her teammates. Mattie had been on soccer teams for most of her life but couldn’t remember hearing players laugh as much as the Thais did. They shrieked as they slid for the ball, stumbled in the sand, and tripped their opponents. Two bamboo poles with fishnet between them composed each goal. The ball was often sent sailing into the water, which stretched along one side of the field.
A Thai boy in shorts scored a goal, did a cartwheel in celebration, and then laughed with his friends. During this break in the action, Ian asked the locals if he and Mattie could play. The boys clapped encouragingly, placing the two of them on opposite teams. Mattie and Ian took off their sandals and were soon chasing the ball, trying to remember which of the many Thais were their teammates. At first the locals were deferential to Mattie, but once they saw that she could pass and defend, they pressed her at almost full speed. Ian was given no leniency. The Thais rushed at him whenever he had the ball, sliding out in front of him, sending him stumbling across the sand. Though Ian hadn’t played soccer for years, he had once been good, and long-discarded skills flooded back to him. And as he played, a sense of weightlessness seemed to fill him. His stomach no longer ached. He laughed along with Mattie, chasing the white bouncing ball through the sand. He collided with her and felt her push against him, giggling, trying to trip him.
Every so often, he glanced at a dozen or so distant longboats, which resembled brown bananas floating on the tranquil waters. He saw Mattie look as well, and his pride in her swelled. After fifteen or twenty minutes, just as he started to grow nervous about what might have happened to Jaidee, he saw her, wearing his green and black baseball cap, walking with a Thai man toward a longboat. He helped her into the boat, the bow of which rested at the water’s edge.
The soccer ball flew into the sea and Ian nudged Mattie, nodding toward the distant boat. She saw what he did, and a smile alighted on her face. They watched Jaidee settle near the bow. The captain proceeded to the stern, where he started the motor and began to back the vessel out into the glowing waters. The sun was setting behind the boat, and Ian tried to see which direction Jaidee was looking. He thought that she might glance toward the beach, out of fear for the man, but instead she stared toward the dropping shimmering sun. She might have been looking toward home, toward her future. Wherever her gaze traveled, it wasn’t backward, into the past.
Finding Mattie’s hand, Ian held it tight. The boat picked up speed, sent spray into the air, rose and fell on gentle swells. It headed almost directly at the sun, which was now touching the horizon, spreading its soul across the sea and sky.
Ian waved at the disappearing boat with his free hand, and Mattie waved with him. The soccer ball was kicked again to the sand. The game resumed. But Ian stood still with Mattie, holding her, watching the boat and the girl vanish into the growing darkness, into a world void of light, but not of hope.
KATE LOOKED AT HIM FROM HER BED. Her eyes, once so blue and vibrant, were bloodshot and watery. He didn’t recognize them and failed to understand how they had changed so much. They weren’t the eyes of his wife, of the woman he had fallen in love with. No, the eyes he looked at now were those of a stranger, of someone who had been wandering in a desert and finally fell into the shade.
Her body mimicked her eyes. She’d once been strong and athletic. Her legs and arms, defined by subtle muscle and smooth skin, had carried little fat. Now she appeared withered, like fruit left too long on a branch. Her skin was wrinkled from her loss of weight. Her legs and arms looked like those of an old woman. Even her hair seemed to have aged, falling from her dying body, covering her pillow and sheets.
Only her mind remained intact. Her memory lingered, as did her ability to focus under most any circumstance. Sometimes she didn’t fight her illness as much as he wanted her to, but this change had come near the end, when she was so exhausted that not even the thought of