by L. N. Cronk
When I arrived back at the room that evening, Tanner and Amber weren’t there. I had talked to Tanner a few minutes earlier and knew that they were going to be back fairly soon, so I stretched out on my bed and closed my eyes. I dozed off, awakening to the sound of the hotel room door opening.
“Hey,” I said, sitting up on my bed as Tanner held the door open for Amber. She stepped into the room and I saw immediately that her entire hand was wrapped up in a heavy gauze bandage.
“What happened?” I cried, jumping off the bed and rushing to her. I grabbed her shoulder with one hand and gently touched her bandage with the other. She looked as if she was going to burst into tears.
“What happened?” I asked again, looking up at Tanner.
“Seal bite,” Tanner explained. “She lost three fingers.”
I glowered at him and then looked back at Amber. She was now smiling, delightedly.
“Is there anything even wrong with your hand?” I asked her.
She shook her head and covered her mouth with her free hand, her shoulders shaking with laughter. It was then that I noticed the reason why Tanner hadn’t braided her hair that morning.
Hair wraps. That’s what I’d been worried about all day – hair wraps. She had three – each with a different charm dangling from it. One charm was of the bridge, one was of a cable car, and the third one was a seal.
“Did you get to see the seals?” I asked after she’d shown me each charm. She nodded as I started to unwind the fake bandage from around her hand.
“Was it fun?”
Another nod.
When I’d finished unwrapping her hand she pointed down and then held out a foot so I could see what else they had done. She was sporting a silver toe ring and a brand new pair of flip flops. The final touch was that they had both gotten henna tattoos, which (it turns out) are temporary. Amber’s was of an octopus that was wrapped around her ankle and Tanner’s was of a big, stupid scorpion on his big, stupid bicep.
Amber and Tanner both wanted to go back to Pier 39 for dinner that night. After we’d eaten, the three of us stood together and looked out across the Bay – the Golden Gate Bridge to our left. Amber was quietly working on an ice cream cone that I’d bought her when Tanner suddenly wrapped his arm around me and planted a big kiss on my cheek.
“Isn’t this nice?” he asked, pulling me even closer. “You, me, the kid . . . all together, bonding?”
“Get away from me, you giant, perverted freak,” I said, trying unsuccessfully to detach myself from him.
“Better be nice,” he warned, squeezing hard and whispering in my ear, “or everyone will think we’re having a lover’s spat.”
I rolled my eyes at him and tried to shrug him off of me again.
“I get custody of Amber if we break up,” he said, finally dropping his arm.
“Fat chance.”
Amber was still busily licking her ice cream cone. She didn’t appear to be paying any attention to us. Tanner seemed to notice this too.
He crooked his finger for me to come closer.
“No,” I said, shaking my head at him. “I don’t think so.”
“No, seriously,” he said, and I could tell he wasn’t going to kiss me again so I leaned toward him.
“She wants to go there,” he whispered, pointing toward Alcatraz, which lay directly in front of us.
“Tonight?” I knew that ferries ran out there during the day, but I didn’t think they had tours at night.
“No,” he said. “Tomorrow.”
“Why are we whispering?”
“I thought I’d better talk to you about it first,” he said. “I didn’t know if it was a good idea.”
“Because of the ferries?”
“The ferries?”
“Yeah,” I said. “You know. The ferries – capsizing, sinking, drowning . . .”
“What?” he cried. “No, not because of the ferries! You’re a fairy!”
“Why then?”
“Because,” he said, looking at me knowingly.
It took me a few seconds, but eventually I got it. Until just recently, her mother had been in prison. Was Alcatraz really the best place for Amber to go?
“Oh,” I said.
“I didn’t bring it up,” he promised. “She asked about it.”
I nodded.
“So, what do you think?” he asked.
“I dunno,” I admitted. I stared at Alcatraz for a moment, watching its lighthouse flash at us.
“Hey, Amber?” I said after a minute, kneeling down next to her. “You know what that is?” I pointed at the island.
She nodded.
“Tell me,” I said.
“The Rock,” she whispered. I smiled at her.
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s real name is Alcatraz. Tanner says you want to take a ferry out there tomorrow?”
She nodded.
“Do you know what Alcatraz was?” I asked her.
She nodded again.
“What?”
“A prison,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “It was a prison.”
She licked her ice cream.
“You know your mom used to be in prison, right?” I asked her gently. She bobbed her head up and down.
“Well, I’m worried that if you go out there that it’s going to upset you – that you’re going to worry that your mom was in a place like that.”
She looked at me, steadily.
“Did you ever go see her when she was in prison?” I asked. Amber’s social worker picked her up and took her to visit her mother about once a month now that she was out of prison, but I didn’t know if she’d ever gone to visit her while she’d actually been in prison.
Amber nodded. Lovely.
“Well, then” I said, “if you go out there, you’re going to see that this one’s a lot different than the one your mom was in. This one is a lot older. Things are a lot better in prisons now than they were then.” (Weren’t they?)
She nibbled a piece of cone off of the edge.
“So if you go,” I said, “you’ve got to remember that this isn’t anything like where your mom was. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
She nodded again and I kissed her on the forehead.
“You can take her,” I said, standing up. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow as I went on. “But I want her to wear a lifejacket on the ferry.”
“I don’t think they give you lifejackets on the ferry,” he smiled.
“Well, then,” I said, “just do the bubble wrap thing. That’ll work.”
“I got a tattoo,” I told Laci when I called her that night.
“Henna?” she guessed right away.
“How’d you know?” I asked, dismayed.
“Because I know you!” she laughed.
“I could get a real tattoo.”
“Uh-huh. Sure you could.”
“I could,” I mumbled. Mine was of a Celtic cross. Even though it wasn’t permanent, I figured I might as well get something meaningful.
“How’s Amber doing?” she asked.
“She’s almost talking,” I said.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I mean, she’s still whispering, but it’s louder and she doesn’t make you lean down so she can do it in your ear. She’s really doing great.”
“Good,” Laci said. I could tell she was smiling.
“How’s the tournament going?”
“They’re out.”
“Already?!”
“Yep. Dorito did good though. He made a double play.”
“Really?”
“Yep. I’ll let him tell you about it, but my dad got the whole thing on video.”
“Good!”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I’ll put Lily on while I go get Dorito.”
“Okay. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
Lily got on the phone.
“Hi, Daddy!”<
br />
“Hi, sweetie. How are you doing?”
“Good!”
“Good. Whatcha been doing?”
“Good.”
“Mm.”
“Dorito lost.”
“Really?” I said.
“Uh-huh.”
“Don’t tell him!” I heard Dorito scolding her in the background. “I wanna tell him.”
Lily began to wail as Dorito apparently took the phone from her.
“Hi, Daddy!” Dorito said.
“Did you take the phone from your sister?”
“Yes,” he sighed.
“Put her back on.”
“But I wanna tell you about my game!” he cried.
“Put her back on.”
I finally heard a sniff on the other end of the line.
“Lily?”
“What?”
“I just wanted to say good night to you.”
“Good night,” she said, grumpily.
“I love you.”
“Dorito took the phone,” she complained.
“I know,” I said, “but you’ve got it back now and I love you. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Do you love me, too?”
No answer.
“If you’re nodding I can’t see you,” I reminded her.
“Yes,” she said and I smiled.
“Good night, honey.”
“Good night.”
“Give the phone to Dorito.”
After a moment Dorito came on the line.
“Hi, Daddy!”
“Hi, buddy. What’s going on?”
“We lost.”
“I’m sorry.”
“But I made a double play!”
“Really?” I asked.
“Uh-huh!” he enthused, and then he went on to tell me all about it in excessive detail.
“That’s awesome!” I said when he had finally finished. “I’m really proud of you. I wish I’d gotten to see it.”
“Jordan was proud of me, too,” Dorito said, and I could tell he was beaming.
“You saw Jordan?”
“Yeah,” Dorito said. “He and Charlotte came to my game.”
“That’s great!”
“He’s going to Hatiti.”
“You mean, Tahiti?”
“Yeah. Jordan said if I keep doing good I can play in college like him one day.”
“That’s great, Dorito,” I said. “I’m glad you did so good.”
“Is Tanner there?”
“Sure. You wanna talk to him?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” I said. “Hang on.”
I handed the phone to Tanner and watched as he held the phone up to his ear, barely able to get a word in edgewise as Dorito apparently relayed the entire game to Tanner, too.
“That’s fantastic,” Tanner finally said. “I can’t wait to see the video. You wanna tell Amber about it?”
He paused to listen to Dorito’s answer.
“Well, she’s right here . . . I’m sure she’d like to hear about it.”
Dorito must have decided that he was up for one more rendition because Tanner said goodnight to him and then asked Amber, “Do you want to talk to Dorito?”
She nodded.
“Okay,” Tanner said. “Here he is.”
She took the phone from Tanner and I watched her keenly because I’d never seen her try to talk on the phone before. Of course it turned out that Dorito did most of the talking and Amber only had to whisper back to him sporadically, (‘yes’, ‘no’, and ‘uh-huh’). Tanner watched interestedly, too.
“You have a very unusual family,” he observed as Amber nodded her head silently at the phone. “One kid who’s deaf, one kid who doesn’t talk-”
“And one kid,” I finished for him, “who won’t shut-up.”
~ ~ ~
ON OUR THIRD full day there, at about three o’clock, there was an aftershock. I stepped into a doorway and called Tanner before the shaking had even stopped.
“That was cool!” Tanner answered the phone.
“Is Amber okay?” I asked.
“Aren’t you worried about me?”
“No,” I said. “Is Amber okay?”
“A big cinderblock fell on her head,” he said. “I think she’s dead.”
Always a comedian.
“Where are you guys at?”
“Still at The Rock, waiting for our ferry.”
“Did she do okay?”
“Yeah. She did great. I think she had a good time. Amber?” I heard him ask. “Are you having a good time?”
There was silence.
“I got a nod and two thumbs up,” he reported. “Go back to your geeky job.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “See you tonight.”
About an hour later, one of my team members tapped me on the shoulder.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“We gotta fly,” he said. “Got an emergency about four blocks away.”
The emergency was at private aquarium/museum. An exhibit – Predator Reef – had started leaking as soon as the aftershock had hit.
“Thank you, thank you,” the owner said, meeting us on the sidewalk in front of the building and shaking our hands. “I know it’s safe . . . just need a green tag.” What he needed was for us to certify that the building was safe for occupancy immediately so that workers could legally get in there without a huge liability risk and start transferring all of the fish into another tank before they were flopping around on the bottom gasping for water. He seemed pretty desperate. I disappeared inside before he could try to bribe me.
We did our inspection as quickly as we could, our boots sloshing more and more every time we walked past Predator Reef. Finally we were able go back outside and give the owner permission to send workers in.
“Move it!” he called to the workers who were standing by, waiting for their orders. Then he turned to the members of our team who were nearby and began handing us tickets. “Free admission,” he said, “as soon as we’re back in business.”
“Thanks,” I said, waving the tickets away, “but I live about seventeen hundred miles from here. I don’t think I’m gonna make it.”
“Oh,” he said, sounding genuinely disappointed. “I wish there was some way I could thank you.”
I smiled at him and turned to go, but then I suddenly stopped short. I wheeled around and faced him.
“You know,” I said, “now that you mention it, there is something you could do . . .”
Tanner and Amber and I spent the evening with two pizzas, soft drinks and Buffalo wings, sitting on the “Authorized Personnel Only” access deck of Predator Reef. There were about six scuba divers below us in the tank. They were capturing sharks, saw fish, barracudas, piranhas and even crocodiles.
It was quite a show.
Every now and then – when something was brought up – one of the biologists would motion for Amber to come over and let her inspect one of the animals up close.
“There’s just something about her, isn’t there?” Tanner asked at one point, when she’d gone over to “pet” a sea turtle.
“Whatdaya mean?” I asked, dipping a wing into some blue cheese dressing.
“I mean, everybody’s just enamored with her,” he explained, waving his hand to indicate the two biologists who were squatted down next to her, talking to her intently.
“Kinda like we are?” I asked, ripping some meat off of a wing and smiling at him.
“I guess,” he nodded seriously. “There’s just something about her that . . .”
He looked at me as if unsure of what he was trying to say.
“There’s something about her that makes you want to protect her,” he finally said. “Something that makes you want to take care of her and make her happy. You know?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, wiping my mouth with a napkin. “I noticed.”
It was after nine by the time we got back to the hotel. I sent Amber into Tanner’s room to change into
her pajamas. She came out, instead, wearing her bathing suit.
“You aren’t sleeping in that,” I told her.
“I want to go swimming,” she whispered.
“It’s way too late,” I said, shaking my head. “You can go tomorrow.”
She put her hands together in a begging motion. I glanced at Tanner for help. Instead, he was standing with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face, watching to see if I could bring myself to deny her. I looked back at Amber who was still pleading with her hands.
“I guess,” I finally conceded, “but just for a few minutes.
“You’re so authoritative,” Tanner said sarcastically as Amber ran into the bathroom to get a towel.
“Well,” I said, sheepishly. “She’s all inspired from watching the divers tonight.”
“Right.”
“Oh, like you’d be so good at telling her ‘No’!” I snapped.
“I’d be better than you!” he insisted.
Amber came out of the bathroom with three towels. She handed one to me and tried to give one to Tanner.
“Oh, no,” Tanner said, holding up his hands and backing away from the towel. “I’m zonked. I’m going to bed early tonight.”
Amber’s mouth dropped open in dismay.
“Tomorrow,” Tanner promised. “I’ll go with you tomorrow.”
Amber’s hands came together again in a pleading fashion again and then she tugged on his arm.
He glanced at me and started to say something, but then closed his mouth. He looked back down at Amber, who I think had managed to work up a few tears.
“Okay,” he said, sighing heavily.
“Way to be authoritative,” I smiled.
“The only reason I’m going,” he said, not looking at me as he headed into his room to change, “is because I, too, was inspired by the divers.”
Once at the pool Amber immediately climbed down the stairs into the shallow end and Tanner and I joined her.
After we’d splashed around for a few minutes and gotten thoroughly soaked, Tanner challenged me to a race.
“Just a few minutes ago you were ‘zonked’ and ‘going to bed early’,” I reminded him. “Now all of a sudden you wanna race?”
“The water has revived me,” he explained.