Drone Command

SEVENTY-THREE

The sun knelt beneath the far horizon, bathing the blue ocean in its sweet last orange light. Myers felt the warm waters brush past her knees and the gentle breeze in her hair was heavy with tuberose.

Pearce lit the candle inside the rice-paper bag covered in prayers for Kenji Yamada, written in kanji by the local Shinto priest. Troy even wrote one himself in English.

He set the float carrying the paper lantern down on the water, and the tide began pulling it away toward the bay beyond the cove. Within moments, the flickering lantern raft was beating its way toward the last rays of the setting sun.

“Two years ago, Kenji took me to the Lantern Floating Hawaii ceremony in Oahu,” Pearce said. “It was Memorial Day.”

Myers was startled to hear his voice. Pearce hadn’t said a word since Kenji’s interment next to his parents in the small Japanese graveyard up the road a few hours earlier. Besides the priest, they were the only two in attendance. She knew he’d been to a lot of funerals in his time. He was no stranger to death or to the loss of close friends. Neither was she. But even she was particularly moved by the lonely finality of the small, sad service today. It only added to Pearce’s dark mood that began when he loaded Kenji’s casket into the plane in Japan.

“That ceremony meant a lot to me at the time. Wrote a lot of names down on that lantern that night. Kenji floated one for his parents, too.”

The beach was deserted. She watched Kenji’s flickering light trudge bravely on toward the far horizon. Something in her stirred. The vastness of the ocean, the inevitable night. Even the rhythm of the tide as it whispered on the sand called to her. “It’s all so lovely and forlorn. I feel as if I’m watching a good friend leaving on a journey who knows he’s never coming back.”

“He believed that the spirit always returns to the ocean from which it came.”

“There’s something eternal about it, isn’t there?” She watched Pearce’s weary eyes scanning the far horizon.

He nodded. Held out his hand. She took it. His small, still smile in the dimming light surprised her. “Let me show you something.”

Pearce lead her out of the water onto the fine white sand, leading her carefully off the beach onto a trail cutting up the mountain. The sand beneath her bare feet soon fell away to grass and soft roots as the air thickened with the sweet fragrance of the flowering plants and trees that enclosed the trail. The climb was steep and the light all but gone, but Pearce clearly knew his way and took his time. She was neither tired nor afraid but her heart was racing. She felt like a little girl again, heading out for a grand adventure, hunting for secrets and ghosts in a mysterious garden on the far side of a forbidden wall.

They finally passed out of the canopy of trees back into the open air. They stood in a small clearing on a cliff overlooking the bay, surrounded by a wall of jasmine and gardenia plants, the world and its worries a distant memory. The sky was a deepening purple and the first bright stars shone above. The gently surging ocean murmured far below. The sights and sounds and aromas swept through her like a cleansing breeze. She felt like they were the only two people in the whole wide universe.

“Look,” Pearce said, pointing at the water.

Myers saw the flickering lantern down below. The light seemed so fragile and small against the vast expanse of darkening ocean beyond and the endless starry sky above.

They stood in silence watching Kenji’s lantern. Pearce’s strong, rough hand still held hers. Their arms touched. She felt the heat of his body, the rise and fall of his breathing. She glanced up at the sky. The moon was a great round shadow, new and unlit. She could stand here forever.

She looked back down at the lantern bobbing in the gentle waves. It flickered again, then disappeared. Pearce’s grip tightened. Kenji’s light was gone.

“I’m sorry,” Myers said.

“For what?”

“The candle went out.”

“Maybe he’s already home.”

In the dark, she felt his towering frame turn toward her.

“He’s lucky, then,” she said.

Pearce’s other hand brushed gently against her cheek. “He always was lucky.”

The back of her neck tingled. Her mind clouded. “Really?”

Pearce’s mouth edged close to hers. “Really.”

His mouth was softer than she’d imagined, his body harder than she thought possible. The heat in his kiss rose, a devouring hunger that swallowed her up. He swept her up in his arms and gently laid her down in a bed of flowers, bathing her in kisses until she was ready to take all of him into her heart.

His power was like a storm breaking inside of her — thrilling and frightening in its strength. She felt the tears on his face mingle with hers as he thrust deeper and harder, igniting a fire that consumed her until they both shuddered with explosive release.

She held him close as he finally relaxed into her, burying his face in her neck. She stared at the canopy of lights shimmering over his broad shoulder, feeling him breathe against her chest, a falling star a silent witness to her boundless joy.