“You look pretty.” I read Jack’s lips as he leaned over and whispered it to her.
I gave Servario a pleading look, “Please just come.”
He shook his head, “I’ve broken every other rule for you, Evie. This is one I cannot.”
“I can’t be strong without you.”
He laughed; it was fake, “You are stronger than you think.”
“No, I’m not. You have to say that.”
He leaned in and kissed my forehead, “Consider inviting me to Christmas. Please, baby. I want to see you in all your glory, pajamas till noon and everything.”
I felt the dam breaking. The tears were winning.
He kissed each of my eyelids, “Go now.”
He turned and walked to the helicopter.
The pilot started it up.
I started to sob.
Servario pointed at me. Coop grabbed one of my hands, dragging me to the cave entrance.
We stepped into the darkness and all I could think about, was the light behind me.
We walked for a while before my eyes adjusted. The dark of the tunnel was annoying and never ending. My eyes were sticking from the tears.
Coop never let go of my hand. He squeezed tight, pulling me through.
My CI brain switched on about halfway. Our pace slowed and I knew what was happening.
I never doubted for a second, that each one of us assumed it was a trap of sorts.
We didn’t trust Servario, not completely.
We never heard Roxy’s story or James’.
We took everything Servario had said at face value.
In the dark, Jack whispered, “Is anyone else seeing that last scene in the movie The Usual Suspects rolling around in their head? You know where Kevin Spacey leaves the police station and his limp slowly leaves.”
I nodded, “I have that same bad feeling I had on the plane.”
Coop nodded, “I don’t know what to expect on the other side of this tunnel.”
Luce laughed bitterly, “I’m waiting for him to shoot it with bombs and collapse it.”
That was it.
We all started running.
I tripped but Coop dragged me up.
“Light!” Luce shouted back.
We slowed when we saw it get brighter.
It was a door.
When we got closer we could see the light around the edges.
Coop went to the front. He ran his hands on the metal of the door, making an almost-silent scratching noise against it.
“No handle.”
I shrugged, “Knock.”
He banged lightly.
Something made a grinding noise, and instantly, dust moved in the beams of light we had around us from the door.
It pulled back and light filled the dank space.
My eyes needed a second to adjust, but when they did I didn’t believe what I saw.
My father.
“Daddy?” I whispered.
The man looked much older, grey-haired and more wrinkled than before, but he was my father.
His face split into a grin, but I could see the panic in his eyes.
His smile was fake. He wasn’t happy to see me.
I wanted to cry but the commander didn’t like crying. At least I didn’t think he did, but tears leaked from his old, green eyes.
He held his arms out for me. I leapt into them. He wrapped and squeezed and I couldn’t breathe but I didn’t care.
“Mommy!” I caught the word being screamed from beyond my father and I.
My ears caught it in the distance.
Dad kissed me on the cheek and pulled me back, “Go see them. They’ve missed you, something fierce.”
I nodded and felt the collapse of the walls inside of me.
I broke free of him and ran along the cobblestone. I dropped to my knees and they jumped me.
I cried as hard as they did.
“You took too long!” Jules squeaked at me.
I cried and sniffled, “I’m so sorry. It was more work than I thought.”Coop ruffled Mitch’s head, “Hey, kid.”
Mitch stood up and crossed his arms over his chest, “Hey, Coop.”
I smiled at the way he tried to be a big boy around Coop. They seemed to hit it off the moment they met, back at the house after James’ funeral. Jules clung to me for a second longer and then pulled my hand, “Come see. There’s a real princess.”
I smiled and looked back at Luce and Jack. He mouthed, “I knew it. Ise Grand Shrine temple.”
I nodded and gave him the thumbs up, “I don’t know what that means?” I mouthed back.
Jack made a face, “What?”
I laughed and said aloud, “Nothing.”
I looked back at my dad, “How?” I asked, being cryptic because of the others around us.
Dad grinned, knowing I meant how had they fooled me all along. He shrugged subtly, “A hell of a lot of work.”
I nodded, “I bet. So Mom and you both?”
He laughed, “Your mom more than me.”
I shook my head, still baffled, “How?”
Dad laughed again, “A hell of a lot of work!” He linked arms with me as Luce and Jack introduced themselves to Jules. She dragged them up the road. Coop and Mitch walked behind them.
“You were right about James, Daddy.”
He nodded, “I know, princess. I tried to make him do the right thing by you and I made a bigger mess. I’m sorry. I should have been honest with you. I liked to imagine my rank had an effect on him. The guy was a wiener.”
I laughed.
He gave me a sideways glance, “A dead wiener?”
I nodded quickly, knowing he would want full details when we were completely alone.
“Suffer?”
I nodded again.
He sighed, “I take you and Servario met?”
“Yup.” I missed him already.
“He’s a strange kid too. I like that one though. He came to me when he was twenty-two and asked my permission to date you. I kick myself now for telling him no. I told him the secret was more important. I think he liked you because you were so good at all of this, but telling him no, seemed to make him obsess about you. Well, fat lot of good that did me. Look at where you are. You’ve met him anyway,” he chuckled and I understood something new about Servario. His infatuation with me had been genuine from the beginning, and the challenge of being told no by my father, had only made things worse.
I decided to save that one for later and looked around, changing the subject, “What is this place?”
He glanced around in awe, “This place is perfect for our purpose. It’s a Japanese temple that’s dedicated to a Goddess. There are 123 temple shrines here. This particular one is forbidden access for regular visitors. No one may enter, and then there’s the fact they renovate every twenty years. Anyway, the legend is that a daughter of some guy wandered the woods for twenty years, trying to find the perfect place to worship this goddess. She ended up here in Ise. It’s all rebuilt, every twenty years, to maintain the respect of the order of things. The natural decay cycles. So we can be here, moving in amongst the shrines, staying hidden.”
I shook my head, “Why would the Japanese ever agree to this? They hate Americans, rightfully so.”
He looked down on me intensely, “The Fat Man and The Little Boy. After the Second World War they were dedicated to the preservation of the world. Few cultures care about nature and balance like the Japanese do. Once we dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese royals were in. They wanted the immediate control of the weapons that ruined so much of their country. They gave us their most sacred temple as a show of their dedication to the Burrow. They don’t hate Americans, they hate disrespect.”
I looked around at the people walking past us. They were multicultural. “So everyone here is a threat to the world in some way?”
He nodded.
“Wow.”
He nudged me, “You have no idea. You guys coming here is a huge mess. I’ll be lucky to get out alive.”
I looked around, “I can imagine. What have you told the kids?”
He laughed, “That they’re in Thailand, going to an ashram for meditation. They’re pretty mad at you for picking this as a vacation. I told them it was James’ idea.”
I laughed.
I looked up to see my mom walking down the road. I started to cry again. I ran to her. She wrapped around me, “My baby.”
My sister was close behind. She wrapped around mom and me.
“Sissy.”
She shook when she hugged me. I knew she would be in the dark. She wouldn’t know and wouldn’t want to. She was a typical hippie from a typical commune on the West Coast.
“Are you in some kind of shit,” Sissy whispered.
Mom gave her a look, “No swearing in the temple.”
Sis scowled at me, “How did this happen? We’re prisoner here and Dad’s alive? What the heck?”
I shrugged, “I got nothing.”
She laughed, “I see.” She grabbed dad, “You—old man, are in trouble. You broke my heart.”
He sighed, “It was all for you girls. I needed to keep you safe.” He looked at me, “Speaking of which, you have a date with some people.”
I held my robe to my body and nodded, “I figured something would come of it.”
He put a hand out for me. I took it and smiled at my mom and sister, “Be back in a bit.”
Mom smirked.
We walked up the road, I smelled the blossoming trees and looked around at the beauty of it all.
“They will make you clean this up or die. That’s the only option.”
I looked up, “What?”
He nodded, and the grim look I saw on his face when he first saw me, was back.
“Dad!”
He shook his head, “My hands are tied. James screwed you hard kid. He put you a pickle, I’m not positive you’ll get out of.”
I started to panic but he grabbed both my arms, “But I do know, if anyone is going to get out of it, it’s you.”
I looked at him, “You think so?” My faith in my survival was dwindling.