by Seren Goode
Nothing.
How could I know so little about my own mother? I knew that water and the ocean were important to her. But I knew nothing about her real life. No grandparents, no hometown, no middle school horror stories. Most kids don’t pop into existence, fully formed, at fifteen years old and enter the foster care system. But it seemed my mom had.
I felt cheated. She had stolen something from me that, until this moment, I never knew I was missing. Maybe if she had shared more, filled in some of the gaps, I could have had a family history, something that made sense of what I was learning now. I kept coming back to the idea that there was something they were trying to hide.
Jonas reassembled the watch and settled back into the wooden chair. He gave the twins a speculative look as he stretched his long legs out under the desk. “So, Arie couldn’t bear to part with the watch, and now, here you are with it.” After a minute of silently studying them, he pushed back from the desk and walked over to the window to look down on the street. As if drawn by a magnet, we all moved into the void for a closer review of the inscription. Jonas turned his back on the window and sat, balancing on the frame. Watching. Calculating.
“Would you like to sell the watch to me?” Jonas inquired, his brow crinkling into a frown. “I’m afraid with it now damaged, it won’t be worth what it once was, but I can make you a nice offer. Net you quite a bit of cash.”
“It’s not for sale.” Breeze spoke up, and Skylar and Jaxon moved quickly into a defensive position, shoulder to shoulder, blocking, protecting the watch.
“I could give you a great price,” Jonas continued, “more than you might expect for such an insignificant item.”
I tilted my head to one side then back, trying to understand what Jonas was doing by pushing us on this.
“No way.” Skylar’s hand hovered protectively over the watch, like it could be snatched from the table at any minute. “We aren’t parting with it.”
“I could trade you for Duchess. You seemed quite taken by her. Even swap. What do you say?”
The twin’s eyes widened. Jaxon, a gleam in his eyes, started to speak and Shim’s palm quickly covered his mouth, silencing him. Breeze gave a sad shake of her head.
“No deal.” Skylar was steadfast.
A moment of silence stretched out, tangible friction in the air as they measured each other’s resolve. Finally, Jonas brought his hands together with a loud clap, breaking the spell.
“Good.” Rubbing his hands together, Jonas’s tone instantly changed from guarded to helpful. “Good. Then what do you want to know?”
The twins and Jaxon looked confused.
Jonas had been testing us—and we had passed. My stomach eased for the first time all day. “You wanted to see if we were trying to sell the watch, implying it was stolen before you told us any more about it.”
Jonas cracked the first smile I had seen on him. “Yes, and there is more to tell about the watch, but if you were just interested in selling it, it wouldn’t matter.”
“More to tell?” Shim picked up the watch, examining the face. “Is it about these dials and why they don’t tell time?” His face had the eager curiosity of an engineer salivating to take something apart and understand it.
“What do you mean they don’t tell time? It’s a watch. What else is it supposed to do?” It was impressive how Jaxon could add just the right amount of derision to his tone even when he was confused and asking for information.
Shim pulled the watch closer and examined it. “This outside dial”—he pointed to a lighter gold band that ran around the face of the copper-colored watch—“looks like it might tell time, but it’s not set to a twelve- or twenty-four hour clock. It looks like it might be”—he paused to examine the band—“a twenty-eight hour clock?” Shim shook his head in wonder, then sat on the chair and pulled over the looking glass.
“These three smaller dials set inside the larger band, well, two of them look more like altimeters, or something similar, to measure altitude. This third one could be a dial for a calendar, but it’s also off. It has thirteen marks around it, so it can’t be measuring a twelve-month year,” Shim shook the watch gently, “and that, that feels like an off-center mass. It may have a vibration mode,” Shim said, eagerly prodding the cover with the rubber-tipped probe.
“But if it isn’t a watch, then what is it?” Skylar looked as confused as I felt.
“Oh, it’s a watch. It just doesn’t track time the way we are used to tracking it. Which is most interesting. And the other dials, they could be for tides or planet orbits. It’s hard to tell without the context of where it is from, and I don’t know where that would be…It’s probably just decorative, but someone went to a lot of trouble to make a watch that isn’t meant to tell time anywhere on Earth.” Jonas paused and let that sink in before he added, “Why don’t you tell me why Arie gave it to you?”
We looked at each other. Now, what do we do?
∞
Jonas had peppered us with questions about the watch, but none of us said anything. Not that we knew anything. At this point, we had more questions than answers. I was sure he was going to throw us out. Instead, he offered us a place to stay for the night and ordered dinner.
“Atta girl!” Jaxon praised, rolling a ball again for Duchess to chase. Shim and Jonas were leaning over the watch on the desk, deep in discussion on how it was made and what it could be measuring. It was an unexpected side of Shim. Not that I knew him very well.
Jonas’s tablet was balanced on my knees. I had told him I wanted to check the weather for tomorrow. My real intention was to research what this “waters” could be and why my dad had sent me a text sending us there. Well, me there. Not us. I had to remember, just because we were all together now, it didn’t mean we would be sticking together. I may not have any place else to go, but I’m sure the rest of them did. The brothers had a father somewhere, and the twins must have something—A mom? Grandparents? I could pretend we were an “us” all I wanted, but when a storm hit, I knew the only one on the boat I could count on was me.
“I’m asking,” Skylar hissed at his sister. Breeze and Skylar had been in another one of their half-whispered, half-telepathic conversations where most of what they said was done with eye rolls and facial expressions. It looked like it was turning into an argument. Skylar pulled away from Breeze. “How did you meet our dad?” he demanded of Jonas.
“We met here at the gallery. Most people in the city with an affinity to the genre find their way here.”
“I never knew he liked steampunk stuff.” Breeze looked puzzled to learn about this side of her father.
“Arie is the ultimate futurist. His immersion and understanding of the art were immense. It was like he had lived in the worlds he wrote about.”
“Wait, he was a writer?”
“Of course. I thought you knew? He had a pseudonym, but surely, his children would know…” Jonas paused for effect. He had a way of speaking that was both condescending and inquisitive. It would be extremely annoying if he wasn’t being so nice to us. “No? Well, he has several Gaslamp fantasy short stories—not that he lets anyone know. An extremely private man, your father is.” Jonas resumed inspection of the watch.
“I can’t believe it. How did we not know he was a writer?” Breeze turned wounded eyes to Skylar.
Was anything we knew about our parents true?
I resumed my internet search on “waters” and was turning up diddly, but I was only half looking. My mind kept spinning on Arie telling Jonas about his watch and having a secret life as a writer. I wasn’t the only one whose parents kept secrets. We were all suffering from a baffling lack of information, and what we did know was confusing—the heirloom watch included.
Conflicting emotions of remorse and anger swarmed through me at the thought of my mom. I breathed deep, sinking into the memories.
Warmth. A be
autiful, ethereal, pale face with large, silvery eyes. Everyone said I looked like her, but I couldn’t see it. Only the hair was similar, and hers was longer and silkier. I buried my face, and the green and ash-brown strands tickled my nose.
“Mom, did you your mother have hair like ours?”
A rich laugh shook through her lean swimmer’s build, and strong arms hugged me. “Let me tell you another tale about the Merpeople of the Underwater Land of LaDér.”
I sighed. It had been one of my favorite stories. Upon reflection, I realized she used it to distract me whenever I asked for details about her life, a deflection from getting too close.
My sad nostalgia was replaced with a familiar anger and a sense of betrayal. I remember mom being sad. She must have missed her family. What was her life like when she was growing up? Had she had a family? Friends? A dog? I didn’t even know if she was American born. She didn’t have an accent, but her name was Amé. I could be half French or Canadian.
She had been fifteen years old when she ended up in foster care. That was younger than me. I tried to think of anything I knew about her from before that time. Nothing. By the time she was my age, she was an orphan, and I guess that was when she met up with the rest of her foster siblings: Arie, Kindle, the guy Micah, and the fifth one whose name we didn’t know. A few years later, she must have met my dad, and as soon as they were old enough, they had gotten married.
I was about to ask the others what they knew about their parents’ pasts when an article caught my eye.
I gasped. I’d found something.
Jonas looked up at the sound. “You okay?”
“Yes, fine.” I bared my teeth in an overly enthusiastic smile. Shim gave me an odd look, his eyebrow cocked up as his head tilt to one side. I gave a barely perceptible head shake as Jonas looked back down at the watch. Shim saw the movement and let it go.
Soon afterward, Jonas pulled out inflatable mattresses and piles of blankets and pillows. He laughingly admitted to playing host to a lot of traveling artists in his studio. Saying goodnight, he left us alone, heading up to his apartment on the next floor.
I waited until I heard the door to his apartment close, then yanked the tablet off the desk and quickly brought up the article.
Stars. This part was going to be hard. I took a deep breath and then thought that maybe standing would be a good idea. So I quickly stood and cleared my throat. Here goes nothing. “So, when my dad sent me the text telling me to run, there was a more to the message.” The others looked stunned, and I realized I had really messed up by not telling them the full message earlier.
“You know who took them and you didn’t tell us?” Jaxon jumped up from where he was playing with Duchess.
“No, look, I wasn’t keeping things from you. I had no idea what the message meant, and I forgot about it. I mean, we were being chased, trying not to get kidnapped ourselves.” I sighed deep and scrubbed a hand through my hair.
“Grace, can you remember the full text?” Shim said, his tone was encouraging. I tried to remember the exact wording, wishing, not for the first time, that I hadn’t tossed my phone in the water fountain.
“The message said, ‘the helios are here! Run! Find waters.’”
“That’s weird,” Jaxon stated.
“Do any of you know what Helios are?” Shim asked the others, who all shook their heads. Then he looked back at me.
“I don’t know either.” I felt the need to defend myself. “But, well, I did some research, and I think I found something on Waters.” I wondered if they were all too mad at me to care. Shim was sitting on an air mattress, his eye narrowed, but he stretched out a hand. I fumbled, handing the pad over to him. Leaning back on one leanly muscled arm, he held the tablet up and read through the article, then looked up at me with a gleam in his amber eyes.
“Do you think this is what your dad meant?”
“It would explain that cryptic message. I was looking for something near the water, like a boat. But what if…”
Shim picked up where I left off. “What if it isn’t something on the water? What if Waters is a person?”
“A person?” Skylar cocked his head.
“How can water be a person?” Breeze asked, finishing her brother’s thought.
Jaxon came over and crouched next to Shim to read over his shoulder.
Shim pointed back at me.
I excitedly filled them in on my theory and the two-year-old article I had found. “The article says there is a group of homeless people who hang along the Embarcadero, the most notorious being this old veteran named Waters.”
“You think that’s what, or who, your father texted you about?” Skylar asked.
I nodded, twisting my fingers around the chain on the torc at my neck.
“So now we know who we are searching for.” Breeze looked excited.
“And where to look,” chimed in Skylar.
Shim handed the tablet back, and I started to close it when Shim grabbed my arm. My skin tingled where he touched me, and I flushed.
“Erase the browser memory.”
“I hadn’t thought of that. I don’t know how.” Shim got up and reached around me, his arm rubbing against mine, spreading more tingles, and I nervously thrust the tablet at him. He took it, his fingers flying over the screen.
“You’re good with tech,” I acknowledged.
“No, I’m not.” He sounded offended.
Completely confused, I turned to help the twins organize the mats. We lined them up on the floor, and the twins took the two on the far end. Jaxon grabbed the bed on the opposite side, which left Shim settling in next to me. Great.
As I lay on my back in the darkened room, the moon and city lights shone through the window and the heavy weight of the night surrounded me, pressing down. This was my first night on my own, I realized. I tried to convince myself it wasn’t a big deal, but my heart thumped rapidly, and I’d never felt so small, so lonely. It had been devastating, crushing, to see Dad taken away, his shoulders slumped in defeat. He truly was my last anchor, and with him gone, I felt adrift. The others all had someone. Skylar and Breeze were like two halves that, together, were whole. I could hear them whispering as they huddled, comforting each other. Jaxon and Shim were fighting over something, shoving and kicking, but they were brothers and always looked out for the other. I was apart from them all. My finger rubbed the stone at my throat.
Maybe there was something defective in me that I was always losing things and people. Our VW van. My mom. My dad. I’d probably lose this group next, and maybe it would be for the best. The twins were clique-ish, Jaxon was kind of violent, and the way Shim stared at me… intense. No, they would probably head their own way soon. And I couldn’t blame them.
Suckiest. Day. Ever.
Chapter 6
Down the Chute
Bang. Bang. Bang. A loud clanging woke us the next morning. I rolled over, confused as to why I was sleeping on a floor that smelled like an auto shop. It took a moment before the events of the previous day rolled through my head. The abduction. Running. The gallery.
Shim crouched down next to me, muscles tight, his face pinched, and I noticed the mintiness of his breath as he whispered, “Grab your stuff. We have to go.”
It was good I had slept in my clothes.
On my other side, the twins shot up like they were fired from a canon, scrambling to collect their things. Jaxon was holding the twins’ third backpack and his skateboard.
Shim was doing a quick check around the workshop, making sure we hadn’t forgotten anything when Jonas stumbled down the stairs from his apartment above. “W-what is that?”
The hair that yesterday had been slicked back and neat now stood on end, and one side of his mustache drooped, having lost its handle. A Wellington pushed up the red-plaid pant leg of his pajama bottoms. The other boot was in his hand. Off-b
alance, he clopped toward the stairs to answer the door.
“Wait. That might be the people who took our parents. Please, don’t let them find us,” I pleaded.
“Took your parents?” Jonas tromped over to the window and looked down at the street, then back at us. He hesitated, but when the banging downstairs resumed, he seemed to have made up his mind. He gave a quick nod. “Up the stairs to the back bedroom. There is a window that exits to the fire escape. Go up, not down. Four buildings that way is a red brick under construction.” He rattled off directions as he pointed with his hand. Leaning against the wall for balance, he put on the other boot. “You should be able to find your way down from there.” He squared his shoulders and paused to tug on his sleep shirt like he was straightening a vest, then pulled fingers through his hair, smoothing it. “Well, what are you waiting for? Go!” he demanded in response to our dumbfounded stares. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can. Good luck,” he said to our backs as we raced up the stairs.
It took some hunting, but we found the window in the back of the apartment. Jaxon was there first, and he shrugged on one of the backpacks and wrenched open the old window. The painted over frame was slightly warped from water damage. At first, it refused to give, but it seemed that nothing could resist Jaxon’s loving care, and it gave with a loud splintering sound.
Shim grabbed his brother’s shoulder. “Quiet! They might have people waiting at the back of the building. Give me the bag.”
Wordlessly, Jaxon shook his head and shoved Shim back before he slipped his skateboard through the straps between his back and the backpack, flipping it so the grip tape wouldn’t shred his shirt. Hanging his head and upper body out the window, he looked down to the street below, then pulled the rest of his body out the window. Crouched on the fire escape, he pointed below, nodded his head, and held up two fingers, then put one to his lips. Then, after a quick glance up, he silently started to climb the fire escape. Breeze and Skylar went next, nimbly clambering up.