They decided to go. No one argued. People in the harbor were used to dreamers; besides, the ferryman shrugged as if he'd crossed those waters himself in other lives and took their coins.
"And they'll find you," Nelly added. "If you listen."
Years later, when twilight sat more often in their hair, they sat on the same harbor bench where they had first met. A child with a loose shoelace peered at Anna's sketchbook and then up at Nelly's compass. The child asked if paradisebirds were real.
Nelly’s eyes lit. "Only in legends. They say if you follow their song, you find the island that remembers forgotten things."
"Yes," Anna said, and Nelly nodded.