Chapter 12
Edie and Rose sat side by side on borrowed yoga mats that crumpled into the sand, cupping their legs. On the loudspeakers, a white woman with dreadlocks droned on in a livestream to her following of two million on YouTube.
“The pineal gland is covered in crystals, which is why we can ‘sense’ when something has a good or a bad vibe. The universe is constantly putting out vibrational energy, and we can all attune ourselves …”
“My dad would have an aneurysm if he could hear this right now,” Edie said.
Rose laughed. “Americans aren’t lucky enough to have doctors like your father, so they have to come up with crap like this to cope.”
Dreadlocks’s rant continued, “… Nikola Tesla said that if you understand energy, all the secrets of the universe will be unlocked …”
Edie closed her eyes and tried to find the meditative peace she expected from yoga practice.
Waves crashed against the shore just to her left, breaking and receding into the ocean like the breathing of a deep sleeper.
A bird squawked as it flew past the group and to the north, its cries softening the further away it flew.
The late morning sun shone down and warmed the skin of Edie’s exposed left hand, and although it had yet to reach its full merciless high noon temperature, she felt the difference on her shaded right hand.
“… all of our muscles are surrounded by structured water, H3O …”
Edie’s mind wandered. She thought of the new bathroom trailers in the tent area, which significantly improved the wait times this morning, as well as the water temperature and pressure.
She opened her eyes and turned to Rose. “How do you think they got all those new bathroom trailers here overnight?”
“They probably had them on a boat offshore or something and just didn’t get all of them onto the island in time.”
Edie nodded. “Did you notice all those weird sculptures on the way over here?”
“Yeah. They look like oversized kiddie craft projects. Someone packed a lot of butcher paper and glue for those.”
A woman on the other side of Rose in a matching blue sports bra and leggings set leaned into their conversation. “They’re actually installations from the guest artists, but people are welcome to add to them. It’s an interactive artistic endeavor.”
Edie raised her eyebrows and exchanged looks with Rose.
“… and, if you think about it, we all already have our own microchips, so if the government …” Dreadlocks continued.
The woman next to Edie and Rose kept speaking in a rapid-fire hush.
“I heard there are some immersive installations as well, but you have to find them in different places on the island. Like, bathrooms with musical parts, stuff like that, but they’re really hard to find, and I heard you have to follow a drone disguised as a bird to get to some of them. ”
Edie wondered how she and Rose found themselves in this particular crowd this morning. She made a mental note to do a quick check on the instructors for the other classes they wanted to attend to avoid this hippie-dippie nonsense.
“You know,” Edie said, “I heard there’s an open-air chill out temple you can go to and when you’re inside, it blocks out all other noise, and it sprays a mist of caffeine and reparative skin serum.”
Rose’s lips thinned as she suppressed a smile. The woman on the other side of her nodded her head.
“… all right, sorry to get on my high horse, but I just love this stuff. Anyhow, let’s start in down dog today!” Dreadlocks finally announced.
The crowd shifted from their seats to an all-fours position.
“Thanks for the tip!” the woman on the other side of Rose said.
Rose and Edie giggled and placed their feet on their now-scorching yoga mats and sent their hips to the sky for downward facing dog, a position that reminded Edie so much of how her parents’ ancient Scottie stretched out his back and forepaws every morning.
As Edie looked between her arms, she saw their phones each light up where they lay on Rose’s kimono.
Rose shifted her weight and grabbed her phone as the instructor told them to breathe in deeply and pedal out their dogs.
“Should I know who Cassidy or Apricot is?” Rose asked.
“What?” Edie responded. The music playing now was way too upbeat and loud for yoga and Edie couldn’t hear a thing. Rose held the phone below her friend’s chest and Edie read the message.
“That’s the white girl and her friend who was going troppo yesterday,” Edie said. Three rows of people in front of them moved from down dog into plank and they followed suit. Rose threw the phone back on the kimono.
“Who?”
“Cassidy Burns and her friend. The pranksters, remember?”
“How’d they get my number? And who is Ryan LeHane?”
From plank, they lowered to their chests and rose into upward facing dog. Edie pressed her toes into the mat and rolled her shoulders back. With her face and chest to the sun, Edie patiently reminded Rose that Ryan was the white boy who fell off the waterfall.
“Have we been on a different island this whole time or something? I don’t remember that at all,” Rose said as the group transitioned into a lunge that warped the yoga mat on the uneven sand and into a warrior position that made Rose face away from Edie.
Edie stared at the back of Rose’s afro, dumbfounded.
This wasn’t just Rose’s normal indifference to things that didn’t interest her.
Even if she wouldn’t give a second thought to LeHane’s antics or this group’s pranks, she would have at least recalled that the whole situation bothered Edie.
She wanted to say something, but didn’t know what, and Rose let the conversation drop as they went through the vinyasa.
At the end of the class, after they got their group shots with the instructor and their selfies, Edie and Rose headed back to their tent with towels around their necks and Stanley cups dangling from their fingers. Edie reread the message Cassidy sent, and James’ response.
James
Ryan LeHane’s YouTube is gone. There’s no reason he’d delete that. I think someone else must be behind it
Cassidy
I’m freaking out right now. All of Daisy’s profiles have been deleted. I can’t even find her number in my phone. I think we need to call the police or something but Apricot seriously doesn’t remember her
“Who are these people and why should I care?” Rose shouted at her screen, then tapped out a quick message.
Rose
I don’t know who you are. Please delete my number. Sorry about your friend
“I feel like going for a swim. What about you?” Rose asked, tucking her phone into the side pocket on her workout unitard.
A weight settled on Edie’s shoulders and the muscles of her neck tightened. What if they’re not lying to us?
“You know, I think I’m going to get a massage, actually. The yoga wasn’t very relaxing and that’s more what I was looking for,” Edie replied, trying to sound casual.
Rose shrugged and pulled her phone back out. “You do you, boo.”
Sweet relief washed over Edie. Rose was at least still herself: independent and unbothered, if inexplicably forgetful.
“I’ll text you,” Edie said.
“Ta,” Rose said and gave her a little wave, eyes glued to her phone screen as she walked off in the direction of their villa.
Edie opened a new group chat between just herself, Cassidy, and James.
Edie
Sorry about that. Rose doesn’t remember you but I do. We should meet up somewhere and talk
Cassidy
I’m glad you remember me. I’m freaking out
Edie
Wanna meet at your place?
Cassidy
Can’t meet there. Apricot got pissed at me and left and she might be there. Your place?
Edie
Rose might be there
James
Come to the dorms. I’m in 301
Edie arrived at the dorm before Cassidy did. When James let her in, the space struck her as offensively small compared even to the tent she shared with Rose. She barely had space to walk around James and past the bed and desk to get to the single pane window.
“That’s a nice view.”
“It’s made for some good people watching.
” Even as he spoke, a lone woman on the beach in a bikini pretended to read a book in front of a tripod, two white girls twerked in the surf as a guy recorded them on a phone, and another group tried to get the perfect mid-air jump shot.
Thanks to framing, they would each appear alone online, but it was a chaotic scene to watch from above.
Edie snorted. “I don’t have any room to talk.” She still needed to post the photos from yoga that morning and tag the instructor.
“Maybe I wouldn’t either if pictures of my ass worked as well online. Sadly, I have to try a little harder than that.”
Edie didn’t like his tone, but a knock at the door saved her from the uncomfortable silence she would have endured to avoid direct conflict. James let Cassidy in, and the room filled with sound.
“Apricot is pissed at me and Daisy is officially a missing fucking person. And look at this!”
The tiny women are always the noisiest, Edie thought as she regarded Cassidy with her braless crop top and narrow hips, scanning over the dark tattoos on the woman’s arms and legs, then chastised herself for being so shallow.
Cassidy held out her phone into the middle of the room for Edie and James to see. She tapped the screen, and the video of the villa tour on Apricot’s profile began to play.
“Cassidy, give us a tour!” Apricot’s voice shouted from the phone speakers.
“Look!” the real Cassidy shouted, as though the other two weren’t already looking.
“Look! It’s not Daisy anymore, it’s me! This video isn’t real.
I never filmed a tour, only Daisy did. How did they do that?
How?” Cassidy shifted her focus from the screen to James, as though he knew the answer.
Her intensity made him step back and put his hands up.
“I don’t know! Probably the same way they messed with your other video and put Apricot in it. It’s probably just some more AI shit.”
“What about your video?” Edie asked. “How do you explain that?”