With a horrified guh noise Ash kicks the sand sending it flying into my face It’s in my eyes my nose my mouth I taste the hard salty grains grinding on my tongue I spit Beside me Karl laughs By the time I blink away all the grit Ash is storming back to the house Her house The one she lives in with her mom Jes I can see her sitting on the deck with my mom and Karl’s dad and his girlfriend She waves to Ash and Ash’s arms flail wildly I don’t know what she’s saying but I know she’s not telling them anything good All four of them turn and look in my direction Mom frowns Great I mutter As soon as Mom gets ahold of me I know she is going to lecture me about being nicer to Ash Jes is Mom’s friend from university She invited me and Mom to come visit her for Spring Break Sounded all right to me a week in the Florida Keys with lots of time to draw and maybe even some 4
time on a jet ski And I heard that Jes had a teenage daughter Cool I thought Spring Break with a high school girl But then that high school girl turned out to be Ash whiny boring mean old Ash She hates me says Karl Yeah I nod spitting out more sand She hates me too At least you get to leave soon Karl’s face goes kind of funny His mouth twists to one side like he isn’t so happy about that either What I ask I’d sure rather be out on your fancy boat than stuck here with Ash Karl shrugs and looks down at the sand hole You can have my spot I laugh Don’t tease me Karl I’d take your place in a second I mean it Like I said Karl’s dad is filthy rich The only reason he’s even in Florida is because the private yacht he chartered for Spring Break launches from here Then they’re off to sail the Caribbean in luxury Chartered I learned that word recently too 5
Fancy rich people don’t rent things They charter them Karl told me there’s even a Jacuzzi onboard And some kind of inflatable slide thing that they can set up if they want to He told me it goes from the top deck down into the ocean I don’t even know what that would look like But I know it sounds awesome Karl doesn’t smile Just stares down miserably at the sand What’s the matter It’s not safe he says What isn’t The boat He shakes his head What then He looks at me his mouth twitching I think he’s deciding whether or not to say Finally he speaks again Do you know how we’re getting to the Caribbean Ridge Awesomely No Karl says waving his hand at me Not awesomely Dangerously 6
Dangerous how Don’t you know where we are Using the popsicle stick he draws what looks like the southern tip of Florida in the sand He adds some of the islands of the keys branching off This is where we are Now look here the Bahamas He makes a bunch of dots a little further south of Florida He makes another dot to the left of that Puerto Rico Then a bit to the north he makes another dot Bermuda I’m impressed I definitely didn’t know my geography that well when I was ten Heck I’m thirteen and I still don’t know it that well Okay I say not sure what any of this is supposed to mean Karl scoffs He draws a line from Florida along the Bahamas to Puerto Rico Then another line up to the Bermuda And one more line back to Florida A triangle It’s the Bermuda Triangle Karl whispers 7
