“How come you didn’t bring any friends on your trip with you, Walter?”
“I’m afraid my answer isn’t very happy,” he says. “I don’t have many friends at my age and the ones who are still alive aren’t healthy enough to travel.”
“Oh gosh. I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for, it’s just a fact of life. Plus, I don’t mind a little solo travel, but I do miss my wife.”
“Is she…?”
“She died seventeen years ago. We always meant to get around to traveling but never did. After she died, it was hard for me to leave the house.”
“That sounds lonely,” I say.
“It was. I’m not so lonely now. I have lots of friends in my retirement community, and I just went on my first date in, oh, fifty years.”
“How did the date go? Tell me everything.”
Walter eagerly tells me all about his first date with a woman named Ethel, whom he met at an art class in his hometown in Copper Springs, Colorado. They went to dinner, and their next date is a pottery class when he gets back.
“And what about you? Is there a special someone in your life?” Walter asks.
“No, no, no. Not—no. This was supposed to be my honeymoon, actually. My fiancé ended things six months ago.”
“Oh, Abby,” Walter says in a way that makes my eyes prickle with tears. He sets his hand on top of mine and gives it a squeeze. “How brave of you to come on this trip.”
Was it brave? It didn’t feel very brave to do it. If anything, I felt bad being the one to take this trip. I wasn’t sure I’d come at all, but Hazel and my parents convinced me that it would be good for me, and in a way, it was easier to agree to go on this trip for them than for myself.
“Can I tell you a wicked secret, Walter?”
He nods eagerly, hungry for whatever I’m going to say.
“I’m glad my fiancé isn’t here.”
He raises his eyebrows at me, reacting appropriately to my confession.
“Todd was a really nice guy, and he’s also a very particular guy. He would find something to complain about no matter what we did and I just know he’d be here criticizing the room, the food, the activities, the weather.” Years of frustration bubble up in my chest, and for once, I don’t shove it back down. “It always bothered me and I never said anything, but you know what? I’m glad that I don’t have to listen to him bitch about this beautiful place and amazing things like this excursion.”
“That’s the spirit,” Walter says with a chuckle.
“Plus, you and I might never have become friends if I were here with my ex.”
“Now that would be a damn shame, wouldn’t it?”
“A real shame, Walter. How long are you at the resort?”
“I’ve been here a week and I’ve got three weeks left. A whole damn month,” he says, bright and excited.
“I’ve got six days left. We should have lunch together one day.”
He agrees, and we exchange information, going through some of our other plans. It turns out that we’ll also be visiting the sea turtle hatchery and conservation center together next week, too.
As we settle into conversation, it becomes more and more clear to me that it doesn’t take an ocean adventure to experiencethe magic life has to offer. Meeting a new friend, connecting with a stranger—these things are magic in their own right.
It’s the sort of thing that might make a burned-out elementary art school teacher finally start to relax and clear out all the junk in her mind to make room to marvel at life again.
9
ABBY
