Dastardly Bastard(23)

“D-Dad?” Lyle’s voice cracked, his vision blurring as the tears came.

“I need you to take a walk,” his dad said.

“What? Where?”

“Don’t worry about that. Just get moving. Run if you have to. Start back the way you came.”

“I-I miss you, Dad.” Lyle looked into his mother’s eyes, remembering her cold words.

“I miss you too, Brody.” His father’s voice sounded more alive, more there. “But we don’t have time for this. Get moving!”

Lyle moved off to the left, away from his mother’s shaking form. He could hear her calling him, but he didn’t care. She grabbed his wrist, and he twisted away.

His dad barked in his ear, “Run!”

Lyle’s legs shot out under him, and he found himself moving down the trail at a rapid clip.

His ears popped. Something was different. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but he felt queasy. Gravity was off. He felt lighter, as if the world could just slip out from under him, and he would go spiraling out of control into the sky.

“You can stop now,” his father told him.

Lyle came to a skidding stop. Gray dust rose at his feet. Loose rocks scuttled out, disturbed by his shoes.

“What’s going on, Dad?”

“That big guy with the camera, he saved your life. You remember?”

“No. All I remember is mom yelling at me. She said you left us because… because you didn’t want to be a-around me anymore.”

“She didn’t mean it, and you know it, Brody. I left because I died. No other reason. It was my time. You were my everything, boy. You still are.”

“Then why did you leave us? I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t want to go. Lord knows, I wanted nothing more than to watch you grow into a man. I am very proud of you. You’ve taken care of your mother during all of this. You’re a man in my eyes, Brody.”

“Can’t you come back?”

“No.” That word was final, harsher than all the rest, not angry, but stern, as if to hammer it home. “Listen. I know you don’t remember, but that man saved your life. Now he needs you to return the favor. The others saw him fall into the Chasm, but he’s not gone, and he’s far from dead. I don’t suspect they’re going to believe you, but you must try to help him.”

Lyle looked back to where the group should have been, but saw nothing but the empty trail. “Where is everyone?” Fear took root, its icy tendrils rummaging around in his guts. “I’m all alone!”

“No you’re not. I just needed a moment with you. Just walk.”

Lyle took a step. His ears popped again.

He found himself at an outcropping of rock. The trail ahead curved to the left. Lyle inched forward, rounding the corner of the rock face.

The tour group was ahead of him.

“But… but how…?”

“I gotta go now, Brody. You do as I say. Find the camera man.”

The telltale hum of a call in progress ceased, and Lyle was left looking at the screen.

CALL ENDED

No other words had ever felt more poignant.

Lyle’s heart shattered in his chest. “Daddy?”

He suddenly became aware of his mother screaming.

She had her back to him, looking the way he had run off, at the place he should have still been. “Where’d he go?” she wailed.

Lyle watched her take off in the opposite direction. He wanted to call out, but she vanished before he could form the words.

Something slammed into him from behind. He dropped forward, and his cell phone slid across the ground. The dustcloud it raised drove him into a coughing fit. Finally, he spit out a lump of black gunk. “Eww!”

“Lyle?”

He rolled over and saw his mother, confusion and fear playing over her face. She looked up, and he followed her gaze.

“That’s not possible,” she whispered. “They were behind me. I left them standing there.”

She was right. It wasn’t possible, but there they were, Justine, Trevor, and Jaleel, staring in the other direction. They didn’t seem to have a clue he and his mother were behind them.

“I left them behind me, but now they’re…” His mother’s voice trailed off.

When he looked back at her, she had her hand over her mouth. Probably chewing at her hand again.





19


JUSTINE COULDN’T BELIEVE HER EYES. First, Lyle had disappeared. There one moment, running full tilt, then he was gone.

Next, the boy’s mother had pulled the same trick.

After a minute of silence, the tour guide said, “Where’d they go?”

“I-I don’t… what the hell?” Trevor stammered. Justine saw the utter confusion on his face, and imagined her expression mirrored his.

“Lyle! Marsha!” Jaleel yelled.

“Here!”

Justine thought the chasm’s acoustics were playing tricks on her hearing, but the voice sounded as if it had come from behind her. She spun around and found the mother and her son further down the trail, just past the outcropping.

“What the fuck?” Trevor asked.

“Now I’ve seen everything,” Jaleel said. His shock seemed forced, dishonest, like someone walking in on a surprise party they’d known about in advance.