Do Not Answer #10
“You don’t know.”
“I know he was under the water. He didn’t see Dad waiting because Dad didn’t wait.”
Her father made a sound behind her.
The boy looked past Lena.
“You promised you’d get me.”
Ethan took one step.
Lena turned and slapped him.
The sound startled all three of them.
Her father stared at her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But stop.”
Above them, Keller shouted.
Lena looked up.
The old man stood on the outside of the broken platform, beyond the railing.
Keller had climbed almost to him.
Mason was two flights below.
“Keller, come down.”
The old man held out his hand.
Keller reached.
His fingers passed through the man’s sleeve.
The figure folded inward.
For an instant it became Mercer, then Ruth, then a child in red shoes.
Keller lost his balance.
Mason lunged upward.
He caught Keller’s coat.
The fabric tore.
Keller fell through the broken rail.
He struck the lower platform and rolled over the edge.
The sound when he hit the stones below was smaller than Lena expected.
The boy among the trees screamed.
His mouth opened too wide.
The corners split toward his ears.
Ethan pulled Lena backward.
The thing came toward them.
Its legs did not move correctly. One knee bent forward, then corrected itself. Danny’s face slid across something larger beneath it.
Mason descended the stairs three at a time.
“Inside.”
They ran into the beacon building.
Mason slammed the door.
There was no lock.
Ethan shoved the desk against it while Mason turned to the radio console.
The green light pulsed.
Outside, Danny knocked.
Three slow knocks.
Ethan pressed both hands against the desk.
Lena stood beside him.
The thing outside said, “I’m cold.”
Her father closed his eyes.
Lena removed the whistle from her pocket.
She looked at the blue plastic in her palm.
The radio console clicked.
A recorded voice said, “Emergency beacon armed.”
Mason pulled a metal switch.
The green light turned red.
A low pulse began somewhere inside the tower.
Outside, the knocking stopped.
Danny whispered through the door.
“Dad?”
Ethan opened his eyes.
Lena held out the whistle.
“Did you really bring it to throw away?”
He looked at it.
“I thought I could.”
“Do you still want to?”
“I don’t know.”
The thing pressed against the door.
The wood bowed inward.
Mason braced the desk with them.
“Beacon’s transmitting.”
“How long?” Ethan asked.
“Until the battery dies.”
The door bent again.
A thin black line appeared along its center.
Water ran through the crack.
It spread across the floor around their shoes.
Lena smelled the reservoir.
Warm algae. Mud. Gasoline from the rescue boats.
The room disappeared for half a second.
She stood on the north shore beside her mother, watching divers enter the water.
Then the beacon building returned.
Ethan was crying.
The thing outside used Danny’s voice.
“You didn’t find me.”
Ethan said, “No.”
Lena looked at him.
He was no longer pushing toward the door.
“You didn’t find me,” the thing repeated.
“No,” Ethan said again. “I didn’t.”
The door stopped bending.
Ethan took the whistle from Lena.
He turned it over in his fingers.
“I went after you.”
The voice outside grew quiet.
“I know I did.”
The water around their shoes began to drain through the floorboards.
Mason looked at him but said nothing.
Ethan put the whistle to his lips.
Lena caught his arm.
“Don’t.”
He lowered it.
The thing scratched once across the door.
Then it moved away.
They waited.
Nothing returned.
At dawn, the Coast Guard helicopter found the beacon.
The storm had moved east, leaving the island beneath low gray clouds.
Mason went outside first.
Keller lay at the base of the tower. Lena did not look closely.
There were no footprints around the beacon building except their own.
They returned to the station for the emergency blankets and found the front door open.
Mercer’s raincoat lay on the porch.
Ruth’s canvas shoe sat beside it.
No one searched the kitchen.
The helicopter lifted them from the clearing one at a time.
Mason went first because of the cut on his shoulder. Lena went next.
Her father waited below until the rescue swimmer secured the harness around him.
From the helicopter, Lena could see most of the island. The trees, the ruined tower, the narrow beach, and the Alderman broken against the rocks.
For a moment she thought she saw three people standing at the edge of the clearing.
Mercer in his green coat.
Ruth with one shoe missing.
Danny in a blue sweatshirt.
Then the helicopter turned, and they became tree stumps and wet stone.
Her father sat beside her on the flight back.
He still held the whistle.
The rescue swimmer asked whether it belonged to the boat.
Ethan said, “No.”
He opened his hand.
Lena placed hers beneath it.
Together they let the whistle fall through the open helicopter door.
It tumbled once in the wind and vanished into the water.
Her father watched the place where it disappeared.
A faint knocking came through the metal floor beneath their boots.
Three dull taps.
Ethan looked down.
Lena covered his hand with hers.
He did not answer.
Neither did she.