Page 28 of The First Lost Boy (The Shadows of Neverland Duet #2)
Ava
I scrawl in the journal what I know for sure…
My name is Ava Laira.
Over a month ago, a ship I was sailing on was caught in a storm and ran aground near an isolated island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The seas around this place are rough and the currents are strong. Sharp reefs threaten any hull that sails close.
The storm pushed us into the dangerous, swirling waters that crown this little paradise. And as if that wasn’t calamitous enough, I lost my memory. They said we had to jump and swim for the shore when the ship listed sideways, but I wasn’t so lucky. I got beaten up on the reef on the way in and hit my head. A few of us did.
So, I don’t remember a single detail of that night, or any before it.
I don’t remember the days after it, when the storm calmed, and the kind people of the island helped us and repaired the ship so we could go home.
I only remember this morning, waking to a young man with a silver hook and green eyes that made my chest strangely ache. I’ve since learned that his name is Jameson Hudson, but he goes by his last name, from what I can tell.
I don’t know most of the people I encounter on this island, but there are some faces I keep studying because they’re so familiar, which drives me crazy because people keep telling me that I only know them from the ship and the few days we spent sailing before the storm sent us here, but that doesn’t explain the few who seem to know me better than others.
One young woman in particular has stayed close to me. I’m not sure she likes Hudson with the looks she keeps shooting his way, but I love it when he gives me a smile and a wink despite her.
The young woman, Tink, has blonde hair and eyes that look like sparkling, molten, golden mischief, and when she laughs it sounds like the sweet chiming of a bell.
She’s told me no less than a dozen times that everything is going to be okay when I get home. I don’t know how she knows that. Maybe she’s trying to be kind because she knows I’m close to panicking, because I feel like I’m one second away from doing just that. Crying. Sobbing. Peeling my cuticles and biting my nails, with every muscle as tight as my skin. I’m terrified of what comes next.
Just now, she handed me a wooden bowl of rice and a piece of really freaking delicious fish and told me that she plans to sail back with me and make sure I find my way home. When I lift my eyes to look for her, she’s already looking at me from across a grassy circle.
When everyone finishes eating, we’re supposed to head to the shore with our books – some kind of parting gift from the people who’ve already given us so much – to board our repaired ship. My book used to belong to a girl named Wendy, but her name has been crossed out and mine’s been written below it, along with the name Devin Ross and an address for an Aquatic Center on Tybee Island, Georgia.
My pent-up tears finally fall. I assume I somehow know Devin and I’m about to sail back and show up on this person’s porch with my brain completely fucked up.
I quickly wipe my cheeks, but Tink notices my distress. When she starts my way, I sit my journal and pen down and cry into my knees as I tuck them into my chest.
“Hey,” she soothes, sitting beside me and putting an arm around my shoulders.
“I’m sorry,” I say between sobs. “I just feel so lost.”
She rubs calming circles over my back. “It’s okay. You won’t be for long.”
But I know she’s wrong. How could I not be?
Devin
I turn the lights off as I leave, and the security lights wink to life behind me. I check the locks and wave to the cameras before heading to the front door where I stop short, one hand extended, fingers curling toward the metal handle, the others gripping my keys. Because Ava is standing outside The Aquatic Center with Belle.
Belle sees me coming, says something to Ava, and rushes to meet me, pushing her way inside.
“Where have the two of you been?” I hiss. She stuffs a thick wad of cash into my pocket and my eyes widen. What the hell is happening? “What’s that for?”
Her golden eyes flare, the color swirling like the pixie dust she describes in her little book.
I feel a sense of calm wash over me.
“You’ll only refer to me as Tink from this point forward. Ava Laira sustained a head injury during an accident while sailing on a chartered ship. She has suffered memory loss, and she needs a place to recover and someone to look out for her for a time. Tomorrow, I’ve arranged for you to be off work. I need you to take Ava to purchase a cell phone, then take her to a reputable sports memorabilia shop and ask them to look at the baseball card in her pocket and manage the sale thereof. The money in your pocket will cover expenses for the next few months until that sale goes through. Once it does, you may only take a fair amount from any proceeds to cover her room and board and any expenses you incur for her.
“After she goes to sleep tonight or tomorrow, you will go alone to recover some of her clothes, shoes, toiletries, and other belongings from our apartment. You will not take her there, and you will leave everything personal, like photographs, behind. Destroy her purse if the police haven’t already taken it.”
“They have,” I numbly inform her.
“Great. You’ll find a fresh ID and all the things she’ll need to establish bank accounts on our kitchen table. Help her apply for a passport in case she wants to travel one day. Basically, you will help her do anything she needs or wants to do in the next several months because she’s going to need someone when she gets scared, and she’s very afraid, Devin.”
She pokes my chest. “And you will not be interested in her as anything other than a very best friend. She was never into you and never will be. You’ll allow her to live with you until she is ready to leave and at that time, you will let her fly. You won’t tell her I am her sister, or anything you know about the life she led before, other than what you and she experienced while working together here. If she wants a job, this would be a good place for her, though. Familiarity might help her.”
The words sink into me. I can’t focus on anything but her eyes. I feel dizzy, and my fingers prickle like they’re asleep.
“I need you to be a brother to her,” Tink says. Her voice is absolute, but as my vision clears, I see the tears in her eyes.
“Where will you be?” I finally ask.
“I’m going home.” Tears stream down her cheeks even as she tries to stave them.
I maneuver my bag from my back to my side, unzip the main compartment, and grip her book, drawing it out for her to see. “If you’re leaving, you might want this.”
“You found this?” she questions, her brows raised in surprise.
“Yes. And before you ask, I read it. It needs some polishing, but it’s got good bones. You should submit it to publishers or what have you.” I wave a hand between us, unsure how she would go about putting it out into the world.
She accepts the book and clutches it to her chest as her eyes lock on mine. “Take care of her, Devin. Until she can take care of herself.”
But how will she do that if she has no memory? I want to ask, but don’t. I’m not sure I’m supposed to say something so morose at a time that’s supposed to be happy. I’m just glad she’s back and safe. Ava will be okay in time. I’ll make sure of it.
“Can I go see her now?” I ask Tink.
She nods, so I push past her through the door and slowly walk to Ava. And now my damn eyes are watering. “I missed you.”
She starts to cry. “I wish I knew why.”