talk in quiet words and give sad looks at Mama and Daniel and Lizzie. Then her father’s sister Aunt Betsy came to visit. It was the first time any of them had met the woman. In front of other grown-ups, Aunt Betsy laughed a lot and used her hands when she talked. And that day, she had a dolly for Eliza. “Come to Belize City to see your father,” Aunt Betsy had said before she left. “He’s a very important businessman. He wants his family with him.”
Mama said the reason they’d never met Aunt Betsy was because the woman had lived in the States, and that she had just moved to Belize. A few weeks later, the three of them did what Aunt Betsy asked. Mama, Daniel and Eliza went to Belize City and visited Daddy. He ran the Palace, a hotel he told them. There were no girls at the Palace back then, but her daddy sold more than hotel rooms. “You’re dealing drugs, Paul David,” her mother had said one night when she thought Eliza wasn’t listening. “We can’t be part of this.”
Eliza wasn’t sure about all of the details. But her daddy got angry at Mama. And something must’ve happened. An accident maybe. Because one morning Eliza woke up in the room at the Palace where she was staying with Mama and Daniel. But she was alone.
“Mama?” she had cried out. Her heart pounded loud and she felt sick. “Daniel? Where are you?”
And then Aunt Betsy had come into the room. The woman stood there, her hands on her hips. Her eyes looked different than before. Meaner. “It’s a tragedy, Eliza.”
Who was Eliza? She had blinked a few times. “I’m Lizzie.”
“You’re Eliza now. Your father wants you to be Eliza. That’s your given name.” Her aunt didn’t say anything for a long time. Then the woman sat on the edge of the bed and shrugged. “There’s no easy way to say this, Eliza. Your mama and brother are gone.”
Her daddy had come into the bedroom then. “They’re in the ocean, Eliza. They didn’t make it. You’re going to live with me, now. Here at the beach.”
Lizzie didn’t understand, not then or now. Her mama and brother were in the ocean? What did that mean?
At first, Lizzie would stand at the water’s edge and call them. “Mama? Daniel!” But they never called back and they never came out of the ocean. So Lizzie lived at the Palace with her daddy and her aunt.
And eventually Lizzie became Eliza.
The other girls moved into the Palace a few at a time. Some of them were older teenagers and some were young. They wore fancy dresses and every night the men came to their rooms. That’s what the girls told Eliza at lunch and dinner.
But Daddy didn’t like Eliza talking to the other girls. “You’re different, Eliza,” he would tell her. “I’m saving you for something special.”
A tear slid down Eliza’s cheek. “You restore my soul…” Her whisper faded. For a long time she believed God had died in the sea with her mother and brother. But here at the ocean she believed she could see Him. Far off in the horizon.
There at the water’s edge.
“Eliza! Go!” Her aunt was on her feet, her full face redder than usual. “You’re wasting time.”
Fear sent chills down Eliza’s arms and legs. She ran down the wet sand and splashed her way through the surf. This was where she belonged. Here in the soft blue waves she was free. All afternoon, as long as Eliza played in the water and swam beneath the sunshine, she wished she might stay all day.
Aunt Betsy and the two guards stationed up the path from the beach wouldn’t bother her.
But when Eliza couldn’t take another hour of sunshine and surf, when she was so tired all she wanted was to curl up and fall asleep on the sand, that’s when her aunt would turn her over to the guards. And they would take her back to the Palace.
Eliza dove into the clear gray water just beyond the surf. I would swim to the other side of the sea if I could. She dropped below the surface and pulled at the water. The waves were rough today. The gray sky getting darker. One stroke, two. Three. She lifted her head above the waves and cried out, the way she did every day at this time. “Daniel!” She scanned the watery horizon for her brother. Her best friend. “Daniel, where are