Page 166 of The Island

Maybe that would be something good that would come from all of this?

Maybe.

She opened the front door, opened the screen door, sat on the stoop, and lit a cigarette.

West Seattle was quiet. The Sound was calm.

The moon was up and so bright you could see the snowy mountains of Olympic National Park. There was a crow on the telegraph wire in front of Starbucks.

She knew it wasn’t the same crow. Only the shearwaters made that journey from Australia to here. Not crows.

Still, it was looking at her like it knew her. And saying hello cost nothing.

“Hi,” she said.

She finished the cigarette and found herself locking the door, pocketing the key, and crossing the empty street to a deserted Alki Beach.

She could see her breath in the moonlight.

The beach was pristine; summer was coming and they raked it every night.

She kicked off her old Converse slip-ons and stood on one of the rake’s curves, her toes in the cool sand.

She lifted one leg and let the Earth rotate slowly beneath her feet.

She breathed in and out.

In and out.

She let the tension ease from her shoulders. Her left shoulder in particular, which still ached.

She remembered the Makah word for “water” that her grandmother had taught her: wa’ak.

Her grandmother was gone and the last native Makah speaker had died years ago. She thought of that other magic word that she was still extremely skeptical about.

“Mom,” she said and smiled. It was all still true. She was too young. She’d never even been an aunt or a babysitter. But sometimes you’re given a mission and sometimes you’re good at that mission.

She rolled her sweatpants to her knees and stepped into the opaque water.

It was cold.

Very cold.

The beach was kind of eerie.

She was alone here in the dark, but really, there was nothing to be afraid of. She could look after herself and her family. And this was her place. Her home.

A breeze rippled the stillness.

She hugged herself and found that she was crying.

Tears pouring down her cheeks into the crescent moon reflected on Puget Sound.

She looked east toward the rest of the continent.

It was well before sunrise.

But all you had to do was wait.

Patience was a weapon.

If you waited long enough, the dawn would come.