Mina squints her eyes as if trying to see further will help her to hear better. She searches for any sign of life like the rustling of bushes or a whistle of a sailor strolling the pier.
“Do you hear that?”
Yvette scrunches her face, “hear what?”
“Shhh…just listen.”
The trees are silent. Mina knows if they listen long enough they might hear the strange noise again.
“We have arrived,” comes Captain Hidalgo’s voice from behind them. “I see we lack a welcome party.” He’s standing with his hands on his hips as he surveys the harbor. Despite his worn and tired face, his voice carries a vigor as if he had a good night’s rest.
“Never mind it,” he goes on, “I never get a welcome party. Townfolk usually avoid me in these parts. There’s a road that leads into town a short distance but I suggest you ladies pack light as it looks like we’ll be walking there.”
He turns to leave, making his way to the doorway, and says one last thing. “Ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?” Yvette says, “to pack?”
“I guess he’s the boss here,” Mina says sarcastically.
“How long are we staying in town?”
Mina shrugs, “A few days at most but honestly, if there’s no place decent to stay, I’m coming back to the yacht. I don’t care, I’m not staying at some roach motel or shabby inn.”
“Do you think it’s that bad here? It’s an island. Shouldn’t there be Pina Coladas and beachside swim-up suites?”
“You would think, but to be honest I have no idea what’s here. You can’t really search up Eden Island on the internet.” She looks out at the horizon. The waters meet the sky in a distance where nothing else is visible, not even the ice walls of Antarctica.
They make their way through the yacht. The furniture has been cleaned up and tidied, everything in place again. Mina’s eyes fall on the room and notes that it doesn't look like they were in a deadly storm. Her shoes squish over the soaked rug. Somewhere the shop vacuum is running where Lisette is trying to dry out another soaked rug.
“Oh, because of all that outer-earth, middle-earth stuff?” Yvette says as she makes quotation mark signals in the air.
Mina chuckles, “It’s not Lord of the Rings, Yvette. Hobbits don’t exist and neither does Lord Voldemore.”
“You mean, Voldemort. And that’s Harry Potter, not Lord of the Rings. Sauron was the villain in Lord of the Rings. Get your books straight,” she rolls her eyes, “you can’t be my real sister. How can get those two mixed up? They’re very different stories.”
Yvette follows her down the stairs. “And what do you mean, that none of that exists? We just sailed through an ice passage with two big ass ice statues that looked like they are guarding it. Or maybe it's a warning? And that storm last night, don’t even get me started about what was in the ocean.”
Mina stops dead in her tracks and earnestly says, “Why, did you see it too?” Mina’s mind is racing again. She’s been too afraid to bring any of it up to Marcel or the others. She’s been trying to erase the image of the huge sea creature out of her mind, telling herself it was only a storm.
“See what? I was helping my future husband keep the ship afloat. He’s a master mechanic and a damn good engineer, you know.”
Mina crosses her arms, “Ugh, you’re too much. You don’t even know him like that. Does he know you’re talking about him like that?”
Yvette crosses her arms. “I’ll have you know that we poured out our souls to each other. After I thought I was going to die, the ship tossed and turned so much. You know what he did? He stayed calm, grabbed me by the arms, and looked me in the eyes and said, ‘Yvette, don’t cry.’ Then he kissed me and said, ‘pass me the wrench.’ And so, I did and it was because of him that I made it through.”
Mina can’t hold the laughter. “You, what?” She’s holding her sides, bent at the waist and leaning against the doorframe to her cabin for support.
“Laugh all you want, we’re in love and I don’t care what you think.” She walks away and says, “See you in ten minutes, you old maid.”
The comment would have angered Mina if she weren’t laughing so much at Yvette and her crazy love stories. Sometimes her sister can be such a romantic to the point of actually believing in love at first sight and all that other nonsense like soulmates and destiny.
Mina picks out a small suitcase from under the bed. It is slightly damp on one side but not too bad since Lisette had hit her room first with the shop vac. She lays it open on the bed and proceeds to fill it with undergarments from the dresser. She shakes her head again at her sister’s gullibility. As far as Mina is concerned, love doesn’t exist in the way Yvette is pursuing it.
You have to get to know someone first, go on a few dates, and see if you even like them as a person. Then, if all goes well, take it a step further until hopefully some years down the road the two of you will marry and have a family. In theory, this is how love works according to Mina although it has not worked in her favor. Several strings of boyfriends and ten years since starting Whelemia Hair and here she was, in her thirties and single.
She stands in front of her closet, sorting through her outfits and now she wants to cry. Tears threaten the back of her eyes as she thinks about time running out for her. She may have gone wrong somewhere. She wonders if focusing on her career all these years scared the men away, forced them to leave the relationship, and forced them away from her. She bats her eyes and huffs.
“I can’t think about that right now.” She pulls an outfit and packs it into the suitcase. “I’ll think about it tomorrow,” she says, channeling her inner Scarlett O’Hara. She picks out a few more outfits, a nice pair of heels for dinner and a black cocktail dress because she can never be sure if every evening will be casual. Satisfied, she zips up the suitcase and rolls it out of the room.
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