Love Gone (2 page)

She wished she hadn’t just handed over
her address and phone number, even though it was the responsible
thing to do, she wished she hadn’t done it. She felt the fear rise
up in her throat like a sick, bitter liquid and she swallowed hard
as she stepped back again, putting more distance between herself
and this strange girl. Emily.

“Drive carefully,” Faith shot back and
she backed up toward her own car. She didn’t want to turn around,
not yet. She didn’t know why but the thought of turning her back on
Emily made the hair on her neck stand on end.

She couldn’t let Liam see her face
yet. He would know that she was scared and it would frighten him.
He had a natural ability to read people as easily as if he was
reading one of the historical nonfiction books he loved and she
didn’t want him to read her. Not now. Not before she had a moment
to compose her features and act like everything was normal again.
That girl – Emily – had really caused a strange reaction, she had
to admit. She wasn’t normally spooked, and certainly not by
teenagers not much older than Liam, but that girl was off. Just
off.

Emily didn’t respond. Just stood by
the open driver’s door and watched her back away with a curious
look in her eye. Later Faith would remember that look. She would
remember how Emily stood there by her battered Toyota with the
cheery bumper sticker in the almost dark. Her breath panting in and
out in chilled bursts in the cold December air. Her face resigned
and sad, clutching the scrap of paper Faith had given her as
impatient drivers swerved and honked and maneuvered around their
vehicles.

CHAPTER 2

“Okay. All set? Everything’s good,
let’s get home. What do you say?” Faith could hear her voice –
forced and cheery – as she hustled back into the car. “Out of the
driver’s seat Mario Andretti.” She nudged Liam over so she could
get behind the wheel. “I’d say you had all the driving practice
you’re going to need for a while. At least with me. Maybe your dad
can take you out in a couple of days.” She forced a laugh to cheer
him up, but one look at his face told her he was buying
it.

“Mom, why was that girl so
pissed?”

“She was just shook up and frightened.
She’s probably never been in a car accident before. Don’t worry
about her Liam, she’s fine.”

“Yeah, but she looked really crazy
mom. Like…her eyes, you know. There was something wrong with her
eyes.”

“Hey buddy.” Faith turned in her seat
to look at him before she started the car. “Getting in an accident
is a really scary thing and it makes people act in ways they
wouldn’t normally act. I’m sure that once she’s had a few minutes
to relax, she’s going to feel calmer and probably really
embarrassed that she acted so badly.”

“It’s not your fault,” she repeated at
his silence. “It’s not your fault.”

“Well, yeah, it was mom. I mean thanks
for trying to cheer me up, but of course it was my
fault.”

“Okay, fine,” she laughed – genuinely
now. “It was your fault technically, but it’s not like you were
trying to hurt anyone. You’re learning to drive. Mistakes are
inevitable. If you want to blame someone then blame me. What kind
of responsible parent tells her son it’s okay for him to drive home
in rush hour traffic? An un-responsible parent, that’s
who!”

“Un-responsible isn’t a word mom.”
Liam teased her, begrudgingly coming around to his normal happy
self.

“There’s my brilliant, book learned,
son who’s going to go to college and make something of himself and
keep his loving parents in high style when they’re old and grey,”
Faith joked and she started the car. Finally time to get the hell
out of here, get home and put this behind them. And yes, she was
definitely going to let Mac take over drivers training in the
foreseeable future. After this night, she didn’t want any part of
being a passenger in a car driven by a nervous
15-year-old.

“Yeah, I’m going to be so successful
that you and dad can have your pick of old folks homes,” Liam joked
right back, following their usual routine. “But, seriously mom. Are
you and the nugget okay?” He looked pointedly at her baby
bump.

She put one hand over his as she put
her turn signal on. “Liam my love. Mom, baby, and best son in the
world are all okay. Don’t worry about what happened another second,
okay? Promise me?”

He squeezed her hand in answer and
leaned back in his seat, turning his head to watch the lights of
Ketchikan, Alaska’s fourth largest city, its “First City,”
according to the history books, go past as they made their way
through the city’s small but picturesque downtown towards
home.

CHAPTER 3

Mac came bustling into the kitchen as
he did everything – large, loud, and merry. At 6’4” and 205 pounds
with jet black hair and sparkling blue eyes, he wasn’t anyone’s
idea of a diminutive Irish man; but Irish he was. Black Irish as he
never failed to tell people if they had the nerve to openly wonder
about his heritage within his earshot.

He got his coloring from his dear mom
and his size from his dad. His boisterous nature and sense of humor
was all from Mother Ireland, he liked to say. As quick to laugh as
he was to use his fists, Mac rarely found it necessary to prove
that his temper was typically Irish as well.

Luckily his sheer size helped him
avoid confrontations, but on the fishing boats where he made his
living it was common for flare-ups to happen between the men. Mac
was usually the peacemaker, but there had been times—few and far
between—that he had to let his Irish temper loose and settle some
disagreements the only way the men involved would understand – with
his sizeable fists.

But nothing like that had happened in
months. In fact, nothing much of anything had happened in months.
He mulled the thought over as he pulled open the fridge searching
for a Stella, his favorite beer. Prime fishing season in Southeast
Alaska was generally considered to be May through July. Salmon, the
most sought after fish, was caught in that time and it was every
Alaskan fishermen’s busy season, no doubt about it.

Lesser fish were caught up until
October at the latest, but after October it was every man for
himself.

Many fishermen elected to collect
unemployment from November through May, but the thought of being on
the government dole—no matter how deserved or needed—was upsetting
to Mac. He hadn’t come to America from Ireland as a teenager and
then moved his lovely wife and son from Maine to Alaska all those
years ago to take handouts, he thought, not for the first
time.

Faith’s job as an administrative
assistant at the Visitors Bureau helped them pay bills, especially
during his slow season, but now that she was pregnant with their
second little one, he smiled as he thought about it, she wouldn’t
be able to keep working as much as she had been now that Liam was
in high school and practically a grown man.

Where was Liam and Faith anyway? He
knew that she had taken Liam with her to run some errands. She had
said that she had some last minute Christmas shopping to do before
the holidays were well and truly upon them two weeks from now and
thought it would be a good chance to give Liam some practice time
behind the wheel. But, how long were they planning to be
gone?

He wasn’t one of those men that
demanded his dinner on the table by 6pm, but most nights Faith made
it a point to get supper on by then if she could. Her supervisor at
the tourist center had three kids of her own, and she made it a
point to allow Faith, her favorite employee, plenty of flexibility
so she could be home to look after him and Liam. Not that either of
them really kept regular hours. When Mac was on the boats or in the
cannery he could be gone for days at a time or up before dawn and
home after dark.

Now that Liam had started high school,
he’d gotten involved in afterschool clubs like drama and chess, or
he spent time with his friends at the mall or at their homes. His
whereabouts changed according to his mood and the day of the week,
as far as Mac could tell.

He loved his son, but his boy’s
distaste for sports made him shake his head in wonder. When he was
a boy he loved anything that involved physical competition. He was
the first one at bat for cricket or on the court for basketball. He
loved the camaraderie of playing with his mates and indulging in
good natured ribbing when he beat them in the game. It was probably
why he was such a great fishermen.

He never shied away from a fight with
the net or the line. When other men let the demanding pace of the
boats break them down, Mac rose up. He was proud of his ability to
stand tall when other men would crumble, but Liam, his only son was
completely different. Soft, like his mother, he thought with a
patient sigh. And where were they, anyway, he thought
again.

He checked the digital clock on the
microwave sitting on the counter. 6:30pm. Strange, he thought
again. He would call her, but Faith didn’t believe in cell phones.
In fact, she considered them ‘electronic chains that kept people
from interacting with each other.’ Not to mention, how expensive
the monthly service bills were; the real reason she refused to
carry one or give one to Liam, he knew.

Right now he wished he would have
insisted that they each carry one. In such a small town as
Ketchikan, Alaska, it seemed unlikely that an emergency would ever
come up that would necessitate a cell phone; but, just as his dear
mom used to say growing up, the man that’s sure of his fate spits
in the eye of the devil. Or, as his darling wife would say, better
safe than sorry.

Unaccustomed to a moment alone, Mac
wandered through the modest home looking for something to fix, oil,
or build. Just something to keep his hands busy so he would stop
worrying. Because worry he was. In fact, he was starting to fear a
cold wave washing over his back and up into his spinal cord. He
thought of his mother again; she always said someone was ‘walking
over your grave’ when you felt this particular fear and never
before had he appreciated how correct that saying was.

It truly felt like something was
coming. Something dark was heading towards him and for the life of
him, Mac couldn’t figure out how to keep his family out the path of
the harm he felt might be headed toward them.

CHAPTER 4

“Holy crap!” Faith exclaimed as she
made a right turn onto their street. “Is that the time? Your father
is going to be crazy with worry!”

She could not believe it was almost
7:00 at night. Long after the time she usually had dinner in front
of Mac and Liam. Ketchikan was small, but it was expansive. It took
almost 30 minutes to get from the shops of downtown back to their
modest home at the foot of the hills that rimmed the bustling
fishing village. The commute combined with the unfortunate accident
set them back almost two hours, much longer than she would have
believed.

“Well we’re home now mom. See there’s
dad on the porch!” Liam said, pointing. “He must have heard the car
or seen the lights. Wow, he does look worried.”

He did, Faith thought, he definitely
did. It wasn’t a normal expression to see on the face of her big,
strapping husband and it bothered her. Bothered her almost as much
as the strange sad expression she’d seen on the face of that girl.
Emily. What a day for unexpected and disturbing facial expressions,
huh Faith. Her feeble attempt to joke herself out of her uneasiness
fell flat, even if was just to herself.

She waved as they pulled closer. Mac
didn’t wave back. In fact, his face took on a distinctively darker
edge. Uh oh, Faith thought. Her husband was famous for his easy
grin, but when he was upset or afraid he went from a bear cub to a
bear, period. She’d have to do some fast talking. She didn’t want
Liam getting the brunt of his father’s concern and losing any
confidence he might have left to get behind the wheel
again.

“Hey Liam,” she said. “Why don’t you
let me tell dad what happened tonight, okay. Maybe it would be
better if you just headed to your room. How about you start your
homework, okay?”

“Yeah mom, okay.” Liam was no dummy.
He knew his mom was trying to protect him from his dad’s Irish
temper. He wasn’t abusive or anything – and there was plenty of
that type of parenting in Alaska, he saw it all the time with other
kids at school – but he could get a little gruff. It was especially
disarming because he was usually a big teddy bear. Always joking
around and laughing.

All his friends agreed that Mac was
the favorite dad of their crowd, and Liam was proud of his big,
tough dad and his delicate, pretty mother; but, he knew enough to
stay out of his dad’s way when necessary. Right now it looked
pretty necessary. He didn’t have to be told twice to go to his room
and start his homework. Let his mom work her magic on his dad
before he made an appearance.

Sliding out of the car after it pulled
into the bright light of the garage, Liam grabbed his book bag from
the back seat and scooted past the big form of his father standing
in the doorway with a quick, “hi dad.”

“Not so fast there laddie,” Mac
grabbed the back of his shirt with one big hand and held him there
while Liam squirmed and looked to his mother for assistance. “Where
have the two of you been? I’ve been right out of my head with
worry.” His Irish brogue always got thicker when he was tired or
overly emotional.