not letting people walk all over you. You do the walking. I got that much from my marriage, that and this bug-infested slice of Florida real estate. And by the time we’re done here, you’ll feel my footprints all over you, Marshall Egan.”
He examined her as if she were one of those bugs. “Here’s the thing,” he said, not smiling this time. “It doesn’t matter how many times you don’t give up. You’re not going to win. People are tired of seeing Florida dredged, developed and destroyed. You might say that’s our own little 3-D show down here, only nobody needs funny plastic glasses to view the result. So people are throwing money at us right and left to stop it. And we’re not stupid. We’d rather spend their contributions on land than lawsuits. Your real-estate agent knows Wild Florida’s willing to start serious negotiations.”
Tracy had already heard the organization’s starting offer, as informal as it was. Maribel had informed Tracy that Wild Florida was talking a fraction of what a developer would pay in a better economy.
“When you get really serious, give me a call,” she said. “But let’s not play games. Come up a few million so at least we’re playing ball on the same continent. This is prime land surrounded by water at a time when everybody wants their own view of blue.” She remembered that phrase from one of CJ’s brochures. “The economy’s in the dumps right now, but soon enough developers will be looking hard for just what I’m offering. I can wait. Can you?”
“You have children?”
She shook her head. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“It gives you a different perspective, or at least it should. I’ve got a boy. He’s probably going to have kids of his own someday. I’d kind of like them to grow up knowing Florida has something to offer besides Disney World, golf courses, fancy marinas and retirement villages built on former wetlands.”
“Then meet my price.” She didn’t owe him an explanation, but she gave one anyway. “This land is all I have. I’m not going to give it away. I plan to make enough selling it to live comfortably for the rest of my life.”
He gave a low whistle. “That gives ‘comfortable’ a whole new meaning.”
“I think we’re done here. The tide’s coming in. You stay down there in that…what’d you call it? That wet-sand area? You stay there too long, you’ll be up to your knees in water on your way back home, unless you trespass and finish your morning walk on my property. And I’ll be watching.”
“No, you won’t. You’re not half as tough as you’re making yourself out to be.”
“Try me.” The sun was peeking over the horizon now, and the sky was as pink as a Canadian sun-worshiper. For a moment she watched it climb; then, forgoing the chance to look for shells, she started back toward her cottage. She had lost all desire to enjoy anything Florida had to offer.
Janya watched the sun rising from her private scrub-shrouded sanctuary. She had found this spot on one of her morning walks. Surely somebody else knew about it, but nobody was ever here when she arrived each morning. She wasn’t sure which she liked better, the sun rising in the sky, the very same sun that rose over India, or the way that the tide moved slowly back and forth, erasing all signs of nightly activity. A clean start, isn’t that what they called such a thing here? A reminder that the past could be wiped away?
As she walked, she had picked up a long stick, using it to poke at sea creatures who had lost their way, and shells marooned by the tide. She nudged them carefully back to their saltwater home, although Rishi had told her that the shell creatures would die anyway. Perhaps so, but she thought there was still a possibility one might not. That was the one she hoped to save.
The sand where waves had lapped, then receded during the night was glassy smooth, a warm beige like the sleek fur of a lioness. She took a step forward and began to carve the perfect surface with the point of her stick.
Fifteen minutes later, her drawing was complete. She had recreated, as closely as she could, the image of Lakshmi, the goddess daughter of the ocean king. Lakshmi, of whom every other goddess was only a part, who raised up and gave power to the individual. Lakshmi, the goddess of