Wish You Were Here

Four weeks into her stay on the island, Diana receives an influx of old emails: updates from Finn and her mother’s facility, one from Sotheby’s saying that she has been furloughed along with many other employees, and one from Rodney saying that he is moving back to his sister’s place in New Orleans. Diana’s birthday is a week later, and Gabriel invites her to his farm along with Abuela and Beatriz.

That night, Diana and Gabriel camp out underneath the stars together. Diana tells Gabriel about Kitomi and her job. Gabriel tells Diana about how his parents settled on the island, and how Gabriel became a tour guide, the job that he was doing before settling on the farm. Gabriel had originally wanted to become a marine biologist, but plans changed when his ex, Luz, got pregnant when they were 17. They got married, and Gabriel joined his father in his tourism business. Luz eventually left Gabriel and Beatriz for a new boyfriend. Gabriel’s story makes Diana reflect on the disconnect she is feeling with Finn.

Diana later receives an email from Finn with more Covid updates. She writes him a postcard letter, detailing a vivid dream she had of being trapped in a basement where Finn and another woman appeared, masked and dressed in costume, trying to rescue her.

A few days later, Gabriel takes Diana on a hike. On the hike, Diana asks Gabriel why he stopped being a tour guide, and Gabriel tells her the story of his father’s death: Gabriel and his father were out leading a tour group of divers together, when strong undercurrents began to carry a diver away. Gabriel’s father tried to rescue the diver, and both of them drowned in the process. Gabriel believes his father’s death is Gabriel’s fault, as he was the one who tested the swimming conditions that day. Diana comforts Gabriel, and he holds her hand the whole way back.

Halfway home, they meet Beatriz with a message from Diana’s mother’s facility: She is dying. They rush back, and Diana video-calls the facility from the hotel once again. Her mother’s organs are failing, and she is heavily sedated. They lose the connection before Diana can say much. After failed attempts at reconnecting, Diana heads back home, and she receives a text on the way saying that her mother has passed away. That night, guilty about feeling indifferent about her mother’s death, Diana gets drunk with Gabriel, and they sleep together.

The next morning Beatriz finds Gabriel and Diana in bed together, and she runs away. Gabriel and Diana go searching for her, and in the process, Diana discovers all her postcards to Finn in Beatriz’s room. Beatriz has not mailed any of them. Gabriel also finds a Polaroid of Beatriz and Ana Maria kissing, and Diana tells Gabriel who Ana Maria is. Diana realizes where Beatriz is, and they rush to the lava tunnels. Gabriel and Diana find her at the bottom of one and manage to comfort her and bring her home.

Diana doesn’t see the family for a few days. She eventually runs into Beatriz at Concha de Perla again. Beatriz tells Diana that she has talked to Gabriel about everything, and things are better now. Diana later writes out a postcard letter to Finn, reflecting on how she has never allowed herself or others in her life to make mistakes, and that maybe certain things happen for a reason.

A couple of weeks after they have slept together, Gabriel invites Diana on a hike again. On the hike, Gabriel tells Diana how he feels about her, but she is unable to say anything in response. Gabriel and Diana go swimming together, and Diana gets caught in a riptide and begins to get carried away. Gabriel tries to save her, but realizing that she is dragging him down, Diana lets go of him. The current drags her away.

Throughout the chapter, Diana reminisces about her mother. She recollects an anecdote that her mother used to narrate at interviews: For Diana’s first trip to the pediatrician, her mother showed up without the baby; Hannah had forgotten her infant daughter in the house. Diana also remembers one happy memory, where Hannah handed her camera over to a toddler Diana, allowing Diana to take a series of clumsy photos while Hannah laughed, amused, in the background.