by Junie Coffey
“You’re a bit of a thrill seeker, it seems,” he said. “All right.” He stood thinking for a second. “If you do manage to beat me, what do you want?” He was looking into her eyes and standing so close to her she could feel the heat radiating from his body.
Good question, she thought.
“Let me think,” she said, looking around the room for inspiration. “Well, actually, I could use some help hanging my shutters, so how about that?”
“OK,” he said, circling until he was standing directly behind her. He leaned over her shoulder to throw a practice shot at the dartboard. It landed on the outside edge of the bull’s-eye. He spoke directly into her ear. She inhaled deeply and held her breath.
“And what’re you putting on the table?” he asked. She was momentarily speechless.
“How about this,” he said, retrieving his dart and stepping back to the throwing line. “If I win . . . you’ll let me teach you how to cast so that you don’t accidentally hook a guy in the face.”
“All right, but it sounds like I’m getting a better deal,” she said. “You go first, then I’ll clobber you.” Which she proceeded to do. Just as their game ended, they heard the sound of random musical notes down the street at the bandstand.
“Sounds like the band is cuing up. Should we walk over? Excuse me for one minute. I’ll be right back,” said Ted.
Nina stood by the jukebox waiting for him. Danish materialized beside her as Ted disappeared into the restroom.
“Jeez, Nina. You guys might as well have been having sex right here on the floor by the jukebox. Look at the windows, all steamed up,” he said.
Nina chose to ignore his efforts to provoke her. “I’m just trying to get things back to normal. I know you don’t care, but it embarrasses me that Ted knows about the hot tub and the underwear and what idiots we are . . . that I am.”
“Look, Nina, if he’s into you, he’s going to let a lot of crazy stuff slide to stay on target. And in my expert opinion, he’s into you. He doesn’t usually spend this much time hanging out here,” said Danish.
“Thank you, Danish, for that frightening glimpse into the thought processes of the twenty-five-year-old male, but I’m talking about adult relationships,” said Nina. She looked around. “Barry’s gone.”
“Yeah. He left a while ago, while you and Ted were making eyes at each other. Blue Roker was on his tail,” said Danish.
“Hi, team!” It was Pansy. “I thought I’d find you here. Are you going over to listen to the band? I saw Alice, Kiki, and Jules over there on my way. There’s quite a crowd. Alice should be really pleased.”
“Hi, Pansy,” said Nina. “I’m so glad you’re here! How did you manage to get away?”
“It’s eight o’clock, and the kids are asleep. I bribed Andrew with . . . well, never mind. He’s coming over in an hour or so when Mrs. Smith gets back from her church-group meeting and can watch the kids. Shall we go? Hi, Ted,” Pansy said as he rejoined them. “Coming to the concert?”
“Yes, I thought I’d go for a while,” Ted replied. He and Nina fell into step behind Pansy and Danish, heading for the door.
Danish stopped at the bar. “Hey, boss! Thanks for the night off. I’ll be in tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn to do brunch as promised.”
“If you call ten o’clock the crack of dawn, then all right,” Veronica said with a smile. “Have a good time.”
“Are you coming over, Veronica?” asked Pansy. “I hear the band’s lots of fun.”
“Sure, I’ll be over when it quiets down in here a little.” They were just about to leave when Alice came in carrying a large insulated cooler bag. She smiled at everyone, then put the cooler bag up on the bar.
Danish waved at her from three feet away. “Good evening, Veronica. Thanks so much for the samosas. Everyone loved them.”
She smiled shyly again at the group standing by the door. “Well, bye. Thanks again,” she said, and hurried out.
Danish threw himself onto a stool and put his head down on the bar. “I might as well be a coatrack. She doesn’t even notice me. I bring her coffee and ask her out on a date almost every single day, and she always says no. My heart is broken in seventeen places,” he said dramatically.
Veronica threw up her hands. “OK. I can’t watch this any longer. It’s too painful. Look here, boy. That girl likes you. You don’t know anything about how Pineapple girls communicate. Better you hear it from me than from one of those yahoos you play dominoes with all afternoon at the jerk pit. I can guarantee you they do not know how to romance a woman properly.
“Alice goes to church every Sunday with her auntie. If you cannot find Jesus, at least put on a clean shirt and invite her to the church picnic. Go call on her auntie. Take her auntie a present. A bouquet of flowers or some Elizabeth Arden. She likes that. Sit and have a glass of lemonade in the lounge. Once you’ve met her auntie and she’s had a chance to look you over, invite Alice out for a nice meal or to go for a walk on the beach. You have her home by ten o’clock while she’s living under her auntie’s roof. Agatha goes to bed early, and you won’t do yourself any favors if you make her stay up. Alice will not defy her aunt, no matter how adorable she finds you. Like a pet puppy.”
Veronica paused. “You should probably steer clear of her Uncle Blue for the moment.”
She leaned forward on the bar until her face was six inches from Danish’s. “Now you listen to me. You do that girl wrong, get up to your usual tricks, you will be answering to me. Never mind Blue Roker. You got that?”
Danish nodded.
Nina, Ted, Danish, and Pansy walked down to the park together. The Sundowners were just taking the stage, and in no time they had the crowd hooting and clapping their hands to country music. Standing beside Nina, a man with dreadlocks down to his waist whistled and stomped his feet in time to the blistering fiddle. Little kids up way past their bedtimes danced on the grass and fell over laughing. Danish even managed to get Alice to dance with him up near the stage. Andrew showed up partway through. Nina hadn’t meant to stay for the whole show, but before she knew it, it was over, and the band was saying good night, safe journeys. Ted was still standing beside her.
“We’re just parked over there,” said Pansy. “See you tomorrow, Nina. I think we’re going to win!” She and Andrew waved good-bye and wandered away, hand in hand.
Ted turned to Nina. “May I walk you home?”
“Thank you. That’d be nice,” she said. They strolled slowly up the street past The Redoubt and the dive shop, up past houses and cottages—most of them dark and quiet now, some with a cozy yellow glow in a single window. Nina imagined someone reading in bed or watching a late-night movie. They walked through a swath of soft jasmine-scented air. Nina breathed it in deeply. A breeze ruffled the leaves in the trees, and Nina looked up. The sky was full of stars again. They didn’t talk. When they got to Nina’s gate, Ted looked in her eyes for a long moment, then looked around.
Nina took a breath. Maybe, in another time and place, she’d spend more time thinking about his long eyelashes, his warm brown eyes, and the attractively capable manner in which he loaded his boat on a trailer. But not now. She was just getting used to being her own boss again, finding out where her edges were, and liking it.
Cool your jets, Nina, she said to herself. Yes, he made her heart beat faster, but that was not what she needed right now.
“I guess I left my truck downtown,” he said, looking at her again with a sheepish grin. “I should walk back and get it. Good night, Nina. I’ll see you soon.”
“Good night, Ted.” Nina smiled at him and went in, closing the door behind her. She saw him turn away and walk slowly back into the village with his hands in his pockets, looking down at the sidewalk, then up at the stars.
11
Sunday afternoon, the treasure-hunt competitors reconvened on the lawn of the Pineapple Cay Museum. Some of the crews were looking a bit ragged, like they’d just rolled out of bed—or maybe hadn’t even made
it to bed on Saturday night. The Clues Brothers did turn up, but they were lying flat on the grass with their hats over their faces when Nina arrived. She found Pansy and Andrew sitting on the stone wall. Danish was sitting on the ground beside them. Pansy handed her a paper cup of coffee.
“’Morning, Nina,” Pansy sang out with a big smile.
“Hi, guys. Thanks, Pansy,” said Nina, hopping up on the stone wall beside Pansy.
“Please don’t talk to me. I was up very late last night and had to get up to sling scrambled eggs all morning,” said Danish. He had his sunglasses on and a ball cap pulled down low on his forehead. He was leaning up against the wall with his knees up, head in his hands.
Andrew’s cell phone rang, and he moved away a few steps to take the call. Nina looked around. The sailing teams were doing warm-up stretching exercises and taking turns shouting out team cheers while the yachtie teams around them winced. The Sole Sisters and Their Token Male had the swagger of first place about them as they clapped their hands in time with the sailing teams’ cheers. Most of the Beer Commercial team was slouched against the stone wall on the other side of the garden, and there was Lance, walking toward his friends.
Andrew walked back to them, slipping his phone in his back pocket. “That was Blue Roker,” he said. “Someone just made a withdrawal from Tiffany Bassett’s account at the ATM on Water Street. He’s down in the cays, but he wants me to let one of his officers into the bank to review the security-camera video. Sorry, guys, I’ve got to go.” He kissed Pansy and left.
Danish’s head snapped up. “Did you hear that?” he asked, looking at Nina and Pansy bleary-eyed. He jumped up and ran, bounding over the stone wall and up the lane leading to Water Street. Nina and Pansy watched him go.
“Lance arrived just as Andrew got that phone call,” said Nina. She and Pansy turned their heads to scrutinize Lance, who was leaning against the wall, chatting with one of his friends.
“Do you think he made the bank withdrawal?” asked Pansy. “He doesn’t look very guilty.”
Danish was back. “I didn’t see anyone suspicious on Water Street,” he said. “No Tiffany, no guys in a shiny black SUV, no Lance.”
“Lance is right over there,” said Nina.
“Let’s keep an eye on him,” said Danish. “I think he’s up to something.”
The microphone crackled to life, and they looked over to see Alice standing there with a sheaf of papers in one hand, the microphone in the other.
“Hello, everyone! Are you ready to play again?” she said, smiling. The assembled crowd cheered and applauded with the level of enthusiasm their physical conditions allowed.
Alice said, “OK! Thank you all for turning out to support your local museum. Get ready for an afternoon of adventure! You are heading into the wild today. We’ll start out with an easy one to help you get going! Kiki is distributing your first clue. Please take one per team, and good luck! See you all back here later for the barbecue. Bring all your friends and family. Have fun, everyone!”
Kiki handed Pansy a piece of paper, and Nina and Danish looked over Pansy’s shoulder at the clue she held in her hand.
“It’s a blank piece of paper!” said Danish in the same incredulous, despairing tone a person might use to say, “A space alien just vaporized the entire city!”
“Alice, baby! You’re killing me!” he yelled toward the stage. A heavyset, stern-looking woman in a print dress looked over at him disapprovingly. Aunt Agatha Roker, Nina was willing to bet.
Pansy turned the paper over just to make sure there was nothing written on the other side. It was, indeed, blank.
“Now what?” asked Nina.
“You know, when Kevin and Susan were born, I stopped working for a couple of years,” said Pansy, contemplating the paper. “I used to watch enviously as Andrew headed off to work to his grown-up office every day, while I settled down in my rice cereal–spattered sweatpants for a day of peekaboo and coloring, making macaroni and cheese and doing laundry. Then, later, it was all playing princess and going to puppet shows and scavenger hunts at the public library. In theory it was what I wanted, and I loved being with my kids, but I wondered if I had traded the chance at a fascinating career for the joys of motherhood. Maybe we should have scraped together the money and hired a nanny right off the bat. Maybe I should have been using the education my parents paid for to make a useful contribution to the world rather than spending another mind-numbing hour making crafts out of toilet-paper rolls. But now it’s all paying off! The clue is written in invisible ink! I made up a treasure hunt for Kevin’s seventh birthday party and found instructions for making invisible ink on some mommy blog designed to make me feel inferior.”
“Yeah!” said Danish. “My brother and I used to do that when we were kids. Write something in lemon juice, and when you scorch the paper, it becomes visible. I’ve got a lighter right here.” He pulled a lighter out of his pocket, flicked the little wheel to make the flame, and held it close to the bottom edge of the paper. The edge of the paper began to wrinkle and brown; then a corner caught on fire. No words appeared.
“No! Danish! Stop!” said Nina.
Pansy dropped the paper on the ground and gently tapped out the fire with the toe of her sneaker. “OK, I don’t think it’s written in lemon juice,” she said, “but I know from my extensive experience that another way to do it is to write in white crayon and then go over it with a highlighter. Fortunately, I think I have one in my bag.” She dug around in her purse and brought out a yellow highlighter. She laid the sheet of paper carefully on top of a notebook, also extracted from her bag, and colored the center of the page. There it was.
“It’s a riddle,” said Pansy. “‘What can travel around the world while staying in a corner?’”
“What does that mean?” asked Nina.
“Is this supposed to be fun?” asked Danish.
“I think Alice and I must have read the same mommy blog,” said Pansy. “It’s a stamp. You put it in the corner of an envelope, and it can go around the world while staying in the corner.”
“Yeah, Pansy! Supermom!” said Nina. “I guess it’s off to the post office we go.”
They trooped out onto the sidewalk and up the lane to Water Street, where the post office stood in a commanding position in the center of the main block. Danish led the way up the two stone steps and through the arched doorway into the small building. Post-office boxes lined the two side walls, and a counter ran along the back wall, where a woman in a crisp uniform like Danish’s stood sorting through folders full of stamps.
“Hello, Doris! How’s tricks?” boomed Danish. The woman looked up and rolled her eyes.
“Hi, Doris,” said Pansy. “This is Nina. She just moved here.” Nina waved to Doris, who smiled and said hello.
“Doris, we’re here to collect our gold coin, if you please,” said Danish. He strode over to the counter.
Doris reached below the counter then handed him the coin, still without speaking or smiling.
“Now we are ready for our clue, if you don’t mind,” said Danish. Doris pointed with the end of the pencil she was holding to a bulletin board on the wall. There was a piece of paper pinned up in the middle, between two wanted posters for criminals on the main island. Nina, Pansy, and Danish huddled around to read it. Pansy took out her notebook and copied it down.
“‘A watery treasure chest: where emeralds mix with sapphires, and diamonds lie scattered before you.’ Now what is that?” she asked.
They went outside and across the street to the bandstand that stood in the middle of the small, grassy park. Nina sat on the step, leaning against a post and looking out at Star Cay across the harbor. It was another beautiful day. The bad weather that had been predicted the night before had bypassed them. Sailboats dotted the bay, and in the sunlight, the sandy beach on Star Cay glowed bright white against the brilliant turquoise water, which deepened into an intense blue before lightening into shades of jade and turquoise as it reached the sh
ore of Coconut Cove.
“I have an idea,” said Nina. “Could it be talking about the tip of the island, where the dark, deep, sapphire-blue water of the Atlantic meets the lighter, blue-green water of the shallower Caribbean Sea? The diamonds could be the string of cays in Diamond Cay National Park, off the south end of the island.”
“Yes! That makes perfect sense,” said Pansy. “There’s a historical marker on the southern tip of Pineapple Cay. I bet that’s where they put the coins.”
Reenergized by the possibility of victory, they hurried over to where Pansy had parked her golf cart and jumped in. They breezed out of town, cruising along at fifteen miles an hour under the canopy of tall trees and dappled sunlight south of the village. Nina leaned back in the front seat beside Pansy, enjoying the ride. It was Sunday again, and there was a wedding at the whitewashed church she and Ted had passed the week before. The bride and groom were just emerging from the church dressed in their finery, the bride’s white dress brilliant in the sunlight. Their friends and family, dressed in brightly colored dresses and shirts and ties, were clapping their hands and tossing confetti at the smiling couple as they made their way to a highly polished maroon car festooned with tissue-paper flowers and streamers.
Pansy steered the cart along the coast, where the waves were crashing against the narrow ribbon of seaweed-strewn sand that ran alongside the road; then they drove up and over the hill and between the salt ponds at Sandy Point, passed the restaurant where Ted and Nina had eaten lunch, and rolled to a stop where the road ended at the foot of a sandy track leading up to a high point of land at the very end of the island. They unfolded themselves from the cart, stretching their legs.
“Onward we go,” said Nina, putting on her sun hat. They hiked up the track in single file.
At the very tip of the point, there was a commanding panoramic view of the sea and the islands. The scattered string of cays trailed off over the horizon. The water was indeed a darker blue on the Atlantic side of the islands and lighter, more welcoming shades of green and turquoise on the Caribbean side. On the stone monument, there was an inscription: