“Your friend is either on the island or she’s not. If you tell me what she looks like, we’ll keep an eye out for her, wherever she might be.”
Tears welled up in Cassidy’s eyes and her chin wobbled. She gave him a brief description: Daisy was about Cassidy’s height, white, blonde, brown-eyed. Bill rolled his eyes.
“I’m sure she’ll stand out here,” he said, but grabbed the walkie-talkie on his shoulder to repeat the description.
Diego collected the written statements, and Bill herded James and the women to the front flap of the tent. “Like I said, we’ll contact you again if we need to know anything else. Don’t go doing anything stupid, okay?”
Bill dropped the flap in front of them before James could respond to tell him they weren’t children. It fell heavily, folding Bill inside the tent, and ending their interaction. Cassidy wiped her eyes on her wrists.
“I didn’t even tell him about the kids spying on us,” she wept.
“Maybe you should,” Edie said.
“He doesn’t even care that Daisy is missing, why would he care that I think I’ve seen someone outside my villa and can’t even prove it?” she asked, starting to sob again.
“I think if you’re worried about it, you should tell him. If you don’t want to, then I will for you,” Edie said, putting a comforting hand on Cassidy’s back.
Cassidy lifted her red face to Edie and nodded. James rolled his eyes.
She didn’t believe you yesterday and now she’s your buddy. You can’t trust her,James thought, but he lifted the flap again to let them enter first.
All three men stood by the desk and looked over at the entrance when Edie and Cassidy walked through. Something about the way the men looked at James and the women made James’ hair stand on end. The eyes of these men all lacked something that James only thought of ashumanness.They didn’t look harried or irritated or even concerned. They had the far-away indifference that struck James as so odd when he’d first asked if they’d heard about an accident.
“Can we help you?” Diego asked.
“We wanted to add something to our report,” James said.
“What report?”
James felt the need to physically take a step back from the question. He watched as Cassidy’s mouth fell open and Edie’s eyes widened.
“The report we just made,” James said slowly. “About the guy who fell off the waterfall and the missing girl.”
The medics and Bill exchanged blank looks, and James realized exactly what they all lacked in their eyes: recognition.
“You made that report today?” Bill asked.
“We made it just now, like a minute ago.”
“On the emergency line?”
“Yeah, it was on the emergency line,” Edie said, stepping forward and touching James on the shoulder. He wanted to argue, but those three blank pairs of eyes continued to stare through him, past him.
“Then you’ll have to call back on the emergency line and finish your report there. We don’t have your information, and they’ll be able to add whatever you have to say to your first statement,” August said.
“Okay, we’ll do that, then. Thank you,” Edie said, giving them a dazzling smile and gently pulled James and Cassidy back toward the door flap.
“What the hell was that?” James asked once they stood in the sun again.
“That was the same conversation I had this morning with Rose,” Edie said.
Cassidy nodded, but her chin wobbled as the tears started to come again. “That’s what it was like talking to Apricot about Daisy this morning.”
“What do you mean?” James asked.
“I mean they don’t remember us. They really don’t remember us. Rose didn’t remember you, Apricot didn’t remember Daisy, and they don’t remember us,” Edie said.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” James said.
