Chapter 13 — The Book She Didn’t Open
The cruise ends, Robbie leaves, and Liz gives Quinn a book she isn’t ready to read.
The four women disembark from the cruise ship and travel plans change, again
Chapter 13 - Mirage of Trust
New to Echo Canyon and the women who live there?
Book 1 - Whispers of Echo Canyon Begins Here
Start here with Book 2, Mirage of Trust: Chapter 1
Or go to the Table of Contents for the Chapter listing
Australia
Laughing, Quinn followed the line with Robbie a few steps ahead of her and Liz and Connie behind. Connie had just shared one of her amazing stories about ship departure rituals. “As you turn the last corner of the gangway, you make sure no one will notice, and you spit into the water.”
No one noticed as she did this. Quinn felt ridiculous, so she passed. Liz just shook her head while Robbie, ever impatient, steamed ahead of the others.
Quinn watched as their fellow passengers stepped off the ship in orderly lines, guided by signs, announcements, and uniformed staff who knew exactly where everyone was supposed to go. Suitcases tipped, righted themselves, and rolled on. Children complained about being hungry. A man in a Panama hat searched one pocket after another for his passport while his wife stood beside him holding both of their boarding passes.
Through the wall of glass, the ship still filled the view outside the terminal. From here, it looked less like the place they had slept and eaten and walked beneath stars, and more like something that had delivered them back to shore and was already finished with them.
Quinn shifted her carry-on from one hand to the other, her shoulder tiring from pulling the weight. Looking back, Robbie noticed. “Here. Give me that. I told you not to buy so many souvenirs.”
“I can man…” Robbie quickly grabbed the handle and pulled it away from Quinn. “Please, I said I would take it.”
They moved up to customs. When her turn came, Quinn handed over her passport, and realized she was reaching for her badge that was no longer part of her. Looking up, she answered the required questions, and waited while the officer looked from the screen to her face and back again. The small pause felt longer than it was. Quinn shivered through a moment of anxiety from her years of border crossings when her only protection had been her badge. Then the passport slid back across the counter.
“Enjoy the rest of your stay.”
Relieved, Quinn smiled. “Thank you.”
She stepped away, returned the passport to the inside pocket of her handbag, and checked the zipper twice before letting her hand drop.
Robbie was waiting near the luggage area, one hand resting on both bags’ handles, her comm in the other.
Quinn saw the phone but thought little of it. Everyone had their devices out now. The world had found them again. Messages, schedules, updates, problems. All the small obligations that had been held offshore came rushing back the moment they stepped onto land.
Robbie glanced at the screen, then turned it slightly away from the light. Her thumb moved fast.
Liz came up beside Quinn with her suitcase already balanced against her leg. “I always think I’ve packed carefully until the last morning,” she said. “Then somehow everything looks like I robbed a laundry room.”
Quinn smiled. Connie leaned over the baggage carousel, watching for her bag. “If anyone asks, we were never here.”
Robbie didn’t laugh. Quinn looked over. Robbie was reading again.
This time her mouth tightened, not enough to make a scene of it, just enough for Quinn to notice.
The carousel started with a low mechanical groan. Bags dropped through the rubber curtain one at a time, each landing with a heavy thump before circling toward the waiting passengers. Quinn spotted hers and stepped forward, but Robbie reached it first and lifted it down before Quinn could get both hands on the handle.
“Thanks,” Quinn said.
Robbie nodded, still looking past her toward the terminal entrance, already calculating distance and time. A moment later the comm rang. Robbie looked at the screen.
“I need to take this.”
She didn’t wait for an answer before stepping away.