The Sun God Comes Home--Part Two

3.

“Coffee?” Sara carried out the social niceties, even as her body language made it clear she didn’t want him there. Without waiting for his answer, she poured a cup and banged it down on the kitchen table. Some of the coffee sloshed over the side of the cup. She went to the sink and started washing the breakfast dishes.

“Thanks,” Nick said. He took a sip, the warmth spreading through him. His eyes felt swollen. It had been three days since he’d slept. He was once able to go a week without sleep and not miss a beat. The price of getting old, he supposed. He took a bigger swallow of coffee, preparing himself for what he had to ask Sara.

“Mommy! Look!” The little girl ran into the kitchen, waving a piece of paper above her head. She was dressed in a pink Power Puff girls shirt and matching shorts. She had red hair, like her mother. And she had John’s eyes. The same eyes Nick saw looking back at him from the mirror.

The girl saw Nick and froze in place, as neatly as if someone had hit the pause button. Her expression was cautious, her eyes wide with curiosity.

“Chelsea, this is...your grandfather,” Sara said, nearly biting off the last word.

Chelsea’s eyes grew even larger. “The fly guy?”

Sara smiled, for real this time. “She calls all you–all the Legion members– ‘fly guys’”. To Chelsea, she said, “Sweetie, Grandpa works with the fly guys, but he can’t fly.” She looked at Nick, one eyebrow arched. “Can you?”

“Nope.” He smiled at the girl. He knew John and Sara had a child, and seeing her for the first time stirred something inside him, something that he thought was dead. “Some of the fly guys are my good friends, like Peace Officer and Jonni Angel.”

“You know the lady with wings?” Chelsea’s mouth opened in a huge smile. Nick could see the tiny baby teeth, so perfect in their symmetry.

“Yep.”

“The magazines all say Grandpa knows her very well,” Sara said, with a shrewd look. Nick felt his face redden. Christ, he hadn’t blushed in thirty years.

Sara took the drawing from Chelsea. “What do you have here, baby girl?”

Chelsea took her eyes off Nick for the first time. “It’s Daddy and Jesus watchin’ us in Heaven.”

Sara put the picture on the table. She squatted down and kissed the girl on the forehead. “It’s great, Chelsea. I think it’s your best yet.”

Nick pulled the drawing over to him. It was a child’s crude crayon depiction of a house with a woman and little girl standing out front. Above the house was a huge cloud. On top of the cloud were two men, both wearing white robes. One had wings and a halo, the other long hair and a beard. “My Daddy’s a fly guy now.”

Chelsea was standing next to Nick.

“He sure is, honey.” Nick’s voice was very thick. He thought about patting her on the head or even hugging her, but he was afraid it might scare her. Displays of affection had never been something he was comfortable with. Just another thing to thank the old man for.

Chelsea reached out and put her small, delicate hand on Nick’s. “Are you going to take care of us?”

“Uh, I...” He looked to Sara for help. There was no expression on her face.

After an uncomfortable wait, she said, “Right now, let’s see if Grandpa wants to stay for lunch.”

“Will you?” Chelsea said, tugging on his arm. “Please? Pretty please?”

“I guess, if it’s okay with your mom.”

It didn’t look like it was okay with Sara, but she said, “Sure. Now why don’t you go to your room and make another picture for Grandpa.”

“Okay!” Chelsea said, obviously delighted with the way her day was starting.

Nick didn’t like what he saw in Sara eyes, so he looked back at the drawing in his hands, noticing something he had missed the first time. Behind the house, Chelsea had drawn a tiny grove of trees, probably woods. Around the trees, she had rendered several dark figure.

“Chelsea,” he softly said, catching the girl before she left the room. “Who are these people?” He held the drawing down to her, and pointed at the area he was referring to.

“Oh,” his granddaughter said. “Those are the Bad Things that killed Daddy.”

***

After Chelsea was back in her room–encouraged by her mother to draw several pictures for Grandpa–Sara told Nick the story.

“We were out at the lake for a picnic,” she began. The lake separated Radiance from Harmony, the nearest town. Officially named Harmony Lake State Resort Park, it was referred to by locals mostly as just The Lake. Nick had spent many a summer day there, swimming with his friends and trying to get lucky with the girls. “It was a great afternoon. John had just sold a novel, his second, and his agent thought this was going to be his breakout book. He was hoping he could quit the department, though I don’t think he could ever completely give up police work.”

Nick was surprised. He knew John had always like to write stories. His mother used to forward some of them to the Legion of Freedom HQ. But he didn’t realize that his son had pursued it into adulthood. “Was he any good?”

Sara nodded, a sad smile on her face. “He was. As a writer and a cop.”

“What happened?”

“Chelsea was playing, we were swimming. Time slipped away from us, and it got dark. I was carrying Chelsea–she had fallen asleep–and John was behind us, with the picnic stuff and our towels. I heard him yell something. When I turned, he was surrounded by four or five...things. I don’t know what else to call them. He tried to fight, he really did. But I think he was too worried about us. He screamed for me to run to the car. But I couldn’t move. I watched him go down beneath them and I saw them start to tear parts off of him .” Sara stopped. Her lower lip trembled. She took a deep breath and, after a couple of seconds, regained a measure of control. “Seeing the blood–his blood–snapped me out of it. I had to get our daughter to safety. I ran to the car. I could hear one of them behind me, soft footsteps on the grass. We hadn’t locked the car, thank God. I dumped Chelesa inside, slammed the door and hit the locks. One of those monsters slammed into the door on my side. I started the engine and pulled away. I think it held on to the handle, at least until I steered toward the trees. I heard a thump, and I think it was knocked off.”

Sara knotted her hands together. She looked away from Nick. “I looked in the rear view mirror. There was enough light so I could make out what was happening. They were dragging John away. In pieces. And I just kept driving. I told myself it was to keep Chelsea safe. But I was so goddamned scared. I would have run, even if she hadn’t been there.” Sara put her face down on the table and began to cry.

Nick hesitated, then placed his hand on her shoulder. She sat upright and pushed his hand away. “No. You don’t get to comfort me.”

Nick withdrew his hand. He just looked at her, not knowing what to say.

“Where were you?” she demanded.

“I was injured. In a coma for weeks.”

Sara wiped a hand across her eyes. “That thing in space?”

Nick nodded. “The Runellean Armada. NASA’s solar station spotted them a few days out. The president alerted the Legion. We called in everybody and headed up there to meet them. It was a rough one.”

“What happened?”

Nick rubbed one hand over his gun-metal gray crew cut. “We took out most of the smaller ships, but they had one hellacious battle cruiser, with enough power, according to Doc Miracle, to obliterate Earth. The ones who could fly were on the flanks dealing with the scout ships, when the big boy broke away, with just me and my rinky-dink armor between it and home.”

“So what did you do?”

“I opened my visor. I could feel the atmosphere rush out of the suit. My head was pounding, both from the exposure to space, as well as the buildup of my power. I focused on the battle cruiser and hit it with everything I had. Everything. I saw the ship explode and I remember thinking how funny it seemed that the explosion didn’t make a sound. The force of the blast had sent me hurtling away from the battle, and I figured I was dead. I was just happy that you, John and the baby would be safe.”

He took a sip of his coffee. It was cold.

“The next thing I was aware of was waking up in the infirmary at Legion HQ. I was weak and full of tubes. They told me I was lucky to be alive. They also said I would probably never use my power again. And, after a couple of more days of recovery, they told me abut John.” He reached across the table and clenched one of Sara’s hands. “I know I’m not a good man. I know I was never a good father. But please believe me, Sara. I would have been here if I had known.”

She nodded, as if she didn’t trust herself to speak. She took a crumpled tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. She said, “We were on the back deck, the night it happened. There had been some kind of alert on CNN, but it was vague, as it always was where you...fly guys...were concerned. The baby was asleep and John had just finished writing–he tried to get in two or three hours in the evening–and we were just watching the stars. All of a sudden, there was this light, as bright as the sun, and I jumped. I thought it was a nuke, and we were being attacked. And you know what John did? He pulled me close to him and said, “Don’t worry, honey. That’s just my dad.”

“What did the cops do?”

“Huh?”

“The cops. When you told them what had happened to John.”

“Oh,” Sara said, startled by the change in subject. “They went out there, of course. They found his -- uh, they found evidence of what had happened. But Radiance doesn’t have a big department. Even though John was one of their own, there wasn’t much they could do. The chief tried to get the governor to place a call to the Legion, but nothing came of that. But now, with the other disappearances–”

“Others?”

Sara nodded. “Sandy Oliver’s brother, Randy. A college kid from Huntington. Arlo Nugent’s grandson.”

“Noodge?”

“Uh-huh. They all disappeared at the lake over the past few weeks. All at night.”

“Sara what did these things look like?”

She shook her head. “I told the cops, it was dark, I was scared. I just have a vague impression.”

He took her hand again. “Please. Tell me what you do remember.”

She closed her eyes. “They were tall, human shaped, I guess. Their eyes glowed yellow.” A grimace clouded her features. “Tails. They had tails. And there was an odor, too. Like rotting meat.” She opened her eyes. “Does that help?”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “It does.” He stood up. “I’m going out for a bit.”

“You’re going to the lake.”

“Yeah. I’ll be back for lunch, though.”

“If you don’t, Chelsea will be crushed.”

“I’ll be here,” Nick said.

“Nick?”

“Yeah?”

Sara smiled. She had a beautiful smile. “Did you really have an affair with Jonni Angel?”

Now it was Nick’s turn to smile. “Nope. Not that I would have minded. But she thought I was a hick with no class. I never denied that I was, by the way.”

“I also read that you were involved with that kung-fu dominatrix woman. What was her name?”

“S. N. Emma.”

Sara’s smile grew wider. “So?”

“So what?”

“Were you?”

Nick turned away and headed for the front door. “See you at lunch.”

To Be Continued

Originally published in 2004 at Adventure Fiction Online.
Revised version © 2007 Mark Justice