THE SANCTUARY (16 page)

“She has so many great ideas that I’d be a fool not to jump at the chance to be partners—loan or no loan,” Chris said as she put her hand over Lydia’s and squeezed it. “I don’t have time to do everything, even if I could come up with all this stuff myself. Off the top of her head, she’s already thought of make-your-own ice cream sundae parties for the guests after they return from the nightly sound and light show at Mount Rushmore. And she says that we can increase revenue by adding a kids summer camp at the back of the property. We already have horses and swimming and shuttle buses that we can use to take the kids to area attractions. She says it can be promoted as a company retreat. I can’t believe all the fantastic plans Lydia has for this place. Oh, and she says that we have to hire Sonya as a consultant. She says we need lots of help with marketing and that Sonya will give us a very reasonable rate. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been able to update the website. It’s been under construction for weeks. I’ve been using wireless phone service to save money, but it’s so spotty in these parts that I have just gotten a new toll-free landline.”

“It would be my pleasure. I won’t even charge you. I’ll take my fee in spa services! The first thing I’ll do is create a state-of-the-art interactive website for the resort, and we’ll do a huge marketing campaign to launch the new spa. We’ll treat select media to free spa packages and use certain bloggers and periodicals to promote our contest and spread the word that there’s a new destination spa. We’ll work on getting the proper
accreditations, such as AAA Five-Diamond Award and
Condé Nast Traveler
Gold List. Then we can go after the corporate retreat and meetings business,” Sonya said.

“What about the RV?” Julia asked. “How are we getting home?”

“Don’t worry. I’m going to drive the RV home. I’ve got to take care of some things, including renting my house and packing my belongings,” Lydia said.

“You’re moving across the country?” Julia asked, nearly in tears.

“How did you think that I was going to work here while living in Georgetown? Besides, I can’t afford that house anymore. And I need a job and since I haven’t worked in years, it would be hard to find a good job. This is a good job, but even if I didn’t take the job offer, I’m tied to this place financially. But even if I weren’t financially dependent on this place, it’s time for a change. I hope you understand. It’s a no-brainer that I’ll miss you and Sonya and Liz more than I can say, but y’all are always right here,” Lydia said, holding both her hands over her heart. “And I expect you to come visit, and we’ll still have our annual reunions. Liz loves nothing more than a good party. Hey! Where are Liz and Grace? They’re going to miss breakfast if they don’t get here soon.”

“They’re probably still primping. I’ll go get them,” Julia offered.

Just as Julia was heading back up to the lodge to fetch Liz and Grace, Grace came flying down the hill.

“Help! Someone please help me! Something’s wrong with Mom,” Grace cried.

PART THREE

Renaissance

Thirteen

BITTERSWEET

E
ven though the ferry ride was just a twenty-five minute jaunt from the mainland to Sanctuary Island, it might as well have been a million miles. It was another world. A serene, spectacular place. There were no businesses or cars on the island, which meant no air or noise pollution. Wildlife outnumbered humans fifty to one. The only human inhabitants were roughly one hundred and fifty Gullah descendants who lived on the northern tip of the island. There was a skinny stretch of beach that ran the length of the island, a maritime forest filled with giant, ancient trees and shrubs, and acres of marshlands that provided a perfect refuge for the only other inhabitants of the island: nesting loggerhead turtles, snowy egrets, alligators, eagles, raccoons, red foxes, osprey, great blue herons, and a few birds of prey, as well as numerous species of reptiles. Since it was the closest thing to heaven on earth and their private haven, they’d long ago dubbed the island “The Sanctuary.”

Liz had been quiet during the trip home speaking only to respond to a comment or question from Lydia. But that was totally understandable given the circumstances. After Grace had reported that something was wrong with Liz, they ran back to the lodge. They found her passed out on the floor of their room. After the ambulance left with Liz, Chris drove them to Rapid City Memorial where they drank bad coffee and suffered an interminable wait before they finally got the news. Liz had authorized the physician to share her diagnosis with Lydia, Julia, and Sonya. Chris stayed in the waiting room with Grace, who was furious that she hadn’t been included in the meeting.

Stage IV Ovarian Cancer. That meant that it had spread to vital organs, including her liver and lungs. There was no cure and survival odds were low, about seventeen percent, even with aggressive treatment. They learned that it is the fifth leading cause of death in women because it is so hard to detect that it has usually advanced too much by the time it is discovered. The oncologist was hesitant to say how much time Liz had left. He said that it varied case by case. It also depended on how long she had been in Stage IV, which there was no way of knowing. His best guess was anywhere from a couple of months to a year, but it was hard to ignore the skepticism in his voice as he gave the best-case scenario.

When they were finally able to talk to Liz, she said that she had found out just before leaving for Borneo. For a long time she had been feeling abnormally tired, had no appetite, and was just not herself—she hadn’t even had the energy to date since her last relationship had ended months ago—so she scheduled a physical before she went to Romania. The doctor finally reached Liz on the eve of the Borneo trip.

She had decided that no matter what she had to do that she would make amends with Lydia. Not for her sake, but for Lydia. Liz knew that Lydia would never forgive herself if she died while they were estranged. Truth be known, she should have done it a long time ago. Instead, she chose to be angry and offended by Lydia’s behavior. Had it always been as stupid as it sounded now or did it seem more ridiculous given that she was dying?

On her way to Borneo, she decided that after the trip, she would enlist Julia to get Lydia to Sanctuary Island. Once there, Lydia would be a captive audience, and they would make amends. She would go directly there with Grace and wait for the others. That would be a nice place for some mother-daughter time. Some long overdue mother-daughter time by the looks of the scene she had walked in on when she returned from her last assignment. She had discovered Grace, wearing only a bra and jeans, lying underneath a shaggy-haired boy who was wiggling out of his jeans. Liz had slammed the door behind her. The boy awkwardly stumbled to his feet. She recognized the tattooed boy from a brief encounter a few weeks ago. The pair had been leaving as she came home, and Grace had been noticeably agitated when forced to make introductions. He was even less impressive than she remembered. Older, at least nineteen or twenty. Scrawnier. Too much body art.

“Uh, hey, Ms. G,” Keith said. At least he had the decency to appear uncomfortable and embarrassed as he zipped up his jeans. Her daughter, on the other hand, had looked angry and defiant. That was the moment she knew that things had to change. She had to start spending more time with her daughter so that Grace didn’t end up making the same mistakes she had. She thought that Borneo was a good start, and then when they got home, she would think about her situation and what she should do.

It was while she was on the way home from Borneo that she learned about David’s death and the road trip. She decided that they would catch up with the CGFs during their road trip, which wasn’t a problem since they had been texting their itinerary daily. She didn’t get any of those texts until she was on her way home, but those updates allowed her to make plans while en route.

She had also planned to tell them about her illness while they were together on Sanctuary Island. At least, she had planned to tell the CGFs. But not before she made up with Lydia. She hadn’t decided what she was going to tell Grace. She decided to stick with the original plan and share her news after the road trip. She wanted it to be about the CGFs and Lydia’s crisis—not about her problems. She had nearly succeeded, but the road trip across America after the rigors of the Indonesian jungle proved too much for her in her current condition. Now that the moment had arrived, she knew she couldn’t tell Grace yet. She begged the others not to tell Grace either. She was due to graduate in a couple of weeks, and Liz didn’t want anything spoiling that milestone.

And she asked them for another favor. She wanted to spend the summer—most likely her last summer—at the Sanctuary.

“I realize that y’all have lives and can’t drop everything, but if you could just come and stay for a few days and help me get situated, that would be great. Maybe you can come visit every few weeks,” Liz had said.

So, it had all been arranged. Liz admitted to Grace that she had cancer but assured her daughter that it was treatable. She just needed a quiet place and time to convalesce. She hated lying but felt it was a necessity, at least for now. She did not want to spoil her daughter’s graduation. Grace flew home where she would spend the last few weeks until graduation staying with her best friend, Laura. Laura’s mother said they’d be glad to have her when she heard about the situation. Grace would come for a visit after she got back from her graduation trip. Sonya and Julia flew home to sort out business and family matters so that they would be free to join them by the time Lydia and Liz returned. Lydia told Chris that she was postponing her move a few months. She drove the RV back with Liz keeping her company in the when she felt up to it. The rest of the time she slept. Lydia didn’t know how she had managed to hide her condition so well. Sheer determination. Pure Liz.

They made few stops on the way back, so they made good time. It was a long, hard trip, but it had to be done. Lydia couldn’t leave the RV in South Dakota, and Liz was in no shape to fly across the country on her own. Chris had offered to help by flying back with Liz or joining them on the road trip to help with the driving. Lydia appreciated the offer but declined it. There was too much going on at the resort with the expansion project and peak tourist season underway. Besides, there was no one to take care of Mattie.

Lydia had hoped to talk to Liz about getting treatment on the way home, but when she brought up the subject, Liz held up her hand and shook her head.

“Don’t waste your breath,” she warned. “The oncologists in Rapid City confirmed everything the doctors at Mount Sinai have said. I have Stage IV, which is terminal. I’m not spending my last days on earth hooked up to machines, puking my guts out, and begging for morphine. I want to spend time with my daughter and the CGFs, and I want to
live
whatever time I’ve got left—and I want to do it on Sanctuary Island.”

Her tone and the look on her face indicated that she had given it a lot of thought, and this was what she wanted. Since Lydia couldn’t argue with her reasoning, she let it go. They had made it home in three days.

Her request changed Lydia’s plans. There was no way that she was going to leave Liz on the island alone, but that was an argument best saved for another time. She knew why it was so important to Liz. They had shared some good times there over the years. It was a place that held lots of special memories. She and Julia had spent summers on the island when they were kids. Julia’s parents spent a week with Lydia’s family on the island one summer. They were a normal family for a brief time. They all went crabbing, played games, and took long walks together. And every night Julia and Lydia watched their parents dance under the moonlight. They happily shagged to the Embers, Drifters, Fantastic Shakers, and the Four Tops, swaying and swinging in perfect sync.

Julia and Lydia were supposed to be in bed, but every night they sneaked out of their room and watched their parents from the living room window. Seeing her parents together like that was one of Julia’s happiest childhood memories.

The CGFs spent every summer there while in college. It was like their home away from home, only better in some ways, especially for Liz, who had never had a good home life. Nothing she ever did had been good enough for her parents. They were always telling her what a disappointment she was, that is when they weren’t ignoring her. Eventually, Liz spent holidays with Julia or Lydia and summer breaks at Sanctuary Island.

Despite being young adults, they loved the tranquil island. It was a chance to just hang out without having to worry about anything. They lived in ponytails, bathing suits, and flip-flops. The beach was private and full of unusual shells. Nearly every morning the girls went shelling. The fruits of their years of labor—dozens of multihued lettered olives, whelks, coquinas, arks, angel wings, pen and slipper shells, and sand dollars littered the large front porch. They took the ferry over to Charleston whenever they needed a night out or had to get more groceries. They had continued the tradition after college until everyone got so busy with careers and kids.

Lydia’s parents had left her the property upon their deaths with the understanding that she would never sell it or develop it. Not only could she not imagine this place exactly as it was, but she had made a promise to her dying mother that she would never break even though developers had approached her several times over the years with lucrative offers. There was virtually no land left in the Lowcountry that hadn’t been ruined by developers, except for a handful of places like the Sanctuary. They were the last safe havens for people like the Gullah and endangered species like the red wolf and loggerhead turtle.

Lydia didn’t realize how much she missed this place until she saw the massive oak trees with their thick chains of hanging Spanish moss as they neared the island. Birds of all shapes and sizes soared above the treetops before vanishing into the dark forest as the approaching ferry warned them about interlopers. She breathed in the pure air and looked over at Liz as the ferry docked. Liz smiled and squeezed her hand. Lydia knew what she was thinking. Even if it was under these circumstances, it was good to be here.
Home.

“Are you going to check out the island and make sure everything’s okay on the north side?” Liz asked. They were sitting on the front porch waiting for the sunset. It was worth the wait since it was like a laser light show. The sun turned from a golden yellow to a brilliant red and then the whole horizon became a radiant reddish-orange before fading into darkness. And then as if by magic a bright moon and millions of incandescent lights suddenly appeared.

“No. I will do whatever I can to protect the Gullah, but they have made it clear with our earlier encounters that they don’t like trespassers. It doesn’t matter that I own the island. I don’t know what they would have done if they discovered us watching them that night we stumbled upon their hoodoo ceremony. They are so protective of their rituals that it may have turned ugly. It
did
turn ugly when we tried to talk to them,” Lydia said.