“Um, you, too,” I said, shaking her cool, dry hand with my hot, clammy one. I glanced past her at Tristan. He raised his shoulders, as confused as I was. He’d made it seem like she’d be annoyed by my intrusion, but instead I was a “distinct pleasure”?
“Tell me…what is your father up to?” she asked, lifting her hand to her chin and tilting her head like a politician listening to a laid-off worker.
“He’s trying to get off the island,” I told her. “I didn’t know what to do. What’ll happen to him if he—”
“Interesting, interesting,” she said, narrowing her clear blue eyes. “Well, I don’t want you to worry about that for one more minute,” she said, clasping her hands together again. “I will take care of it.”
She smiled down at me, then at Tristan, like she was some kind of magician and we were two rapt kindergartners.
“Okay, but what—”
Tristan shot me a look that said to stop, so I did, and the mayor turned and strode back into her office. The door closed with a click, and two seconds later I could hear her talking in a low voice. Tristan stepped over to me, watching the door the entire time, as if expecting it to open again.
“What’s she going to do?” I whispered.
“Don’t worry,” he replied. “If the mayor says she’s going to take care of something, it gets taken care of.”
“But what happens to people when they try to leave the island?” I asked, my heart racing.
Tristan’s face was a blank. “I’m not sure anyone has ever tried before.”
A door down the hallway behind Tristan suddenly closed. My heart skipped a beat.
“What?” Tristan asked, noticing my change in demeanor. “What’s wrong?”
I walked past him and pushed the door open. In front of me was a wide, modern kitchen with every amenity from a microwave to a stainless-steel oven to a double refrigerator—the complete opposite of our quaint nineteen-fifties throwback. But the important detail was, it was empty. Not a soul was there, and not a dish was out of place.
“What is it?” Tristan asked again, coming up behind me and pushing the door even wider.
“Nothing,” I said. “I could have sworn someone was back here. I saw the door move.”
Tristan glanced around but saw the same thing I did. An empty kitchen.
“The house is drafty sometimes,” he said. “I’m sure it was just the wind.”
“Oh,” I replied. “I guess.”
But as I turned to go, I heard footsteps overhead, followed by a soft, keening giggle. And just like that I knew: Someone had been watching me. Because on this island, someone always was.
Brainwashed
My father never came home. I spent the entire day on the front porch pretending to read on my iPad, but I was really watching the road. Aside from a few bicyclists, a skateboarder, and one happy strolling couple, I saw no one all day. By the time the sun had started to dip behind the gray house across the street, I had about a dozen theories as to what the mayor had meant when she’d said, “I will take care of it,” and none of them were good.
I looked up at the ceiling of the porch, leaning my head against the hard edge of the back of the swing. From the corner of my eye, I saw that one of the potted marigolds on the porch railing had withered and drooped, its formerly bright yellow bloom gone brown. I sat up fast. I could have sworn that a few hours ago, that flower had been alive and well, its stem curving toward the sun.
“Hey, Rory!”
I was so startled I almost jumped.
Aaron strolled toward me, a large take-out bag swinging by his side. I sat up as he opened the front gate, placing my feet on the porch floor.
“Hey,” I said, trying to smile.
“I brought you guys dinner, enough for four.”
Aaron lifted the bag, which was imprinted with the Crab Shack logo, and smiled back. He was wearing a red polo shirt with the collar turned up, just like the guy he’d chatted up at the bar the other night.
My heart sank at the reminder of my father. “Thanks. That’s great. But my dad’s not home, so it’ll only be three.”
“More for me, then,” he said happily, reaching for the front door and holding it open for me. Amazing how the source of such anguish for me was a happy surprise for him.
“Darcy!” I shouted as the door swung closed. “Aaron’s here.”
I heard her bed squeak, then her door slam, and she appeared at the top of the stairs. Her hair was all done up and curled around her face, like she was getting ready for prom.
“Hey, there!” Aaron said brightly. “What’s with the do?”
“Like it?” she asked, turning her head from side to side before tromping down the stairs. “I call it the Sheer Boredom.”
Aaron laughed. “Very creatively named.”
“What’d you bring?” Darcy asked, squiring him into the kitchen. “It smells yum.”
Just as Darcy opened the bag, the front door opened and my dad stepped into the house, flicking on the porch light.
“Dad!” I shouted. He barely had time to open his arms before I ran into them. “You’re back!”
“I am,” he said, dropping his keys on the table next to the framed photo of my family. “What’s with the hero’s welcome?”
I hesitated. He wasn’t acting like someone who’d gone on a fruitless mission to right his daughters’ lives. In fact, he looked happy and relaxed. Beaming, even.
“Um…where’ve you been?” I asked.
He was already looking past me toward the kitchen, where Darcy and Aaron were unpacking the food on the Formica table.
“You’ll never believe it,” he said. “I was at the mayor’s house, and she’s going to help me get my book published!”
“Really?” Darcy squeaked, taking a bite of fried shrimp as she sat down at the table. “How?”
“Apparently, she used to be in publishing, and she knows all these agents and editors,” my father said, strolling into the kitchen and eyeing the array of fish, fries, and sauces Aaron had laid out. “How’re you, Aaron?” he asked, slapping him on the back.
“Doing well, sir. Help yourself,” Aaron replied.
“Daddy, that’s great,” Darcy said as my father went to the cabinet for plates. “Are you done with it?”
“Almost,” he replied happily. “She said she’ll read it as soon as it’s finished.”
I walked slowly to the kitchen threshold, watching as the three of them settled in for their meals. They looked like some kind of brightly lit sitcom. The single dad, his pretty daughter, and her sweet little friend. For a brief moment I wondered if that was why this house was decorated like something out of the fifties. Were they—whoever they were—trying to paint the perfect American family backdrop before people moved on?
“That’s where you’ve been all day? With the mayor?” I asked.
My father frowned, thinking, as he loaded his plate with fried clams. “No. I went for a walk, had lunch at the general store, then bumped into her at the library.”
Untrue. Completely untrue. He’d stormed out of here on a mission and driven to the ferry. There was no way he’d spent the day wandering around. Someone or something had screwed with his memory—screwed with his mind. I looked at Darcy, waiting for her to ask about the mainland, but she didn’t. She simply pushed herself up from the table and went to get everyone drinks.
They’d messed with her mind, too.
“Are you gonna have some?” Aaron asked, glancing at me over his shoulder. “If you are, you’d better start or I’m gonna eat it all.”
I just stared at him. They were all brainwashed. Every one of them. If Darcy disappeared tonight, then tomorrow, Aaron wouldn’t remember her. And if Aaron disappeared, too, my father wouldn’t remember either of them. How did they do it? How did they erase everyone’s memories and replace them with new ones?