Uncertain (12 page)

I waited until we were on the street outside of the bar. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be sorry at all,” he said, darting his eyes around. He was walking in a rush toward the hotel. He kept looking back, behind us. “You were just trying to let loose, and I wasn’t making it easy for you. But I’m not letting that guy mouth you all up.” We crossed the street. “You’re barely conscious. We should’ve left much sooner, and that is my fault entirely.”

We went up to our room after Kevin was certain that no one had been following us. Walking had become more of a challenge, but I made it up to our room without any issues.

“Do you need anything?” Kevin asked, walking me to my bed.

“Just some water.”

A sealed bottle of water was sitting on the nightstand next to the bed, and he handed it to me. I drank it all.

“Thanks, Kevin.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I meant for taking care of me.”

“I know you did.”

I woke up with a giant headache and just lay there for a few minutes with my eyes shut, looking at the popcorn ceiling. I sat up slowly and noticed Kevin sitting out on the balcony, eating a banana. I didn’t want to bug him right away. I felt as though he might be angry with me. So I freshened up a bit and then walked out to see him.

“Good morning.”

“Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Just OK,” I said.

He laughed a little and handed me the bottle of water that he had ready for me, sitting on the ground near his coffee. It had to be about 85 degrees outside. We sat and stared at the people swimming in the pool and at our little slice of the ocean that we could see from our balcony. The ocean was just to the right of the hotel across the street.

“I wondered if we could talk a little bit,” Kevin said, his eyes squinting as he looked at me. I wasn’t sure if he was squinting in preparation for my reaction or because of the sun.

“OK, yeah.”

“Something is different. With me, I mean.”

“Different, how?” I asked.

“I mean, I know that a ton has happened with you, and in no way am I trying to overshadow that. But I just wanted to tell you. I feel stuff. I felt that Marco wasn’t someone we could trust. I felt sure of it.”

“That doesn’t seem super weird. I mean, we just met him.” I peeled the wrapper off the water bottle.

Kevin shook his head. “I’m not explaining it right.” He rubbed his hands together and looked at me. “Do you remember when we left the hotel in California in like the middle of the night?”

I nodded.

“I woke up that night. I woke up with this feeling that if we didn’t leave, something big was going to go wrong.”

“I remember you saying that you had a bad feeling.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t express it exactly. I can’t really explain. But, I was sleeping. I was sleeping like a rock, man. And suddenly I was up, and every part of my body wanted to leave that hotel.” He rubbed his hands together again and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “I tried to go back to sleep. I listened to you breathing, and you were so calm, and I tried for almost an hour to go back to sleep. But the longer I waited, the more anxious I got. So, finally when I felt like doom was approaching, I woke you up.”

“Has that happened before?”

He shook his head, looking down between his clasped hands. “Never.”

“But it happened while we’re here?”

“It felt like it. Honestly, it’s why I was kind of off when we went to dinner. That’s where it started. I don’t know how to say it. I just felt like an aura of certainty that something wasn’t right.”

“That’s so weird.”

Kevin nodded.

“And Max,” I pointed out. “You were sure he was OK, and he was.”

“Right. I don’t get it.” He shrugged.

“We’re only here one more day, so we’ll avoid that guy Marco. What are the odds that we’ll see him again, anyway?” I said.

Kevin nodded again. “So, what do you feel like doing on our last day here?” he asked, looking over at me.

“Nothing at all. We go swimming, we do whatever we want. Hang out on the beach. Buy palm-tree hats. Whatever we want.”

“We didn’t bring swim suits.”

“Who cares. We’ll swim in our clothes and then dry off and do it again.”

He laughed. “I’m in. Totally in.”

A few hours later, we were on our lounge chairs on the beach, drying off in the sun from our swim. The beach wasn’t super busy, and it was gorgeous—the kind of place that you can’t believe exists. Raw beauty. The kind of beach where naked toddlers trotted alongside their super-relaxed, browned parents.

“So, let me ask you,” he said. “Do you think that
every
time we travel where you can do something perfectly miraculous that you’ve never done before that there’ll always be a beach afterward? Because I’m kind of digging the pattern so far.”

I laughed.

“Dude, yesterday at this time we were in nowhere, Mexico on the side of the most infrequently traveled road in the world with a gun pointed at us,” Kevin said as he ran a hand over his beard stubble. I breathed in deeply and exhaled. I was worried about letting it all sink in. I felt as if I didn’t trust myself. I looked out at the ocean.             

“Do you think we’ll see Drina again?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Kev.”

“Hey, with your powers, do you think you could just poof us home?” he teased.

“I might just poof you home and hang out here some more,” I said, stretching.

“Ha—nice.”

We stopped talking for a while, just people watching and looking at the water.

I let myself doze off into a dreamless sleep.

A while later, I lazily opened my eyes. The sun had moved so I knew some time had passed. I looked over, but Kevin wasn’t there. I felt someone near me, and I immediately sat up, stiff as a board. I whipped my head around. It was Marco. Marco was behind me.             

“What are you doing?!” I shouted, scrambling to my feet.

“Just saw you in the sun, figured I’d sit with you until your friend got back.”

“Yeah, well, I’m fine sitting alone,” I said. He was far-out creepy the way he’d sat behind me while I slept. I tucked my hair back up into my ponytail and grabbed my drink to take a sip. Just then, Kevin walked up about to say something to me. His expression changed when he saw Marco.

“What’s up?” he said.

“Just hanging out,” Marco answered.

“You were just—on the beach?” Kevin asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, I also work for a parasailing company at the hotel right there.” Marco nodded to the hotel next door. “Wanna parasail today?”

“No, Marco. I don’t think we’re gonna try that out this time,” Kevin replied. He didn’t leave any room in his tone for negotiation.

“I make it easy for you. Very safe.”

Kevin nodded in understanding. “That’s OK. Thanks though.”

Kevin looked at me and abruptly took my coconut drink from my hand and handed me a bottle of water.

“You know, so you don’t get dehydrated.”

“Thanks.”

“You think I put something in her drink, don’t you?” Marco said, half-laughing.

“I hadn’t really thought of that.” I could tell that Kevin was lying. “
Did
you?”

Marco scoffed and stood up, dusting the sand off himself.

“I could’ve done that all night last night if I wanted to.” He looked at Kevin, and Kevin just glared at him, pouring out the coconut drink.

“You guys taking off today?” Marco asked as if nothing were wrong.

I nodded even though we weren’t planning to leave until tomorrow.

“OK, well, hope it was a good trip. OK? It was nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Kevin said.

Marco leaned over to hug me, and I barely responded.

We watched him walk away toward a boat that was rocking with the waves in the ocean. A couple of guys were in it, one helping a woman get into a parasail harness.

“I’m sorry,” Kevin said. “I just went to the restroom. I’m going to pee in the ocean next time. What the hell was that?”

“It was weird, right?” My heart was still racing. “He was sitting behind me when I woke up.”

“That guy sure got bizarre in a hurry.”

I nodded. “OK, my turn. I’m going to go in the bathroom and maybe we can then go up to the room after?”

“Absolutely.”

I grabbed my flip-flops and carried them up to the tile steps. I dropped them at the top and slid my feet in. Then I walked into the hotel. It wasn’t the hotel we were staying at—just a hotel on the beach where we’d rented some chairs and an umbrella.

As I was washing my hands in the bathroom, someone opened the door. I didn’t think much of it. I had been studying my face and all the new freckles I had from the sun. Then, I heard the door latch click as if someone locked it. I turned to look. It was Marco.

“What the hell, Marco. Take a hint!” I shouted at him as I spun around. He bent down to look under the stalls and strode toward me. I felt a rush of adrenaline. He was here to do something to me. I worried about Kevin for a moment.

Marco came near me and grabbed my arm with one hand and my face with another.

“It could’ve been fun, Mel. It should have worked, easily. It would’ve been way more fun if you had just let it happen.”

“What the hell are you talking about, asshole?”

He swept his leg under me and I fell on the floor. I lay flat on my back, pain slapping me hard, square on my back. He stepped on my left wrist and then squatted to pin my right arm. He tried to jam something in my mouth. I clamped my mouth shut and thrashed about, trying to whip my head around and make grabbing it impossible.

“I know why you came. ‘Saving the day.’ Isn’t that what you said? Is that what you call it?”

I screamed and kicked but he had his weight on my upper half. Whatever he was trying to shove in my mouth was bitter. I tasted the tiniest bit of it. I couldn’t tell if it was a powder or a pill, and I kept flinging my head around. I stopped for an instant when I felt a thought pop up as a reminder.

I slowed down. I knew I was stronger than this, and I knew what to do. I could see him rolling off of me. A certain calmness found its way to my head, giving me enough space to think what I was going to do next.

I tensed up my muscles and rolled onto my stomach, bending my elbow. I pulled it toward my chest and then fired off a rage-filled blow that landed my elbow dead on his temple. I felt his skull resonate in my bones. He fell over, holding his head and I stood up and kicked him hard in the stomach. Part of me wanted to run for the door. Instead I stayed there. The oddest feeling crept up inside me: It was excitement. I wanted to toy with him.

I crouched over him. “Can you hear me, Marco? Did I hurt your ear? Can you hear anything anymore?” I smiled at him and I felt a surge of exhilaration.

He stood up. I could’ve left, but I still didn’t leave. He scanned the floor. I figured he was looking for whatever it was that he had been trying to shove in my mouth. He didn’t seem to find it. Instead, he came at me and I stepped aside, grabbing his arm and spinning him. I bent him in such a way that I was able to knee his face and then push him toward the stone countertop. I heard a solid thud when his head hit, and he shook with the shock of it. He stood up and looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

Then he came at me again, this time with his hands out, aiming for my neck. I swiftly threaded my hands between his arms and burst my arms open to hit his arms and force his grip to release. Then I swept my leg under his feet as he had done to me, so that he fell on the floor onto his back. I knelt down, leaning over him and put my face right in his face.

“How do
you
like it? Are we done yet? I’m pretty sure I’m done, Marco.” I got up and stepped on his hand with my heel. My arrogance cost me. He grabbed my ankle and tripped me, gripping it impressively hard. Then he tried to climb on me as I lay on my stomach.

I rolled to my back and diverted power to my free leg, kicking him hard in the jaw. The blow was enough to make him stop. He fell backward and lay on his back. I lay next to him for a split second, the he climbed on top of me. He tried to punch me but he never had the chance. Without my giving it any thought, my body changed shape and stiffened. My feet moved to find his. I pulled him closer to me and rolled with force, so that I was on now on top of him. I jumped to my feet and grabbed his foot, then kicked his knee hard. I heard a snap and Marco screamed.

“You are
such
an asshole,” I said, spit flying out of my mouth with anger. I walked toward the door and unlatched it. Before I opened the door, I grabbed a towel from a stack of beach towels and wrapped my hair in it and another around my body. Then I put my sunglasses on. I quickly glanced around the hotel lobby, but people seemed to not notice me. I walked back to the beach where I pulled the towel off my head as I got over to Kevin.

Kevin was still waiting by the beach chairs. “Hey, I just saw—wait, are you feeling OK?”

“Yeah, can we go right now?”

“Sure,” he said. His familiar forehead wrinkle showed up. “Mel, what happened to your face?”

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked, raising my hands to touch it. Kevin grabbed my arm to stop me.

“You’re bleeding a little and white stuff is smeared all over. Don’t lick it—hold on,” he said, looking around for something to help get it off me. He pulled off his T-shirt to wipe my face, but I was already walking quickly toward the ocean.

“Mel, wait. Please. Tell me. Did something happen?” He was just behind me. I walked right into the ocean and let the waves beat on me, rinsing off whatever horrible thing that man had been trying to jam down my throat. Kevin followed me into the ocean. He grabbed my arm again. Impulsively, I jerked my arm away from him.

“What
happened
? Tell me, please, Mel.”