S. Bodeen - The Compound

Mom’s voice was strong. “Eli, go get a gurney. We need to get him to the infirmary.”

My legs wouldn’t move.

Mom spoke again, firm but quiet. “Eli, go.”

I stumbled from the room, my breaths shallow and rapid. I staggered from one side of the hallway to the other, my hair obscuring my view, and I held a hand to my chest as I ran. My heart felt like it was going to explode. When I reached the infirmary, I bent over for a moment and caught my breath. As fast as I could, I pushed a gurney back to them. I’d picked one with squeaky wheels, and they were the only sound besides our breathing as we rolled Dad to the infirmary and got him into a bed.

Mom’s face was red and tear stained, and she struggled to catch her breath as she sat beside Dad and started to clean the blood off his face. She set a hand on his motionless arm. “He’s freezing.”

I spoke. “It’s my fault.”

She saw the look on my face. “It wasn’t your fault. You hit him, but you didn’t do this.” She shook her head as she assessed his condition. “I think something is really wrong with him.”

“No, not that.” I stood beside her. “It was my fault Eddy didn’t come with us.” The secret I had harbored all those years needed to be released. I told Lexie and Mom the truth about that night.

Our ninth birthday. We were excited to finally be almost in double digits. The annual big party was held the day before, so we could head to the cabin on the actual day. Dad’s acreage in eastern Washington was huge, with a ten-room log house we called the cabin. We had an RV, too, which we used to drive farther into the wilderness to go camping. Not that an RV was roughing it, but that’s what we called camping, anyway .

Gram came with us, sort of. She followed the RV with the Range Rover. She said she always liked to be prepared for emergencies. Although to her, an emergency might constitute running out of marshmallows for the s’mores we made over the campfire. A trip in the RV wasn’t a trip without Gram driving back to the cabin at least once .

As we drove along, Dad told us he had a big surprise for us. And he did. He’d just bought a new two-seater airplane. It went along with the new landing strip in the middle of the property, which is where we went with the RV. It was already dusk when we reached the site, so Dad promised we’d go flying first thing in the morning. We’d flip a coin to see which birthday boy would go first. Of course, I wanted it to be me .

We were getting ready for bed when Eddy started wheezing. Dad discovered a kitten in the RV. Terese admitted to finding it at the cabin, then smuggling it onto the RV. She started to cry and apologized to Eddy. She said she just wanted to make sure the kitten had a home .

The RV medicine cabinet always had some antihistamine for Eddy, but Mom came back empty-handed. “We’d better go get some at the cabin.”

Gram volunteered .

Eddy said he felt better. Gram insisted. “Just let me tuck Terese in. I’ll take the kitten back to the cabin and get it set up in the garage.”

Eddy and I crawled into bed. The airplane ride was still on my mind. “Hey, Eddy. I heard Dad and Gram talking. They said they have another surprise back at the cabin for us. What do you think it is?”

Eddy’s eyes widened. He loved surprises .

“Guess we’ll have to wait for tomorrow.” I rolled over and shut my eyes. I counted on the fact that Eddy also loved a mission .

“Eli? I’ve got an idea.”

“What?” I tried to stop them, but the corners of my mouth wanted to go up .

“I could hop in the back of the Range Rover and go with Gram. I could find out what it is.”

I sat up. “That’s a great idea. But you have to go now, while she’s with Terese.”

Eddy opened the window and dropped down to the ground. I lay back, grinning. I knew once Eddy was in the Range Rover with the kitten, he would start wheezing. And Gram would keep driving to the cabin; insist on staying there overnight. I would be the only birthday boy around in the morning when it was time to ride in Dad’s new plane .

The rest I didn’t plan on: waking up to shouts, the RV moving wildly from side to side, falling out of bed. Then the darkness, running blind outside, Dad’s shouts telling us which way to turn…

But I didn’t need to remind Lexie and Mom about that part. They had lived it.

My eyes were full of tears. I couldn’t look at my mother or my sister. They were staring at me. I felt their eyes.

Mom’s hand touched my arm. I moved away.

“It’s done, Eli. And if Eddy were here, you couldn’t have contacted him out there. Everyone would still think we were dead.”

Lexie didn’t say anything to me. She just wiped off the fresh tears finding their way down her face. Mom’s hand caressed my face. I went to the other side of the room. She followed.

Both her hands went to my face, holding me. She hadn’t been this close to me since I was nine. She smelled of lilacs. Her voice was gentle. “Eli.”

Her touch had been only a childhood memory for so long. It was hard for me to believe it was real.

My eyes shut. Hot tears still squeezed out. My head went from side to side. “I’m not…”

Mom’s grip on my face got stronger. “You’re not what, Eli?”

The word came out in a racking sob. “Worthy.”

“Oh, Eli. You’ve always been worthy.” She pulled me to her and held me. I let her. “You were a child. Children make mistakes.”

My arms went around her. “I’m so sorry.” My mouth open against her shoulder, I wept. I wept for Eddy, for what I’d done. So many things I’d done. But mostly, my tears were for the loss of the last six years with my brother.

I wanted them back.

When I stopped blubbering, Mom backed away. Her shoulders straightened as she took a deep breath. Her eyes darkened as they went from me to Lexie and her voice was clear of any fear or sadness. “Let’s do what we have to and get out of here.”

Mom and Lexie stayed with Dad.

Wiping my face as I ran, I tore down the corridor to his office. As I suspected, it was locked. I could have used Terese’s lock-picking skills, but there was no time. At the closest fire extinguisher panel, I broke out the glass and grabbed the axe. Seven whacks later, the office door swung on its hinges.

Once inside, I took a deep breath. I had to find what we needed. I grabbed the phone, hoping for a dial tone. Nothing. How easy that would have been, to just pick up the phone and call out? I imagined that was how he talked to Phil, his accountant. I couldn’t think of anyone else he would have trusted with this secret. That guy would probably sell his own internal organs for the right price.

The laptop from Eddy’s room was on a shelf. I switched it on, drumming my fingers as I waited for the wireless signal.

Wireless Server Not Available.

I groaned.

It was off. Of course.

Starting with the books on the shelves, I looked everywhere. Book by book, I emptied the shelves and ran my hands over each dusty one. Nothing. The piles of National Geographics ended up on the floor in heaps. I yanked on the drawers of his desk. Locked tight.

I picked up his chair and heaved it at them until they broke open. Papers, notes, lists: proof I was right about everything, but none of it mattered. Nothing gave me the code to the door or the passwords to his computers. I tore the office apart looking for a switch, some way to get on the Internet, the phone, anything. But I kept coming up dry.

I looked over at the door to the secret lab. I couldn’t imagine any Internet switch being there. I had to keep moving.