Chapter forty-nine

"Do we have to go now?" Harry asks, almost like a child. I smile. Looks like he's had fun on his first island. I'm glad.

"It's almost three," I inform him. "Trust me, the longer we stay, the longer we'll have to wait to get back on the ship."

Pouty face and creased eyebrows greet me. I laugh. "Do you want to miss dinner?"

"Well, it's not that, it's just that I need to –"

"Taz is right," a familiar voice behind us. We turn. Lilli continues, "Let's get going." She glances around at everybody with eyes scanning them up and down. Asking, "Did anyone leave any belongings behind? If you did, now would be a good time to say so before we leave it here forever."

The warning makes Emily shiver, and she immediately takes off her bag to rummage through it, muttering to herself. Harry turns to me quickly.

"I left something."

"What?"

"At the market."

"What did you leave?"

"A present."

"..."

Lilli grabs mine and Harry's shoulder. "No worries," she starts. "Tasmin will go and get it. Won't you, Taz?" Turning to me.

I don't know what's happening, so I just say, "Uhh… Sure."

I hand the backpack over to Lilli, then start to jog down the path back to the market. Then I stop, turn, and yell, "What am I going back for again?"

For a minute, Harry's and Lilli's mouths are moving and I can't hear any sound, then Harry's beside me, leading me towards the markets.

"Don't worry, I'll show you."

Harry waits by the entrance of the market after explaining to me what it was he left and handing me the money for it. So I nervously but quickly approach the stall, smiling awkwardly at the owner. I ask them, "My friend, um, he wanted to buy the... um…" I stammer.

"Ze doll?" they say.

I nod eagerly. "Yes." They pull out the exact doll I noticed Harry holding earlier. "That's the one," I exclaim, pulling out the money needed to pay for it, handing it over in return for it. Then I'm jogging back towards the entrance, waving at Harry, pointing to it, grinning when he smiles at me.

"I got it," I tell him, even though he can clearly see that I have it. "Here you go." Handing it over.

But Harry smiles at the doll, then at me, and cups the doll in my hands and gently presses the doll to my chest. "It's for you."

I stare up at him confusedly, even though I clearly heard what he said. He smiles wider, making me grin stupidly. He pokes the doll, making the head bobble. I giggle. "Thanks," I murmur.

"You're kidding, right?" Emily's got an arm around my shoulder, and we're walking in rhythm to each other, matching our left feet and then our right feet. "You fainted, you weakling?" she seethes, not being rude, but a best-friend sort of intense tease that you take offence to for about five seconds and move on.

"That is what happened, yeah."

"Ha-ha!" she laughs. She looks at me with a serious look now, and this is how I know she cares: "You're okay, though, right?"

"Are you joking with me?" I put my hands on my hips, shrugging away Emily's arm. "It's gonna take a lot more than the sun to take me down," I challenge no one but myself.

Emily laughs, then skips over to Ben, deciding that his conversations will probably be more amusing than mine. What a tease. I smile at Lilli, who returns a weary one, but lets Charlie steer her back into a quiet and serious conference on the significance of having more government funding for higher standards of education in the Australian curriculum.

With the burning sun on my cheeks, staining me with what might be a permanent sunburn, I pull Harry's, well, my floppy hat from Harry further down on my head, and cradle the doll in my hands. I've only just noticed the intricacies carved upon it. Small, almost indistinguishable swirls in the dress, an etched-in arm tattoo that any tattoo artist would be jealous of, and an honest-to-God, hand-drawn coconut bra. I'm sure I look slightly unusual, staring so fondly at a doll as if it is a precious newborn baby, but it's certainly a gift from Harry that I'll never forget. As cringeworthy as it sounds, the gift of friendship from him is enough, but today might've been the best day of my life.

As I'm running my fingers through the grassy locks of hair this doll has, and poking at it, making its head bobble the same as when Harry did it, I'm also dwelling on the fact that Lilli saw something wrong with Harry. She noticed something abnormal and couldn't handle the thought of him being at least friends with me because of it. The thought really makes me bitter. Bitter enough that I'm gripping the doll's limbs too tight, tugging on them slightly, making the string rumble under my fingers as it is stretched. And then I feel it. The distinct crispness of thin paper, almost tissue-like, grazing my skin.

I glance up at Harry, who's thoughtfully gazing at the scenery, paying no attention to me, which at the moment, I don't mind at all, because I've found something. Something weird. Something out of the ordinary. Something that pushes aside the bitterness I just felt and invites in a newfound curiosity.

With the doll still in hand, I slide out the smartly-hidden roll of thin paper, unfolding it, reading it with an unpleasant dryness in my throat.

0606

7

Sunset photos with friends, replaced by an embrace under the young sun