Page 48 of Waves

After I turned the screen off, I set his phone face-down on the mattress and I wrapped my arms around him. “I’m sorry, Ezra. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Ezra quietly reminded me. “I knew... I knew this was going to happen. The news hit while you were away but then that picture... Once I saw it, I stopped going to the usual spot. I’ve been cruising up and down the beaches for the last week.”

I held him at arm’s length and stared back at him. “You’ve been on this boat a whole week?”

Ezra nodded. “As much as I panicked when I first saw the photo, I wasn’t absolutely sure it was you. I couldn’t take the chance you were still out there somewhere totally unaware, or even worse, injured. Just because you’re not aging doesn’t mean you can’t die.”

“Oh, love,” I said with a frown.

“It’s true. Everything dies. Ishmael’s going to die. I’m going to die. Even you might...”

I cut him off with a hissing shush and set my forehead against his. “As of this moment, everyone is fine. Now no more speaking about what isn’t relevant.” I slid back to the head of the bed and pulled up the sheets. “When was the last time you slept?”

Ezra shrugged, his face fixing downward while he stayed on the edge of the bed.

“That’s what I thought. Come here.”

Ezra crawled over and nestled under the blankets with me.

I pulled him closer and slid a hand up the back of his shirt. He fell asleep within minutes. I told myself I was just that good at sedating him, not that he passed out from sheer exhaustion because of me.

My body could still feel the faint rocking of the boat upon the water while I lay awake. I never devoted much thought to the subject of death despite being well aware I outlived the average lifespan of both of my bodies. Yet, aside from a few close calls, I never had been sick or even injured. Maybe I really couldn’t die. Somehow, immortality felt less comforting.

I tried to console myself by watching Ezra sleep beside me, but all I could think about was our lives fifty years from now: Ishmael would be long gone, and Ezra would have spent more than half of his life on a boat, doing nothing but waiting for me. The idea of Ezra getting old without me never bothered me. What kept me awake while he slept in my arms was thinking of a day he’d no longer be waiting for me, and I would be left to wander the waves alone.

* * *

EZRA

I felt significantly better when I woke to Kai’s arms still around me, but I didn’t want to be the needy person I felt myself becoming. From the beginning I knew Kai couldn’t always be with me. While I never liked him being away, I accepted it. I never doubted back then if he would come back.

For the first time since we met, I had to confront the very real possibility that a time might come when Kai didn’t return. He wasn’t an apex predator in the water, and even if he were, plenty of other dangers existed to worry me each night: polluted water, oil leaks, discarded nets, and now licensed hunting among a whole multitude of man-made problems. Last week forced me to come to the conclusion that there was nothing I could do to protect him. This only increased my desperation to do so.

I reached across the bed and smoothed back an errant blonde curl when Kai nuzzled his face into my palm with a happy smile. He was such a treasure and even cuter than a box of puppies.

“Time is it?” Kai mumbled, his face pressed in a pillow.

“About six.”

“Not so bad,” Kai yawned, scrubbing his eyes.

“In the morning,” I quickly added. “We slept almost fourteen hours.”

“Oh,” Kai chuckled.

He inched closer and hugged me so tight, the force popped the words on my mind right from my mouth. “I don’t want you to go back.”

“I just got here,” Kai said with an even heartier laugh. “So, don’t worry.”

“I am, even more so now that trigger-happy fishermen with a license to kill have been added to an already long list of concerns.”

Kai’s smile drooped while he stared back at me. “Ezra...”

“I mean it,” I interrupted before he could dismiss my valid fears. “I don’t want you to leave the safety of land,” I paused to gulp before I looked back at him, knowing I demanded the impossible. “Not until the season is over.”

“I’ll try.” Kai deeply exhaled, resting his head against mine. “If it makes you feel any better, I will try my best.”

“I love you,” I hesitantly reminded him.