“You can’t think like that, Dani. Life is…” Ugh. How do I explain it? Not that I know. “A psychologist whose family was burned alive during the second world war said that the meaning of life is in overcoming the challenges and finding new beginnings.”
She smirks. Even her smirk is gentle.
“You know,” I say as we walk slowly, “Ty really cares about you.”
She smiles and bites her lip.
There.
Thank you.
It’s a sign, a good one. Five points for Ty. She likes you, buddy.
I smile as I gaze up the path. “The purpose of healing is realizing that your loved ones who aren’t with you would be glad to see you happy. That whatever defines our fate and life—some other power, karma, whatever it is—meant for things to be this way. When you find someone who cares and who you care for, you need to make them happy. Because that’s your redemption. Your ticket out of trauma.”
“Do you care about Kai?” She looks at me with curiosity.
There we go. Of course, she had to ask. I smile, I can’t help it.
“Kai and I go way back. Something I thought he did four years ago ruined our lives, took us to hell, and I blamed him for it for a long time. And then I found out that what I thought was a betrayal was actually an act of kindness. That he went through a lot of tough stuff because he tried to keep me safe. And… I really liked him back then.”
“And now?”
My chest tightens at the thought. I look at Dani and I smile. “And now it’s different. Way different.”
We walk in silence. Emotions start inside me again. My feet kick palm leaves and branches out of the way like I can kick those emotions away so they don’t overwhelm me.
“Now I realize,” I say, “that in this dark world, Kai is one of the very few people I care about. Maybe, the only one. And I so desperately want to make him happy. You know, if you can’t ease your own pain, you do it for others. Somehow, it makes your own pain subside. It’s the weirdest thing.”
I look at Dani, and she gazes at me with a strange look like I just told her a secret.
She nods. “Yeah,” she says quietly. “It makes sense.”
I stop, then step up to her and, without saying anything else, hug her.
“That’s how healing works,” I whisper in her ear.
Her skinny hands meekly wrap around me, and she sniffles.
I hear a crack in the jungle.
And birds fleeting out of the bushes, a pack of them.
Suddenly, it’s too quiet.
Something is wrong.
A voice, alien and raspy, comes in from the bushes. “Look at them two beauties.”
I push off Dani and whip around.
“Well, hello there.”
His grin is brown like he is missing teeth. A dirty t-shirt, shorts, and sneakers. He looks like a predator, slowly walking out of the bushes, his tongue licking his lips as he grins. He fixes his baseball hat with one hand. The other—
Holds a knife.
“Easy, birdies, easy.” He crouches like he is about to jump.