by Sean Adelman
Lily awoke to her dad’s kiss. She could hear him move to his room, but it was dark enough that she couldn’t see much beyond her bed. There were no sheets to pull tight around her and although her father was next door, she was feeling very lonely. Lily could hear his quiet snores. She quietly got out of bed—her visibility was limited to the world immediately in front of her—and walked slowly across the hall into the bedroom with her hands in front to guide her. Lily carefully crawled in behind him and rested her head on his shoulder. The rhythmic rise and fall of Dad’s chest allowed fatigue once again to pull Lily back into a deep sleep.
Despite the scary events of the previous day, Jason slept well. As he slowly awoke, everything felt like a dream. Jason was expecting to wake up in his Seattle home, but as his eyes began to focus, the reality of his situation was brought back to life. The window was on the opposite side of the room so he rolled over to see the morning.
“Ouch, Daddy, you’re squishing me.”
“Sorry, sweetie, I wasn’t expecting you there.”
“Stop squishing me then.”
“Why? It’s fun. You’re soooooo soft I think I’ll stay here all day.”
“Umphhhhh.” Lily pushed on Jason with all her might while he laughed uncontrollably. “Daddy, what are we doing today? Can we go to the park please? I want to climb the tower.”
“All right, after breakfast. I need to do a little work, and you need to do a little homework, and then we can go.”
Jason went to the fridge that he had turned on the previous night and got out some milk for the cereals he had purchased. It wasn’t a gourmet breakfast, but it would do for today, at least until Jason could restock. Lily was an easy eater and would happily have cereal for breakfast. After getting her situated at the table, he sat down on the couch and opened his laptop. It took a minute to get logged in and get his software open. The portable drive that looked like a toy Mustang that he’d used to download his data before leaving was nowhere to be found in his bag or on the table. With his frustration building, he looked up to see how Lily was doing just in time to find her trying to roll the toy Mustang car back and forth on the table. How does she do that? Jason was so relieved he happily got up and retrieved his “Mustang” from Lily in exchange for agreeing to try to find her own Mustang in town today.
Easing back into his comfy spot on the couch, he plugged in the portable drive. He had forgotten how much data was on the drive. It was going to take at least an hour for it to download and format. Taking Lily out early might make more sense.
“All right, sweetheart. Dad needs some coffee, so why don’t we see if we can find you your own Mustang. Let’s go into town for a little while.”
“What about my homework you said I had to do?”
“I can’t do my work for a little while either, so I thought we would do this first.”
“Ooh, I forgot. Can I get a hot chocolate at the coffee place?”
“Yes, if you get your shoes on now.”
Lily obliged Jason and was heading for the car before he could even get his shoes on. She didn’t even make a fuss about getting into the backseat. Now that it was light, everything was a little more familiar. The entrance to the road wasn’t paved, but it was well maintained. There was only one other family on this road, and they were only here in the summer. Their house was closer to the main road by a hundred yards or so. The cabin was just past Olga, which was on the east side of the horseshoe-shaped island. They had to drive through Moran State Park just north of them to get back to East Sound, where the coffee was. There were very few campers this time of year at the state park, so the roads were pretty empty. The state park was heavily forested with trees on their right and the East Sound body of water was on their left. Jason wanted to believe that he was driving on a forested road though Europe far away from recent events. Despite the forested beauty, it was too familiar and he knew he hadn’t really managed to escape. He came upon a small town. Even though East Sound was the biggest town on the island, it was still only a few blocks in any direction. There were a few rows of shops and restaurants in the middle surrounding the central park where they held the farmers’ market in the summer.
The coffee shop Jason liked was a combination coffee/chocolate shop at the south side of the city center. It also sold some of the best ice cream that they could look forward to later in the day. The coffee was good, but to Lily’s credit, the hot chocolate was even better. Jason grabbed a bag of day-old baked goods to go with his coffee. Lily was happy to just sip her hot chocolate. The weather was cool but nice so they decided to sit outside and enjoy the morning. There weren’t as many people out and about as there was during the summer, but Lily was content to observe a dog playing tug-of-war with its leash. It was so quiet Jason actually started to relax. Maybe I was just imagining things. Since Lily was preoccupied, he decided to give Spencer a call.
“Hey man, how is it going this morning without me?” Jason asked.
“Dude, I was just going to call you. Someone broke into the lab last night. I don’t know what’s been taken, but all of our computer storage in here is smashed up.”
“Oh my God! Everything we were storing locally?”
“Yes, and all of our animals were euthanized. I’m still trying to get things figured out. Did you check the data on your storage device yet?”
“No, it’s still downloading.”
“Jason, go check it. It may be our only copy now.”
Jason gathered up Lily with the promise of coming back and headed for the car. This time, however, she protested the backseat. One of Lily’s great strengths was reading people’s moods, and Jason could tell she knew he was not in the mood for this. She quickly stopped fussing and got in the backseat without another peep. He backed out of his parking spot and looked into the rear view mirror and saw Lily sitting there looking out of the small side window. Jason knew he would never forget Rachel, because he was staring at her likeness in the backseat looking out that window. Her hair, eyes, smile—he would never understand why she was taken from him and he’d never give up trying to unlock the secret of how to fix it.
The non-descript blue sedan sat on the side of the road. The two men inside the car carried on a heated debate as they watched Jason back around the corner before heading out.
“Watch out! He almost backed into you,” said the passenger angrily to his much larger partner behind the steering wheel.
“I saw it. Thanks for the play-by-play. Do you want to drive?” replied the driver.
The driver looked over to his partner, shrugged his shoulders, and raised his hands off the steering wheel. He motioned for his smaller passenger to take the wheel.
“Come on man, we need to follow him. Stop messing around. I didn’t sleep in this car last night for no good reason.”
“I think a ten grand bonus is a good reason. We need to make sure he didn’t take anything from the lab before we can finish the job.”
“Like I said, move it.”
“You worry too much. We know where he is going. I don’t want to get too close anyway. That Mustang will be easy to find even if we lose him briefly.”
The light blue sedan pulled out, staying well behind the Mustang. It was easy to follow out of East Sound with a straight road and the sound itself on the right. As they turned right onto Olga Road, the way became obstructed with trees and curves in the road so that by the time they reached Moran State Park they had lost him. The driver looked over at his colleague who knew better than to return the look. If their assignment wasn’t where he was supposed to be, there would be hell to pay.
Jason pulled up to the cabin and got Lily out of the car. Fortunately, he didn’t have to carry her this time. Lily had left her homework on the table when they left, so he sat her down to get started. The couch was in front of the window, so Jason pulled open the blinds. Even though there was no television in the cabin, the view of the Puget Sound and Mount Baker was enough. Today, however, he just wanted the light. He b
ooted up his laptop to check on the download. The download was complete, so with a big sigh he began his work.
The download was the sequencing of the 21st chromosome from one of their volunteers, specifically Lily. Scientists knew a lot about the genes on the 21st chromosome from the genome project. In 2000, they finished sequencing the DNA from volunteers without Down syndrome. The 21st chromosome was one of the easiest to study since it had fewer genes than the other chromosomes, somewhere between 300 and 400. What Jason was really looking for was the fact that the extra chromosome in children with Down syndrome had not been sequenced yet. They had spent the last three years waiting for this data. Now Jason was sitting in a cabin on Orcas Island looking at a treasure he had been waiting years to open. Jason was a scientist, but he was a scientist with a hunch. Everything in his being told him there was something different about people with Down syndrome that was yet to be discovered. Something that could change the world in ways we could only imagine. In a good way.
“Daddy, I’m done with my homework,” Lily said, standing in the doorway.
“How can you be done already?”
“I’m done with my math. Doesn’t that count?”
“Yes, but don’t you have reading?”
“Okay, Daddy, but can we go to the monument after I read?”
“If you finish your reading, then yes. I have a few things to do while you read.”
Jason checked her book so he knew where she was. Not that he didn’t trust her, it was just that Lily had the tendency to look at the words and turn the pages. As a result, they had been working on her retention of what she read. Now that she was engaged in her book, he was free to call Spencer back. Even in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, he had Internet and a cell phone.
He moved into the living room to make the call. “Hey Spencer, it’s Jason. Jason, yes, Jason. Just a sec, let me step outside. I can barely hear you.”
Jason walked outside. He didn’t know if it would help, but it was worth a try. The signal was usually fine here.
“Is that better?” Jason asked.
“Yes, I’m glad you called.”
“Spencer, I have the data. I’ll finish going through it this afternoon.”
“Good. Everything here has been wiped. We checked every hard drive. Even the university cloud server has been corrupted. You have the only real data from the last three years of work.”
“How could that possibly be? No one except you and I have access to all of that.”
“I know, Jason, and they have a record of you logging into security when the lab was demolished and the animals killed.”
“What are you talking about? I’ve been here with Lily. I left last night. You know that.”
“It doesn’t matter what I think, Jason. You’re in big trouble. Don’t even think about coming back.”
Jason’s heart raced. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll call when I get things figured out.”
“Don’t call again.” Spencer said before the signal went dead.
Jason sat down on a rock along the wooded side of the house. He knew the world under his feet wasn’t tilting, but it sure felt like it was. He put his phone down and looked up toward the sound. It was absolutely peaceful with no sounds other than the wind and a few birds. He always admired his neighbor’s place. It was just a little larger than their cabin, but it was built in a classic log cabin fashion making Jason feel like he was living a hundred years ago. As he admired the cabin, he could see just a hint of blue in front of the cabin. You couldn’t see it from within their own cabin, but since he was sitting off to the side he could just see it at an angle between the trees. He carefully snuck around the side. Sure enough, it was a small blue sedan with two guys sitting in the front talking on the phone.
Oh no, I have to get out of here. Someone framed me for destroying the lab. Now some goons look like they are spying on us. I can’t go out the front, or those guys will see me. If they see me leaving, they’ll just catch up with us at the ferry.
He gathered himself up and quietly went back into the cabin. Lily was already a little freaked out by the events of the last few days; he wasn’t sure how he would quietly get her into the car. She was happily reading while Jason wandered around putting things into his bag while he thought. The fire road runs behind our property and connects with the Moran State Park. We need to leave now. It’s the only chance we have to get out undetected.
“All right, sweetie, we have to go.”
“To the park?”
“Sort of, but I don’t know if we can climb the monument though.”
“Why not? You said we could.”
“I don’t have a good answer for you. How about I let you sit up front this time?”
“Ooh, okay!”
Jason quietly loaded the Mustang and pulled around behind the cabin. The Mustang was loud and he knew they would hear it, but he hoped they would just think he was heading toward them. The Mustang’s suspension was not set up to be driven on fire roads, but at least it hadn’t rained in a while. Despite the holes and gravel, at least it wasn’t mud. Lily was screaming in delight as Jason drove faster than he should down the fire road. After a few minutes of off-roading, the fire road ran into the mountain road, which took some of the fun out of it for Lily. She got a little quieter. He came to the intersection where he had a decision to make. If I go north, I will head toward the ferry. I need to get off the island.
Jason looked across the intersection and noticed the sign “Rosario Resort & Spa.” Jason realized he had forgotten there was a Kenmore Air terminal on the East Bay waterfront by the resort. How could I forget about them? Jason knew he would have to leave his car if they flew, but was hopeful that he could come back and get Eleanor when this was all over. The only problem with that logic was, he didn’t know what “this” was. Jason went straight to the Kenmore terminal. The change in plans was not wasted on Lily.
“Dad, are we going to fly?”
“Yeah, what do you think? Would that be fun?”
“Duh.”
“I will take that as a yes.”
Jason and Lily walked into the terminal. Jason had been saving money for a while, but now that he was on the run things would get complicated. Kenmore Air had destinations all over the Puget Sound; the only one leaving any time soon was to Bellingham. He didn’t want anyone connecting him to the flight, so he thought he would use the cash he’d taken out at the ATM in East Sound last night. The only problem was that Jason hadn’t counted on spending six hundred dollars on plane tickets. The max he could take out was three hundred dollars at a time and he was only able to do that twice so he would basically have to spend everything he had on this. I don’t know if these guys can track me. I’ll need spending money when we get to Bellingham and I don’t want to use the card then. Jason went to the ATM next to the ticket counter and took out another three hundred dollars They had about twenty minutes and only a few bags. There was only one other passenger, so boarding was quick. Lily had never flown on a float plane, so she could barely contain herself. As the plane taxied around in the East Sound, Lily pressed her face up against the glass. The other person on the flight with them was an elderly woman who looked at Lily with the eyes of a loving grandmother. Jason wasn’t exactly sure how much he was going to enjoy this so he held onto the seat a little tighter and made sure he knew where the airsickness bag was. Thankfully, the water was calm so Jason found himself relaxing a little bit as the plane took to the air. The ferry ride had been beautiful, but this was amazing. The bird’s-eye view of the Puget Sound on a clear day was spectacular. While Lily enjoyed the view, Jason could not get his head around what was happening. What are they after? The plane banked left toward Mount Baker to make a very quick trip to Bellingham.
As the Washington coast came into view, Jason was hit with the realization that he had no idea what he was going to do when they landed. As the plane taxied, Jason searched his memory for people he knew in Bellingham. Judy. It had been so long h
e had almost forgotten. How could he forget Judy? She’d been Debbie’s college roommate. Judy and Rachel became friends when she moved back to Seattle with Debbie after college. After Rachel’s death, Judy moved up to Bellingham and was on the research staff in charge of the animals for Western Washington University. At first, Jason and Judy would see each other several times a month. It was easy when Debbie was still in Seattle. Since Debbie moved to Ann Arbor Jason and Judy rarely even talked. In fact, Jason couldn’t remember the last time he had spoken with her. Jason was sure the last holiday card he received had the same address, but was it even this last year?
Bellingham was small enough that you didn’t really need a car, and if you did need transport the bus system was excellent. Lily usually loved a good walk, and Jason remembered Judy lived very close to the university, so they took off on foot. Downtown Bellingham had its share of skate boarders and poor drivers, but it was easy to navigate and the bonus was that no one was chasing them. Jason forgot that although it wasn’t far, Judy’s place was all uphill and they would need a break soon. As Jason began to wonder how Lily was holding up, she reached up and took his hand. He was so preoccupied that he had forgotten how strange it was to walk with her and not hold her hand. He looked down and said a silent prayer that she would never grow up. As soon as he thought it, he realized not only how silly it was, but how wrong he was. As much as he loved her now at this point in her life, he didn’t want to miss all of the other things he would love about her as she grew up. He knew that there would be things that would change as she became a teenager, but the thought of her as a competent, caring adult was a fulfilling daydream.