The noise could be anything, anyone. For all I knew maybe it was the Coast Guard coming to rescue me. I wasn’t going to turn around to look. I had to keep going. Maybe it was someone from one of these other islands. A fishing boat getting an early start. It couldn’t be Nathaniel’s people. Even if they had noticed that I was missing, how could they find me out here in the middle of all this water? In the middle of all this darkness? There was no way it was Nathaniel.I put myself in their place. Even if they had somehow discovered that I wasn’t in my room, they would first search the house. And then maybe the guest house. And then all over the island. And finally, when they couldn’t find me, they might send the boat out. Search the stretch of water between the two islands.I was fairly sure that I hadn’t been spotted yet by whatever was back there. But just in case, I started paddling parallel to the island, away from where they might logically look for me.“Faster,” I said out loud.
