“I’ll think you’re what?”
“Bad.”
“Oh, bullshit. Look at me… Look at me… There’s nothing you can do to make me think you’re bad. If you took a shit in church, I’d find a way to excuse it. And what’s worse than shitting in church?”
“Lots of things.”
“Well, nothing having to do with you. So tell me.”
“I’m jealous,” she softly, almost ashamedly, tears running down her face.
“Of Veronica?”
She closed her eyes and nodded, lowering her face to the mattress, and he let go of her hand, running his fingers through her curls, petting her. Melissa felt the heat spread through her, the body ache that she had never known until her feelings for him first began to change, making her feel dirty and ashamed.
“Why?” he asked her gently.
“Because I love you,” she said in a barely audible whisper.
“I love you too.”
But she shook her head, whispering into the sheet that it was not the same.
“How do you know?” he said softly, touching her face.
She sat up and looked at him.
“Hmm?”
“I don’t think you understand what I mean.” She wiped her nose with her fingers.
“I understand exactly what you mean. Wanna run off and get married as soon as we get to Hawaii?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s not like that… I can’t explain it.”
“Can I be honest with you?” he said, giving her hand another squeeze.
She nodded.
“You’re conflicted because there aren’t any young men around. When we get to Hawaii that will change, and that feeling you have won’t confuse you anymore.”
Her eyes grew big and she felt her face grow hot.
“See?” he said with a smile. “I know what you’re going through. And I’ve never pulled any punches with you, so I won’t start now. It’s completely natural, what you’re feeling. We just have to find you someone your own age to feel it for, that’s all.”
“And what if I don’t?” she said quietly, worried that Ulrich or one of the others might hear.
“Then I’ll dump Veronica,” he whispered, “and we’ll run away together up into the mountains and live in a hut.”
She snickered. “Nuh-uh.”
“Oh, don’t be too sure. She’ll be old and ugly pretty soon, and you’ll still be young and beautiful.”
“Shut up,” she said, laughing softly. “You’re not going to tell her we had this talk, are you?”
“Nope.”
“Promise me.”
“I swear on my hope of being reborn a cat that I will never tell her we had this conversation.”
“You don’t want to come back as a cat!”
“I never told you that?”
“No,” she said. “Why the hell would you want to be a cat?”
“Have you ever seen a cat take any shit from anybody?”
“No,” she laughed.
“Well, next time around I ain’t takin’ no shit from nobody.”
She stood and slid her arms around his neck, then blushed and leaned over to kiss him chastely on the lips. “I love you, Jack.”
“Love you too, honey.”
When she was sure Melissa was gone, Veronica stepped out from behind Kane’s curtain and stood looking at Forrest. “It scares me how easily you handled that.”
“What was hard about it?” he said. “All I had to do was tell her the truth. And you know what they say about the truth.”
“Well, you’re committed to living in a hut if this doesn’t work.”
“Oh, stop it. She’ll have ten boyfriends by this time next month.”
Captain Bisping entered the sick bay a few moments later and stood outside Forrest’s curtain. “Knock, knock.”
“Come on in,” Forrest said.
Bisping pulled the curtain aside to see Veronica sitting on the edge of his bed. “I had to have a little talk with the single women in your crew.”
Forrest chuckled. “And how did that work out for ya, Captain?”
Bisping, feeling a little light-headed over Andie, smiled and said, “I’m guessing you’ve had your hands full these past eighteen months.”
“Women respond to kindness, Captain. Remember that.”
Veronica hit him in the head.
“Hey, I’m wounded, you know!”
“Not as bad as you’re gonna be.”
Bisping shook his head. “I’ve received word from Pearl. Our leadership is particularly concerned about the health of you and your men.”
“Well, that’s awfully nice of them, Captain.”
“Turns out,” Bisping went on, “that the four of you are going to be the only Green Berets of fighting age in all the Hawaiis.”
“Well, we’re retired.”
“No,” said Bisping, “I’m afraid you were retired. You see, everybody’s got a job to do in Hawaii these days, Captain. And President Thorn is going to be asking for your assistance with a little piracy problem we’ve been having. Our settlements along the coasts are being raided. Most people live in Honolulu now, but the settlements are important for protecting the infrastructure of the Islands for future repopulation. So the settlers are actually caretakers, and we need someone qualified to teach them how to defend themselves… and since the training of indigenous troops is a big part of what the Special Forces were all about… Well, it speaks for itself, doesn’t it?”
Forrest looked up at Veronica. “First cannibals and now pirates. Jesus Christ, you’d think I was a goddamn sailor.”
Epilogue
There were dozens of gulls in the sky as Marty Chittenden and Shannon Emory disembarked from the Boxer, walking the ladder leading down to the pier. They stood off to the side watching the birds for a long time, unable to take their eyes off them. The only other wild creatures they had seen in the last year were rats, and the sounds of the gulls were like sweet music.
“Nobody knows where the damn things came from,” said a voice from behind. “They just showed up one day.”
They turned around and there was Ester Thorn, bundled up in her coat and leaning against her cane.
“Holy shit,” Marty muttered, a grin coming to his face. “It’s really you!”
“Who is she?” Emory asked.
“It’s Ester,” he said, walking over to the old woman and giving her a hug.
“You look ten years older, boy. Turned you into a man, hasn’t it?”
“Not the kind of man I ever wanted to be,” he said, turning toward Emory. “Ester, this is someone I’d like you to meet. Shannon Emory. She’s the best friend I’ve ever had. We’ve been taking turns saving one another’s lives.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Ester said, taking her hand. “Pretty thing.” Then she turned and gestured with her cane at all of the construction taking place around the harbor. “Take a look at the new power grid we’re building! It’ll be the most efficient grid there’s ever been. Of course, for now we remain largely dependent on the Navy’s nuclear reactors to pick up where the wind farms leave off, but it won’t always be that way. We’re harnessing the tide, Marty. Our engineers believe we’ll be drawing up to eighty percent of our power from the sea within the next five years. After that, who knows?
“Of course, I won’t be here to see it,” she added. “But you will, Marty, and don’t worry about a thing. Everyone in these islands knows who you are now, and they know they’ve got you to thank. I’ve made sure of it.”
“Ester, all I did was spot the rock.”
“No, son, you did a lot more than that. You got this grumpy old woman up off her ass and sent her to Hawaii to carry out your vision. Your vision, Marty. This sure as hell wasn’t mine. I would have said to hell with it all. And now, with a little honey here and a little honey there… you’ll keep the Naturalist Party in power for the next twenty or thirty years. The Federalists are growing weaker every day now.”