The reason my home is called Moonlight Town is because every night, at midnight exactly, the moon spills its bright light all over the island, except when it's a new moon-those nights are called Great Black. Seth and I, almost every night, are here on the beach where the perfect view of moon is. It makes the turquoise sand glitter with luminescence. We are lying on the dry part of the sand, overwhelmed with the beauty of the beach. I glance over at Seth, who stares at the moon as if it is an ordinary apple tree. "I used to look at this moon with the same awe that you have. Now all I see is rotting cheese," he nonchalantly comments.
"How can you say that?" I ask astonishingly. "It's so beautiful, the entire island is actually. Only this island has this gift. You should, um…appreciate it more."
"You always look for the light in the darkness Mia."
"Huh?" I blush at his poetic statement. He digs in his pocket and takes out a homemade necklace that I made a long time ago. It was connected by a plastic chain and lavender heart dangles in the middle.
"Remember when you gave this to me when I really needed it? I learned from the moment you gave me this…in any darkness, you become my light," he continues, making me feel as though the sun is burning my cheeks. He never opens himself up to anyone like that, including me. "U-um thank you." After a few minutes, the show is over and a handful of photographic tourists and artists leave. The glow grows dimmer and dimmer and then it's nearly pitch-black if it isn't for the torches. The excitement builds in my legs while I take off my cyan sandals.
"Come on, I know you want to," Seth faintly smiles, rises to his feet, and takes my hand. "It's sweaty Mia, you don't need water?"
"Not at all," I smile sheepishly, holding my sandals with my fingers. Both of us take off down the shore, holding each other's hand as every barefoot step makes a splash in the water. The waves are higher at night since the moon is out. Grinning like a fool, I eventually speed in front of Seth since I'm a faster runner. The breeze blows through my hair, making it seem as long as the never ending shoreline. I exhale with a grin; the halcyons make me feel so good when I'm running, as if it's only me and Seth on the beach. Seth's slowing down, signalling me to do the same but I'm ready to keep on running all night.
"We could do this," he starts while breathing hard, "in another world you know." The atmosphere shifts from enthusiastic to austere. We are back in this world where he wants to travel to other places and leave Moonlight Town and all I can do is hear him out. "See each of the stars? They're each a different world to explore," he gestures towards the sky. Now that the moonlight is gone, the stars are fairly visible, some seeming to flicker the longer I stare at them. He seems so determined to do this-it's making me a little unsettled, what if he leaves me by myself here? The mere thought of it ties painful knots in my stomach as he confidently gazes at the sky. "Who told you that?"
"My heart," he puts a stern emphasis on heart and places his hand over his chest, then he chuckles. "I'm kidding, it was something I was trying to figure out this morning as to why there were so many stars in the sky." In awkward silence, Seth walks me home, grimacing at the noisy factories we always have to pass by. I learned to get used to them, why can't he? Did I not acclimate him well enough to Moonlight Town?
"Thank you," I say once I get to my door. Seth nods and starts walking away. "Night!" He waves a hand in response as he leaves me. I sigh-I'm glad he doesn't count me as one of the things he hates about this island. Suddenly, he stops striding and abruptly turns his head to my flowery hedge. He eyes it cautiously. "What's the matte-" I ask anxiously, taking a step off the welcome mat.
"Stay back!" he commands, either to whatever is in the bush or me. He runs over to the hedge and dissects it thoroughly and gives up after finding nothing. He glares at the bush as if he holds a grudge against it. "Thought I saw a shadow," he briefly explains.
"Oh." Relief floods my face.
"Go to bed early tonight."
"How come?"
"Wait and see," replies Seth tauntingly, flashing a confident smirk before striding off. His sandals skid on the ground as he leaves. As I step inside my house, my shoes clack on the white, marble floor. I hurry up the steep, marble spiral steps, clean up in the bathroom I left in a mess this morning, and then fall on top of my queen-sized bed. I lay flat on my back and stare at the curtains swaying in the gentle night breeze; tonight I don't smell the smoke, which means the breeze is eastern tonight. When did Seth even wanna do this whole 'traveling worlds' thing? I will support him of course, but-
My train of thought is interrupted when I visit the memory of Seth taking out the charm I gave to him and saying, "…in any darkness, you become my light." I squeal and thrash my legs excitedly like a hyperactive child then snatch my pillow from under my head and hug it. When he wants to be sweet, he can be the kindest person in the whole world. Even if we were to travel together and meet all different kinds of people, I'd still think he's the most charming and caring person out of all the worlds out there. The next day on Moonlight Beach, Seth announced that we are going to be leaving the island early tomorrow. "What? You're serious?!"
"Of course I am, I wasn't talking crap yesterday. And after last night, well let's just say that I'm better than before and ready to leave this place once and for all!"
"You're moving?"
"No, I'm gonna go out there and see what there is to see and I'm only asking you to join me. Mom is giving tours on cruise ships and Madison practically lives in those crummy factories, they wouldn't notice I was gone," says Seth forlornly. Before I can assure him otherwise, he continues, "I don't want to do this alone Mia."
"You never talked about stuff like that before," I point out sulkily as I notice the rougher crashes of the waves compared to yesterday. The breeze is a bit harsher today too, sand is getting in my eyes. "Now you sound like a Sci-fi person." He makes an annoyed sound with his teeth.
"You're getting supplies today, so don't dawdle around. I'm going to look around for an inexpensive boat that can get us far. I got most of the stuff last night, so all we need are mushrooms."
"Last night? After you left my house?" I don't try to hide my surprise. "You know how late that was?"
"I wanted a head start," he says in a matter-of-fact tone. "So are you doing this with me or what?"
"I'll get the mushrooms but we gotta talk about this after I get back!"
' ' '
At the peak of the day, I am standing on the edge of a rocky cliff. The bottom is swarmed with point rocks dogpiled on each other and stormy waves slamming against the cliff. Sometimes the tide is higher than normal and then the rocks get slippery, which makes it harder to climb down. Despite my horrible acrophobia, I have no problem climbing down to my secret spot unless I look down. I slowly make my way down to the opening below, gripping the rocks and hoping the waves did not reach that high. Once I feel my right leg swing into an opening, I lower myself and swing into the cavern's wide mouth. It's always cool and drafty in here, mushrooms thrive here. This place is my personal cavern that even Seth doesn't know exists. I remember that I would always hide in different corners, stifling my cries so no one would hear me. Some water splatters on my back from the waves as I bend down and pluck the mushrooms in the dark corners of the cave. I pick up the last mushroom and turn red when I catch a glimpse of the same repeated doodle taking up the bottom half of the stony wall. Using the pebbles as chalk, I drew an ugly kélora fruit. I bend down to caress the rough surface, sighing softly. "If you eat this with greed, your very heart will bleed. But if shared with two sides of one heart, you'll never be apart," I whisper the well-known myth behind the fruit longingly. I was obsessed with this fruit when I was little but now I don't care that much about it. It's triple the size of an egg and is a bright green with a bumpy, coarse texture but when you put it in water it softens up and opens up like a flower, revealing layers of yellow and bright lime.
Would Seth want to share it with me? I don't know-guess I'm a little chicken to ask-what if that's the point of all this? To surprise me with the kélora fruit-that's why he wants me to come with him alone. "Shoot! I'm dawdling," I realize aloud, springing up, still embarrassed about my thoughts about Seth. I quickly snatch the mushrooms I just dropped; Seth will be worried if I don't head back soon. As I begin to turn away towards the drawings, something black looms in the corner of my eye. I face the black, arched door with pure anxiety. For some reason, I'm happy that it's closed, but there was never a door there-
Ever.
I take a backwards step into a puddle, almost dropping the last mushroom as I stuff them into my pockets. Why is that door making me so panicky? "Calm down, deep breath," I soothe myself. Maybe it's just something I haven't noticed before-no one could find this place though. It's impossible, and there's nothing to secure the door into place. Dark orange light spills into the unlighted cavern. It's that late already? I better head back to Seth right away. I take a final glimpse of the door before getting my foot on the rocks outside.
Seth is leaning against a palm tree, with an open, yellow bag filled with kélora fruits, bottled water, and sealed fish cans by his feet. He usually has a pondering countenance, but the shadow the palm tree casts over him makes him looked exhausted. I rush over to him and put the mushrooms with the rest of the goods. "Did you see anything weird today?" he asks with shut eyes. Up close, they seem strained.
"What do you mean by 'weird'?" knots are starting to tie in my stomach.
"Anything that didn't belong. Like a door, hypothetically speaking."
"D-did you see it too?"
He opens his eyes and glares at me. "You've seen it?"
"Y-yeah."
He snatches my shoulders unexpectedly and with the harsh breeze blowing his hair around, he looks kinda scary. "Did you open it? Wait, where was it?"
"No I didn't open it! I just saw it in a cave where I got the mushrooms and left."
Seth breathes a sigh of relief, releasing my shoulders. "Anyways, we should go back to-" There is a crackling sound coming from the palm tree adjacent to us. The palm tree leans towards us and wants to obey gravity by landing on top of us.
Snap!
My legs want to move out of the way, but I'm frozen like a deer in headlights as it falls. Seth narrows his eyes and throws his arms out as if he's-trying to catch it! "Seth, no!" I cry out. I cover my eyes, in horror-I can't bear to watch Seth get crushed trying to save me. As if my worst fear comes true, I hear Seth grunt loudly. After not feeling pain for more than three seconds, I open my eyes to an impossible sight. Seth isn't crushed. The palm tree is tilted. Seth is holding the palm tree. Holding it back from crushing us.
"Get back!" he yells, adding a low groan. With a pounding heart, I run a couple of steps back as he pushes the palm tree back with a forceful grunt. It falls in the bushes with a noisy doosh, shaking the ground a bit. He scrutinizes his hands as if unaware of his own strength then clenches them satisfactorily.
"Are you okay?" I run back to hug him. "Don't scare like that, please!" he snorts, weakly hugging me back. Once I let go, I ask worriedly, "How did you do that?"
"A secret," he whispers teasingly. "Come on, let's go home."
He walks back home, never sharing the secret of his awesome power. Seth never showed any display of physical strength when we first met; he never went to the gym or drank protein shakes. His muscles are as flat as mine, so how could he have done something so amazing like that? He gets the door and clears his throat, "I have some preparations to finish at the beach. Tomorrow morning, we'll be heading off to a new world Mia. I know that I've been keeping to myself a lot for the past couple of days, but all that's going to change once we head out. You're the only person kind enough to do this with me. I know this whole thing just came out of the blue, and I know you're frightened-don't be. I'm going to make sure you're safe as long as you're with me. Thank you for believing in me-you're a true friend, which is why I'm only taking you to go see worlds. See ya then."
J.G.P.
