The Other Megan by Robbi McCoy

Author:Robbi McCoy [McCoy, Robbi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594934988
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2016-05-20T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

After dinner, Megan and Jaye sat in the yard, far enough away from the back door to escape most of the light from inside the kitchen. Jaye had opened a package of addictive coffee-flavored candy that sat on the table between them. Megan couldn’t get over how many stars she could see. A distinctively river-like swath of the Milky Way was brilliantly on display. You forget why it’s called the Milky Way, she thought, until a view like this shows up. Her eyes were continuously drawn upward. Living in the urban sprawl of Southern California, her experience of night was completely different.

It was a nice night, not too hot, and definitely cooler outside than inside. Thirty feet from the house, everything was inky black, so much so that Megan couldn’t make out any individual plants.

“Are there wild animals out there?” she asked. “I keep expecting a pair of red eyes to appear out of the dark.”

“Yes, of course there are animals.” Jaye unwrapped another candy. “At night we sometimes see bats. But there aren’t big predators like cats. Once people came to the islands, most of the larger mammals became extinct. That agouti we saw earlier is one of the biggest animals we have. And monkeys.”

“Are there poisonous snakes?”

“No, no poisonous ones. But Willie’s terrified of snakes, so whenever one shows up, it turns into an all-day drama.” Jaye laughed. “Are you afraid of snakes?”

“No.”

“Are you afraid of anything?” Jaye asked.

Megan laughed shortly. “Nothing like that. Nothing that would make me scream and take off running.”

“Willie’s afraid of everything.”

“Then it’s amazing she manages to get anything done.”

“I know! I used to wonder about that myself. Somehow she just does. She fights through her fears because she’s so determined. But she’s still afraid. I can’t imagine how she’s coping right now.” Jaye sucked on the candy and leaned her head back on the chair, her eyes skyward.

Megan listened to the sounds of the jungle. An occasional strange animal call, insects chirping. Somewhere in the village a dog was barking. Every once in a while the faint sound of a crying baby would reach them, reminding Megan that she was not utterly alone in the world with Jaye. While she was looking at the sky, a bright streak of light zipped by almost directly overhead, then disappeared.

“Did you see that?” she asked.

“Yes. That was a nice one. We see them all the time here because it’s so dark. There are no streetlights anywhere around here. Not for eighty miles.”

“Back home, we can’t even see a major meteor shower.”

“No, I know. It’s really beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Uh-huh.” Megan leaned in Jaye’s direction. “And very romantic.”

Jaye lifted her head to look at Megan, then shot her a discouraging frown, but said nothing. A moment later, Megan asked, “Jaye, when did you know you were a lesbian?”

Jaye remained silent some moments before saying, “I didn’t know for sure until I was twenty years old. Before that, there were plenty of times I wondered. I had crushes on women when I was young and I fell in love with a girl in high school.

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