you, and because of things like we did yesterday, like helping out that girl. She’s probably halfway home by now, and that makes me feel good.”
Mattie nodded again, glad for the girl, but sad for herself. “But what if something happens to you, Daddy? I’ll be all alone. Just like Jaidee.”
He watched a longboat pass in the opposite direction, wishing that she didn’t have such thoughts. He shared her concern, often worrying about his health, about why his stomach hurt so much. I can’t ever leave you, he told himself. Not until you’re much, much older and you’ve got a family of your own. “I’ll be fine, Roo,” he said. “I’m from the bush and as tough as a dingo.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I just swam with a bunch of bloody sharks, didn’t I?”
“You can’t die, Daddy. You just can’t.”
“And I won’t, Roo,” he said, hugging her tight. He kissed her forehead, and then turned her to the side, so that her eyes could meet his. “And do you know what else? You’re like that bloke behind us. You’ve been kicked in the teeth, kicked so hard, but you’re going to end up all right. You’re going to be happy. Just like he is.”
Mattie watched Alak, thinking that he did look happy. He stood in the stern, steering his boat toward an island that appeared to be little more than a gathering of limestone cliffs. As they approached, Mattie saw a break in the cliffs, one that created a narrow entryway. Alak pushed his steering pole to the side, and the boat turned right, toward the channel of turquoise water that led to the interior of the island. Once they were past the towering cliffs on either side, a lagoon was revealed. A white-sand beach stretched for several hundred feet at the far end of the lagoon. Behind the beach was a jungle full of immense tropical trees but still dominated by the much larger cliffs.
Since her mother’s death, Mattie had often heard people talk about heaven, about its beauty. She wasn’t sure that such a place existed, but if her mother could go to one place to rest, Mattie hoped it was a place like this beach. She could hear birds calling to one another within the jungle. Flowering vines climbed the trunks of trees. And the lagoon was as clear as glass.
Alak turned off the engine and his boat slid quietly into the beach. Mattie hopped from the bow into the deep sand. She studied the beach, which was flat and mostly free of debris.
“It’s like a giant wishing tree,” her father said from behind her.
A half smile formed on Mattie’s face. “It’s perfect.”
“Shall we tidy it up a bit, luv?”
“Good idea.”
The two of them started to pick up leaves, sticks, and pieces of sun-bleached coral. Within a few minutes, they had cleaned a large swath of sand. Mattie then dropped to her knees and, moving backward, rubbed the sand smooth with her hands. Ian worked beside her, leveling the sand, wondering what she was going to draw but not wanting to ask. By the time they finished, they had smoothed out a section of sand as large as a basketball court.
Mattie stood up and studied the area, debating if she’d best be able to draw with her feet, as she’d said to her father, or if a stick might work better. She finally decided on her feet. “Daddy,” she asked, “will you get as much of that coral as you can? The coral on the beach.”
“What should I do with it?”
“Walk where I’ve walked, and sprinkle the coral behind you.”
Mattie envisioned the scene she wanted to create. She knew she couldn’t be too elaborate, but she wanted to draw something that her mother would enjoy. The waves will be first, she decided, beginning to shuffle through the sand, creating what looked like a giant snake. Once she finished the waves, she carefully made her way back to the middle of her wavy line and turned toward the island, dragging her feet, fashioning the bow of her boat. She then twisted to the right, and shuffled forward, making the top of the boat, adding a canopy and an engine. She wasn’t sure how to insert people into her creation and decided to leave the boat empty.
As her father started to line her footsteps with pieces of white coral, Mattie jumped outside her picture, then moved above it. She began to shuffle again, her feet creating oversized, somewhat misshapen letters. Several