9 p.m. in Muisne, in Off Assignment

My piece for Off Assignment magazine’s The Witching Hour column: “Ambient literary portraits and transportive illustrations pay homage to the singular alchemy between place and time.” Illustration by Jane Demarest. Edited by Aube Rey-Lescure

9 p.m. in Muisne, an island off the northern coast of Ecuador, is jellyfish bubbling from the sand on a dark beach. I watch my step because their poison is a life force even in death, and one tentacle has already whipped around my calf, leaving a crimson spiral. I wade into the warm surf and swim out until my feet can’t touch the bottom. When I bob up, my skin swirls with galaxies of bioluminescent plankton.

Photo: My hotel on Muisne.