Gradually, Manny had built her parents’ trust and was allowed to take her exploring farther into the island. That was when she saw the village where her mother’s students lived, and the moment she truly fell in love with the people who loved her and her family with open hearts. They didn’t live in the buildings that her father and his crew built. Theirs were smaller with dirt floors and thatched roofs. She sat on the floor and played happily with the younger children who were like her and weren’t old enough to go to school. She stayed with them until Manny carried her sleeping form back to the compound her father built.
One day, she remembered playing with Manny’s baby brother, when their father, Gyi excitedly came into the hut to tell them “they were back.” Ginny hadn’t understood who was back until Manny’s older brother, Lagi, carried her outside and to the beach on the opposite side of the island.
“What are those?”
“Those are yachts,” Manny answered.
She remembered being memorized by the beautiful boats that were unlike any she had seen before.
“I want to see.”
Lagi shook his head at her, pointing at a large island farther away from the beach they were standing on. “They aren’t coming here. They’re going to Sherguevil Island.”
“I want to go.”
“Maybe your parents will take you,” Lagi said, setting her down on the sand, then moving away to talk excitably to his father.
Evangeline wanted to go for a ride on one of the beautiful boats. “Want to go,” she pleaded to Manny, tugging on his shorts.
He squatted down next to her and lowered his voice. “I’ll get in trouble if I take you.”
“Won’t tell, I promise.” She raised her hand to her heart like she did when Trudy wanted her to promise her to do something.
Manny looked at his father before lowering his voice again. “I’ll take you tomorrow, but you can’t tell the other children we’ll be going. I’ll try to sneak you on board, but you can’t tell anyone.”
“I promise,” she said, about to raise her hand again. “Can I tell Trudy?”
“She’ll tell, then I can’t take you,” he warned.
She looked over the water toward the beautiful boat, then put her hand back on her heart. “I promise.”
Manny repeated the gesture, placing his hand over his heart. “Then I promise to take you.”
He had taken her home then, and she could still remember how she had so innocently looked forward to being on the boat, even managing to talk Manny into letting her get on the biggest one.
Looking back now, Ginny just wanted to grit her teeth at how young and innocent she had been to let beauty blind her from doing what her parents wouldn’t have wanted her to do. She wasn’t supposed to keep secrets, yet she had kept quiet, hugging her parents and Trudy before taking Manny’s hand and leaving. She even remembered her mother complaining to Manny about so many students being absent; she’d given him a warning look that young Evangeline hadn’t understood at the time. When she and Manny left, she’d been unaware of the complex maze she was about to enter—one she still hadn’t been able to find her way out of.
He had taken her the normal way to the other beach, taking a trail that allowed them to hear the villagers, but kept her and Manny hidden.
“Wait here.”
Manny left the jungle, and just when she started to get scared at being left alone, he returned.
“You have to be play hide and seek when we get on the boat. I’ll hide you, and you have to be very quiet until I tell you it’s okay to come out.”
“Okay,” she innocently agreed.
Manny picked her up and carried her the rest of the way through the jungle, coming out to the beach she had been at the day before.
Her eyes widened when she saw there were even more boats. “They so pretty,” she said, awestruck.
“Yes, they are.”
Evangeline looked at Manny. He didn’t sound like he thought they were pretty. When he caught her staring at him, his expression lightened as he put a finger to his lips, silently telling her she had to be quiet.
Walking with her, Manny stepped onto the dock, then stopped when they came to a boat. Putting her on his shoulders, he climbed up the ladder, then sat her down on the deck before climbing the remaining steps up before dropping down beside her. They walked across the deck to another ladder and climbed down to the floor below. Manny took them to a large white box with a big mattress on top. He lifted the mattress and motioned for her to climb inside the stowage/bunk.
Getting inside, he then put a pillow under her head. “Remember, be very quiet.”
Nodding, she tried not to be scared as he closed the bunk. Then she heard the sound of children’s loud voices and relaxed, thinking it was a game of hide and seek and one of her friends would find her. Curling onto her side, she put her hand over her mouth to keep them from hearing her laugh.