Sunset comes all too soon and the lanterns and lights all start to come on as colors fill the sky. The lighthouses stand sentinel, marching along the coast and horizon. Stars poke out of the purple dark sky. The crowds at the festival all carry around decorative lanterns, either that they’ve brought or purchased at the fair. Some groups indulge in drinks. It seems that every possible color is represented in every possible glass. A server has a whole tray of tall drinks, colored blue yellow and red, and two people clink their mugs together, a blueberry blue concoction toasting with a strawberry pink drink to celebrate the five thousandth year since the sea was fractured. A musical duet, viola and violin, play music that echoes over people’s heads, mixing with the chatter of the crowds.
Pavel and Vanna stand on the paddleboard and steer carefully out into the harbor waters. Lanterns are floating in the water, round ones and square ones that sit on small floating pedestals.
Once they are far enough from shore, they sit down next to each other and dangle their feet in the water. Vanna holds the paddle and Pavel tilts his skull’s jaw open There are others in boats further out towards the ghost water, lanterns scattered about them. Just before the lighthouse line, a larger vessel sets off fireworks, yellows and blues and greens so bright they’re white. Pavel’s eyes shine.
