The Chain(50)

“So what do we do?”

“We don’t do anything. We keep quiet and try to put this behind us.”

“No!”

“We have to, Kylie. I’m sorry, but it’s the only way.”

When they arrive back on Plum Island ten minutes later, Pete is waiting for them. He hugs Kylie when she gets out of the car and then lifts her up and spins her around.

“Honey, you’re safe!” he says and helps her inside.

Eli jumps up onto the sofa next to Kylie and she picks him up and kisses him.

“How’s…” Rachel whispers to Pete.

“Sleeping. I’ll go back there in five. I just wanted to see you guys,” Pete replies.

“Uncle Pete,” Kylie says and puts her arms out for another hug.

Rachel sits on one side of her and Pete sits on the other. Eli nestles in her lap. It’s a miracle, that’s what it is, Rachel thinks. Sometimes kids do come back, but often they do not, especially girls.

“Do you know everything that’s happened?” Kylie asks Pete.

“Yeah, I’ve been helping your mom.”

“Group hug,” Kylie says, crying again.

Pete puts his arms around both of them.

“I can’t believe it,” Kylie says. “I thought I was going to be down there for a million years.”

They all sit there for a few minutes before Kylie looks up and grins at the two of them. “I’m hungry,” she says.

“Anything you like,” Rachel tells her.

“Pizza.”

“I’ll microwave one right now.”

She tries to get up and go to the kitchen, but Kylie won’t release her.

“Are you OK, Kylie?” Pete asks. “Did they hurt you?”

“The man hit me after I hit him and tried to escape. It really hurt,” Kylie says.

“Shit,” Pete says, his fists clenching by his sides.

“You must have been terrified,” Rachel says.

Kylie speaks and Pete and Rachel listen.

She tells them everything.

They let her words spill out. If she wants to talk about it, they’ll let her talk. Kylie isn’t one who clams up, and for this Rachel is grateful. She strokes her daughter’s hair and smiles at her bravery.

She heats the pizza while Pete goes back to the Appenzellers’ to check on Amelia.

Kylie goes up to her bedroom to see all her stuff.

“Mom, can I text with Stuart and all my friends now? Would that be OK?” Kylie asks.

“Yes, but you have to tell him that you had a stomach bug, OK?”

“OK, I guess. And what do I tell Dad?”

“Oh, crap, that’s a whole thing. You have to tell your father that you went to New York,” Rachel says, and she explains the situation with her father and Tammy and her grandmother.

“I need my phone!”

Rachel gets the phone. “I couldn’t fake-text for you because I didn’t know your passcode.”

“It’s so obvious: two-one-nine-four.”

“What’s that?”

“Harry Styles’s birthday! Oh my God, I have a million messages.”

“You have to tell people you were sick.”

“I will. But I want to go to school Monday. What day is it tomorrow?”

“Monday.”

“I wanna go to school.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. I want you to get checked out by a doctor.”

“I’m fine. I want to go to school! I want to see everybody.”

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t want to be cooped up in a house again.”

“Well, no school bus, not anymore. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

“Hey, where’s my stuffed bunny? Where’s Marshmallow?” Kylie asks.

“I’ll get Marshmallow back for you tonight.”

“He’s not lost?”

“No.”

Kylie sends texts to her friends, who are probably all sleeping. She and Rachel lie in bed and watch her favorite YouTube clips: A-Ha’s “Take On Me” video, the Monty Python fish-slapping dance, half a dozen videos from the rap group Brockhampton, the bit in Duck Soup where Groucho is suspicious of his own reflection.

Kylie showers and asks for some alone time, and when Rachel goes to check on her half an hour later, she is fast asleep. Rachel collapses on the couch and weeps.

Pete comes back at six in the morning and puts a couple of logs on the fire. “Everything OK over there?” Rachel asks.

“Amelia is still asleep.”

Pete makes a pot of coffee and they sit by the fire.

Everything seems back to the way it was before. Fishing boats heading out into the Merrimack. Bernstein on WCRB. The Globe arriving in its plastic wrap in front of the house.

“I can’t believe she’s home,” Rachel says. “There were times when I thought I’d lost her forever.”

They watch the logs whiten and slowly turn to ash. Rachel’s phone rings. Unknown Caller. She answers it on speaker.

It’s the distorted voice. It is The Chain speaking directly to her: “I know what you’re thinking. It’s what everyone thinks when they get their loved ones back. You think you can release your hostage and end this. But the thing is, you can’t fight tradition. Do you know what a tradition is, Rachel?”