by JM HART
Father McDonald scratched the side of his head, his skin crawled. He wanted to run and dive into a body of water. He rubbed his back against the car seat feeling uncomfortable at the image conjured by Sophia’s description. He pulled his Bible from his jacket pocket and prayed.
Joe ducked down a side street before realizing it was a bad idea. A few feet away he saw three men in suits attacking a woman lying next to a Vespa bike. He wanted to jump out and help. He slowed. The men stopped, as if listening, and turned towards them. Satisfied there was no one there, they leant over the woman. One man unhinged his mouth, covered the woman’s bloody lips and sucked. Her cheeks collapsed. The other man pushed him aside and did the same thing. They seemed to grow taller, wider. Finished, they picked up their briefcases, and started moving closer to the car. Moving purposely towards them, running. Joe put the car in reverse and swung back out into the main street.
“Calm down, Joe, don’t speed, it will be okay. They can’t really see us. They’re not sure what they see,” Sophia said.
Father McDonald stopped praying and made eye contact with Joe. “God is with us. Just don’t panic.”
The stream of cars thinned out and they slowly made their way out of the city. It seemed like a lifetime to Joe. Sophia gave him a fresh piece of sage and he shoved the dried head into his mouth and chewed. He opened the window to clear the car of his stale perspiration.
“Let me drive for a while,” Father McDonald said.
“No, it’s okay. I need to drive,” Joe said.
“That reminds me,” Father McDonald said, “of when I was a kid and we were driving to the seaside, a place called Saltcoats, for a holiday and my dad …”
Sophia tuned out, having heard the story a hundred times, and closed her eyes. “Casey, can you hear me?” she whispered in her mind, then a little louder. But there was no answer.
4
S = k log W: Jade. Australia
“Where’s your dad, how did you get here?” Callie asked. Kevin pushed his ear against the door trying to hear a little clearer. His dad walked up the stairs with Molly asleep in his arms.
“Psst, what are you doing?” Daniel whispered.
Startled, Kevin jolted back from the door. His face turned red. He lifted up his shoulders and dropped them.
“Get away from the door. Give them some privacy.” Daniel slapped Kevin gently on the side of the head. Kevin’s hair flicked up and dropped back into place. “Go downstairs and watch your brother.” Daniel disappeared into Molly’s room. He turned on the rotating light which cast a production of colored ponies on the walls and into the hallway.
Kevin tiptoed past the room, dodging the odd squeaky floorboard. He stopped at the first step and looked back down the hall to his mother’s room. He was resisting the urge to go back and listen when his dad came out of Molly’s room.
“You’re not — seriously?” his dad said.
“What?”
“You know what, eavesdropping, that’s what,” he whispered.
Kevin pushed his hand up over his forehead, running his fingers through his hair and feeling the softness of his hair. He was frustrated he didn’t know what was going on and what Jade might say. Kevin started down the stairs with Daniel on his tail. Once out of earshot of Molly’s room, Daniel probed Kevin.
Daniel pulled out an assortment of ingredients for their pizzas. “Start grating,” he said, handing Kevin the cheese.
“So, Kevin, what’s her name? And what did you mean, you found the girl?”
Alex ran into the kitchen and pulled at Kevin’s arm. Kevin shook him off, and continued grating the cheese.
“Alex, what did we say about running in the house? Go back and come in again. Without running!” Daniel said.
“Sorry, Daddy.” Alex spun around and slid on his socks across the kitchen floor and out of the room, but re-entered the kitchen slowly, marching up to Kevin again. He stamped his feet and said, “Come play with me. Come on, come play with me. I’m at level five, about to fight the evil monster. Come on, it’s on pause.” Alex had his hands in Kevin’s back pockets. He tugged and tugged. “Come on.”
“Okay, okay,” Kevin said, grateful that Alex was being a pest. “Dad?”
“Go on. We can talk when your mother is ready. But first, what’s her name?”
“Jade.” Kevin went into the living room and plonked himself on the floor next to Alex. He watched Alex battle the animated monster, but his mind was miles away.
*
“What happened to you? How do you know Kevin? I have so many questions, Jade. But you look like you need a warm shower right now,” Callie said, turning on the light in her en suite.
Jade followed her into the bathroom with the pile of Kevin’s clothes. Callie hung a fresh towel on the rail for her.
Jade sat on the edge of the bath and massaged her feet on the bamboo mat. Jade had had sleepless nights thinking of all the questions she would ask Callie if she ever had the opportunity. In a barely audible voice, not making eye contact, she asked, “Where did you go that night? Why didn’t you come and see me? You were the last person to see my mom, and you ran.” Jade pushed her hair back behind her ears and looked up at Callie. She raised her voice. “You came to our home and ate at our table. I thought you were more than just another one of my mom’s post-grad charity cases. I thought you were my mom’s friend, my friend, but you just left us.” Jade’s face contorted in anger and resentment. She stood up, grabbed her shoes and headed for the door. She stopped at the bathroom threshold and said, “Within hours of her going missing, you were on a plane, and out of the country! Where were —” Jade’s throat tensed with anger and she couldn’t speak. She choked on tears and confusion and she felt suffocated with emotions. The room started to spin. Jade believed that Callie knew something about her mom’s disappearance. “Why won’t you tell me?”
“I’m sorry, Jade, I’m so sorry. I had to think about my own family, my own life. There are people that wouldn’t hesitate to hurt my family, or kill you if they thought your mother had shared her knowledge with me.”
“Did she?” Jade asked.
“They would have taken me too. It has haunted me. Believe me, I regret it every day.”
Jade stood still, flecks of silver light dancing behind her eyes. She no longer paid attention to what Callie was saying; she had cheated herself, allowing anger to control her. Behind her eyes, Jade’s inner night sky was filled with diamonds splashing across her consciousness. She had an overwhelming sensation to just drop into infinity, endless space. Her legs and body felt heavy. Spots swam before her eyes. She knew logically what was happening, and it was controllable in her mind, but still her body was reacting, which made her even angrier. She fumbled for the edge of the bath and dropped her head into her hands.
“Jade, you okay. Just breathe. Where’s your puffer?”
“I lost it.”
“Wait there.” Callie ran into her bedroom, and Jade could hear her opening and closing drawers before returning with a Ventolin puffer. Callie shook the puffer so it was ready if Jade needed a dose. “Relax, Jade, it’s a panic attack, it will pass — breathe in slowly, 1 … 2 … 3. Breathe out to the count of three.” Callie spoke while Jade struggled to regain her composure.
The room was blacked out. Jade couldn’t see the bamboo mat under her feet, but she could still feel it and hear Callie’s voice. Her body felt like it was going in slow motion. Jade focused on the feeling of her chest rising and expanding as she followed Callie’s instructions.
“That’s it, relax, and breathing in slowly 1, 2, 3, and out again, slowly 1, 2, 3 … I see you found your bracelet. Your mom had me searching high and low for that. It must really be important, she was ropeable.”
The darkness started to evaporate. The light of the room appeared behind her eyelids. She blinked until she was able to see and the flickers of light disappeared. Jade looked down nervously at the bracelet and twirled it around her wrist. Callie kept speaking. Jade beg
an to relax, tracing the patterns with her fingers.
“It reminds me of a turtle shell,” Callie said, watching Jade relax as she focused on the bracelet.
“It was my great-grandmother’s. People called her Great Turtle. But you know that, don’t you?”
“Where’s your dad, Jade?”
Jade wasn’t sure what she should say. She didn’t want to lie because she just wasn’t good at it, and she was tired, so tired. She just wanted to get clean and crawl into her bed. She didn’t know what to say, or how Callie was going to react to being told that Kevin had the ability to create a hole in the universe. Should I just say it: by the way, Kevin possesses the ability to apply the laws of quantum physics and step into a parallel universe. He has journeyed beyond reality as we know it; across time and space where he found me at the mercy of the wilderness. Somehow, I don’t think she’s going to warm to the idea. “I was kidnapped and Kevin found me. I don’t know what happened.”
“I saw on the news that you were missing. But how did you get here, to Australia?”
It felt strange to say it, but there was nothing else that came to mind. Jade always had the answers, but this time she was lost. “I just don’t know what happened.”
“Are you saying … the kidnappers, brought you here? Where’s your dad?”
“At home looking for me, I guess. I don’t know how I got here.”
“All planes have been grounded, Jade. In every country around the world.” Callie’s eyebrows knotted together; confused. “But how … perhaps the military, your mom thought her research was being monitored. They’re the only planes that would get clearance to fly. But why would they bring you here? How did you escape them? And what do you mean, Kevin found you? Where did he find you?”
“Look, I’m tired, Callie, and hungry. You haven’t answered any of my questions. All I can tell you is this: I was swimming on Myrtle Beach with Ben,” she said, looking at Callie. If Callie was interested in the slightest about her being out with a boy, she wasn’t showing it. “I surfaced, and I was hit from behind.”
“Jade, that’s terrible!” Callie started to check her head and found no wounds. Her beautiful black hair had clumps of coagulated blood, but no visible injury.
“Then, next thing I remember,” Jade said, pulling away from Callie, “is that I woke up to the sound of men talking. It was muffled; my head was splitting and I was loaded up with narcotics. Comparatively, my ability to walk was very compromised. My neurons were cross-wired. I crumbled like a piano accordion and passed out. I woke again; I don’t know how much time had passed. I was alone in a cabin on a makeshift bed, hooked up to an IV. They had taken my blood and kept me drugged up. I pulled the IV line out and after a while was able to get myself up off the bed. I suppose they thought the drugs were enough to keep me restrained, but I managed to get outside. It was daylight and I just started staggering and running and running till I passed out. I regained consciousness and started moving; it was getting dark and I passed out again. The rest is just a blur. I was lying in the woods when Kevin and Tim helped me. I regained consciousness, startled by the guys. They looked harmless enough, so I allowed them to help me up and then they brought me here. That’s all my mind can recall right now. It’s probably blocking stuff to protect me.” Jade stared at Callie, waiting to see what she accepted.
Callie searched Jade’s eyes looking for answers. It was like a stand-off between them. Callie was unable to see beyond Jade’s shattered appearance. This was a child, but it was Jade, and she wasn’t an average girl. If it had been anyone else, she would not have believed her. “They took your blood, do you know why?”
“No, but logically I would have to assume there would be a connection to my mom.”
“Oh, sweetie, maybe we should take you to the hospital, get you checked out. We might find a strand of hair or skin under your nails; you know that might be all it takes to track your kidnappers.”
“No, that’s not necessary; I don’t think there would be anything of significance. I just want to be clean, I stink. I just want to wash this all away.” She caught a glimpse of herself in the vanity mirror and quickly turned away.
“The hospital is packed,” Callie said. “Not really a healthy place to be right now anyway. Jump in the shower and we can bag your clothes for analysis later if we need to. You feel okay, right, besides the anxiety and vertigo? You must be so tired, and your dad must be frantic. We’ll call him when you’re ready. Maybe Kevin can fill in some of the blanks and explain how he found you, and where he found you?”
“How long have I been missing?” Jade said, dropping the soiled jacket on the clean bathroom floor.
“Seven days,” Callie said, checking the needle marks along Jade’s arm. God knows what they’d put into her veins.
“Seven days? I feel like it has only been a day or two, three tops.”
Callie got up from the toilet seat and made her way into the bedroom.
“Don’t leave. I feel irrational. I’m afraid the world will drop out from under me again. I know it’s not real. Am I really here, Callie?”
“I won’t leave,” Callie said. “Yes you’re really here. I’m going to sit on the edge of the bed and think.”
“Okay. Keep talking, so I can hear your voice.” Jade shouted over the splashing water of the shower. “Tell me about my mom’s research.” The water felt so refreshing. She lost herself in the rhythm of the spray massaging her body. The water turned red and swirled down the drain at her feet. She sat on the floor with the soap, and rubbed her hair until the water ran clear. Grateful for the fresh apple-smelling shampoo, she vigorously rewashed her hair before combing conditioner through with her fingers. She could no longer hear Callie. A light film of steam was building and, using her index finger, Jade drew on the wet glass: S = k log W, and then a shape of a circle with a square around it. Her stomach started rumbling, snapping her out of her zoned out thinking. Jade hadn’t noticed the door had been slightly closed. She strained to listen and heard Callie softly singing ‘Songbird’, a song Jade’s mother had once loved to sing. Ever since her mother left it always made her cry. She rinsed off the conditioner and turned off the water, pulled down the towel from the rail and wrapped it around her. Quickly she dried herself and pulled on Kevin’s cargoes and t-shirt. She tugged a comb through the tangles in her hair. She felt around her head for any sign of the laceration … nothing. She shook her head in amazement at the speed of healing within the parallel world. Grabbing her hair, she twisted it into a bun at the back of her neck.
Callie was sitting on a deep-blue bedspread that had half a dozen white daisies embroidered across it. She stared at the ceiling as if something was written on it and she was trying to process its meaning. Jade stepped into the room. The coolness of the floor reminded her of home and the last time she rose from her own bed; she had floated down the hall to the smell of burnt toast.
Callie’s window was open and the nylon curtains gently flapped. A tree blocked the bigger view beyond the window, but the sound and the smell of the evening was still homely amongst all the chaos.
“Callie?” Jade looked around the room. On top of a tall, white chest of drawers, a digital picture frame was scrolling images of crystal clear waters, laughing children, memories of happier days. “Callie?”
Startled out of her own deliberations, Callie quickly turned around, looking over her shoulder, wiping away tears, and smiling. “That’s better, that’s the Jade I know. Who on earth were you trying to impress with those short shorts? You’re a beautiful girl. It’s good to see you out of black.” Clenching her tissue in one hand, Callie picked up her mobile and started to call Jade’s dad. Jade was taken aback that Callie had his number.
“Hi, yeah, she’s out of the shower. I’ll just put her on.” She handed the phone to Jade. Surprised, Jade stared at the phone and then back at her. She must have already spoken to her dad while I was in the shower.
“Dad?”
“Thank God you’r
e safe! I couldn’t believe it when Callie called. I’m unable to imagine what you have been through.”
“Dad …”
“What happened?
“Dad …”
“I’m sorry, you must be traumatized.”
“Dad! I'm okay, confused, I don’t know what happened. It’s hard to believe I’m in Australia. I was at the beach —”
“What were you doing out with a boy? He claimed you were knocked by a speedboat and dragged on board. The police thought that you had drowned and that Ben was making it up. There were no other witnesses.”
“Okay — but I’m not dead.” As soon as it was out of her mouth she knew it was stupid. “I think it’s got to do with Mom. I really believe she is still alive, Dad.”
“Honey, I’m so glad to hear your voice. I don’t know how I’m going to get to you, or how to get you home.”
“I can stay here with Callie. Is the old Indian still keeping watch?”
“We talked this morning. He asked me to go with him into the hills. He said he must keep me safe because we are family and you will one day return with your mother. Why did you ask about the old fellow?”
“I don’t know. An image of him jumped into my mind when Callie handed me the phone. Don’t go back to work, Dad. Wait until a vaccine has been developed. Go with the Indian.”
“Your mother and Callie were so close. If she hadn’t vanished they would have succeeded by now, I know it.”
“What?” Jade let her hair out to drop over her face to hide the fresh tears. “Dad, what did the Indian say about Mom?”
“Don’t worry about that, he’s just hopeful.”
“I need to go eat something. I don’t remember the last time I ate. I am losing perspective.”
“Lucky you’re not driving.”
“Dad, that seriously was a dysfunctional attempt at a joke.”
“I love you, little Raven Wings.”