The only way to navigate on a clear, moonless night was by the stars. The sounds of the ocean were all around the island and the never-ending darkness of the sky merely blended with the salt-blackened tree trunks all around. You could orient by the sound of the wind turbines sometimes but too often the steady swah swah swah of the blades would be competing with the wind and the end result was more confusing than helpful. The island’s lesser trails, in the daylight, could easily become a maze too difficult to follow. At night they were a labyrinth with no escape.
Brian knew nothing of the stars. He’d never been anywhere where there had been so many stars. For a moment, a very brief moment, he was stopped by the beauty of two meteors coming to earth, burning away their mass high up in the atmosphere. They seemed to crash through a veil which shimmered high in the sky.
“Those are the Northern Lights.”
Brian jumped.
“Oh. Uh. Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.” A woman stepped into the middle of the path to be more easily seen.
“Oh, Aunt Leslie. It’s you. Are you following me now?”
“Not at all. I’ve been out here for a while enjoying the view and you walked right past me, Tom.”
He stared at her. “Aunt Leslie, it’s me, Brian. You been up here for so long you can’t tell the difference between me and Uncle Tom?”
She stared back. Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils grew tight. She snorted but it sounded more like a dog sneezing to rid itself of a bad smell. “No. You’re not Tom.”
“Do you believe me about what I saw in the trees?”
“Of course I believe you. I’ll always believe you.” She reached for his hand. “Come on. It’s this way.”
He pulled his hand away and turned in the direction she wanted him to go.
A glow lit up the island behind them.
She reached for his hand again. “Come on. Hurry. This way.”
Floodlights blazed up the trail and over the tops of the trees. Other lights lit up Governor’s Cove from the top of the old cannery. The cracking sound of electric arcs, like the sound of the hockey-rink breakers only louder, stronger, more urgent, echoed from all points on the island. Lights screamed to life, instantly bright, not growing into silent whiteness as did the others of what seemed a lifetime ago.
Trinity Cove revealed itself in the night. The two wind generators. The tidal power station. The trails to and from.
Not the path he was on.
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