Page 86 of The Chaperones

The excitement on Ray’s face is as immediate as it is authentic.

“Daddy? Papa?” Kai calls from a few feet away, his hair askew and his eyes heavy with sleep. His bare feet are caked in mud, having evidently walked barefoot across camp. They must be freezing. He doesn’t seem to notice. He surveys the campsite, inhales the smell of his father’s congee, the weight of the silence around us. “What’s going on?”

“Everything’s fine, bud. Go back to sleep.”

“No way.” He plops onto the bench beside us. “Lei is so stinky. And he’s snoring.” He brays, making Ray and me laugh. I pull Kai onto my lap and take off my fleece, the one Cassie had made for us, to wipe the mud from his feet. He nestles into me as the breeze grows angry again. I shiver without the jacket. Ray wraps his matching fleece as best he can around the three of us.

“Hey, bud?” I ask when the wind quiets. “What would you think if we moved to New York?”

“Can we live at FAO Schwarz?”

“Close by, maybe?” There’s no world in which we’re living in Midtown, but Kai has no sense of direction or distance. A five-minute drive takes forever. A half-hour bath is no time at all.

“Is Lei coming too?”

“Should we leave him here?” Ray asks, seemingly sincere.

Kai considers this for longer than he should. “He can come too.”

I hug Kai to my chest and stare at my husband as I say, “It will be an adventure.”

“If we ever get off this island,” Ray muses.

“Why wouldn’t we get off this island?” Kai asks, suddenly worried.

“We will, bud,” I promise.

Ray engulfs us both in his arms. We inhale in our son’s warm body and the family we’ve built. A gentle breeze wafts through the trees, carrying a popping sound. I’m so invested in the moment, I’m not sure I’ve heard anything at all. Ray flinches. He’s heard it too. It sounded like a gunshot. Then, it’s followed by another.