Adaptive Instinct (Survival Instinct) (23 page)

“Only because you’ve told me a hundred times.”  Bryce looked up as she kissed him on the head.

Bryce’s mom then walked around the couch and sat next to him.  Becky decided she had enough of the sharing game and began trying to climb up onto their mom’s lap.  When she got up there, she pointed to a box of children’s books across the room.

“By!” she demanded.

Bryce knew exactly what she meant.  He got up and brought the box over.  Becky looked through them and grabbed the one she wanted.  As Bryce sat down again, his mom began to read the book to her.  Becky mostly just looked at the pictures and often flipped back and forth between the pages, sometimes before all the words could be read.  Bryce tried to encourage Becky to point out certain things on the pages, but she usually did her own thing.

When Larson arrived, he came in like a hurricane.  As soon as Bryce’s mom opened the door to their knock, Larson ran in, carrying a tennis ball above his head.  Maggie bounded in after him, leaping all around Larson, hoping he would throw the ball for her.  Bryce placed a protective arm around Becky, making sure she didn’t get run over by the pair.

“Larson!” Uncle Jeffery scolded his son.  “Not in people’s homes!”

With the stupid grin still on his face, Larson let the ball drop from his hands.  Maggie snatched it from under his feet and ran around the couch, defending her prize.  Bryce could hear, and almost feel, her wagging tail thumping against the back of the couch.

“We’re just going to be in my room if you need anything,” Bryce’s mom told him as she walked with Uncle Jeffery back into her bedroom.  The door was closed before he could reply.

Larson looked at the closed door, frowning.  “What do you think they’re talking about?”

“Nothing good,” Bryce told his friend and cousin, trying to keep the choked-up emotions out of his voice.

“My dad’s been meeting with a lot of people lately.  Like, behind-closed-doors meetings.”  Larson sat on the floor and started pushing one of Becky’s toys around.

Maggie, seeing that Larson was no longer playing with her, came out from behind the couch.  She lay down nearby, placing the ball next to her paws where she could grab it quickly in case someone tried to take it.

“I think my mom is too,” Bryce admitted.  His mom went out often, usually taking Becky with her, but telling Bryce to stay home or go to Larson’s or someone else’s.  He didn’t actually know where she went, but he had a few guesses.

“So what do you think they’re talking about?” Larson asked again.  “You must have some idea.”

“They’re talking about the monsters.”  Bryce knew Larson wouldn’t give up, so he told him, but left out the parts about his mom being sick and not loving his dad anymore.

“What about them?”

“I don’t know,” Bryce scowled at his friend.  Why couldn’t he just snoop for himself sometimes?  “They’re probably deciding what to do about them.”

“But then, wouldn’t your dad be involved?  And the other scientists?”  Larson had picked up on something Bryce hadn’t really thought about.  “I mean, it’s been a week since you followed him in there.”

Bryce watched Becky wander over to Maggie.  He was worried the dog would defend her ball too fiercely, but he needn’t have.  Maggie didn’t move a muscle as Becky climbed on her back and bounced as if the dog were a horse.

“I guess,” Bryce finally answered.  “I don’t know that much about the monsters.  My dad and the others are probably studying them.”

“What if they made them?  Like Frankenstein?”  Larson’s eyes went huge at the thought.

“They didn’t make them,” Bryce snapped.  “Why would anyone make them?”

“I don’t know,” Larson shrugged.  “Why did Dr. Frankenstein make his monster?  Just because, right?”

“Frankenstein was evil.”

“And?  You think this place isn’t?”  Larson gestured all around them.  “This is the kind of place you always find bad guys like Lex Luthor in.  The bad stuff always comes from some secret lab, doesn’t it?”

That was something Bryce definitely hadn’t thought about before.  Was it possible the White Box was a villainous lair?  Now that Larson had put the idea into his head, the place certainly had the air of one.  Then what did that make him?  Was he a bad guy?  No, he was just an innocent bystander.  But what about his mom?  She was probably innocent too.  She barely had anything to do with Keystone and the White Box.  His dad was another matter entirely though.  Bryce knew that his dad had married into the family.  He brought the Christopherson name with him, but Bryce’s mom had been a Taggart before that, like Larson’s dad.  The Taggarts were the ones who had made Marble Keystone and were the heirs to its money and control.  Although this meant it should go to Bryce’s mom more than his dad, he sensed that his mom handed over all control to him.  From what he was told, his parents met when Bryce’s dad was hired by Keystone to be a research scientist.  He was brilliant for his age and got invited to the big parties where he met Bryce’s mom.  The two fell in love, and that was that.

Now
they weren’t in love, and Bryce had no idea what his dad actually did.  What did he research? 
Could
he have made the monsters?  Was he the top of the villain food chain?  Bryce knew his dad led his own team, picked his own research topics.  Being small and unnoticeable, Bryce had learned a lot from keeping his mouth shut and hanging out near certain people at the swanky get-togethers.  He had never before put together all he knew in any meaningful way, not until Larson mentioned that idea.  The idea that led to Bryce’s dad being evil.

“Bryce?” Larson asked, worried.  Bryce had been so deep in thought, he didn’t notice the amount of silence that had passed between them.

“What if my dad made them?”  Bryce spoke the words before he could stop himself.  Tears then spilled from his eyes, unbidden, unwanted.

Larson’s mouth popped open for a moment, then snapped shut.  His eyes got slowly bigger as he didn’t know what to do, what to say.

“If your dad made them,” Larson spoke slowly,  “then my dad knows all about it.  He runs the security in this place, remember?  He has to know what’s going on.”

And like that, Uncle Jeffery was as implicated as Bryce’s dad was.  Uncle Jeffery who was currently talking to Bryce’s mom in secret.

Neither boy said anything further, they didn’t want to.  Their talk had frightened and upset them both.  Who else?  Who else in their family might be involved?

Becky ran over and smacked Bryce’s knee.  “By!”

“What do you want, Becky?”  Bryce looked at his baby sister’s large brown eyes.

She began to talk, not making one word of sense.  Bryce couldn’t help but smile a little.  Becky then ran over to Larson, wanting the toy he had been idly pushing around.  Larson let her have it.  Both the boys watched the baby girl and gradually began to feel better.

***

Later that night, after a very quiet dinner, Bryce was alone in his room.  He was drawing superheroes on his wall and listening to the TV out in the living room through his open door.  His dad was out there, watching some boring movie that was in black and white.  It was supposedly a classic.  Bryce had the opinion that if something got called ‘classic’, it meant that it sucked, but the old people didn’t want to let it go.  Out with the old and in with the new was Bryce’s personal motto.

In the bedroom next door, Bryce’s mom was putting Becky to bed.  She was probably reading her a bedtime story, or singing her a lullaby.  Bryce’s mom had a lovely singing voice.

He was adding some clouds to his drawing when he saw his mom in the living room out of the corner of his eye.  She walked up to his dad.

“Can I get you anything, dear?” she asked, standing and speaking very stiffly.

“No, thank you,” Bryce’s dad grumbled in response.

Bryce’s mom then turned.  When she saw him through his doorway, she smiled and walked over.

“What are you drawing?”  She looked at his wall and the smile got wider.  “Superheroes, eh?”

“Yup.”  Bryce turned back to his cloud making.

“Mind if I join you?  Or are moms not supposed to draw superheroes?”

“Moms can draw whatever they want,” Bryce told her, glad to have her company.  He loved the times it was just the two of them.  Ever since Becky was born, there were a lot fewer of them, but he wasn’t jealous or anything.  He loved Becky.

The two of them drew on his wall for maybe an hour or more.  They began drawing silly things, silly faces, and laughing.  His mom always laughed behind her hand, as if to hide her teeth, but her smile reached her eyes and lit them up like candles.

“I’m going to bed,” Bryce’s dad interrupted them suddenly, “don’t be too loud.”

“Yes, dear.”  Bryce’s mom answered with a smile, but this smile didn’t light her eyes.  “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”  Bryce’s dad bent down and kissed Bryce on the top of the head.  It was an unusual gesture that he didn’t do very often.

“G’night Dad,” Bryce said as the man crossed to his own bedroom.  He disappeared inside and closed the door.

“We should close your bedroom door so we don’t keep him up.”  Bryce’s mom got up from her kneeling position on the floor and shut the door.

“I don’t have to go to bed yet?”  Bryce just realized it was at least ten minutes past his regular bedtime.

“Not tonight.”  His mom smiled in that eye shining way again.  “Let’s keep drawing, hmm?  I bet I can draw better ponies than you can.”

Bryce rolled his eyes, but accepted the challenge.  Although they were still having fun, Bryce couldn’t help but notice that his mom seemed distracted.  She looked at the clock an awful lot.

“What’s wrong, Mom?”  He couldn’t keep from asking any longer.

“Bryce, do you like it here?” she asked, out of the blue.

Bryce shrugged.  “I liked our house a lot better.”

“So did I.  But if you had to live here or somewhere else, would you pick here?”

“Depends on the somewhere else.”  Bryce sensed where this conversation was going.  “Do you mean like somewhere south?”

His mom’s eyes widened
briefly, as it dawned on her that Bryce must have overheard some of her conversation with Uncle Jeffrey.  “Yes, somewhere south.”

“I just want to live wherever you are,” Bryce told her.  “You and Becky.”

“What about your dad?”

Bryce shrugged.  He still wasn’t totally sure how he felt about his dad.  He didn’t see much of him to begin with, so he didn’t think living without him would be that different.

“If I said a group of people were leaving here tonight, would you want to go with them?”

“Would you and Becky be coming?”

“Yes, we’d come,” she nodded.

“Then I want to go.”

Bryce’s mom leaned forward and gave him a kiss on the forehead followed by a tight hug.  “All right then.  Find the largest backpack you have.  I want you to pack some socks, underwear, your toothbrush, a pair of pants, a sweatshirt, a warm jacket, and a warm hat.  Can you do that?”

“Yeah, Mom.”

“Good boy.  You pack; I’ll be in the living room making a call.”  She kissed him again before leaving the room.

As Bryce packed the things into his Hulk backpack, which was the biggest one he owned, he could hear his mom on the phone.  She spoke quietly, and quickly, so that Bryce couldn’t make out what she was saying.  He made out just enough, though to figure out she was talking to Uncle Jeffrey.  When his bag was packed, he wore it out into the living room.  His mom placed a finger over her lips to remind him to be quiet.  He didn’t dare open his mouth now.  Bryce watched his mom open a cupboard and take out a backpack larger than his.  It was already packed full of stuff.  His mom must have prepared
a while ago, maybe while he was at Larson’s.  She then made a gesture for him to walk over, so he did.  His mom turned him around and packed more things into his bag until it was full.

“That’s not too heavy is it?” she asked in the quietest of whispers, right next to Bryce’s ear.

Bryce shook his head no, even though his bag felt like it did on the last day of school before summer, the day he brought all his schoolbooks and things home.

His mom then told him to wait by the door while she went into Becky’s room.  It wasn’t much longer before she came back out with a diaper bag slung alongside her backpack and Becky in a papoose carrier on her front.  Becky was still fast asleep with her thumb in her mouth.  Normally
, Bryce’s mom would take her thumb out, but not on this night.

When she opened the door, she winced at the sound it made and looked quickly over to her bedroom door.  When it didn’t open, she ushered Bryce outside.

“Take that off.”  Bryce’s mom grabbed his wrist and pulled the watch off of it.  She tossed it into the room before the door could close.  Bryce noticed that Becky’s ankle was bare of the device she had to wear.

“Come on.”

As they hurried down the white halls, Bryce held his mom’s hand.  He felt scared.  He had only a vague idea of what was going on, and it was nothing good.  It felt like they were escaping from something.  This only led further to the idea that his dad was a bad guy.  How did he treat his mom behind closed doors?  Was it possible he yelled at her?  Maybe even hit her?