I was standing in front of Bones’ shack when Jennie found me. Sweat ran down her face.
 

“I chased a chicken all over the island, but it ran too fast. I will catch it if it’s the last thing I do.” She leaned over and put her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. She looked up at me. “What are you doing?”

“I want to tear down this shack, then bring the wood back to the beach to build us a house.”

“Do you have any idea how to build a house?”

“No, but I’ve got plenty of time to figure it out. If I’m careful, I can re-use all the wood and nails. I can make an awning with the tarp so the fire won’t go out.” I examined the hinges on the door, wondering if they were salvageable. “I need something to do, Jennie.”

“I think it’s a great idea,” she said.
 

It took us three days to knock down the shack and carry the pieces back to the beach. I pulled all the old nails out and put them in the toolbox with the others.

“I don’t want to be too near the woods,” Jennie said. “Because of the rats.”

“Ok.” I couldn’t build on the beach, though, because the sand was too unstable. We chose a spot between the two, where the sand ended and the dirt began. We dug a foundation, which because we didn’t have a shovel. I used the claw end of the hammer to pull chunks of dirt out of the ground, and Jennie followed along behind me, scooping it up in one of our plastic containers.

I used the rusty saw to cut the wood into the right size. Jennie held the boards while I pounded in the nails.

“I’m glad you decided to do this,” she said. “It’s going to take me a while to finish it.”
 
“That’s okay.”

She walked to the toolbox to get me some more nails. After she handed them to me she said, “Let me know if you need more help.”

She stretched out on the blanket nearby and closed her eyes. I watched her for a minute, my eyes moving from her legs to her stomach to her s, wondering if her skin felt as soft as it looked. I thought about the other day, when she kissed my neck under the coconut tree. I remembered how good it felt. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and turned her head toward me. I looked away quickly. I’d lost track of how many times she’d caught me staring at her. She never said anything about it, or told me to knock it off, which was just one more reason why I liked her so much.



***



It would have been my senior year, and Jennie hated that I missed so much school.

“You’re probably going to have to get a GED. I wouldn’t blame you at all if that’s what you wanted to do, instead of going back and finishing high school.”

“What’s a GED?”

“A general education diploma. Sometimes when kids drop out of school, they choose that option instead of going back. But don’t worry, I’ll help you.”

“Okay.” I didn’t give two s about my high school diploma right then, but it seemed important to her.

The next day, when we were working on the house, Jennie said, “Are you ever going to shave?” She felt my beard with the back of her hand. “Isn’t that hot?”

I hoped there was enough hair to hide my red face. “I’ve never shaved before. What little I had fell out when I started chemo. When we left Seoul everything was just starting to grow back.”
 

“Well it’s all there now.”

“I know. But we don’t have a mirror, and I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Why didn’t you say something? You know I would help you.” 

“Uh, because it’s embarrassing?”
 
“Let’s go,” she said. She grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the lean-to. She opened her suitcase and took out a razor and the shaving cream she used on her legs, and we went down to the water.

We sat cross-legged facing each other. She squirted shaving cream into her hand and dabbed it on my face, then spread it around. She put her hand behind my head, pulling me toward her until I was at the right angle, and then shaved the left side of my face with slow, careful .
 

“Just so you know,” she said. “I’ve never shaved a man before. I’ll try not to cut you, but I can’t promise.”

“You’ll do a better job than I would.”

Only a few inches separated our faces, and I looked into her eyes. Sometimes they were brown and sometimes they were black.