S. Bodeen - The Fallout

“Where are we?” asked Lexie.

Straight ahead and straight behind lay nothing but runway, each option ending in what looked like blue water. So I pointed at the trees. “I think we should head that way.” They both seemed to agree, because neither said anything. We started walking, and my head cleared more as the blood got flowing. By the time we reached the trees, I felt almost back to normal.

Eddy said, “I feel better.”

But the sun was so hot that my shirt was nearly soaked through with perspiration. Eddy’s and Lexie’s faces were beet red and sweaty, just like mine felt.

An opening lay between two particularly large coconut palms, and I led the way through, finding myself steps away from a wooden boardwalk. I stepped onto it, and Lex and Eddy followed, our footsteps clunky and loud as we made our way along.

Lush vegetation was abundant alongside the man-made trail, growing so tightly together that I couldn’t see anything besides the path and the green. I certainly couldn’t see far enough ahead to get an idea of our destination.

“Shh.” I held up my hand and we stopped for a second. I wanted to listen, see if I could hear anything.

I froze. Was that—

“Dripping water,” said Eddy.

We headed toward the sound.

The boardwalk went on neatly through the tropical foliage, until it ended at a wall. I knew the wall had to be concrete of some kind, but it was laden with a large relief, taller than I was, of a man kneeling by a pond, sipping from his cupped hands. A constant but light flow of water rippled down the wall into a catchment basin below, making the entire thing seem more like a piece of art than a barrier.

At first I couldn’t see any way to get by the wall. Lexie said, “Look.” There was a slight crack behind the figure of the man. It was a door, almost hidden. I should have noticed the narrow walkway over the water that led right to the door.

Eddy and I stepped over it and ran our hands along the wall, which was cool and wet. Together, we pushed on the outline of the door and it opened.

I hesitated. “Maybe we’re being stupid to walk right in.”

I shot a glance behind me.

Lexie said, “The only thing back that way is the jet.”

I froze. Faint strains of classical music drifted toward me.

Lexie asked, “Is that Vivaldi?”

Eddy said, “Only one way to find out.”

I took a deep breath and stepped through the door.

The first thing I saw was a glass house.

We stopped.

The house wasn’t entirely glass, but the wood and concrete supports were so sparse that the structure did seem, at first glance, to be made all of glass. Marble steps led up to a large, wide veranda, and Eddy walked up them slowly. Lexie followed, then I brought up the rear.

Once on the veranda, Eddy aimed for a pair of glass doors. We all peered inside, but saw no one.

Eddy pointed around the side of the house. “I don’t see another way in.”

I took a deep breath and quietly slid open the glass doors. Cool air blew out and felt refreshing on my sweaty skin. I stepped inside, then closed the doors shut as soon as the others were inside with me.

The Vivaldi was much louder inside, but I still couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Shiny bamboo flooring lay under our feet, and we tiptoed across the huge foyer. We all stopped before a massive floor-to-ceiling cylindrical aquarium, with a circumference of about twenty feet. I stepped closer to it and gazed at the thousands of tiny creatures inside. Some kind of jellyfish.

“They’re all the same,” whispered Lexie.

The water in the glass shone with a blue light, which made the jellyfish inside look eerie, alien, as they glowed an artificially bright turquoise. Their tops looked a bit like an oblong globe, with a bright orange spot inside. Their tendrils also appeared blue as they floated like flimsy spiderwebs beneath.

Eddy whispered, “Let’s keep going.”

We walked across the foyer until we reached a hallway. A tall archway lay to the left. We walked under it and into a massive glass room with bamboo end tables and two fans whirling from the ceiling a good fifteen feet over my head. Vases of orange orchids and plumerias sat on every possible surface, making the room smell heavenly. A large lava stone fireplace took up one entire wall and a white sectional sat in front of it.

“It’s beautiful,” said Lexie.

“What is this place?” I asked.

Eddy turned around to face me and started to say something else, then his gaze, and Lexie’s, wandered behind me to my left. Their eyes widened and their mouths dropped.

“Eddy. Lexie. Eli .”

Goose bumps sprouted on my arms.

That voice. There was no way. No way in —

I turned around.

Our father stood there, smiling at us. He said, “Welcome to the Yanakakis island. I’ve been waiting.”

My legs almost buckled, but I reached out and grabbed a table near me, managing to stay upright. Lexie ran into our father’s arms; Eddy right behind her. He squeezed both of them in an embrace. They stayed that way for a long moment, then they stepped slightly apart, Dad’s arms still around them. My gaze went from my father’s face to my sister’s to my brother’s.

“Dad?” I took a step and found myself in his arms. He smelled of aftershave and pipe tobacco. My face smashed into his shoulder, the silk of his aloha shirt slippery and cool on my cheek.

I stepped back then and looked at him.

My father was alive.

How was he alive?

He looked good. He’d put on weight since the last time I’d seen him…

The last time I’d seen him had been that night. The night he threatened to hurt Lucas. The night we finally escaped him. The night he had died in the Compound…

Except he hadn’t.

Because he was standing right in front of me.

The spontaneous joy at seeing my dad alive evaporated as all the questions flooded back. But I didn’t even know where to start.

Where are we?

Who is Tony?

How the hell are you alive?

Dad squeezed Lexie and Eddy closer to him and said, “I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

I said, “I thought you were dead.”

He grinned. “Almost was. I managed to get out at the last second and the helicopter barely made it out.”

“With Phil.” My voice was low and hard.

“Yes,” he said. “With Phil.”

“Why?” I asked.

His forehead creased. “Why what?”

Why did you leave?

Why did you let us think you were dead?

Why did you let Phil take over the company when you were alive?

But the one question that made its way out made me sound five years old. “Why didn’t you come and see us?” Why didn’t you make things right?

Dad reached out and ruffled my hair with his hand. “I think that would have been the wrong thing at the wrong time.”

“Why?” I asked. “Mom has a new baby. She is trying to do everything by herself. She thinks you’re dead.”

Dad drew his hand back. “My showing up… would have led to a lot of—let’s say— unpleasantness . It was easier for me to slip away, come here. Phil had been preparing this place for years. My timeline got moved up a bit.” He paused. “I just don’t think I would have been received well had I gone with you all to Seattle.”

Eddy said, “Because the world thinks you did something bad.”

“Thinks?” I asked. I was relieved to see my father alive, despite all he had done, but was Eddy delusional? “He kept us down there against our will. Of course it was bad.”

Dad said, “See? Better the world thinks I’m dead and buried.”