"No," he said, "you are more than a tourist. You are the old man who has
brought me what I think is love. I do not really know what this thing is
that I have in my heart, but it is something I have never felt for
anyone else. I felt snatches of it in odd moments, sometimes when as a
boy I saw an old sailor reeling drunk through the streets and wanted to
help him, to let him lean on my shoulder and walk him somewhere, perhaps
to the beach, and lie beside him while he slept it off, watching his
tired old face in the moonlight, kissing him sometimes, stroking his
paunch."
He looked down at my belly. "You have a nice one, you know. There are
many nice things about you. Do not go away. Stay with me awhile."
It seemed absurd, this handsome young man wanting to companion lovingly
with me. "I should say not! I must get back to my life. I don't belong
in these islands. Whatever would I do?"
He turned squarely toward me, his strong arms hanging straight at his
sides, bearing down on me with his chocolate eyes now sparkling with the
lights coming on along the shore. "You could love me. That is what you
could do."
Completely at a loss for words, stunned beyond belief, I simply turned
and walked slowly away to the docks where my ship waited, without even
saying goodbye. A sailor stood anxiously at the gangplank. "Hurry on
board, sir," he said. "We almost had to leave without you. You know what
they say, Time and tide wait for no man."
I repeated the words as a mumble rather than to be heard. I stepped on
to the gangplank and started up with the sailor preceding me. He reached
the top and leaned over to haul it in as soon as I was clear.
"One moment, my friend!" The words spilled out in a rush. Reaching into
my pocket, I pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. "This is for you if you
will give me just five minutes to get my bag. I am staying here!"
Less than an hour later, Tim and I watched from the deck chairs on his
yacht as the ship sailed away with it's horns blowing to welcome the new year, while his hand moved gently in my lap to prepare me for a New Year's celebration of our own.
