“Enjoy the moonlight swim, Johnny?”
“Yeah, Mr. Chetwood.” I leaned into his side. “I’d never have known what I was missing if I hadn’t met you.” Only I wasn’t talking about swimming. I wondered if my lover knew it. “I didn’t realize we were gone so long.”
“What?”
I pointed to the sky ahead of us. “The sun’s already coming up.”
“That’s the west. Jesus, Johnny, that’s not the sun. Something’s on fire in Selamat datan!”
“Not the August Moon, Mr. Chetwood?”
“No.” He broke into a run, and I followed on his heels. “It doesn’t look like it’s coming from the harbor. Oh, sweet—” A tent behind the bar where we’d dined was burning fiercely. “That must be Patterson’s tent.” Simian shrieks filled the night. “Oh, those poor little bastards.”
The fire raged out of control, and the bucket brigade h
