I wouldn’t say I was foaming at the mouth, but I was eager to see more of the islands.
Nea Kameni means “new burnt” island, and as soon as we arrived, I knew exactly why. It looked like the surface of Mars. The island was small, maybe a mile or so in diameter, and almost perfectly round with the occasional blast of sulfur rising up from the surface. After the chaos of Santorini, seeing such a barren space was jarring. My dad turned off the motor and we drifted quietly into the small dock. The vibe of the place was completely different from Santorini. It felt quiet and honestly a bit eerie.
I looked at it skeptically. “So this is the volcano that wiped out”—I almost said Atlantis but quickly caught myself—“wiped out Santorini?” Could something this small really wipe out an entire civilization?
Theo stepped up next to me, his sun-warmed arm brushing against mine as he tossed my dad the dock line. “No way. That volcano is long gone. It exploded once it downed Atlantis.”
He said “Atlantis” so casually, it kind of killed me. “Then what is this?” I asked, gesturing to the island.
“Nea Kameni is evidence of the volcano,” my dad said. “You see all of this?” He moved his hand to encompass the island and caldera. “This entire bowl-shaped area is what was left behind the last time the volcano erupted. It is flooded with water now.”
Suddenly I grasped Santorini’s circular shape. “You’re saying this entire group of islands is a volcano?”
“All of it,” Theo said calmly. We’d reached the dock, and Theo clambered fearlessly over the side of the boat, carefully pulling us in.
Despite the heat, I felt a chill move through me. “But… it’s not active, right?” I looked back at Santorini. From here the villages were small splotches of white, the buildings clinging stubbornly to the cliffs. It all looked so fragile. People didn’t build their lives on places heading toward destruction, did they?
My stomach lurched. That’s what my family had done. Had my mom ever sensed what would happen in her marriage? That my dad would one day up and leave, with no explanation?
My dad looked over from his gear, oblivious to my inner turmoil. “Dormant. It’s a sleeping volcano.”
I exhaled, picturing the volcano dolled up in a nightcap and fuzzy slippers. That sounded a lot less scary. “Meaning it won’t erupt?”
Dad raked his hand through his hair, making it stand on end, before putting his hat back on. “Not likely. Our most recent natural disaster was an earthquake in 1956. Nothing compared to a massive volcanic eruption, but it did take out a couple thousand houses and damage the economy for quite some time.”
Brilliant. My father had apparently felt that living alongside an active volcano was less dangerous than living with his wife and daughter. We weren’t that bad, were we?
Something my mom had told me more than once flashed into my mind. It wasn’t about us. But how could it not be about us? It was our family.
Not even one cloud marred the sky, but I felt the sun darken slightly anyway. It was time to get moving. I needed somewhere to put all the anger roiling through me. I quickly collected my backpack, then stood, stretching my back as I tried to keep my balance in the rocking boat. Heat seemed to be rising from the water.
“Let’s hurry,” Theo called, shifting impatiently from foot to foot on the dock. His hair was messed up from the boat, and he was so excited that his body looked electric. “We want to get this done before the mobs arrive.”
“What mobs?” I asked. My dad held his hand out to help me off the boat, and I took it reluctantly before stumbling onto the dock. Theo quickly grabbed my elbow, righting me.
“People who are drawn by the cameras,” my dad said, but a glint of a smile appeared on his face.
“It isn’t the cameras; it’s you,” Theo said to my dad. He turned to me. “You’ll see, Kalamata. Once he starts talking about Atlantis, people swarm. It makes filming difficult. But that’s why I knew we had to make this documentary. Everyone wants to know about Atlantis.”
So the documentary had been Theo’s idea. I guess that made sense. But at what point had my dad decided to include me?
“But who will find us here?” I asked skeptically. Nea Kameni did in fact look burnt, and besides a handful of other small boats, it also looked completely abandoned.
“It is a popular destination,” my dad said.
I was going to have to take their word for it. So far, I wasn’t terribly impressed. Besides the view of Santorini, Nea Kameni seemed to be nothing more than a heap of black rocks with a pathway leading up from the dock. Also, the air smelled vaguely like rotten eggs, which was not my favorite thing.
Once the equipment had been distributed, my dad started up the path, a spring in his step. I was about to follow after him, already regretting my shoe choice, when Theo put his hand on my arm. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked.
His half whisper sent a shiver down my back, and I reflexively stepped backward. What could he have to talk to me about? “Okay?”
“Nico!” he yelled up the path. “You go find a filming spot. We’re going to get a few landscape shots.” My dad waved, and as soon as he was out of sight, Theo reached for me, our fingers touching briefly.
Physical contact with Theo felt…
Never mind how it felt. I met his caramel-colored eyes and was surprised by the question in them. “What’s up?” he said.
I was the one who was supposed to be asking that question. I stepped back nervously. “Sorry?”
“What’s up with Atlantis? More specifically, you and Atlantis.” He ran his other hand across his sweaty forehead. “Every time it comes up, you get this miserable look on your face.”
Busted. “I do not,” I said, but my face was turning red, both from embarrassment and surprise. How could Theo—someone I just met—read me so well?
“It looks like this.” He made a face, lowering his eyebrows and tightening his mouth. I had to admit that it looked surprisingly like me. He even reached up and brushed his invisible bangs back just the way I did.
Show-off.
I fought the urge to mess with my hair and instead folded my arms over my chest. The breeze was gone, and it was way too hot for an interrogation. “Are you sure you want to be a filmmaker? Because you’d probably make a great actor.”
“Documentarian,” he said. “And you’re dodging the question.”
I was hoping to distract him, but he didn’t take the bait. “I even have proof on camera. At the airport you looked like you wanted to hit me when I brought it up. Do you not believe in it?” His voice was relaxed, like it wasn’t a completely loaded question. For most people it wouldn’t be. But for me? Well, whether or not Atlantis existed had already determined way too much of my life.
I dug my fingernails into the sides of my arms, trying to ignore the fury igniting in my chest. “Does that actually matter?”
He dipped his head, his eyes still focused on mine. “Of course it matters. I want to know what you think.”
Maybe it was the sulfuric smell invading my nostrils, but something hot and angry welled up inside me. “To clarify, you are asking me if I believe that once upon a time there was a magical city that angered the gods and was swallowed up by the sea?” Theo leaned back as if to dodge my tone, but I kept going. “And despite thousands of people looking for it for thousands of years, my dad is going to be the one to find it?”