do something for me, luv?” he asked quietly.
“What?”
“Don’t be in a rush to grow up. I’ll miss you if you grow up too fast.”
“Daddy.”
“You don’t rush through your sketches, do you?”
“No.”
“Well, life is like your sketches. You’ll see the loveliest things, you’ll do the loveliest things, only if you take your time.”
“I do take my time.”
Ian sipped his Fanta, then tightened the drawstrings of his traveling hat under his chin. “My biggest regret, Roo, is moving too fast. Your mum moved at a much better pace.”
Mattie nodded, not wanting to talk about her mother. After putting away her great-grandmother’s ring, she glanced ahead and saw that a group of islands was materializing in the distance. At first the islands resembled little more than dark fins that rose from the sea. But as the ferry rumbled forward, the islands seemed to blossom. Colors and characteristics emerged, as if dawn were spreading its light on something that had been cloaked in darkness.
The limestone islands were unlike anything Mattie had ever seen. They rose straight from the sea, dominated by cliffs more than a thousand feet high. The islands were the shade of a stormy sky, though tinged with red sediment and partly covered in knee-high foliage. The bottoms of the cliffs were battered by waves and pockmarked with caverns. For a reason Mattie didn’t understand, the water near the islands was a brighter blue than the deep sea. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen such a beautiful blue. It seemed to glow—almost neon.
One island was bigger than its neighbors. This island, low in the center with a large beach, was dominated by an immense series of cliffs on either side. A few two-story hotels sprouted from amid clusters of palm trees.
“We’ll do a Captain Cook and climb to the top of that cliff,” Ian said, pointing. “From that high, Ko Phi Phi looks like a butterfly. The beach is its body. The cliffs are its wings.”
“Can we climb up there right away?”
“Soon, luv. But it’s best to go at dawn. We’ll go before the sun rises tomorrow.”
The ferry approached a cement pier. Ian didn’t recognize the pier and thought about the tsunami that had swept over Ko Phi Phi a few years earlier, killing thousands of locals and tourists. He dipped his head and closed his eyes, praying for everyone who had died and those they’d left behind. He would have kept his eyes closed longer but he didn’t want Mattie to inquire about his thoughts. And so he looked up and watched the island loom larger above them. Though it had been fifteen years since he’d been here, and the passage of time had dulled his reactions to a great many experiences, the sight of Ko Phi Phi still filled him with awe, for Ko Phi Phi was something out of a fairy tale.
Travelers around them began to gather their belongings. A beer can rolled atop the roof, nearing the edge. Ian started to move toward it, but Mattie was quicker and grabbed the can when it was a foot away from falling into the water. She carried it back to him and tucked it into one of the side pockets of his backpack. He smiled at her.
People began to disembark, and Ian and Mattie climbed down the stairs, made their way past piles of supplies, and stepped onto the pier. A few dozen Thais held signs with photos depicting various guesthouses. Ian had already made a reservation online and walked past the Thais, leading Mattie forward.
At the exit from the pier a different world emerged. Tightly packed within a space of three or four city blocks was a bizarre assortment of shops, restaurants, massage parlors, bars, and mini-marts. There were no streets, just a series of paths wide enough to accommodate baggage carts. Tropical trees, many of them banyans, rose far above the weather-stained structures. The trunks of the banyans—as wide as a king-sized bed—were wrapped in tattered red, blue, and yellow ribbons.
“This way, luv,” Ian said, turning to his right and walking past a series of dive shops. Next came a half dozen restaurants perched above the beach. Outside the restaurants, lying in wooden boats filled with ice, were rows of red snapper, tuna, barracuda, mackerel, squid, shark, crab, prawns, lobsters, and mussels. Diners eyed the seafood, setting items on stainless-steel scales to assess their weight and cost.
Electrical wire was strung ten feet off the ground, from shop to shop, restaurant to restaurant. Some of the paths were