I seen you. We ran. We couldn’t find you.
Fifteen
We couldn’t waste any time—not if Dr.
Eastbrook was really experimenting with what I thought he was—no, what I was
now sure he was. It explained so many things that had happened. I didn’t
have the details figured out, but I certainly saw “the big picture.” And it was
a dark, frightening one.
But we knew we needed a night’s sleep if
we were going to have the energy to accomplish anything the next day. I didn’t
think that I would sleep at all—my mind was spinning like a weathervane in a
high wind. But I did drift off and awoke feeling pretty energized.
Father was already up and dressed. He
waited for me to clean up, then we headed down to the motel’s breakfast room,
quietly ate some toast, drank some orange juice, talked about only simple
matters. Didn’t want to take a chance that any of the others in the room—and
there were a few—would listen in and assume we were insane.
***
Out in the parking lot we sat in the car
a little while and talked about our strategy. We agreed that what we’d planned
was probably hopeless, but both of us knew we had to try.
We drove down to the riverside, rented a
small motorboat and some fishing equipment—we were not going fishing, but we
had to have some excuse for renting the boat! We also bought two floppy
fishing hats—about the only disguise we could manage. We knew it wouldn’t fool
Dr. Eastbrook up close—but it might convince him, for a while, that we really were
fishing.
I climbed in—so did Father. He pulled the
cord, started the small motor, and chugged out into the Hudson River, headed
(somewhat indirectly) toward Stormy Island.
“I think I ought to pretend to be
fishing,” I said.
“Good idea,” Father agreed.
I actually didn’t know very much about
fishing—but I knew you dropped a line in the water and waited for some fish to
bite the bait. I didn’t use any bait but just dropped in the line and tried to
look like someone who knew what she was doing. I pulled the hat low over my
brow after I saw that Father had just made that same move.
We slowly made our way around the
island—the opposite way that Dr. Eastbrook had gone (he’d gone north; we went
south). And as we turned and chugged up the eastern side of the island, we saw
a small dock. And Dr. Eastbrook’s boat was tied up there.
As per our plan, I pretended something
had gone wrong with my pole, so we pulled into the same little dock, Father
stopped the motor, tied down the boat, and we acted as if we were having some
small trouble.
We’d agreed to keep this up for a few
minutes—in case anyone was watching us and came to check us out. But nothing
happened. So we got out of the boat, stretched, hoping that if anyone was
watching, Dr. Eastbrook would think we were just there for a rest—maybe a
little hike or something.
No one came.
“There’s a path over there,” I said,
pointing so Father would see it.
He did.
And we headed toward this entryway into a
thick woods.
***
Inside the wood, it quickly felt as if we
were in some sort of fairy tale. (Were the Grimm Brothers smiling somewhere? Or
Tolkien?) The path was narrow, the woods were lovely, dark, and deep, but we
had promises to keep, you know?
There was a very strange silence in the
woods—no bird noises, even. Just the soft tread of our feet on the narrow path.
Neither of us said a thing. Father was ahead of me, and I was glad of that, for
each step seemed to increase my fear.
And then, ahead, we saw the trail widen a
bit—and bend. We slowed even more, then stopped.
“Why don’t you wait here?” Father
whispered. “And I’ll see if I can figure out what’s around that next bend.”
I had no problem agreeing with that—well,
except, of course, for my worries about Father’s safety.
He crept carefully down the trail, then
turned to look at me just before he turned the bend and disappeared.
Time passed. And more time. And more
time.
When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I,
too, edged forward, reached the bend, paused, then peeked around it to see …
… Dr. Eastbrook, who said to me, “Well,
there you are! We’ve been expecting you.”
He grabbed me and dragged me around the
bend, where I saw Father in the grip of Blue Boyle and wearing a gag around his
mouth. Father seemed asleep. And, later, I realized why: Our gags included a
chemical that knocked us out as surely as a fierce blow from Blue Boyle.
***
When I woke up, I was in a dark place—a very
dark place. I could not see a thing.
“Father?” I whispered.
“Yes,” came a whisper so close I was
startled.
“You frightened me,” I said.
“You frightened me,” he replied.
“You’ve been still and quiet for a long time. I was so worried.”
“I think I’m all right,” I said. I
stretched my arms and legs. No pain. “And how about you, Father?”
“I think I’m okay.”
We were both quiet for a moment or two.
Finally, I asked, “Do you know where we
are?”
“No,” he said. “Dr. Eastbrook drugged us
both, and the next thing I was here—but I could hear your breathing nearby.”
“How did you know it was my
breathing?”
“Because I’ve heard it for all your life,”
he said. I thought I detected a small catch in his voice.
Again, we were both silent for a few
moments.
“Father, did you get much of a look at
things before … before this?”
“A little,” he said. “There was some kind
of primitive cabin near where he grabbed us—it didn’t look too large, though.”
“He’s probably got something beneath it,”
I said, remembering. “Dr. Eastbrook is pretty good about concealing his
operations in a place that looks totally ordinary.”
“You’re probably right,” said Father.
More silence.
“And now,” I said, “what do we do about
it?”
“That’s the $64,000 Question,” he said.
“What?”
“Never mind—a popular old TV show.”[i]
“I didn’t know you ever watched TV.”
Father sounded embarrassed. “I didn’t.
But my parents loved it. I think it was on Tuesday night,” he added.
“You don’t ever talk much about your
parents,” I said.
“No, I don’t,” he replied in his end-of-discussion
voice.
Silence.
I tried moving my legs and hands. And
succeeded. “I don’t think we’re tied or chained here,” I whispered.
“I noticed that, too.” A friendlier tone
from Father. I was guessing that he was a little tense because he felt
responsible for the position we were in: his daughter—his only child—once again
in deadly danger.
“Father,” I said. “You can’t blame
yourself for any of this.”
I heard his sharp intake of breath. “How
did you know what I’m thinking?”
“I’m your daughter,” I said—and felt my
voice crack with emotion.
And then the room was ablaze with light.
***
A door opened near us while I tried to
shield my eyes. I heard the voice of Dr. Eastbrook before I saw him.
“I trust you’re sufficiently recovered,”
he said. Blue Boyle, beside him, grunted. I squinted at him. He seemed big
enough now to play professional football. And in his hand he held a hockey
stick that seemed as small as a toy in his glob of a hand.
And I noticed something else that
surprised me: There was no sign on his forehead of any mark where I’d hit him
with that rock back in Cooper’s Cave.
“We’re all right,” said Father. “No
thanks to you.”
“Well, if you want to stay all right,”
said Dr. Eastbrook, “it’s time to start cooperating. No, it’s nearly past
the time for it.”
“You’re not going to hurt us,” I said.
“Vickie!” cried Father.
“Not until you get what you want,” I
said, trying to sound far more confident than I actually was.
“You’ve got a lot of mouth for a child,”
he said.
“And more brains in my big toe than you
have in your entire body.”
Dr. Eastbrook took an angry step toward
us, and I thought for a moment I’d misjudged the situation. Uh oh.
But, no, he stopped. Drew in his breath.
“Okay,” he said, “I do need you. For now. But after I get what I want—”
“You won’t get what you want,” I
said, “unless I’m certain you can not harm us.”
That seemed to stop him again. He seemed
… puzzled. “But how can that be?” he finally said. “You’ll just tell the
authorities—again—where I am. And once again I’ll have to move the
entire thing.”
“What if I promise I won’t do that?” I
said.
“Vickie!” cried Father.
I just turned and smiled at him—a smile
that said, “Don’t worry.”
Then Dr. Eastbrook said, “How can I
possibly trust you?”
“The same way I trust you,” I said. “Not
very much.”
“Just what I thought,” he said.
“But here’s the thing,” I said. “We will
meet alone—just the two of us in a place where we can both see for a long way
around. And there,” I said, “I will give you what you want.”
I heard Father muttering. But I hoped he
wouldn’t say anything aloud. Because I had a plan. And he had to be far, far
away. And safe.
***
We settled on the arrangements, and Dr.
Eastbrook took us in his boat back to our car. As we approached it, he
muttered, “I was certain what I wanted would be in your trunk—or your room.”
“But it wasn’t, was it?” I said, perhaps
a little too smugly.
“You can be very annoying,” said
Dr. Eastbrook.
“So I’ve been told,” I said.
After he returned to the island, Father
and I drove back to the motel and went inside.
“What was all that about?” he
asked.
“I figured out what his device was,” I
said, “and so I knew two things: don’t let him know that I know,
and keep it hidden where he will not look.”
“And what is it for, Vickie?”
“I think it’s safer to tell you later.”
“Safer for whom?”
“For you,” I said quietly.
***
“Vickie, you know he’ll be waiting for
us—he’s probably watching the motel doors right now.”
“I would expect no less from him. We’ll
wait till dark,” I said.
Father’s look at me seemed to say, “Who is
this girl?” Not a bad question, actually.
***
We sat in the motel lobby, Father sipping
coffee—I, a Coke. Waiting.
We had already talked about the issue of
“darkness.” Around a motel there is none—lights at the entrance, at the
exits, all over the parking lot.
But I wasn’t worried.
Father was being, I have to say, very
patient. In a way it was almost as if we’d exchanged places: He’d become the
eighth grader; I, the parent. And I thought, too, that throughout my life we
had become an odd kind of joint body—both with developing hearts and minds.
As a team—as a kind of merged human
being—we each had an important role, a function. And each of us trusted the
other to perform that function in the most effective way possible. So far, he
had never disappointed me. I hoped only that he felt the same way about his
daughter.
As the sky grew perfectly dark, I told
Father: “When all the lights go out in and around here, I want you to head
quickly for the car—and I will meet you there as soon as I can.”
He stared at me. “When all the lights go
out …?”
“That’s right.”
He shrugged and sighed. But I knew he
would do it.
Some more moments passed, then I gave him
a little wave and headed back down one of the hallways. I’d noticed, not far
from the little lounge, was the door to the equipment and maintenance room. And
one thing I’d figured out long, long ago was how to pick a lock—especially a
simple one.
When I reached the door, I tapped—hoping
no one was inside.
No one was.
I quickly picked the lock, stepped
inside, turned on the light, located the box with all the circuit breakers,
opened it, saw the labels on the switches, looked for MAIN FLOOR and PARKING
LOT. Found them. Took a deep breath. And flipped those switches.
Two things immediately happened: It was
as dark as midnight when clouds shield us from the moon and stars. An emergency
beeping sound began.
I hurried to the lounge, made a quick
stop there, then out to the lot, out to the car, where Father was waiting for
me. I jumped in beside him, and off we went—slowly, as quietly as possible—headlights
off—out the main exit (we figured Dr. Eastbrook would be waiting by the other
one, expecting us to try to sneak out—turns out we were right).
No lights at first until we turned the
block and increased speed. I kept looking behind us.
I said, at regular intervals: “No one—no
one—no one—no one.”
We relaxed. The first part of our plan
was working.
***
It wasn’t until we pulled over into a
McDonald’s—and parked in the back—out of sight—that Father noticed I had with
me that little machine that I’d taken from the old Lake Erie lighthouse on
Green Island.
“I see you found your little friend,” he
said.
“Yes.”
“And where had you hidden it?”
“Well, as you can see, it looks a little
bit like a toaster—”
“Yes.”
“So I hid it in the motel coffee
room—under the counter near the ‘real’ toaster, shoved into the back with a
bunch of other junk in front of it.”
“You must have had a very clever father,”
he said.
“I did.” I paused. “No, I do!”
“And you figured any employee looking in
there for, oh, extra napkins, would see it and think, ‘Well, at last they
bought a spare toaster!’”
“Exactly.”
“So what’s it for?” he asked.
“Let’s get a little food first,” I said,
“then find a place farther away to hide. We’re still a little too close to the
motel.”
“Good idea,” said Father, and we headed
into the back customer door of the place, knowing we’d better not risk the
drive-thru. Too many lights.
***
Outside, munching and talking in the car,
we agreed that we ought to find a place to spend the night. My meeting with Dr.
Eastbrook was not until the following day—and we needed to rest, to freshen up.
We drove around until we found an old
motel—out of the way—only a few cars in the lot. And—a very useful thing—some
of the rooms were in the back, out of sight from the road. For someone driving
by there would be no way to know that extra parking lot even existed.
We carried our few belongings inside, and
Father drove off to find a drug store to get us some toothpaste, tooth brushes.
The motel supplied soap and shampoo (in tiny bottles), so I arranged the few
things we had and lay down on one of the double beds and waited. I didn’t
bother with the TV. Somehow, it seemed … irrelevant.
I was asleep in seconds, and only
Father’s return awoke me.
“Sorry,” he said when he saw me sitting
bolt upright and my eyes full of alarm. “I tried to be quiet.”
“You were,” I said, “but I’m kind of … on
edge.”
“Can’t say that I blame you.”
We rehearsed our plan for
tomorrow—again—before we each showered and prepared for bed.
I wanted to sleep forever. But I wanted
tomorrow to be over.
That rock had hurt me. Alot. I saw me in
a mirror. A big bump. I looked later. I did not like it.
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