“I know,” he offered, meaning it.
Lanie brushed past him and sat down on the bed, playing with his oversized pillow.
“Why you’re not married?” she asked.
Ted turned to face her with his hands tucked inside his pockets like a frightened little boy.
“Well, if you want the truth… I’m not very good with women.”
“You have some skill, no? In talking?”
“I just always say the wrong thing, you know, like asking a woman her age.”
Lanie, confusing that for a question, jumped in.
“I’m twenty-nine.”
It took a moment for Ted to see what was happening. He decided to just go with it.
“When did you graduate?” he asked.
“I finished high school by age fifteen. Then my bachelor at nineteen, masters at twenty-two and doctorate was two years ago.”
Despite her broken English, Ted was not dealing with a lightweight here.
“And you?” she asked innocently.
“Just a… liberal… arts… degree,” he said, his voice trailing off. “An art degree.”
“Oh,” she said while nodding her head to be polite. “But you put to good use.”
Ted found the sight of this brilliant, exotic woman sitting comfortably on his bed to be utterly strange. This was his oasis of solitude and now he was staring into the eyes of a creature so intoxicating that he no longer missed being alone.
“So what is your age, kano? You looks old.”
Ted laughed at her bluntness.
“I’m thirty-four this year.”
Lanie nodded toward a framed picture on his bed stand.
“That is your parent?” she asked.
The pain hit him all at once. It was as though all of his senses were being assaulted in a moment’s time.
“Dead,” he told her.
“Oh,” she said softly. “Is hard thing for you, huh?”
Ted shrugged his shoulders. She noticed that he was suddenly withdrawn and said, “I’m sorry. That’s very personal question.”
“No, it’s fine. That was a long time ago.”
For a brief moment Lanie thought about opening up to him about the death of her own parents but decided against it. This relationship, or whatever it was, was still too new. No point weeping on shoulders just yet.
She started in a gentler voice, “Thank you for the gift. And letter.”
“Oh, that. It’s no big deal.”
“Well, is big deal to me,” she said. “We Filipinos don’t forget a kindness.”
Ted felt vulnerable around her. Lanie had no pretense and didn’t know, or care for, the art of subtlety. To make matters worse, she also came with Doogie Howser-type credentials. In reality, she was far more out of his league than the Teresa he longed for in his days at Graham Entertainment.
“At least my English is on point,” is all he could think to make himself feel better.
Lanie stood.
“Come on,” she said. “I cook something.”
5
Lanie searched for actual food items in the fridge but didn’t find what she was looking for. Ted was a man of simple tastes, for the most part, and ate the same things every day. He watched her make faces at the odd choices in his sparse cabinetry.
“You have no food?” she asked.
“I stick to the basics.”
Lanie took some olive oil and poured a capful into a hot saucepan along with butter and cinnamon. She coated a banana with brown sugar and tossed it in the pan.
“You will like fried banana. Must better than your Poppy Tart thing.”
Ted smiled and replied, “You speak blasphemy.”
They sat on opposite ends of a glass table. Lanie unfolded a napkin and placed it in her lap. Ted took a bite and washed it down with cold milk.
“That is good,” he said. “You cook a lot?”
“I cooked for my grandparent when I was younger. At university I serve in the kitchen as working student for some semesters.”
Ted was beginning to learn the art of being blunt and knew Lanie would not be someone to easily take offense. He was curious about so much but didn’t want to overwhelm the poor girl with questions.
“Hey, are we friends?” he asked to test the waters.
She set her plate down and looked at him with curious eyes.
“Ah. My friend Ted has a question for me, no?”
“Why does your hair smell so good? I’m sorry but I noticed that when we were out on the balcony.”
A subtle, cautious laugh came from her lips and her eyes narrowed.
“No, no,” he said. “I’m not trying to be funny or whatever. It just seems difficult to groom oneself in a place like this.”
“We use a soap, Ted. And shampoo. You maybe hear of these items?”
“You bathe in the ocean?” Ted asked her with a hint of disgust on his face.
“Our shower is pale of water. You take ocean and boil it. Then when it cools you pour it over your body.”
Ted was speechless.
“Someone is pampered?” she teased.
“Not at all,” he lied. “I’ve done the bucket shower thing. Actually, that’s not true but I’ll try it sometime.”
Lanie just shook her head in amazement.
Rich boy kano.
• • •
Ted walked her back to the tent as it was nearing late afternoon. They stood at the tent entrance for a moment without talking before he waved goodbye and left. Several villagers stood watching them from afar.
It was nearly impossible for Ted to think about anything except Lanie as he walked the trail back to his concrete mansion. He made a quick ham salad sandwich and sat in front of the TV with his clicker. Taking a bite of sandwich, he flipped to Telemundo and caught the tail end of a Mexican soap opera.
An olive-skinned man in a poncho grabbed hold of a lady wearing a red evening dress and said, “Why didn’t you break my heart when you had the chance?”
She looked up at him with a sparkle and responded, “Love is a sacrifice, Raul.”
Ted knew just enough Spanish to catch that line.
Love is a sacrifice.
Ted quickly stood up, ran up the stairs, tripped and fell - then got back to his feet and sprinted for the bathroom. He looked around for something, knocking items off of the counter. He found a bottle of cologne and doused himself with no fewer than ten squirts. He ran a comb through his hair and reached for a toothbrush.
• • •
The south village was quiet and the beach was empty. Ted stood in front of Lanie’s tent wearing a pair of black dress pants and a white button-up shirt, collar flared open. He looked nice but smelled like a brothel. Soft music could be heard inside the tent. Lanie stitched a shirt with a needle and thread. An old battery operated radio sat in front of her on the table. She looked up and saw Ted outside the door. He entered the tent looking very shy. Lanie quickly hid her handiwork, stashing it inside of a purse.
“Is that for me?” he teased.
“A surprise for my new friend.”
Ted looked at her a little too long. He caught himself and diverted his eyes.
She wiped her bangs behind an ear and said, “I guess someone is bored, no?”
“No,” he said. “I just wanted to see you. Nice radio.”
It obviously wasn’t. An old cassette tape rattled off a song by Eric Clapton: “Wonderful tonight.”
“Is that your tape?” he asked.
“Yes. I like ballad music.”
“You’re just a hopeless romantic, waiting for a prince to arrive.”
“When you find him,” she said. “Tell him I here in the medical tent.”
“Will do,” he replied with a smile.
Lanie, with no regard for self image, began to sing the lyrics. She may have found a couple of actual notes but it was only by accident. Ted was amused.
“Okay – that’s quite enough. My ears might start bleeding.”
Lan
ie gave him a goofy grin but remained beautiful beyond words, even while unkempt and playful.
“Hey, listen – that’s too good a song to waste. We need to do something about this.”
Ted offered Lanie his hand.
“Dance with me.”
She pretended to think it over, then quickly took his hand.
“I warn you,” she said. “I’m very good dancer.”
“Good. I’m not.”
Palm trees swayed under moonlight as a peaceful tide rolled in. The old radio sat on a mound of sand as Lanie and Ted slow danced, arm in arm, alone on the beach.
It occurred to Ted that very minute that whatever else was going on in the world, this was all that
existed. This beach. The warm night air. The stars overhead. The sound of the ocean. The cheap radio. And this girl.
He could smell the coconut nectar of Lanie’s hair as her head sat on his shoulder. Ted knew he was dancing with a woman who was foreign to him in more ways than one. He was lost in time. Lanie moved her head to his chest and sniffled quietly. A tear swelled and fell onto his shirt.
The song then tattered out before it ended. They continued dancing for a few seconds without music.
Lanie wiped her eyes and said with a laugh, “Dead battery.”
Ted released her and wondered why she was crying. His heart ached.
“Sorry,” she apologized. “My father dance this song with me during my debut. When Filipino girl turn eighteen her parents throw big party and she wears a special dress.”
“Your father…”
More tears fell and her face twisted with pain. Ted fell silent. He knew.
He touched her cheek with his thumb and gently wiped her face. She moved her head back reflexively and he felt out of place. After an awkward moment, Lanie smiled to let him know everything was all right.
“I’ll have Nako bring you some new batteries on his next trip.”
“Thank you, kano.” Her voice was soft, almost a whisper.
Ted tried to read her face but Lanie kept her eyes down. They stood like this for a moment.
“I guess it’s late. I’ll get back.”
“Goodnight,” she said.
6
It was already late in the afternoon when Ted and Nako decided to conclude their ritual of tossing the baseball farther and farther each session. The Japanese man was so enamored with Ted that he began showing up once a week to hear more about how things had been developing on the island. He also liked the conversation.
Nako met Ted near the back deck and said, “I saw a shark last evening. He follow my boat for several meter so I give him food.”
“What did you feed him?”
“Rice noodle soup. He enjoy it.”
They sat on the stoop and Ted reached into a chilled cooler and offered his friend a bottle of water.
“So how are things with the girl?”
“Well, I haven’t scared her off yet but I’m sure fate will have its way eventually.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s only a matter of time before she finds out what a loser I am. Trust me – it’s the one constant in my life.”
“What you so scared of?” Nako asked.
Ted was pensive. “I’m scared of everything! I’m scared that I’m falling for a girl and she’ll soon realize it’s all a ruse.”
“Ruse?”
“That I’m a fake,” Ted explained. “She knows the Ted who gives toys to little kids and lets refugees stay on his island. She doesn’t know the Ted who gave his middle finger to humanity when he left Chicago.”
“Maybe you different now,” Nako shrugged.
“Fat chance.”
“The people on your island don’t still annoy you. That’s good sign.”
He sat down on the cooler, frustrated. He ran his fingers through his wet hair and let out a lengthy sigh.
He began slowly, “You don’t know what I did to get here.” Pointing to the ground, he said, “This was a lifetime in the making. I’ve always known that I was meant to be alone and I’ve spent a fortune to solidify that reality.”
Nako was soft in his reply. “So the girl has change that?”
Ted looked down at his hands and said, “I wish I could say yes.”
“I think you just afraid that you wrong.”
“About what?”
“Afraid that you need other people in your life, boss. And just you… not enough.”
Ted smirked. Lately he’d been thinking of the peaceful nights and the lack of complications that drew him to the island in the first place. He thought of Lanie, how she had responded to him in a way that was surprising and yet, somehow, felt just right. But it was getting too real. He wasn’t used to real. His world was not hers and that bothered him. The magnetic draw he felt toward her was offset by the reality that moving forward with Lanie would tear apart everything he’d been working for. Sure, the loneliness would vanish, but so would his hard-fought independence. Ted would now be responsible for loving someone else and tending to her needs, and not just his own. The thought scared him. Lanie was not someone he could just put aside whenever he got bored. She was not a television show that he could switch off with the click of a button. She was flesh and blood and he loved her. He loved her so much it hurt when thoughts of her entered his mind. Ted was torn. He had fallen for a woman who threatened to steal everything he’d been working for.
“I don’t know, Nako. Things are weird. I feel like such an alien sometimes.”
“Technically, you are an alien.”
Ted laughed. He needed to laugh. Things were getting serious.
“So what your decision about the girl?” Nako asked.
“The girl,” Ted repeated with a sigh. “Things always seem to get complicated, don’t they?”
“What so complicated?”
Nako sensed that Ted was tore up but couldn’t get a read on why the decision to pursue Lanie was such a difficult one to make.
Suddenly, a loud clap of thunder boomed forth! Ted jumped so hard that he spilled his drink, at which Nako chuckled and stood up.
“I must be on my way now. I don’t want to get caught on a wave.”
Nako slapped Ted five and turned toward the dirt path.
“Nako!” Ted shouted.
He noticed that Nako was still wearing his mitt so Ted grabbed the baseball.
“One more! Go long!”
Nako raised his glove near the bamboo forest and Ted let the ball fly. It sailed clean over Nako’s head.
“I said go long. That’s not long!”
“You going to pay for that one!” Nako responded as he ran through the trees to fetch the ball.
He finally spotted the ball in a clearing. Snatching it off the ground, he rose to his feet with caution. Nako’s eyes drifted up toward the western sky.
Ted wondered what was taking him so long. When Nako appeared, there was a serious expression hanging from his face. His steps were fast as he approached, which worried Ted.
“Something wrong?” Ted asked.
“I need to get back.”
“What’s up, old man?” Ted teased. “You tired?”
“Storm clouds. Looks like a big rain is coming.”
Nako’s face had changed to a mask of concern.
“Keep an eye on news channel,” he said.
Ted gave him a thumbs-up and Nako saluted his friend with a smile before heading back.
7
Some bits of rain began to pelt the island. Manny was half a mile into the bamboo forest with his older brother, Jorge, and a nine-year-old kid named Nik. They were chasing a lizard with sticks as the svelte prey shot through fallen branches and up a tree. Manny, who was quite fast for his age, led the pack and eventually found himself alone. By the time the other two boys had caught up to him, he had stopped dead in his tracks with his head facing downward. The boys circled around him to see a metal box between Manny’s feet.
It was black and rusted, with a lat
ch on the side. The top was covered in Japanese writing. Manny stepped away from the box with great care, careful not to trip. Jorge, filled with intrigue, began moving closer to it.
“Wait!” Manny exclaimed.
The boys turned sharply at his voice but Jorge’s attention was drawn back to the box.
“I want to see what’s inside,” he said.
Manny saw a small, rounded steel spike sticking out of the ground. It was just inches from Jorge’s foot.
“Don’t move, Jorge!” he said.
Jorge shrugged and said, “Why not?”
Jorge’s foot moved and Manny’s eyes flew open as his foot came down on the pin. Manny shot toward Jorge with lightning speed and collided with him violently. And Manny fell chest-first onto the metal box.
• • •
Lanie was checking on Rene’s swollen ankle inside the medical tent when she heard it. It was like a thud of bass followed by the sound of trees snapping in two. She raced out of the tent and toward the forest. Smoke could be seen in the distance. Several of the villagers came out of their tents to see what had happened and then rushed up the embankment to join her.
A couple of miles away, Ted stepped onto his back deck. He saw smoke billowing above the tree line and his heart sank. He jumped over the rail and dashed for the forest. He ran, as fast as his legs would carry him, toward the plume of smoke. He heard a faint commotion far off in the distance.
The wailing of a woman’s voice ripped through the air as Lanie and the other villagers made haste toward the smoke. They came to the explosion site and Lanie pushed past a few villagers to get to the boys. The villagers were in a state of panic, many of them sobbing while others stood in stunned silence. The boys were all unconscious. Lanie quickly grabbed Jorge’s bloody neck and checked for a pulse. Finding one, she raced to the younger boy as he slowly opened his eyes.
Ted arrived just as Lanie had spun around toward Manny, who was almost unrecognizable. She paused for a brief moment when the damage began to sink in.
“Get them in the medical tent now!” she shouted in their native language. Ted was also nearing a state of shock as he looked around. He saw fallen trees and great smatterings of blood. Ted lifted Manny onto his shoulder while the villagers carried Nik and Jorge. They all rushed toward the south beach village.
The Island of Ted Page 12