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By Root 911 0

through my toes. We’d spent the last night of our honeymoon here, camped beneath the cedars, the smoke from our campfire filtering up through the limbs and the smell of us painted on each other. Cedar Point is the southeasternmost point of real estate in the state of Georgia. Maybe an acre in size, the little finger of dry land rises up out of the marsh like an oversized pitcher’s mound. Surrounded by marsh, and hidden in palm trees, cedars, scrub oaks and wiregrass, the small island rests untouched and unknown—even to most of the locals. A few hundred yards west, or upriver, sat the historic town of St. Marys. Nearly a mile across the river sat the state of Florida. Off to our left, or southeast, maybe five miles, lay Fernandina Beach. Just north of it, and due east, sat Cumberland Island. Between the two stretched the Atlantic Ocean. It was the island of endless possibility.

She was trying to be so strong. She popped the cork herself and poured my favorite wine, Writer’s Block, into two plastic Solo cups. “What’s that?”

She touched her cup to mine. “Say, ‘I promise.’”

“But I don’t know what I’m promising.”

She sipped. “Say it.”

“But—”

“Say it.”

I sipped. “I promise.”

“That was heartfelt.”

“Well, if you’d tell me what I’m promising, maybe I could put a little something behind it.”

“But you promise?”

I raised my hand in the air. “Yes, I promise.”

She hesitated, staring at the water. In the distance, a dolphin’s dorsal fin broke the surface of the water, rolled over the top of it, then disappeared. A second later, several more rolled behind it. “If, for some reason, I ever get to the place where…where something’s happened, maybe I’m not me, and even worse, we’re not us…” I tried to stop her, but she can be pretty headstrong. She waved me off. “I want you to bring me here.” She placed her hand on the blindfold. “Right here.” The silence blanketed us. “No matter what.”

She tugged on my arm. No more games. I squinted against the sun. “I promise.”

She lay back, her left foot resting atop her bent right knee—a character straight out of Tom Sawyer.

She stared at the red polish chipping and peeling off her big toenail. “One more thing.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t we just go through this?”

She stared up through the smoke-charred limbs swaying above us. “One of these days, you’ll come back and buy this place.”

Even then she believed.

“I’m not even sure this place is on the map. Any map.”

“Then it won’t be too expensive. Now, say it.”

I stared out across the water. “I promise.”

Following the mullet, the dolphins passed within a few feet of shore, rolling and disappearing only to reappear a few feet downriver. One shot up into the air, spun, shimmered, then splashed and popped the water with its tail. Abbie screamed with delight, shook off her fear, took three steps and dove into the water where the dolphins circled her and one bumped her thigh with its body.

36

JUNE 8, MORNING

It was dark and overcast when I woke. The sky threatened rain with an occasional drop that rippled the river. A bamboo fly rod leaned against one corner. I lay in the dim daylight. Abbie had thrown her right leg over mine and my left foot was asleep. Her leg was smooth, and warm. An hour after daylight, the Stearman engine cranked, rolled out of earshot, then zoomed back into it and overhead.

The sound woke her. She responded by rolling into me. She had something on her mind because she wasted little time. She pointed into the corner. “Does it work?”

“Yeah.”

“What size?”

“Maybe a four weight. Could be a two. It’s pretty old.”

“Flies?”

“A few.”

“Leader? Tippet?” She could be focused when she wanted.

“Might be dry-rotted.”

She stepped out of bed, slipped on her cutoff shorts and looped the top of her bikini over her neck. “Tie me.” I tied both ends, thinking there was a lot of slack left over.

She shook her scarf loose of the knot and popped her bikini top like suspenders. “Didn’t used to be that much slack.”

I faked a slow smile. “Nope.”

She grabbed a straw hat off one shelf and then licked the end of the line,