The Guadeloupe Squadeloupe

Chapter XXVIII: Perry

"Empty chairs at empty tables / where my friends will meet no more"- Eddie Redmayne // Empty Chiars at Empty Tables // Les Miserables

The beach has been waiting for me to return. I spent my childhood with it and now I'm here with Alice. What other arrangement could there be?

The waves slide to shore one by one effortlessly. Diana, our parents, and I would come so often to the beach to play. This time I'm not playing, and my parents are certainly not here.

Looking down, I watch my feet make prints in the sand just as they did before with small, young toes.

Alice holds onto my hand and glances to the ocean. "It's too large. It could swallow anyone up any second. In geology we believe in rocks and staying where it is sturdy."

"I'm a Californian," I remind her, "I know everything the ocean has to offer."

"But do we really know what anything has to offer? Stuff comes our way, whether we like it or not," she chides.

I don't reply. She came my way. I liked it.

The moon and stars begin their ascent and the sky deepens to a black-blue.

I rarely get to be on the beach at night, so tonight is already a treat. Glancing to Alice, my eyes trace her braid, the only hairdo I've ever seen her wear.

"What are you thinking about?" She asks.

Don't you already know? "You," I tell her.

She laughs, "Aren't you so charming?" Yes.

I stop and dig my toes in the sand. How well can she see my smile? I wonder.

"Do you want to sit down?" I invite, looking to the soft cushion of sand beneath us.

"I thought this was supposed to be a 'walk,'" She laughs, sitting down despite herself.

Keeping my hand entwined with hers, I sigh and listen to the sound of the waves.

"They sound like thunder," comments Alice. It's like she can read my mind, I think. Or maybe it's not. Maybe we just share a mind.

A crack shoots down the beach front: a large wave must have just broken.

I dive into my mind looking for a topic to talk about, but I resurface with nothing. Normally it's enough for me just to be next to Alice, but now the rules of dating are forcing me to say something too.

"What's even in there?" Asks Alice nodding towards the ocean. I watch the way her bangs flick across her forehead and line her light eyes that seem to go with the ocean. You sound like the way Diana talks about boys, Perry.

"The ocean? Well it's 75% of our own planet," I recite, shrugging.

"And we've only explored 5% of it. That means we only know 30% of our entire planet," Alice agrees. "So what's in there?"

Breathing deeply, I say: "Well I don't know. But I do know what's in a lake in France."

Alice's face is close enough for me to see every detail of the eyebrow that she raises. "I would say 'excusemoi,' but that would be cheesy."

"Then don't." My non-Alice hand digs its fingers into the cool sand. "We were in France (obviously), and Diana and I were messing around in a boat that our parents rented. They saved a lot of money for this trip, and for once I felt like I had absolutely everything I could need."

My eyes squint as I laugh, even though its pitch black. "It's funny that I would think that, considering I hadn't even met you yet."

"Okay no," says Alice. Oh crap.