“But Dad” I finally managed to croak. “How can this all be true, how do we know that this is not just one of your crazy notions again? How can we be sure? You can’t just throw all of this at us and expect us to believe you. You must know, that this sounds just plain crazy! Be honest with us. If this is some silly joke to see how we would react, to test our ability to sort fact from fiction, then I beg you to leave off! It’s not funny.”
He answered me almost angrily, “How can you doubt me, Lia? Do you think I would tell you such a thing if I didn’t mean it? This is happening! This is reality, Lia! You will soon see for yourselves. You must believe me! No one has expected this and therefore everyone will be taken by total surprise. And chaos will break out. That’s why I want you to prepare now. Get supplies, contact Nate and Corrie, make them come back home immediately or find some safe place to be. Nin, Lia, you know how to lock the sub-basement. I have shown you many times. You will all be safe down there. And Yuki, try to get in touch with your parents quickly. If you want to join them, you must be fast, I am sure that international airways will be shut down very soon.”
These words, the idea that Yuki could leave us, felt like a blow to me. To Nin it must have been like nothing else. He jerked his head up to face her, his eyes wild, full of anguish, but he didn’t dare say anything. Yuki had tears in her eyes, but she got up and walked over to Ninian. She sat on his lap and embraced him.
“I will stay with Nin! I belong here, with him!” She buried her head in his chest and Nin held her tight and murmured, “I love you. I’ll take care of you. Nothing will happen! We’ll all be safe!”
Dad continued, unfazed, “You will know that it is happening from the news, keep listening to the international news. I am sure that the first indication of something being very wrong will be announcements about international air traffic shutting down. They will report it as if it were an outbreak of some infectious disease, avian influenza or swine flu or something the like. By the time they will realize, that it is something else entirely, something so much more dangerous, it will be way too late ...”
Suddenly, the connection was cut and the screen went blank. “Dad!!” we all exclaimed, but it was too late. He was gone. We didn’t try to reconnect with him, but just sat there in stunned silence for a long moment. My brain certainly reeled to take all this in that Dad had just said. It was plain crazy, nothing else. And unreal. And unbelievable. Alice started to cry again and I hugged her tight, needing to feel her close to reassure myself just as much as she needed me.
Nin and Yuki also still sat embracing each other. Nin looked tight as hell, Yuki absolutely bewildered. Eventually she asked in a low, tiny voice, “What are we to do now?”
And suddenly I felt angry, angry at my Dad for dropping this bombshell on us so suddenly. For disappearing so conveniently before things got really sticky, even though I knew it wasn’t his fault that the connection had been cut, but still. For leaving us alone. He hadn’t said, he would come to us and help us.
Shouldn’t we be his number one priority? Or at least Alice, whom he claimed to love more than anyone and anything?
To hell.
We needed to do something, anything. So, I replied as coolly as I could, “How about dinner?”
It had the desired effect.
“How can you possibly think of dinner after all the shocking news we just heard?” Yuki exclaimed indignantly; and Nin just shot me a glance of utter disbelief.
“Because I know that we all were very hungry before this call and because I’d welcome the distraction. I have had quite enough and want some time to think!”
“What did Dad mean about this ‘hideout in the sub-basement’, Lia?” Alice suddenly chipped in. She had stopped crying but was still huddling close to me. She looked up to me, her brilliantly blue eyes dark with fright, but apparently trying to put up a brave front. My little darling!
That question I had been dreading. And this time I wouldn’t be the one to break the news, this time Nin could do the job. I looked over to him and beckoned for him to answer Alice.
He sighed and spread his hands helplessly, “Yeah, well. It’s like this. When Dad had this house built twenty-five years ago, he had a special bunker built into the basement, or, to be precise, below the basement. The entrance is at the back of the basement, by the door to the washing room. If you don’t know where to look, you will never find it.”
He looked at Yuki, who looked at him in utter disbelief, and ventured, “In fact, shall we all go and have a look?”
At first I didn’t like the idea, but Yuki was all for it. “I am not sure that I can take much more, but I want to see this. Maybe I will then believe that I am not dreaming.”
Alice looked up to me, uncertain how to react. But she, too, looked interested.
Yuki and Nin got up from their chair and Nin bent down to pick Alice from my lap. She clung on to him, clearly not willing to leave the safety of being carried and embraced.
I sighed, got up and led the way with Yuki behind me, Nin with Alice bringing up the rear.
It felt weird, to go down there. To show the sub-basement to Yuki and Alice would in a way mean to acknowledge that Dad was right. And I didn’t want to do this; not yet; not by a long chalk. But it also meant to do something, to be busy instead of just worrying and feeling anxious. And the others were probably right. No one was really hungry anyway; we needed something to do and this might prove to be just the right thing.
Nin and I had been shown about the sub-basement by Dad when we were little. He’d sometimes allowed us to play down there. We’d usually played some kind of variation of the theme “It’s war, we have to hide and we’ll do it down here – how long do we manage to lock ourselves in before going crazy?” At that time, it had been fun, a bit scary, but basically fun.
And, we’d always been told not to mentioned this part of the house to anyone; never, under no circumstance. And that had kind of added to the fun; knowing that it was a secret, I mean.
Now, I felt fear and even panic rising in me the closer we got to the basement and that secret door.
The basement of our house was large, consisting of several adjacent rooms. At the very back of the house was the washing room with ample space to hang the wash. And at the back of this room, parked in a corner, stood the tumbler and the washing machine, each on a small platform with wheels.
That’s where I headed now. Without explaining anything much, I disconnected the power cords and pushed the tumbler to one side, the washing machine to the other. There underneath was a metal lid, about a meter square; it looked a bit like a manhole cover, but it had a slit-like opening on one side. I reached underneath the tumbler’s platform to retrieve the key from its hiding place. Yuki gasped and looked on in amazement. I fit the key into the slit, turn it and pulled the metal door up. The hinges were well greased and it opened easily.
The darkness from below was daunting. There were stairs that led down and disappeared in the dark. I began climbing down the stairs and found the switch for the light soon enough. The bulbs went on and the light was almost blinding.
Behind me, Yuki came carefully down the stairs. One step at a time, amazed, uncertain, not quite believing her eyes. Alice clung to Nin, but stared about with interest, too. She didn’t seem as spooked as was Yuki, but then she had Nin’s arms for support and could afford to be courageous.
The sub-basement covered a surface almost as big as the house above it. It was divided into four rooms which could all be accessed from the central room we now stood in. This big central room was furnished like a living room, with sofas, coffee tables, TV and also a spare bed along one of the walls. Then there was a bathroom with toilet, a large room with three bedsteads but no mattresses, another slightly smaller one with a table, chairs and a cooking area. And finally there was what we’d always called “the fitness room”, though “control room” would have been more appropriate, as it held all the technical equipment needed to run this place in a self-su
stainable fashion. Everything was there, from heater to air conditioning, generators for light and electricity, appliances for internet and a satellite phone, plus a surveillance system, and several other devices. I just hoped that Nin would know how to deal with all these gadgets.
If we really had to move down here! Which I still couldn’t believe …
The walls of the rooms were painted in different colours to render the atmosphere less depressive and less bunker-like. In the central room, trees and flowers adorned the walls the ceiling was blue with white clouds and the floor green. In the sleeping area the walls were of a soothing light green, the cooking cum dining room had been painted in a light yellow and the other room in blue. There were shelves all over the dining room and along one wall of the sleeping room.
We moved from room to room; all of us curious. Nin and I because we hadn’t been down here for ages, Yuki and Alice, well, for obvious reasons. The air smelled stale. But otherwise everything looked neat and clean and familiar to Nin and me.
Yuki and Alice clearly could hardly believe their eyes, but they seemed to loosen up the more they saw. Yuki even smiled when she saw the trees and flowers painted on the wall and Alice was clearly delighted by the different fitness gear. There were no windows anywhere, we were below ground here, and to think, that according to Dad we would have to stay down here for any length of time, was unbearable. I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Let’s go up again. I have seen enough, and I want us to call Mum and Nate.”
Nin looked at me from across the room and also Yuki seemed to sober up at my tone. We all looked at each other speculatively, as if trying to assess what the others thought, how much of Dad’s crazy news each of us believed, wondering how we would proceed.
I couldn’t bear it any longer. I wanted out of here, out of this nightmare! I headed for the door and the others followed.
We left in silence, mounted the stairs to the basement, but we didn’t roll the tumbler and washing machine in place over the door. Not yet ready to take Dad’s talking serious, but unsure what to think, we left the door to the sub-basement open. We would come back, one way or another.
As soon as we were back up in the kitchen, Nin reached for the phone and started to dial Mum’s number. She didn’t answer the phone, neither did Nate his.
“What now?”
“How about dinner now?” Yuki suggested with a grin. “I am starving and I need time to adjust to all the weird things I just heard and saw.”
Why not? We could all do with a break and I didn’t feel like discussing things much at the moment. I wanted time to mull things over. The phone to Mum and Nate was important, but it could wait until after we’d eaten. It had been a long day and we needed sustenance; well, Alice certainly did. So, without saying much I helped Yuki get the food on the table. Then we all sat around the table in the kitchen, Yuki served and we started eating, in silence.
“Why do you think Dad didn’t…” Ninian started, but, knowing exactly what he was about to ask, I cut him short with a short “Later”. I didn’t want to discuss this in front of Alice; it would only hurt her and change nothing. She looked anxious enough, and I frantically tried to find something to distract her.
It was Yuki who saved the day. She inquired about Alice’s toy-animal Piglet which really was a little elephant. And Alice forgot whatever was troubling her for the time being and happily prattled away about Piglet, where he was, that he had to stay in his bed because he was having the flu and that she planned to administer him some medicine after dinner.
I glanced at Yuki thankfully; relieved that she seemed to understand. We would talk, but later, after we’d put Alice to bed, when we would be free to speak our minds without bothering our little kitten. Sure enough, Alice was stifling a yawn, trying in vain to hide it from me. I smiled at her and suggested, “Bedtime for tiger?”
She fidgeted a bit on her chair and then declared, “I am not going to sleep in my own room today. I want to sleep with you, Lia. Piglet is scared and doesn’t want to sleep by himself. We are scared. And your bed is big enough for the three of us, isn’t it?”
Anything that might make her feel safe and secure. Plus, I didn’t mind not having to be alone myself. So I gladly assured her, “Of course you can both come and sleep in my bed. You know, I actually also don’t feel like spending the night alone in the studio. You are very welcome to keep me company.”
“Do you mind, if we also come down to the studio and sleep down there? I don’t feel like being alone up here,” Yuki asked. Ninian rolled his eyes at Yuki’s request, clearly thinking it to be a bit over the top, but he didn’t comment.
It was getting dark outside now and I stood up and started doing the dishes. Alice came over, took a towel and helped me, something she didn’t normally do without quite a bit of arguing. A sign that she really must have been rattled by this afternoon’s events.
When we were done I suggested, “Why don’t we go and arrange for everybody’s bed then? Go get piglet, Alice, and your toothbrush and pyjamas.”
She looked scared at the idea of going upstairs by herself. Yuki gently nudged Nin and said, “We’ll come with you. We also have to go upstairs to get our things. Where will we sleep in the studio anyway?”
“On the bed sofa”, Nin grumbled, “I just hope it will not be too uncomfortable. You are all a bunch of sissies, you know, but I indulge you for now.”
Yuki just gave him a radiant smile.
They all trouped upstairs and I heard Alice giggle at something Ninian did.
I stood in the kitchen, staring at the phone, thinking; then I reached for it and dialled Mum’s number. This time she answered the phone.
“Hallo Lia, it’s good that you called, I just meant to call you, too. How are you doing? Did you have a nice day? Has Alice calmed down a bit? I felt really bad when we left you behind this morning, but I know that she understands, doesn’t she?”
“Easy, Mum, Alice is fine”, I replied, “we had a really nice day all of us, we went to the zoo, walked back along the river, enjoyed the sun and the garden and now we have just finished dinner. Alice is upstairs gathering her things, because she will sleep down in the studio with me tonight. We’ll all spend the night down there, actually. And we spoke with Dad this afternoon. Did he call you, too?”
“Yes, I talked with him this evening. The usual crap about imminent danger. I told him to stop bothering me and us in general.” She brushed over this with an indignant voice, clearly not giving it much thought. “But I am really glad to hear, that Alice calmed down. Now I may actually be able to enjoy our stay here. Thanks again, Lia, you know how much I appreciate you being there for her. Even if you say that it suits you just fine to babysit Alice for a while, I really am thankful to you for it, my dear. Thanks heaps!”
I felt embarrassed at her praise, as usual. I hated being in any kind of spot light. As long as I could blend in with the scenery, I was just happy. No need to point out any achievements of mine or even praise them. Therefore, I quickly tried to change the subject. “How was your day, by the way? Did you have a good flight, not too much trouble from the twins? And how’s the hotel, the congress?”
“Everything went just fine, we are staying in a nice but not too posh hotel and the congress proved to be a real success, so far. But there is something else that came up and that I have to tell you.” Mum sounded suddenly anxious. “Listen. Nate’s mum called this afternoon. His dad suffered a breakdown. Some kind of problem with his heart, they are still investigating it, but he is in hospital and he is in critical condition. So much so, that his doctors are advising the family to prepare for the worst. Now, you know what a close-knit family they are. Nate is very anxious to get to his dad as soon as possible. We spent the last few hours rearranging our schedule and we just now booked a flight to Toronto. We’ll leave later tonight.” She paused. “I know, this comes as a bit of a shock to you, Lia, but it is really important for Nate to see his dad and be with him now. We’ll be
gone for at least two weeks. But I’ll keep your posted. Will you be alright?”
I wasn’t sure what to answer, at first. But then I quickly made up my mind. I mustn’t breathe a word about what Dad had said to us, about the way he contacted us, via Alice. Or that I felt that this time he might be on to something real, and all the consequences of it. No, no way would I tell her any of this. Not a hint to her that we all might be in danger, that to put an ocean between us was maybe not such a good idea right now. Instead I tried to keep my voice level; to sound too cheerful would have aroused her suspicion.
“Sure, Mum, no problem. Don’t worry about us. You were planning to be away for two weeks anyway, didn’t you? We shall be perfectly all right. And Alice will understand soon enough, after all, she loves and adores Nate very much. So, really, don’t worry about us. But I am very sorry to hear about Nate’s dad. Please convey our greetings and love to him. I hope that his dad will make a full recovery. And again, don’t you worry about us, Mum, we’ll be fine.”
Even while I said these words, I was wondering how on earth I was going to explain this to Nin, Yuki and especially Alice. I had not the slightest doubt that I was doing the right thing, but how the others would see it might be a different matter entirely.
I heard a door being opened in Mum’s room and Nate’s voice in the background. She said, “Listen, Lia, I have to go, we must pack up and get ready to go to the airport. Our flight is in three hours.” She paused for a moment, then added, “Please, tell Alice that I love her and that I miss her terribly. We’ll call you as soon as we’ll arrive in Toronto. And we will be back as soon as we possibly can. Tell her that, will you, Lia, my dear.”
I told her again not to worry.
She sighed, “This is difficult, Lia; but I will contact you regularly to inform you about everything. And greetings to Nin and Yuki, too, I love you all. Nate sends his love and greetings, too. Good night, Lia, take care.” With this she cut the line and I stood there, phone still in hand, wondering what was happening.
Lia's files 1_Presumed extinct Page 3