Regina had never been camping on a beach before and Emma was determined to make it a great time for her. Of course Henry was the one who picked the location—they could always leave it to him to find some obscure place they'd never heard of before. That summer, it was the Maldives. At first Regina was elated, images of five-star beach resorts and sunsets filled her head. But Henry and Emma wanted something simpler; she'd get her sunsets but the duo wanted to sleep under the stars. They narrowed it down to two locations, one would be pitching their tent in the middle of the jungle and the other was to find their favorite beach and set up there. And if they had to they'd use magic to hide their tent. Regina reluctantly suggested that they pick a location at the tree line of the jungle, where tufts of palms met beach sand. That way they could get the best of both worlds. Henry had been over the moon about that idea. So, for Regina's great idea, the two knew that they had to make the trip special for her. They agreed to let her spend one night at Gili Lankanfushi.
Emma for one didn't regret the decision at all. One whole night spent in an over-water bungalow, watching Henry dive off of the deck into the ocean water. "Look at this moms!" and "Oh I learned a new trick!" became the phrases of the night. "Oh yeah, I've got something better." Emma had said before taking off into a run, tripping over a loose floor board, and careening gracelessly into the saltwater. "That was better alright." Regina rolled her eyes. It had taken a lot of coaxing to get her out of her lawn chair and into the ocean. A lot of splashing and watery threats to her copy of 'On the Night of the Seventh Moon' finally had her in the water. While Emma and Henry busied themselves with trying to pull each other under the water, Regina had taken to swimming to the bottom of the shallow and retrieving various seashells that she would keep as mementos of times well spent. By sundown she had accumulated a huge pile of interesting ocean rocks, sand dollars, and colorful shells.
"Do you really need all of those?" Emma had inquired.
Regina had stared at her haul and confessed, "I didn't realize I had that many. I was just tossing them up there."
"Well, pick your favorites because I'm not going to keep track of them all."
"I'd apricate it if you and Henry helped me decide."
Henry was quick to spring out of the water and shuffle through the pile. By the end of all of their sorting, they had successfully eliminated two rocks and a shell. Everything else was simply too awestriking to toss back into the ocean. So Regina had snuck the two rocks and the shell back into the pile saying, "we might as well keep them too, since we're keeping everything else." Emma had shrugged, if it made Regina happy she was more than okay with it.
"We can keep this too right?" Henry had held up a chunk of coral. He put it a top the pile and headed out for another dive. That time Regina told him to wait a moment while she grabbed her camera. She snapped a few pictures of he and Emma diving off of the platform and then a few of the setting island sun. It took another considerable amount of time for Emma to pry the camera from Regina's hands and let her take some pictures of her diving in. Finally at the mention of, "don't you want some pictures of you and Henry for your scrapbook," Regina had surrendered the camera. Regina dived in once herself and twice with Henry. Emma admired the way the sun made silhouettes of her body. And the way it perfectly highlighted every one of her smiles. Emma's favorite shot though, was one of Regina just resurfacing, the way the sun sparkled off of her hair, and how tiny drops of water hung in the air around her, forever captured in that moment. Equally as much, she enjoyed the one of Henry tackling Regina into the water. She wondered which picture of her was Regina's favorite. At last Henry had grown tired of the beach water and Regina pointed out that there was an under-the-stars showing of, 'The Blue Lagoon'—not particularly up Henry's alley, but right up Regina's. It wasn't particularly Emma's kind of movie either but this was Regina's night of the trip, and Emma was excited for a movie out in the jungle. After all, it wasn't something she got to do every night. So she took Regina's hand and Henry's and the trio had made their way into the for movie night. The place had been nice and quiet and all of Emma's hesitance faded away when she had seen the luxuriously plush pillows and soft beach blankets organized on the sand. If she hadn't fancied watching the movie on the ground there were a bunch of equally cozy looking lawn chairs too. Surrounded by palms and under a sky scattered with more stars than she could have ever dreamed of, Emma found herself falling asleep in Regina's arms. Regardless, Emma was pretty sure that the other woman was still watching the movie quite intensely. Henry was already snoozing next to them. The last thing Emma remembered before completely dozing off was the sound of jungle noise, the sight of a sea of twinkling stars, and Regina's lips on the top of her head. She'd remember that moment for the rest of her days. She was glad that she compromised with Regina and let he woman spend a day at the upscale resort.
Presently Emma had just finished setting up camp and pulled out her iPod dock. A steady flow of reggae and reggeaton (that Regina had labeled as inappropriate for the trip seeing as reggae was always more associated with Jamaica) was flowing through the otherwise silent balmy air.
While camped out on the beach, Regina took to organizing her shells separating them by shape and then by color. The sand dollars and rocks had a place of their own. Emma could always count on her to bring exactly what they needed. At that moment, Henry needed some sunblock. She watched Regina help him smear it across his back before he sprinted down the beach. That time it didn't take any convincing, Regina was in the water collecting more shells. "It's a different beach Emma," she shouted from the shoreline, "we need souvenirs from this one too."
Though Emma didn't think that they needed anymore keepsakes, she simply couldn't argue with that logic.
Moments later Regina emerged on the sand with what she declared was the best shell on the beach. Emma rolled her eyes, the woman had only said that six shells ago. What she expected was for Regina to hold out another peachy-pink shell, point at it, and say something like, "well this one is different, it has a marking that looks like a heart, see?" Instead she held out something much bigger that took up all of her arm space.
"Henry!" Emma shouted. "Look what your mom found!"
Henry sprinted up the sand, hissing a few ouches when he hit a mildly sharp rock. "What is it?"
Regina set the turtle down at his feet. "I'm calling him Marshell."
Emma found herself rolling her eyes even harder. "Really, Regina?" But then again, this was the woman who decide to call Jiminy Cricket, Dr. Hopper. "You aren't planning on taking him home with us, are you?"
"We should." Henry casted his vote.
"Of course not." Regina replied, "not unless he wants to come with us."
"Oh, and how will we know if he wants that?"
"I will." Regina replied.
"Well, when you figure out if he does, let me know."
It was midafternoon, with the sun smolderingly hot on their shoulders, when the trio decided to hideaway under the shade of the palm trees nearest their tent for a lunch on the beach. Emma came to find out that Regina was surprisingly good on a grill. The beach had them scattered about and Regina masterfully cooked up a few hotdogs for the three of them. Emma made herself useful by cutting a few watermelons and pineapples. Henry of course got the pleasure of watching Marshell retreat back into the ocean and alerting Regina so she could run after him yelling goodbye.
Emma threw her head back and laughed, but not before capturing the ridiculous moment on camera. That was the highlight of her trip. So when the time came, she definitely didn't want to retire into their tent for the night. She and Regina waited until Henry was fast asleep to do something that was oh so responsible. Maybe it was the dreamy scenery or the thrill of the adventure. Or maybe it was the good island whisky. But the two had taken their clothes off and went for a swim, at Emma's declaration that you haven't truly lived if you haven't gone skinny dipping at least once. They didn't leave the ocean until Regina insisted that she'd seen a shark. They mentioned nothing to Henry in the morning.
By their final night on the island their skin had been adequately kissed by the sun. Or in Emma's case—since she ignored Regina's warnings—had been decently burned. And their heads were full of desires to return one day and relive the whole thing. They took one final picture standing inside of their tent. Regina was the first to step outside. Emma found her sitting cross legged a few feet away from the tent looking absolutely smug.
"Emma, Marshell wants to come home with us."