Written in the Stars

In one of America's most far-flung national parks, Latria Graham reconnects with natureand fulfills her late father's lifelong wish.

- Latria Graham

AS THE REMNANTS of Tropical Storm Alex shook my tent, I wondered if the decision to camp in Dry Tortugas National Park-a remote chain of seven islands about 70 miles west of the Florida Keys-had been a mistake. It was early June.

The sandpipers had already migrated, and the laughing gulls were long gone. Spring was over, and it was the edge of hurricane season.

I had come to this place seeking something like closure. My father was the one who told me about the Dry Tortugas. When he took me and my little brother Nicholas stargazing near our home in South Carolina, he would tell us stories about the constellations. In between tales of heroes and mythological creatures, Dad would talk about pirates. Sometimes their exploits would take place in the Dry Tortugas, which he referred to as "the end of the world." -My father was a Black man who had reached the limits corporate America put on his ambitions.

Looking back, I understand that he was trying to figure out how to live unencumbered, like the adventurers in his stories. He couldn't tell me and Nicholas what that freedom felt like, because we were still children, so instead he told us about people who guided their ships and their lives by the stars. As well as plot twists about shipwrecks and lost treasure, he made sure we knew our constellations and could navigate roads using the stars at night.