Come Fly with Me

Prologue

Mo’orea, French Polynesia

Today

I didn’t think it would take this long to get back here. To the claw-shaped island that has worked its way into my dreams for all these years. These decades. Little has changed since we sat here. Coconuts still wash up to the shore, bobbing in the shallow waves, their wispy strands fanning out like your hair did when you floated gleefully in these turquoise waters. Chestnuts still rest on the ground, waiting to be picked up and boiled and enjoyed. Children still swim in nothing more than their underwear, diving into the deepest, darkest spots of the reef.

I’ve forgotten how much I loved watching the children. There are four in front of me now, giggling as the breeze tickles them. Their ages are similar to my great-grandchildren, but what different lives they lead.

Oh, to be a child again. To have minds and skin unblemished by life’s inevitable burns. Where every path holds possibility.

Unstained. Unclaimed. Unjaded.

I have seen much in my life. Traveled to remote countries. Met fascinating people. Eaten exceptional food. And yet I’ve learned that while those moments are enviable, a life of simplicity surrounded by the ones I love is the greatest luxury imaginable.

I open my straw tote, purchased so many years ago at the two-story open market in Papeete, just across the water from where I sit now. It is brittle from age and its weave has loosened.

My bones, too, are brittle and my skin loose.

But at the time of its green newness, and our own carefree beginnings, we filled it with freshly picked avocados and ripe papayas and hired a fisherman to take us here to ōpūnohu Bay. We shared our secrets and spilled our tears and promised that someday we would come back here together.

Here we are, then, dear one. You and me. Not quite the ending to the story we imagined.

But I will smell the jasmine-scented air for you, and I will delight in the children, and I will marvel as the fish and the birds come together at the water’s surface to vie for the same morsels. A kiss where water and sky meet.

And I will spread your ashes across these shores. You said it was the most beautiful place you’d ever seen, and I agreed. I’ll ensure that you get to stay here forever.