Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six(76)

She pulled out a file from her sack, opened it and turned it around. It was thick with printouts from the internet. A couple died in a suspicious house fire. A young actor overdosed. Another dead by accidental strangulation—autoerotic asphyxia. Others. He recognized each name from the Origins results, from the Donor Sibling Registry.

Henry slicked back the second bourbon. But instead of calming him, it made him feel sick.

“So what does this mean?”

“It means that these folks started looking for answers and now they’re gone. All of these deaths are considered suspicious by the police. No evidence. No leads. The one thing they all have in common is that they took an Origins test and found out that their father was a sperm donor.”

“Our father.”

“That’s right.”

Henry’s stomach churned. He found himself rising and walking quickly to the bathroom. Once in the stall, he threw up copiously in the toilet. When he was done, he sat on the cold tile floor that was surprisingly and mercifully clean, and put his head on his knees. He wasn’t sure how much time passed. But during its span, he decided right then and there that he was done. Done with Origins, done with searching for siblings, for connections.

The door opened and Max walked in. His bulk filled the doorway. “You okay, man?”

Max offered a hand, but Henry waved him off.

“Yeah,” said Henry rising, embarrassed. He flushed the toilet but his vomit had splattered on the seats, the stall walls. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks. Sorry for the mess. Let me help clean it up.”

The other man smiled, a patient turning up of the corners of his mouth. “Happens all the time. No worries.”

Henry walked out to return to Cat, to tell her he had to go. But when he got back to the booth, she was gone. She’d scribbled her number on a napkin. Sorry I upset you. Call me if you want to talk.

He took the napkin, shoved it in his pocket, but he had no intention of ever calling her. He was going to call in sick to work Monday, get on the next plane to Tampa, and beg Piper to take him back. He was going to walk away from his genealogical quest for the past and into the future with the only person he’d ever really loved. The mystery of his father, his dead half siblings? He’d leave it behind, another untold story in his past, one that mattered not at all.





31


Cricket





June 2018


“Stay here,” said Hannah. She’d put on a rain jacket, and had the flashlight in hand.

“What?” said Cricket, taking hold of Hannah’s arm. “No way. You’re not going out there. I mean—why? What are you going to do?”

But she recognized the look on her old friend’s face, a kind of set determination. She’d seen it before, many times.

It was the I’m-going-to-fix-this look.

Hannah had worn it the night she’d had to sneak out, essentially stealing her parents’ car, to pick Mako and Cricket up from a rave they weren’t supposed to be at. She’d worn it when Mako dumped Cricket after prom—I’m leaving in a few months, Cricket. I care about you, but it’s not going to work—and Hannah bailed on her own prom date to comfort her. She’d worn it the night they drove Libby away from the house, the girl weeping in the back seat.

“Bruce and Mako are out there,” Hannah said. “I’m going to check the circuit box and the generator and see if there’s something visibly wrong. Then I’m following that path to the cabin and get them to come back here. It’ll be fine. Storm seems to be letting up.”

“But there’s someone out there.”

“And I need to let them know that.”

“Call them.”

Hannah rolled her eyes. “You don’t think I tried that?”

“I’ll go with you,” said Cricket. “Safety in numbers.”

Hannah hesitated, then offered a worried frown and they both glanced over at Joshua.

“You should stay with Joshua. He doesn’t look good.”

But it wasn’t just that? Her friend knew, of course, that Cricket was no good in a crisis. It would be faster if she went alone, even Cricket could admit that.

“What should I do?” Cricket, it had to be said, wasn’t really a caregiver either.

“Just—keep him awake. And maybe keep trying to get a call to go through. I think Joshua needs some medical attention. If you get a signal, call 911. We do have an emergency. We need help.”

Joshua seemed dazed, head in hand. They’d woken him up but they were having a hard time keeping him awake. That wasn’t good, was it? He’d bled through the cloth she had wrapped around the bag of ice. There was a lot of blood on his shirt, too. So much blood from a cut on his head. She really didn’t want to leave him alone. She also didn’t want Hannah heading out into the dark.

“Let’s call the host again first,” Cricket suggested. “Then you can go.”

Maybe if she stalled, the guys would come back.

“There’s no service, Crick. I tried.”

Hannah was already moving through the sliding door. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, whispering through the open door. That probably meant that the power would be on soon, maybe the road cleared quickly and they could get out of here, right? Cricket needed to leave, get away from Mako and the noxious affect he had on her life. Joshua needed to go to urgent care at least.