CHAPTER 65
‘ID,’ the man behind the counter says. A thick glass screen separates them, with a letter-box-sized gap at the bottom.
She slides the passport under that she’s only owned for fifteen minutes, and sees, two queues away, Lucy doing the same with the other guy, Damien waiting in another one, and everything slows down and speeds up all at once.
The official has a name badge on which says PETER M.
He has a dimple in his chin and smart eyes that won’t miss anything.
He flicks his gaze to her, and Simone wishes she could read minds.
Is he thinking that she’s a fugitive and they’re about to be arrested?
Or is he thinking that this is nothing, just yet another person who is crossing the border?
She can’t tell, and maybe she will never know.
Does their entire future depend on how much this guy watches the national news?
‘Reason for visit?’ he asks her.
‘Vacation,’ she drawls, thinking, Midwest woeful, and then – maybe it’s her imagination – but she hears Lucy say the exact same thing to her official, too.
‘Perfect,’ he says, stress on the last syllable, one last glance at her, but she doesn’t read any suspicion.
And then he slides the identity back to her, and he hasn’t even done anything with it, and don’t they have digital holograms these days?
And then Lucy’s through too, and then they’re going through the building and out the back, waiting for a boat called Sunshine One.
Damien is spat out only seconds later, and they stand there on the tarmac, still hot from the sun, and think that this surely can’t be it.
The clouds will soon begin to striate in the west. Their journey took a long time, from the middle of the night to the afternoon, and Simone turns and looks at them. The sky, the fresh breeze. They’re here, and they’re OK, their family, still together.
‘I can’t believe it,’ Lucy says, and she sounds giddy. And Simone ought to be, but something is stopping her. Their old life has ended, here, in a clean blue crossing at the very edge of America.
‘God,’ Damien says, and she’s aware that they’re talking too loudly, acting weirdly, have come back together too quickly, but they can’t help it. ‘We did it.’ He pauses. ‘We can get a proper rental.’ He turns to Simone. ‘You can cook again. Properly cook. You can …’ he says, looking at Lucy.
‘Yes, yes,’ she is saying to Damien.
But Simone sees through it. If she could solve it for her daughter, she would. Lucy’s heart is broken by going to the Bahamas, and she’s kind enough to lie to Damien about it, the same way she can lie to Simone.
‘It’ll be OK,’ Simone says. ‘It’ll start to feel OK,’ she adds, and Lucy nods, her expression grateful and sad, all at once.