Under the Bali Moon

pened her eyes.

“I know I’m supposed to be cool. I know I’m supposed to have a more elaborate plan to win you back and pay off your pain, but I don’t have that. All I have is the truth,” Adan said. “Yes, I supported this wedding because I wanted to help Zola and Alton. But I knew there was no way Zola would do this without you. And I wanted to see you.” Adan moved his hand to caress Zena’s cheek. “And I wanted to see you so I could say these things to you.”

“Why?” Zena asked.

“Because I want to be with you.”

“Be with me? But we haven’t been together in nine years. It’s been so long. Too long.”

“Stop it, Z. Stop it with that wall! Just stop,” Adan said, and then he started crying, too. “I’m Adan! You can let it down. I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. And I love you. I love you so much.”

Did Adan pull Zena to him for that kiss that followed these words? Or was Zena the one who pulled Adan to her lips? Neither would ever know or remember. But it happened. It was as if the space between them in the sand evaporated and their toes touched and then their lips connected and then there was a kiss.

Zena closed her eyes and felt Adan’s arms wrapping around her, holding her up and steadying her against his body. She didn’t want to let go of his lips. She didn’t want to be released from his hold. But still, she wondered, What is this? What is happening?

She opened her eyes to see him, to confirm that this was him and look at Adan as he kissed her so passionately.

And he was there. Adan was before her with his eyes closed and joy written all over his face.

Twinkling or sparkling behind his right ear caught Zena’s eye. She refocused and saw something that looked like fireworks, but then she knew it couldn’t be, so she broke the lip-lock from Adan and ordered him to turn around.

“Look! Look!” she screamed, pointing at the shining clear black night.

As soon as Adan turned, in one second there was a flicker and pop, and two shooting stars raced across the sky.

“Did you see that? Did you see that?” Zena rushed out, still in shock at what she’d just seen.

“Yes! I did! I did! I think it was a shooting star—two shooting stars!” Adan said with his voice half-confused or in awe.

“Oh, my God! I can’t believe we just saw that!” Zena was ecstatic then and jumping in the sand. She turned to Adan and said with significant cadence, “We just saw that. We just saw that together. Right as we kissed.”

Adan began to lower his head to kiss Zena again, but then he had a thought: “Wait!” he said, stopping himself right before Zena’s anticipating lips. “I wonder if anyone else saw it!”

“Who cares? It was just for us,” Zena said before pulling Adan’s face down to hers and kissing him again.

Inside Adan’s room, there were no strangers, no nervous energy, no pretense or discussion about what should or could happen.

With the sound of waves rolling in the distance and the moon peeking into the slightly slanted shutters, in the darkness of the villa, Adan slid off Zena’s clothes and knelt down to study her body as if it was something he’d cherished but lost and then found again. He closed his eyes as he kissed her stomach and caressed the outsides of her thighs. Into her navel he spoke of love and never letting go again. Still on his knees, he wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head over the top of her vagina. He held her and waited as if he was meditating or praying. He held Zena there in that position for so long she didn’t want to move him. To say a thing. To ask a thing.

Soon, Zena began to cry again. She palmed the top of his head and said, “I forgive you and I missed you. And... I love you, too.”

Chapter 8

Zola was sitting at the breakfast table, holding Alton’s hand so tightly neither could eat their food. She looked as if nothing happened the day before and was so perky and cheerful no one wanted to bring it up. While it was another lazy, hot morning in Bali, it was her wedding day and all knew she should enjoy the bliss moments like this could bring without interruption.

Over postbreakfast green tea, as the foursome debated the event of the double shooting star, Zena watched Zola and thought of how different she seemed than any other bride on their wedding day, at least the ones Zena had seen. Most were rushing and running, rummaging and ruling over everything. Their grooms were hidden away; their world was an oiled machine of pomp and circumstance that had to go just as planned. This circus grew and evolved until it ended with the bride looking exhausted and tuned out, ready to escape to the refuge of a honeymoon hours away. But here was Zola sitting at the breakfast table in a thin turquoise sundress they’d purchased in the market downtown. Her hair was up in her topknot and she had two ridiculously large hibiscuses tucked behind each ear. She looked like some Bohemian garden nymph, completely relaxed and just happy. She was already on her honeymoon and neither bothered nor vexed about what lay ahead.

“Bruh, there’s no such thing as a double shooting star!” Alton teased Adan. “It just doesn’t make sense. The spontaneity behind the single scientific event of one star shooting across the sky—and while two people are watching—is just too rare for two to occur at once—and, again, while two people are watching.”

“What, are you an astronomer now? You hardly graduated from Clark Atlanta, and now you sound like freaking Neil deGrasse Tyson,” Adan said, and everyone laughed.

“I watch documentaries on Netflix. I know many things!” Alton followed up, and then the laughter grew at his response.

“Seriously, though, there were two shooting stars. I saw it, too,” Zena confirmed. “It was so fast. But I saw it. I know I saw it.”

By then, Zena and Adan had questioned most everyone at Mahatma House, including the security guard and the beautiful long-haired girl who showed up each morning to do the flower offering at the villa’s traditional altar. They wanted to know if anyone had seen the shooting stars. No one had seen a thing. And two people, the chef and the woman who cleaned Adan’s room, confirmed that they’d indeed been looking at the sky at that exact hour and hadn’t witnessed anything out of the norm.

“Maybe you did—maybe you didn’t,” Zola said. “The real question is, why were both of you looking up at the sky at the same time after midnight? That’s what I want to know.” Zola grinned and looked from Adan to Zena. They were sitting beside one another and looking very cozy. They weren’t touching, but their bodies were still leaning into each other with enough normalcy to reveal the tale from the night before.