outside, breathing in the scent of eucalyptus and listening to the camaraderie of the other campers while they got to know one another.
They had bonded quickly over their mutual love of the ocean. She told him about working as a dive instructor in Asia, and how long it had taken her to save enough to get to Australia. So the next day he had called in a favour from a friend, borrowed a boat and taken her diving. She hauled equipment around with ease, managed to swim like a mermaid even with a tank on her back, and knew instinctively where they might find small fish and invertebrates hiding. Best of all, she seemed to genuinely enjoy hearing him talk about whale sharks. In no time at all, a week had passed with a similar pattern to each day, and then one afternoon he had accidentally pulled her over as he tried to help tug her out of her wetsuit. She had hit the deck hard, and he had been down on his knees straight away, making sure she was all right. And then he had taken a risk, leant in and kissed her. After that, they had been inseparable for another fortnight, until the day he left.
Jackson gets to his feet, trying to shake off his thoughts. Less than five metres from him, the iguanas barely move. They are remarkably different to Australian reptiles, which he usually encountered only as frantic rustles in dry leaves, or on a bandy-legged sprint towards the bush. This lot are a little too relaxed, he thinks, picking his footing carefully around a few of those closest to him.
After that, it is an easy climb up over the rocks onto the road leading to town, but he’s grateful that it’s still so early and the place is empty. He’d rather not have to offer explanations to anyone. The town of Puerto Ayora is small, his hotel only minutes away, but Jackson isn’t surprised that his inebriated self had chosen the beach for a bed. It has always felt more relaxing to him to sleep and wake beneath the stars than beneath a cold white ceiling. It reminds him of Lovelock Bay, and the nights spent in swags on the beach with Desi when he was a child.
When he thinks of Desi back then, the memories seem so old now. They have worn and warped, and are harder to recall with certainty. Her smile – the genuine one – has been absent for a long time. Way before she went to prison. Now Pete is bringing her home, and he tries to imagine what will be happening there. He is half-sorry and half-relieved to be missing it.
He also wonders if anyone has told Desi about Kate yet – because, although Jackson is smitten, it is Desi that Kate has come halfway around the world to see.
All these questions, all these worries, and nothing he can do about any of them while he is here. He continues along the road, reaching the first small tourist shops. Soon afterwards he passes the fish-cleaning area, where yesterday he’d witnessed three sea lions battling over discarded entrails, tourists snapping away, while under a bench two marine iguanas, supposedly herbivorous, played tug of war with intestines. The sun has barely risen, but already there is a sea lion asleep on one of the benches, lolling like a drunk sleeping off the night’s excesses, presumably waiting for an easy breakfast. Jackson thinks of taking the opposite bench and curling up there himself – what a great shot it would make for some early-rising tourist. But instead he breathes in a few deep lungfuls of stale fish and finds himself hurtling to the railing, splattering his stomach contents onto the ground below. Another group of iguanas tilt their heads, then a couple begin a low-bellied amble over the rocks, eyeing up this unexpected delicacy. Further out, brown pelicans and blue-footed boobies are busy diving, repeatedly forming themselves into streamlined darts that hurtle from sky to sea faster than his eye can follow, bobbing up a moment later, casually shaking the water from their feathers. Nearby, on another rock, a few birds that have taken their fill wait patiently with wings stretched wide, drying themselves in the morning sun.
As Jackson stands watching them, despite his nausea, he has an unfamiliar rush of pride and validation. Everything he has done since he was seventeen has led to this moment. When he had first bought