Chapter Sixty-One
September 9th, 6:14 AM
Temperature: 82 degrees
Winds: 7 MPH
Pressure: 29.23 bars
Rain: 3.78 inches
The breeze carried with it the scent of days spent in the ocean, of lighthearted summers beneath the palms in the warm afternoon, but it was a false image that held reality in stark contrast to what the island had been. When the water finally began to recede, Alfred felt certain that little more than solitary trees jutting up from the sand would be left beneath the surface. However, his first glimpses of the wreckage left behind the tide struck more sharply at his stomach than he had anticipated.
The sun rose cleanly over the ocean and shattered the remnants of the gray sky with a disorienting canvas of tangerine and raspberry hues. As he helped Florence down from the
