Then he noted a set of eyes studying him. He stared right back and called out, “Hello.” Immediately the face disappeared. He frowned at that and heard footsteps behind him, but these he recognized.
“Who are you talking to you?” she asked. “Or have you suddenly become psychic?”
He laughed. “I thought I saw somebody in the bushes.” Lifting an arm, he pointed in the general direction.
“Interesting,” she murmured. “Nobody has said anything to me about being here.”
“Well, I’m probably an anomaly that they’re all trying to check out,” he said quietly.
“And that’s possible.” She paused, gazing around the area. “Lots of young women here are looking for a big studly man to protect them.”
He snorted at that. “Right. I’m not exactly protector material at the moment.”
“But you’re a big white man on an island,” she said quietly. “Plenty of families have girls who would happily marry you.”
“Even though I have no job, don’t know if I have any assets, or even if I already have a family?”
“Exactly,” she said, as she stepped down onto the rocks and handed him a coffee cup.
“Thank you.” He took a sniff of the heady brew. “It’s always strong and always perfect.”
“It’s good coffee,” she said, “and simple, which I like. I roast it here, grind it, and make it myself.”
“Such a simple life for a woman who isn’t simple at all.”
“I’m very simple,” she said lightly.
He turned to look at her and shook his head. “You’re anything but. You’re a guardian angel, … an angel of some kind anyway.” She snorted. “You’ve done an incredible job looking after me.”
“I’ve only done what anybody would do,” she said immediately.
“Well, I don’t know many people who would have looked after me like this,” he said. “I don’t even know where or how you found me.”
“In the ocean.”
Something was in her voice. He turned to look at her. “Do you know what happened?”
“Not for sure,” she said. “I wondered …”
“What is it you wonder?”
She hesitated, and then, as if making a decision, she said, “A plane blew up. I know that people are looking for survivors.”
“How long ago?”
“Right at the same time I found you,” she said. “Maybe the day before. I’m not sure.”
He took a slow deep breath and let it out. “That’s a little disconcerting.”
“Yes,” she said. “It was.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“No,” she said, “I didn’t.”
He stared at her. “Did you have a reason why?”
“Instinct told me not to,” she said, with a glare.
He stared straight back at her, as if she were willing him to judge her for making a decision that impacted him, when she had no justifiable reason for going one direction or the other. “Instinct,” he said, rolling the idea around in his mind. Nothing wrong with that; he just didn’t know why.
“Yes,” she said. “I felt like you were in danger.”
He looked at her in surprise. “The only reason I would be in danger is if I were on that plane, and it was deliberately shot down.”
“Exactly,” she said. “I know that I have no idea, but still I haven’t gone out of my way to tell the authorities you’re alive. You had no identification on you. So I don’t even know who you are, except that you told me how you thought you were called Bullard.”
“Right,” he said. “I remember telling you that.”
“And that’s a very strange name,” she said, “but I didn’t know if it was your name or somebody else’s. So, in theory, I didn’t have any reason to take it further.”
“Except you said that people could be looking for me,” he replied in a neutral voice.
“Yes,” she said, “there could be.”
“But you didn’t want them to find me, right?”
“Only if they are good and not bad people. I wanted the good people to find you,” she said, “but not until you were strong enough to handle whatever they would tell you.”
He stared out at the beautiful sunlight dappling across the water, thinking how something could be so serene and idyllic, while, at the same time, Leia was afraid it could be a mirage, and someone was trying to get him. He didn’t have any reason to doubt her, but he had no reason to believe her either. But something in the background of his brain cells nudged him in that direction. “Now that you have reason to know that I’ll make it and that I’m steadily getting stronger,” he said, “I need to contact my team.”
“You’ve asked for that several times,” she said steadily. “Yet you’ve never given me any way to actually do it.”
He frowned at that. “That does pose a problem, doesn’t it?”
“It does because, so far, I don’t have anything more than the name Bullard to go on.”
“Right, and do we have phones?”
“Not necessarily,” she said. “Every once in a while somebody from the mainland heads over here. I have no communication here.”
He shook his head slowly, amazed. “Do you know how strange that is?”
“I know,” she said cheerfully. “But it’s a very peaceful way to live.”
He studied her for a moment. “That’s important to you, isn’t it?”
“Yes, and it has been for a very long time,” she replied.
“Okay,” he said. “So, now that I’m getting better, I need to check in and find out what’s going on with my world.”
“I was hoping you would find out through your own memories, before somebody came here and shocked you with some unpleasant truths,” she murmured.
“But again, that’s assuming they are unpleasant. We don’t know that.”
“True.” But she didn’t say anymore.
He couldn’t tell much from her tone because it always had that touch of calm serenity. “Do you ever get angry?”
“I hope not. I try not to anymore,” she said. “I spent what seemed like years being angry, and I’ve worked hard at letting that go.”
“What happens if you go back to civilization?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I’ll go back to being angry again.”
“And that’s not what you want, is it?”
“No, it’s not,” she said.
“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me what brought you here, will you?”
“Personal disaster,” she said quietly. “Profound personal loss gave me a reason to crawl into my skin and to stay there.”
“I think I understand that,” he said.
“I hope so,” she said, “and I hope that my need for privacy is something you also respect.” She got up and took his empty coffee cup. “Don’t stay out here too long, and, when you’re ready to come back, just let me know.” And, with that, she turned and walked away.