“No, it doesn’t, but that’s what is happening.”
“Wejustgot done talking to them, how could they not remember us?” James asked.
“How would I know?” Edie asked, throwing her hands down. “Maybe it’s something in the food or the water or something, but people are forgetting things, important things. I bet if you went back inside right now, they still wouldn’t remember you.”
James stood up to his full height, as if trying to physically face this argument. He didn’t say anything, but he did pull the flap open on the medical tent and stuck his head in. Cassidy and Edie stayed in place, and Edie wrapped her arm around her crying companion.
“Excuse me, do you remember me?” James asked.
The three men still stood in the same formation by the desk and turned to look at him.
“Excuse me?” Bill asked.
“I was just in here; do you remember me?”
The three men stared at him. “I think you must have been in a different tent. This is the medical tent,” Bill said.
James stepped back and let the flap fall shut. He looked to Edie and Cassidy with a cold determination in his face.
“Into the ocean. Now.”
“Whyarewegoingin the ocean? I’m not wearing the right thing,” Cassidy said, moving the loose strands of hair hanging in her face to look down at her cropped tank top and floral skirt.
“It doesn’t matter. It’ll dry,” James said, pulling his shirt over his head and tossing it down in the soft sand just before the hard pack of the ocean’s reach. “Put your phones here.”
“I think we should change, too,” Edie argued.
“And I think it’s really important that we get in the ocean right now,” he said with such force that Cassidy didn’t question him again. She slipped off her sandals and carefully placed her phone inside of one and used James’ shirt to protect it from the sun.
The water caught at Cassidy’s skirt, plastering the thin cotton to her ankles. She yanked up on it until the hem was at knee height so that walking was easier and then met James where he stood in the waist-high water. The cool waves shocked against her exposed mid drift, but she managed to stay upright in the soft, loose sand underwater.
“Okay, what are we doing?” she asked.
“Are you coming?” James called back to shore, where Edie stood, phone in hand, looking around for something or someone. Then she sat, untied her shoes, removed her socks, and put everything into a tight group. Edie put her phone next to the pile and then tiptoed out to the water in her athleisure set.
“What are we doing out here?” Edie asked.
“We’re avoiding being overheard. If it’s something on our phones, they can’t hear us out here,” James said.
“Okay, but if it’s not something in our mobiles, and they’re monitoring us some other way, we are kind of drawing attention to ourselves this way,” Edie said.
The beach just outside the medical tent was not particularly crowded, but there were a handful of people on the sand and a group swimming in the water only about 50 feet from them. When Cassidy turned to look, no one appeared to be watching them or taking their photographs, but run-ins with paparazzi before had taught her that just because they can see you doesn’t mean you can always see them.
“We need to come up with a plan quickly and they can’t bug the ocean,” James said.
“A plan for what?” Cassidy asked.
“Figuring out what the hell is going on. Whatever this is—this coverup or whatever—it seems to involve everyone on the island.”
“But why?” Edie asked.
James shrugged.
“Okay, but even if all those people are part of some conspiracy, that doesn’t explain why Apricot doesn’t remember Daisy. What if it is something in the food? Or the drinks or something?” Cassidy asked.
“I don’t think so. I know I suggested that,” Edie said. “But I’ve been drinking like a fish since I got here, and I’m fine. I mean, I’m not fine, but you know what I mean,” Edie said.
James nodded “Same here. I don’t think it’s the food.”
