Ipo paused, her breath coming in sharp gasps. “I think I should sit down.” She held out her hand, and Bane guided her to a fallen log and helped her settle onto it.
“Are you all right?” Leia rushed to her grandmother’s side and knelt beside her. The thick canopy of leaves overhead blocked out the light. She suddenly realized there was no sound here. Not even the hum of insects or the call of a mynah bird. The quiet felt eerie, almost sinister. She shivered.
“I’m fine, keiki? just fine.” Ipo raised her hands and cupped them around Leia’s face. “You’re a good girl, Leia.”
Her real grandmother was back. Leia wanted to bury her face in the folds of Ipo’s skirt and forget the harsh words her grandmother had lashed her with. If only she could keep her grandmother just like this, her own sweet self.
Ipo dropped her hands and looked through the arch toward where the forest darkened even more. “We have to go. I hate that place. I’d forgotten how much I hated it. It’s haunted and evil.” She lowered her voice. “People die there. We must be careful.” Her eyes emptied of light.
Leia sent a silent plea in her gaze to Bane, who stood watching quietly, though she knew there was nothing he could do to prevent this. Even prayer hadn’t been able to hold off the confusion that swirled in and took her grandmother away. She wanted to grab T?t? and shake her until her eyes cleared, to hold on to every moment of lucidity, every crumb of love that still fell her way. If only her grandmother’s disease was something fleshly she could fight, instead of a faceless enemy that kidnapped the grandmother she knew and loved and left this empty shell behind.
Bane seemed to feel her despair, because he put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “She’ll be okay again soon.” Ajax pressed against Leia too.
Leia stood and rubbed the dog’s ears. “But for how long?” Her voice was low and raspy. “Each time her lucid moments are shorter. I feel so helpless.”
He didn’t answer right away. “Accepting God’s will sometimes is hard. I think we all struggle with it. Why was Eva born with Down syndrome? Why do babies sometimes die? Why do mothers leave their children? We’re full of questions sometimes. There aren’t any easy answers.” He fell silent again. “Those things shape us and make us who we are. They make us stronger.”
“And less trusting,” she said. She had felt the weight of his suspicion sometimes when they were engaged and knew he wondered if she would leave him without a word. It was another nail in the coffin of their relationship. “God scares me. You never know what he might do.” She put her hand to her mouth, uncertain if she’d actually said the words. From the comprehension on Bane’s face, she knew she had blurted them out. She realized her anger was at the core of the lackluster worship she’d managed lately.
He nodded. “I can understand that. I’ve been like that a time or two in my life. The last time was when we broke up.” He grinned, a sideways smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“I don’t want to talk about us.” She stood and clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking. “What do we do now that T?t? is obviously not going to lead us to the treasure?”
“We could look around I guess.” He glanced at Ipo, who had begun to sing. Her dull voice echoed in the treetops and reverberated through the clearing. “Come along, T?t?, let’s go for a walk.” He helped her to her feet, and she continued to sing as they walked along the faint path between the trees. “She said something about a fishpond. Are there any legends of ancient fishponds in this area?”
“I’ve never heard of any. How far are we from the ocean here? The ponds would have to be near the water.”
“Unless they’re so old, the water receded and land filled in.” Still helping Ipo along, Bane studied the jungle. He stopped and cocked his head. “Listen. Is that water?”
Leia tipped her head to the side and strained to hear. Sure enough, the tinkle of water on rocks came to her ears. “I think it’s that way,” she said, pointing to the north.
“That would be the direction of the ocean.” His voice rose, and he started off in the direction from which she’d heard the sound.
They passed through a stand of mangrove trees and entered a lovely meadow sparkling with wildflowers and sunshine. A brook rushed over rocks, creating the noise that had drawn them. There was a bowl-shaped depression in the middle of the area. The opposite side was lined with rocks, some of them loosened and fallen into a heap.