Chapter Seven

Davis finished off the last of his red curry. Back home he would have balked if someone had suggested he put peanuts in a dish, but this meal made him want to put them in everything now.

“Want more?” his mother asked. “Now’s your chance because we’ll be giving the leftovers to the villagers.”

Davis did want more but knew he shouldn’t. For one, now that he knew that the more he ate, the less there would be for others, he would feel guilty with every bite. Besides, Davis had already had three servings. Even though his tongue was begging for more, his stomach was begging him to stop.

“I think I’m good,” he said, leaning against a rock that had become a makeshift chair near the fire. Most of the villagers had returned to their huts and tents, only a few women remaining as they spooned the leftover food into plastic bags.

Davis couldn’t imagine the rice, curry, meat, and cooked vegetables would fare very well like that, but it seemed they had no other method of storing the food. It seemed silly to miss something like a disposable storage container. They were so inexpensive that they could be thrown out if he wasn’t in the mood to wash them.

And yet, here were the villagers carting away the leftover food in bags, where it would get all mixed and squished, and they’d have to eat it cold because there was no microwave.

Davis was aware of his mom watching him. “You look happy,” she said.

Was he?

That wasn’t a question Davis had asked himself in a long time; he’d always been afraid of the answer. Now that he had gotten over his carsickness and the shock of landing in a foreign country, he mulled over the possibility. Sitting here with his family in the middle of a Thai jungle, warming himself by the fire after a delicious meal. Yeah, at this moment, he was happy. Back in Starlight Ridge, Davis had allowed himself to forget how much he had missed his family—his brothers.

Bridgette had helped fill that void.

But after her death, that void had only grown until it had become the equivalent of a black hole, sucking in any form of happiness that dared threaten it, until none had been left. And there had been no possibility of it ever returning.

For this one moment, though, the black hole had been subdued.

“Right now, I am,” Davis finally said.

His mom was quiet for a moment. “I’m glad you’re here. Having the whole family together again—I didn’t know the next time it would be like this, if ever.” She paused. “I know that’s my and your father’s fault, whisking your brothers away like that, leaving you to run the store. It wasn’t fair of us. And then we got caught up in the life out here. One year turned into two. I was able to justify not returning home because you and I talk on the phone each week, and we’re doing a lot of good out here. But it wasn’t—”

“Mom,” Davis interrupted. His voice softened. “It’s okay. I’m thirty-five years old. I made the choice to take over the store; that had always been the plan. And I think this is exactly what Will and Randy needed. Being stuck in Starlight Ridge their whole lives—that’s not good for anyone, but especially the twins. They need more than what the town has to offer.”

His mom raised an eyebrow. “You don’t seem to have a very high opinion of our hometown. I grew up there, you know, as did you father, and your grandparents—”

It seemed Davis had struck a nerve. Starlight Ridge held a special place in his family’s hearts. Most people who grew up there wanted to stay forever—wanted their families to stay there forever. “Then why did you leave?”

Davis was afraid his mom would be annoyed by the question, but she merely sighed, her gaze resting on the fire. “That…is a valid question.” She picked up a stick from the ground and drew in the dirt. “When we left, I told you we needed an adventure, and that was absolutely true. We did. But more than that, we felt you boys needed it.”

“You mean Will and Randy.”

His mom shook her head. “No, I mean you too.”

“But how would you leaving be any help to—”

Davis cut off when he saw Travis and Chloe approaching, each armed with a shovel and bucket. Looked like it was time to put out the fire.

His mom patted his knee as she stood. “I hope you’ll forgive us for thinking we knew something about raising children—even adult ones.”

She turned away and struck up small talk with Travis as he apologized for needing to clean up. Davis was sure his parents had their reasons for leaving, and it was clear that they had needed it, but it bothered him that it seemed they had thought this had been what Davis had needed as well. What type of person needed to be alone, without the people who truly understood and cared for him, quirks and all?

He shook his head and took a step toward the tent, where his mom had just disappeared. Davis paused mid-step. He wasn’t in the mood to be around people. The happiness he’d felt just moments earlier? Well, the black hole was back, and it was not happy that it had been ousted for the brief couple of hours that had given Davis a glimpse at the life people led.

Other people, of course.

Not him.

Never him.

Davis had always been the strange one, the odd one out. Always too serious. Never knowing how to interact with people who seemed to thrive on chaos.

So he walked away from the tent.

“Where are you going?” someone called after him.

Davis paused. He recognized Chloe’s voice. Not bothering to fully turn, he said over his shoulder, “Out for a walk.”

“Without a flashlight?”

Annoyance rumbled in his chest, though it was mostly with himself. Chloe was right; he didn’t even have a cell phone on him, having left it back in the tent because he was in the middle of nowhere with no service.

“I wasn’t going to go far.”

He heard quick footsteps, and then Chloe appeared out of the dark behind him. “Here, use this.” She handed him a headlamp. “You can hang on to it for the next couple of weeks. You know, until you head home. You’ll need it.”

Davis took it, more out of surprise than anything. He turned it over in his hands. “Thank you.”

Chloe nodded, acknowledging that she’d heard him, but she didn’t move to leave. It almost seemed like she was waiting for him to try it out, to make sure it worked. She really took her job seriously.

Davis slipped it over his forehead and turned it on. The light was nearly blinding, and it certainly illuminated his path, but it also made everything else disappear. The stars were no longer visible, the nuances of the dark trees were gone—everything seemed to take on a harsher tone. He turned it off.

“It works really well,” he said, hoping she’d get the hint and leave so he could continue his walk in the dark.

She didn’t, though, and instead asked, “Mind if I join you?”

Davis had a feeling it was so she could keep an eye on him—that she was afraid she was going to lose one of her volunteers if he went wandering into the jungle by himself. And considering Davis’s track record for the day, he could understand why she’d be worried.

But he really did just want to be left alone.

His silence must have said volumes, because Chloe gave a hesitant nod. “I understand. It’s been a bit of a rough first day, and I’m sure you need to unwind. I just… I’d rather if you waited until morning.”

“What, you don’t like traversing the jungle at night? Afraid of the dark?” he said, attempting to tease her and help to lessen the unease he was starting to feel.

Chloe didn’t even crack a smile. “Not when I might have to deal with a python. Or worse.”

“There’s something worse out here than a python?” Davis tried to steady his voice, not wanting to seem as nervous as he suddenly was, but to no avail. He was used to being able to go out for night hikes near the beach or up to Starlight Ridge, the town’s namesake. There were the few odd critters out there, but this—this was turning out to be a completely different game. And one he didn’t feel like playing. But how to back out gracefully, without feeling as pathetic as he had all day?

“Sure. You’ll get the occasional leopard and—”

Anything else that Chloe said disappeared into the fog of Davis’s mind. All he needed to know was that he had just been about to venture out into the Thai jungle, without a light, not having the slightest clue that there were animals like pythons and leopards just waiting for someone to do something stupid. Davis would have been like fast food for these animals—the easiest kill they’d ever had.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me?” he interrupted. Somehow Chloe had transitioned to talking about an elephant sanctuary that was a few hours north.

She stopped. “Sorry?”

“That should be the first thing you tell a new volunteer. Don’t go wandering around at night, because you might get eaten.”

Chloe stared, like she didn’t know how to respond to that. He could admit that it had come out a bit harsher than he’d intended.

“I’m…sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean… Well, I did, but not in the way it came out…”

He trailed off, not knowing what else to say. So, instead, he took the headlamp off and held it out to Chloe. “Thank you, it was a nice offer. But I don’t think I’ll be needing it while here.” Davis wanted to spend more time with Will and Randy and his parents, but he wasn’t sure if he could do it like this. The constant noise, and people, and never knowing if a python was going to attack him while he slept. Davis didn’t know what he had expected when he’d come out here. But it hadn’t been this.

Chloe, however, refused to take the headlamp from him, instead laying a hand over his, the lamp still enclosed in his fist. His hand shot back at her touch, and he could tell the action had surprised her. But no one touched him like that. No one since Bridgette.

Chloe hesitated. “You’ll need it when you use the restroom after dark.”

That’s right. The restroom that was more like a glorified outhouse that sat behind the tent. Next to the trees. Where the pythons lived.

She continued, “And it’s me who should be apologizing, not you. I’ve gotten used to knowing about the creatures that live out here. I’ve never seen one. Heard a jaguar a few times, but that’s about it. When my parents first brought me to Thailand, though, out to a place like this, I couldn’t sleep through the night. I kept thinking about what might be out there, and it took me an entire year to adjust.

“I include safety precautions in my training sessions with new volunteers, but because you’re here for such a short time, I didn’t think it necessary to go through the whole official process.” She paused, seeming a little embarrassed. “I figured your family would help you through learning how things work here, forgetting that they’ve been out here for over a year, and it’s become second nature to them as well. And that it’s my job, not theirs.”

She paused and gave him a small smile. “You’ll be happy to know, though, that you arrived at just the right time. If we finish up with this village within the next week, the volunteers get a weeklong holiday to travel around the country and relax a little before moving on to the next location.”

Oh, so that was why his mom had insisted he wait a few weeks before visiting. He had planned on leaving Starlight Ridge right after New Year’s, but his mom had told him that April was the best time to come. Apparently, that was when Thailand’s New Year was. Davis hadn’t known what that had to do with anything, but he’d trusted his mother’s judgment and had waited.

Playing the tourist, though? That hadn’t been a part of Davis’s plans. The only reason he’d come to Thailand in the first place was knowing he wouldn’t have to do that, instead working side by side with his family. That was his kind of vacation.

“Um…what if someone didn’t want to travel? Is there an option to go straight to the next site?”

Chloe raised an eyebrow. “No, unfortunately there isn’t. I don’t usually have much notice before we move on to the next place. We have a tentative location, but I always wait to confirm until we’ve finished our current project. That’s one reason for the vacation for the volunteers—to give me time to settle things.”

That made sense. The reason for rebuilding this village was because of a fire, after all. You can’t plan something like that. Or, at least, you shouldn’t.

He supposed he could cut the visit short by a week. The film crew might not be cleared out of Starlight Ridge yet, but it would be better than playing tourist. His parents were the type to buy matching T-shirts so they could more easily find each other in a crowd, and they’d stop for pictures at every other corner. They would purchase ridiculous souvenirs that no one wanted but that helped prove they’d gone somewhere. And that had been when the furthest they’d ever traveled was to Disneyland. Davis hated to imagine what traveling around a completely different country would be like.

“Well, my parents might be sick of me by then.” He laughed, hoping it was more convincing than it felt. “I should probably head to bed. Long day and all that.” He stepped around Chloe. “Thanks for stopping me from being eaten.”

“No problem,” she said. “It tends to freak the volunteers out when one of their friends disappears, so it’s more of a morale thing. Some people bring donuts to the office. I keep the pythons away,” she said. “Whatever it takes to keep people working.”

Her response caught Davis off guard, and he belted out a laugh. It hadn’t been like the polite ones of earlier. It was a full-body one that sounded like a foghorn, but it was also one-hundred percent genuine. A laugh like that hadn’t happened in a very long time.

When Davis glanced back, he saw that Chloe seemed to have noticed the difference, her entire demeanor lightening.

Davis studied her for another moment before turning with an amused shake of his head. When he returned to the tent, his brothers were sitting at a table between the bunk beds, playing what looked an awful lot like poker with a couple of college-age guys. On closer inspection, Davis saw they were playing for M&Ms rather than money, and apparently Will was quite good at it, because he had nearly the entire stash sitting in front of him. Hopefully it didn’t give him any ideas that involved more than a few pieces of candy.

Davis moved to grab his pajamas out of his duffel bag and saw his parents cuddled on one of the lower beds and speaking in hushed tones. When his dad spotted Davis, he smiled and gave a little wave, but his attention quickly returned to Davis’s mother.

Davis wondered if he should be offended that his family hadn’t been more concerned about where he had been and what he’d been doing. He had just arrived that day, after all. And apparently there were jaguars on the loose. But Davis was instead comforted. He saw that his family was in exactly the place they needed to be, and that as much as they loved having him there, they also knew him well enough to allow him the space he needed. And that was one of the best things about family. You could go halfway around the world and feel like you were home.

Chloe walked into the tent just then. She caught his gaze and held it briefly before making the rounds and talking with the various volunteers that Davis had yet to meet. He looked down at the headlamp that hung from his fingers.

He could think of a few reasons to stay the full two weeks.

But he could think of even more reasons to leave.