, spinning and flipping before hitting the water. I decided to execute a few signature acrobatic dives, as well. This was no time for modesty.
“Wait for me!” Savannah called, as I pulled myself onto the highest ledge she was just starting to scale.
“Geez, be careful!” I called down.
“I’m fine,” she said tartly, muscling her way to the top. I took her hand in mine and helped her up the last few feet. I stood closer to her than I should have, close enough to feel the heat radiating off her bare skin, close enough to feel her shiver when the breeze picked up. She peered over the side to the water below.
“It, uh, looked so much easier from down there,” she said.
“It always does.”
“This suddenly doesn’t seem as fun as you make it look.”
“Oh, it’s fun, as long as you obey two cardinal rules. Are you paying attention?”
“Sort of,” she whispered, still not taking her eyes off the water far below.
“The first rule is, don’t think too much. If you can manage, stop thinking altogether,” I grinned.
“Stop thinking,” she repeated, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. “Got it. So what’s the second rule?” she asked. I grasped her shoulders, bringing my eyes level with hers. Her breath caught in her chest as our eyes connected.
“Listen carefully. This is most important,” I said. She nodded, listening intently. “The second rule is …”
And that’s when I pulled us both off the edge.
We fell through the air together and plunged into the shadowy depths of the pool. Under the water, time slowed for a silent moment. We were alone. Her arms caught around my neck, and she pressed herself tightly to me, her body rising to the surface slowly with mine. The bubbles from her lips tickled my face. She was just so close! I could meet my lips with hers, just softly. A plausible accident, completely unintentional.
Before I could make up my mind to just do it already, someone tore through the water, causing shockwaves through the pool that pulled us above the surface.
“Sorry, Ryen! I was just coming to rescue you. I thought you’d both gone to a watery grave!” Mateo said unrepentantly. Chase and Claire laughed in a dark corner together where I couldn’t see them.
It was completely dark before any of us realized it. When we were all safely out of the cenote, Claire handed me a flashlight and pulled the boys ahead with her, using her long-legged stride to put distance between us.
It would have been better for me to stay with the group; any measure of time alone with the girl wasn’t smart. But leaving her in the dark by herself while I ran to catch up with my group wouldn’t be the height of chivalry.
“This is the most fun I’ve had since, well, ever,” she decided.
“Really? You don’t mind the childish antics, the showing off, the reenactments of human sacrifice?” I asked, stealing a sideways glance at her perfect profile as we walked on the dirt path back to the hotel.
“Well, I will have to get used to the human sacrifice, but other than that, no, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. My ribs kind of hurt,” she said with a small smile.
“So, has Claire taken a toll on your sleep yet? I told you that you wouldn’t get much with her around.”
“You weren’t kidding. If she keeps it up, I may have to sleep in your room—” She stopped short, embarrassed by her word choice. I could almost feel her blushing. She hadn’t meant it as it sounded, I knew that, but I was probably a little red too.
“Uh, but the sleep deprivation is worth it, because she is so easy to pump for information,” she said conspiratorially.
My heart stopped, as did my feet.
Had Claire let something slip? Had Savannah noticed something about us that was too different, too alien?
I started sifting through the protocols to follow if a human ever found out what we were.
Assess what the human knows. Lie. Escape.
“What do you mean, ‘information’?” My icy whisper froze her mid-step. The others were far ahead now, leaving us together in the darkness.
“Uh … information … about you,” she said, looking nervously after Claire’s flashlight in the distance.
“What about me?” I pressed.
“What you are like, what you do when you are not working. You never volunteer anything about yourself, so you’re kind of a mystery,” she said, trying to backpedal. “I wasn’t trying to upset you.”
Relief washed over me. Claire wouldn’t be the one to give us away. It would be my ability to jump to ridiculous conclusions and act like a lunatic that would make Savannah wonder about my origins.
My brain blissfully buried protocol three away. Someday I would have to leave Savannah. I was just grateful it wasn’t tonight.
“I’m just a … very private person … I would rather answer your questions myself,” I stumbled. “I hate to think what Claire is telling you. She and I have something of a love-hate relationship.” I started walking again, as though the last minute never happened.
“There’s a lot more love than hate between you two. In fact, I have a hard time believing you are as good as she makes you out to be.”
“Either way, let’s agree to leave Claire out of this equation. So, do you have any burning questions you want to ask me yourself?”
“Hmm,” she said thoughtfully.
I hated the possibility of having to use my already memorized lies if she asked about my past, anything other than where I had been the last two years. She glanced up at me, apparently having decided.
“What’s your favorite dessert?” she asked importantly. I laughed out loud, realizing that I had again prepared for the worst.
“Seriously?” I asked, still laughing.
“Are you going to answer or just laugh?”
“Laugh,” I replied.
“Well, since we don’t know each other very well, we have to start somewhere, right?”
I stifled my laugh and tried to put some thought into it.
In Italy, I had discovered the most indulgent dessert on the planet. Gelato. The Italian people had endeared themselves to me quickly when I noticed locals eating it as early as ten in the morning. Gelato wasn’t ice cream exactly—it was much more. The flavors ran the gamut from simple strawberry to panna cotta, from chocolate with blood orange to almond coconut to frutti di bosco, and on and on.
“First of all, I only consider Italian gelato worth eating. If I had to have only one flavor for the rest of my life, it would be cioccolato fondente,” I said with deep reverence, “the darkest chocolate in the world. Sinful.” She smiled widely, as did I. “Of all the questions to ask …”
“I usually don’t get along with people who don’t like dessert,” she said simply.
“Ah, then you and I should get along just fine,” I said.
She shivered slightly as a stiff breeze swept through the trees. I took my towel from around my shoulders and held it out to her.
“I’m fine,” she said, watching my face turn speculative.
“It’s a little damp, so it probably won’t help much.” I wrapped it around her shoulders. “But you’re keeping it.” My arm was already around her from putting the extra towel on, so I just left it there. I waited for her to shrug out from underneath me, but she didn’t. Instead she moved closer into my side. We stayed like that for the remainder of the short walk. I wished with every step that I had offered her my arm much, much earlier.