Down By The Sea

by R.J.Salway

New Troy, the longest, narrowest state in the Union, boxed in by two larger states and
another country had little coastline to boast about, unless you counted river banks and
lake shores, but the line of islands dotting Hob’s Bay more than made up for it. The New
Hampshire and Maine sides of the inlet from the Atlantic were steep and rocky and were
often compared to the fjords of Scandinavia by imaginative writers. The bay had waters deep
enough for cargo ships to come to port at the piers and wharves of Metropolis, one of the
major cities in the state. Joined by a series of bridges much like the Florida Keys, the
Troy Islands were a scenic and accessible getaway for the citizen’s of Metropolis and the
upstate towns of New Troy to enjoy.

It was on the third biggest island of Ste. Noelle where, at some point in time, Dr. Sam
Lane, a doctor who specialized in sports injuries in Metropolis, bought a large piece of
land and built an A frame cabin overlooking a thin strip of beach facing a southern view.
Meant to be a getaway for himself and his family, the spacious cabin went largely unused
when the family disintegrated after a bad divorce. In the turbulence of the time, he never
mentioned it to his wife, or to his young daughters. It became a place Dr. Lane loaned to
friends and colleagues now and then when he was feeling particularly amenable to whatever
plight or occasion they might be experiencing.

When he overheard a few colleagues whispering about what had happened to "Dr. Lane’s
daughter, the reporter," he was curious enough to make the effort to find out what they
were talking about. He had never mentioned his family to anyone with whom he was currently
working, so it aroused his curiosity as to how they discovered the reporter in question was
his daughter. On his lunch hour he went to the library.

She was lucky to be alive. Sam shook his head and turned off the reader containing back
issues of the Daily Planet newspaper and the articles of his daughter’s recent brush with
death. Drug smuggling. What was going through the head of the idiots in charge at the
damned Daily Planet, anyway? Letting her investigate the story, undercover no less, without
back up or even a partner? He knew her well enough to know she would have gone after the
story no matter what, but he would have thought that after a year, her bosses- editors?-
would know her that well, too. She’d managed to infiltrate gun runners and burglary rings
and dodged bullets to get away with her stories before, so why not? Why didn’t they know
her better?

Idiots! He was so angry he skipped lunch and went back to the laboratory complex where
he maintained a large lab separate from his office at Menken’s Gym.

Sam Lane went through his desk drawers and several filing cabinet drawers before he
found a felt tip marker and a heavy manila envelope lined with bubble wrap. He pulled his
key ring from his pocket and searched through the keys: car, apartment, P.O. box, files,
lab door, and the cabin. He unwound one of the cabin keys and set it on the desk top. He
pulled two blank sheets of printer paper from the printer beside the computer and scrawled
two quick notes and a drawing with a pen. He leaned forward to pull his wallet from the
back pocket of his pants and opened it to withdraw one of his credit cards. He placed it
with the key and wrapped both items in the paper and dropped it in the envelope. He
addressed it to his nineteen year old daughter- he didn’t know his older daughter’s
address- and got up to leave the lab.
He went to the receptionist’s desk and handed the pretty young woman the envelope, and gave
her terse instructions to have it delivered as soon as possible. He barely noticed her
response. He was already on his way back to his office, thinking over the experiment he’d
been working on all week. By the time he reached the lab and closed the door behind him,
his daughters were forgotten as he considered a possible direction in which to take his
work.

*****

Lucy Lane had been planning to spend the coming few days looking for a job. Her small
apartment, rented for the summer, had everything included in the rent, and though her
father had paid all three months in advance, she needed money to maintain the small car
he’d given her to use- not to mention food and other expenses. Her mother, Ellen Lane, was
currently living out of state and extending her nursing career into the administrative side
of the profession. Lucy had used most of the money she gave her to buy a few pieces of
furniture and kitchen items for the apartment.

Oh, well. If worse came to worst she could always move in with her sister or talk her
into finding a two bedroom they could share. After she got out of the hospital, that
is. Lucy felt a pang of guilt for not being with her, for just going on with her life
but once you got kicked out of a hospital room by her sister, you left and waited for
the apology.

Reading the ‘Want Ads’ and purposely ignoring the ones for waitressing, she was circling
a few other jobs she thought she could do when the buzzer sounded. Pen in hand and still
looking at the paper, she went to the door and elbowed the intercom button. "Yes?"

"Speed-Ex delivery for Miss L. Lane from Dr. Lane."

"Be right there."

A few minutes later, Lucy shook the package as she locked her door behind her. Something
moved but didn’t rattle and the bubble wrap gave nothing away. She found a small knife to
open it. I need to buy scissors, she thought while drawing out the folded sheet of paper
from the inside. A key, a smaller folded sheet of paper, and a credit card fell into her
hand. She frowned at them and looked at the brief note written on the larger paper.

"Hi, honey,

Dad"

Normally, Lucy would liken the experience to calf roping at a rodeo. Getting her sister
to agree to anything that wasn’t her own idea wasn’t impossible, just effing difficult. You
followed her closely and no matter how fast she ran, you cast your logic at her like a rope
until it caught her around the neck and brought her up short. Then you dived in for the
kill- wrapping your reasoning around her legs until she fell over and couldn’t get up. If
you were lucky she would be too surprised to know what hit her. Lucy was lucky. And she was
fast. As soon as Lois called to say she was being released from the hospital that afternoon
and needed to be driven home, Lucy went to her sister’s apartment and packed anything she
could find that was appropriate to a vacation on the bay islands- Ste. Noelle, no less.
Hoity-toityland.
Of course, anytime you could tie Lois’s legs first and talk later, the battle was won. It
didn’t happen often but when it did, Lucy knew to just run with it as fast as she could.
This time had been a snap. Lucy was merging her car into traffic on the six lane going
south before her sister noticed she wasn’t being driven home by any route she’d have chosen
for herself. It was all Lucy could do to keep her attention on her driving while being
yelled at and accused of being everything from a traitorous kidnapper to someone who was
going to be really sorry when "I drop from exhaustion and internal bleeding because you
dragged me to a remote shack in the middle of nowhere when I’m supposed to be resting at
home in my own bed!"
Thank goodness she ran out of steam and fell asleep after they passed the second island.
Lucy smiled. It was hard to hold back her laughter when her sister was going full steam. It
only infuriated her further to know Lucy wasn’t taking her seriously. But, really, ever
since they were kids, her sister’s temper tantrums were so overblown it was like watching
TV and waiting for her head to turn bright red, start smoking and blow up. It was funny.
None of the threats either of them made to one another were ever serious. They just liked
to yell at each other.

Near dusk, she consulted the directions her father had drawn on the note he’d sent and
looked around before easing into the exit lane and turning onto a blacktop that curved
through a wooded area. Securely built mailboxes sat at the end of long driveways that
disappeared into the trees. She found the one with the "Tomahawk Restaurant" sign beside it
and turned off the road. At the end of the gravel driveway, she caught her breath and
stopped the car in front of a large, well kept A frame with a beautiful view of the bay and
the Atlantic beyond it. The driveway continued around to the back of the house, but she cut
the engine near the short walk to the front door. Daylight was dim enough for the tall
space light in the middle of the front yard to turn on. After dark it would illuminate the
front property and part of the driveway to the mailbox.

Lucy left her sister sleeping while she unloaded the car and carried their bags into the
house and had a quick look around. There were four bedrooms- two up, two down- three baths
and a detached garage around back. A note by the kitchen door said the breaker boxes were
outside in the gardening shed beside the deck, to the left. She looked out and saw the shed
attached to the cabin, both doors closed but accessible from the deck.
She chose an upper bedroom for herself, the one over the kitchen, and one of the lowers for
Lois- she could switch later when she was feeling better and up to climbing stairs. Then
she went outside to wake her sister.

*****

Nothing was as it seemed anymore. The cool night air was anything but soothing to her
healing body. The pain meds upped her temperature; the food she’d eaten for dinner did the
same as her digestion went to work. Humidity and temperature never affected her like this
before—before now. She was feeling clammy and sweaty and the drop in temperature after the
sun set never happened as far as she was concerned.

Trying to read the newspaper Lucy went daily to the nearest town to buy for her, Lois
Lane sat on the back deck of the beach house; wishing she had a cold drink and watching her
sister poke around under the hood of her car. The bright lights from the deck and the
garage illuminated the graveled space outside the garage doors and a little of the lawn
beside it. She idly wondered when Lucy had started servicing her cars herself. Who taught
her what to do? And why would she want to learn?

Actually, Lucy was a regular farm hand, as it turned out. She spent a lot of time in the
gardening shed, filling pots with dirt and planting seeds even though their stay here was
going to be short. “I’m planting herbs,” she told Lois. “I can take them back to the city
with me and transplant them in my apartment’s window box. My neighbors have gorgeous
flowers in theirs. I’ll have herbs for cooking.”

Lois closed her eyes and began to fan herself with the newspaper, dismissing thoughts of
her sister’s plans. Why cook when food could be delivered with one phone call? Jeez, kid.
Get with it. City living is easier than that.
It had been a mistake to ask for a copy of the Daily Planet. The bylines under the
headlines were making her restless. The front page was filled with stories she would have
written better and certainly researched a lot better. What was Perry thinking?! He actually
gave the police misconduct story- the one she uncovered! - to that kid from sports! A blurb
writer!

And here she was stuck in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do but wander around in
circles and try to relax. It was impossible. She was living in her father’s seaside cabin,
which neither she nor Lucy had ever known he had, and because of it she was beholden to
him. She hadn’t spoken to him in years and out of the blue he did her a favor she didn’t
even want. She could be recovering just fine at home. She would have let Lucy move in with
her for a few days and look after her. Well, she would have let her drop by each day, or
every other day, to check on her. She certainly wouldn’t have refused her phone calls.

The point being she could be at home in Metropolis and just a bus ride away from the
Daily Planet. She could have dropped in at the newsroom and though Perry would have sent
her home, she could have followed up on her own stories, at least. But, no! Lucy and Sam
had conspired to drag her way out here where there wasn’t even enough to do to keep her
mind occupied!

Lois felt a bead of sweat trickle down the side of her face and she frowned, eyes still
closed, and fanned harder. She needed to sleep in her own bed; that was the problem. The
one here, in this strange house, wasn’t comfortable. It made her have nightmares. Being in
a strange place was making her dream about what happened to her. She kept waking up
suddenly, seeing the gun appear so fast in Billy Bates’ hand as he turned to face her and
snarled, "I don’t like it, kid. Too easy." She didn’t remember hearing the actual sound of
the gun as he shot her, she remembered only seeing the flash, but in her dreams the sound
was what always woke her: a loud bang echoing through her mind over and over and making her
heart race.

"What’s the matter?" Lucy said, interrupting her thoughts. "Is your bandage hurting? The
nurse will be here in a few minutes to change it."

Lois opened her eyes but didn’t look at her, annoyed that Lucy was so concerned. She
didn’t want her to see how close to tears she was. Her sister wanted her to relax and she
was prepared to do whatever it took to make sure Lois did. She shrugged. "Oh," she said,
trying not to sound weary, "they haven’t caught the bastards who shot me yet. It’s almost a
week and they’re still on the loose! Billy Bates and Ty McKinney have wanted posters going
back to elementary school! How can they still be free?"

"Come on." Lucy reached down and took her arm, making it clear she was going to pull her
to her feet. "You look tired and you feel hot. Let’s go inside and you can lie down and
wait for the nurse." She reached for her forehead. "Are you feverish?"

"I don’t want to!" Lois snapped, managing to jerk back enough so Lucy couldn’t touch her
forehead. Her show of independence didn’t last long. She let her sister lead her to the
back door of the cabin. "There’s nothing to do in the house," she added petulantly.

"Yes, there is. Watch TV. Listen to some music. I brought some of your music. Look in
the gym bag."

"I did. You brought the wrong ones! Local shows are boring. They’re all reruns. Why
doesn’t this place have cable in the bedrooms, too?"

Lucy pushed her into the kitchen and came in after her, closing the door. "I don’t know.
I’ll fix you a bed in the living room and you can watch it in there."

"It’s Wednesday night. There’s nothing good on."

"We’ll pick a movie." She guided her sister to the counter and watched her lean
listlessly against it. "Get a glass of cold tea from the fridge while I fix your bed. You
feel feverish. You should have told me you weren’t feeling good."

Lois rolled her eyes and reached to get a glass from the drying rack by the sink. "I’m
not a little kid, Luce. Stop hovering. The pain pills always make me sweat. You know that."
She looked exasperated, tired and very angry.

"Your temperature is up. I can feel it." She wanted to smile, but she tried to look
stern. "Put some ice in that and drink it all slowly."

She let Lois give her as many nasty looks as she wanted before going into the living
room. Sometimes she takes independence too far, Lucy muttered to herself while she surveyed
the big room and decided where to put the extra cot from the second downstairs bedroom.

*****

A few minutes later, she found Lois still standing at the sink, an almost empty glass of
tea in one hand. She was looking out the window, across the back yard where the garage
lights were still on and illuminating the parking area. She walked up behind her slowly.

Lois saw her sister’s approaching reflection in the glass of the window. "How long has
Daddy had this house?"

"I don’t know," Lucy answered. "A long time, though. The people at the grocery store in
the village said they’ve been stocking the kitchen for him or his guests for over ten
years. They were happy to finally meet one of his kids."

"They knew about us?"

She shrugged. "Guess he talks about us. They asked after you, and today the people at
the drug store did, too."

"Great. We’re local gossip!"

"I don’t think so," Lucy said, looking Lois’ window reflection in the eyes. "Remember? I
said they heard the news about what happened? Stanton, the pharmacist, said the sheriff is
keeping an eye on the place."

"Why? Who asked him to?"

"Lois, they know the men who shot you are still at large. I guess that’s the way they do
things here. Just looking out for a neighbor. You know." Lucy put her hands on her sister’s
shoulders and smiled at her reflection. "Or not. Come on. I have the cot set up. I put it
next to the little sectional piece of the sofa so it looks like a daybed."

"Is it more comfortable than the awful bed I’ve been using?"

They turned for the doorway and Lucy left one arm around her shoulders.

"I don’t know," Lucy said, thinking her bed upstairs was quite nice. "Try it and see."

"Stop being so cheerful when I feel so tired and useless!"

"For crying out loud, Lois!" She waved her other hand. "One of us has to be cheerful.
I’m the one interacting with people so I guess the job just falls to me."

"I didn’t ask to be shot, you know!"

"Like I believe that," Lucy muttered under her breath, and said aloud, "I know."

"What? What did you say? Do you think it was my fault Bates and McKinney panicked?!"
she demanded.

"No, of course not," Lucy assured her. "You can’t help it."

Lois turned her head and glared at her. "Can’t..help..what?"

Lucy sighed. "You intimidate people, okay?" she answered with a shrug. "You don’t mean
it, but you do it."

"I don’t intimidate people, intentionally or otherwise!"

"Yes, you do. I know you don’t mean it because you don’t even know you’re doing it. It’s
in the way you hold people at arm’s length. You were just about to signal the police to
come in when the guy pulled the gun, weren’t you? You get this look of superiority when
you’ve won the game. I always knew when you were about to start teasing me for losing again
whenever we played a game. You got that ‘I won!’ look and you always sat back, moving me
farther away from you so you didn’t have to feel guilty for beating me again."

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did. And you probably scared the wits out of those low-lifes by giving them
that look. Until then you said they didn’t know what was coming but they just suddenly
spooked, right? You were lucky they already accepted the merchandise from you or they might
have been able to claim they had no idea what you had in the containers."

Lois shrugged her away and lowered herself onto the cot in the middle of the large
living room, testing the surface. "You weren’t even there. How do you know what happened?"

"I know you."

She lay back against the pillows and relaxed on the much more firm mattress with a sigh
of relief. Two remote controls were conveniently placed on the sofa beside the bed.

Lucy went around the foot of the cot and flopped onto the sofa, leaning back and putting
her feet on the coffee table in front of her. She indicated the remotes. "It’s your choice,
sis. We’ll watch anything you want."

"I don’t know what I want to do," Lois said softly, sounding so forlorn all of a sudden.

Jumping to her feet, Lucy hurried around the cot and eased herself onto its surface
gently. She sat on the edge, beside her sister, and draped her arm across the top of the
pile of pillows she’d placed on the cot. She curled her hand toward herself so she could
use both hands to stroke Lois’ forehead and hair gently.

"Okay," she said in a quiet tone. "Daddy used to tell me a story that I really liked
when I was little, and it was about a little girl who wanted a hamster so much that her
parents gave in and got her one, even though they were worried she was too young. She
promised to take care of it and play with it every day. She did, too- for a while. After a
while she got bored with cleaning its cage and filling its water and food dishes, and soon
enough, her mother and father were taking care of it and the girl wasn’t even paying
attention to it anymore. One day, the mother gave the hamster to the girl’s older cousin
and the girl didn’t even notice the hamster was gone! It wasn’t until school let out for
summer that she noticed the hamster cage was gone from her bedroom. She was so angry! She
was so mad at her parents for giving away her pet without telling her that she locked
herself in her room and refused to eat dinner. The only person she would let into her room
was her little sister, and the little sister said she liked birds better than hamsters and
that’s the kind of pet she would get when she was bigger. She told her sister that their
daddy had showed her an old bird cage out in the garage and said it belonged to their momma
when she was a little girl. Well, a bird for a pet sounded like a good idea to the older
girl, so the next day; she asked her daddy if she could have a bird. He told her, no. He
agreed with her momma that she was too young to have a pet. She couldn’t take care of one
properly and he said she would have to wait until she was a few years older before they
would consider letting her have another pet. The girl was so angry again. She begged and
cried and promised this time she would take good care of a bird, but her daddy and her
momma wouldn’t change their minds. She locked herself in her room again, but after a while
she had an idea. There were lots of birds singing in the trees outside and they lived in
all the trees in the city. She decided she would get her own bird! Her parents didn’t have
to buy one for her! She would get one herself, and she knew just who to go to for help. She
sneaked out of her room and went to the garage to get the old bird cage her little sister
told her about and she carried it a few blocks away from her house to where her uncle lived
close to the edge of the town. She told him all about what her daddy said about letting her
have pets, and then she told him her plan about catching a bird herself. He laughed and
said, of course, he would help her! She was so glad. He had some bird seed in his garage
and they put some into an old cat food can and put it inside the cage. Then the girl’s
uncle put the cage up in a tree in his back yard and the little girl made a sign to put on
the cage. It said ‘Free Bird Seed! All you can eat!’ And the uncle-"

"Lucy!" Lois suddenly interrupted, her eyes flashing angrily as she glared up at her
sister. "That was me and Uncle Mike!" She rolled onto her side, facing away from her
sister, her wounded side uppermost. "What kind of motivational story is that?! You’re
telling me a story about myself!"

"Well, it’s a cute story! It always used to make me giggle, cheer me up! And Daddy loved
telling it."

"I’ll just bet he did! Humiliating my eight year old self would be just what appealed to
the both of you!" She pulled the blanket up and hunched her shoulder forward to cover it.

"It’s a sweet story, Lois!" Even she could hear the smile in her tone but she couldn’t
help it.

"I was eight! I didn’t know birds can’t read!" Then she turned her head sharply to look
at Lucy. “They gave my hamster to Cindy?!”

"Okay!” She rolled her eyes to the ceiling to keep from laughing. If looks could kill…
“You have just spoiled one of my favorite stories about never giving up when someone tells
you ‘No, it won’t happen.’ Where is that nurse? I hope she gives you a sedative and puts
you to sleep!”

Beside her, she could feel Lois fluffing her pillow and adjusting the blankets again.
“I’m sorry, Lois. I didn’t mean that, but you really need to tell me when your wounds
are
hurting you. I wouldn’t have made you go outside.”

She fluttered her hand in dismissal and tucked it under the covers. “How does Daddy know
what happened that time?” Lois asked in a quieter tone. “I never told anyone.”

Lucy shrugged and got up from the bed, going around the cot and back to the sofa. “I
guess Uncle Mike told him.” She picked up a remote and turned on the TV and switched it for
the cable box remote control. “What are you in the mood for, sis? Something about angry
women and the verbally abused family members who tolerate them? I think Meryl Streep did a
movie like that.”

“Very funny. I’m not in the mood for anything. I see car lights on the front window
curtains. Time for the torture hour.”

Lucy leaned to the side and reached out to give Lois’ hand a squeeze. “I know, honey,
but it’ll get better. I wish I could make it heal faster.” She made to pull away and meet
the nurse at the door, but Lois clung to her hand and didn’t let go until there was a knock
at the door.

*****

Julie Johnson, the nurse, ever patient, kept up a steady conversation with Lucy while
she changed the dressings on the still red and swollen wounds on Lois’s left side. It
wasn’t what was called a clean wound. Entry in front, exit in back, grazing her hip bone;
the bullet left a nasty trail through the flesh. It was made worse by fragments breaking
off and doing more damage along its path.

All the fragments had been removed and it was healing well, however. She saw nothing to
be alarmed about though it was still weeping enough to make removing the dressing a painful
process.

Lucy stood beside the nurse with folded arms. “Tomorrow will be four days since the
surgery,” she said. “Is it normal to still be so red and, uh…runny?” She grimaced on the
last word.

Johnson glanced up at her. “It’s a pretty bad wound but there is no unusual swelling or
pus buildup under the stitches so I know it’s healing. The smell would be terrible if there
was something wrong. There was a lot of damage and it will take time.”

Lucy let herself be convinced. “She’s taking her pain meds but she won’t tell me if
she’s hurting between times.”

“I’m right here,” Lois said grumpily. “Stop discussing me as if I’m out of the room.”

Lucy snorted. “It isn’t the pain or her medication causing that,” she told the nurse.
“My sister was born naturally grumpy.”

“I was not!” she answered, pausing for effect. “Your birth made me that way.”

“Ha, ha.”

The nurse smiled. “If you need a prescription change, Miss Lane, you have to make an
appointment to see a doctor. Met General sent your records to us so we can help you.”

“If it is healing fine, I’m okay,” she said dismissively.

“Stubborn, too,” Lucy said. “She had a slight fever earlier this evening, but that might
have been my fault. I made her go outside and sit in the fresh air.”

“You’ll have to see a doctor about that. I’m just here to change the dressings and keep
the wounds clean. I can’t diagnose, but the fresh air should do you good. Everyone needs to
get some sun once in a while.” She removed her gloves and reached for a fresh pair from a
box in her bag. “I’ll make an appointment for you to see a doctor and call you tomorrow
with the date, if you’d like.”

Lois turned her head slightly. “I don’t need a doctor’s appointment.”

“Yes, she does,” Lucy said sternly, “if only to get out of the house and move around.”
She looked at her sister. “You’re going.”

Lois closed her eyes and nestled into the pillow. She never could intimidate Lucy.

Damn it. It would make life a hell of a lot easier if she could.

The nurse finished what she was doing and Lois listened as she answered Lucy’s questions
about the best places for take-out food, quiet meals, gas for the car, and movie rentals.
She turned her face closer to the pillow. It sounded as if Lucy was planning a long stay.
Maybe she should see a doctor, after all. She needed to know what Lucy knew.

She felt the nurse pull her T shirt and briefs back into place to cover the fresh
bandages and then she gently covered her with the sheet. Their voices seemed to blend
together as she fell asleep.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The town was surprisingly pleasant. The tourist trade seemed limited to the marina, a
wide and deep U shaped cove that could hold any size or type of sailing craft. There were
no huge hotels blocking the view of the beach. That was left to trees, which lined both
sides of the road in large expanses that offered tantalizing glimpses of the water and
gentle surf beyond them. In town the main street of shops was built right up to the wharf
so that the buildings on the shore side of the street opened onto the wooden pier as well
as the sidewalks along the street.

The beaches were wide and not crowded and sea grasses grew wild and unchecked between
the parking lots and the water.

After Lois’s check-up at the town’s little hospital, Lucy told her they were going to
the mall to buy some clothes more suited to island life. The clothes they’d brought were
geared more for Metropolis’s overcrowded and hectic beaches where privacy was nonexistent.
The little stretch of beach behind the Lane cabin offered some good places for serious
sunbathing. There was even a boat that looked easy to operate if she could figure out how
to get it in the water with Lois sitting in it like an annoyed slug. That would come later,
though. Getting the shopping done was difficult even though the shop at the mall had a nice
variety of fashionable outfits for city slickers trying to blend in with the locals.

They sat at a back table in a little sports bar and grill called J.T.’s, close to the
big TVs but across the room from the pool tables. The building was on the inland side of
Main Street and offered no windows for beach views. At this time of day it was quiet with a
small lunch crowd and plenty of people picking up take-out orders. The aromas coming from
the kitchen were heavenly.

Lucy did the ordering for both of them. “You need to build up your strength and your
blood. Eat half of what I ordered and we’ll take the rest home for tomorrow. We’ll stop for
groceries after this and we should be good until the weekend.”

“You’re going to too much trouble,” Lois told her. “I’m healing. The doctor said that. I
just need rest, Lucy. I know myself better than she does.”

“No. We’re doing what the doctor really said. She wants you to eat better, eat more and
exercise. We’re going to start walking on the beach tomorrow. When you’re strong enough to
run away and hide from me, we’ll stop. Until then, I can catch you, so I’m in charge, and
we’re doing what the doctor said you should do.”

“At least let me call Perry White at the Planet. He must be wondering what happened to
me. I haven’t called in at all since you dragged me here from the hospital.” She looked
toward the kitchen as she felt a tiny rumble in her stomach.

“No need,” Lucy said. “Someone from the newspaper’s HR was at the hospital when you were
released. I told her I was bringing you here and she was the one who arranged for your
records to be sent here. She said she would tell your editor you would be off until the
doctors agreed you could return to work.”

Lois frowned. “You didn’t tell me! I didn’t agree to that!”

“The moment you got shot you agreed to it. Everything has consequences, Lois.” She
pushed her chair back and stood. “I’m going to the ladies’ room. Need to come along?”

She shook her head and reached for the glass of ice water in front of her. When did that
little brat get as smart as me? Almost as smart as me. Smarter than she was before. She’s
not keeping me here forever, no matter what she thinks! She watched as Lucy lingered at the
bar, talking to the young man and the older woman who were answering the phone and bringing
carry-out orders for customers. Lucy had a way with people; instant communication with
anyone and though she would never admit it out loud, Lois envied the way she drew people to
her so easily.

The meal was good in spite of Lucy’s refusal to leave until Lois ate half of the food on
her plate, but they eventually left with a doggie bag to put on the back seat with their
mall purchases. Lucy drove through the small town looking for the places the nurse had told
her about, and noted a library close to the post office. The town’s only grocery store was
on the next street over, and they stopped to buy a grocery cart full of things that Lois
was certain they would never touch. She’d taken a menu from J.T.’s and knew they delivered
pizza and burger baskets anywhere in the area, but her sister wouldn’t listen and insisted
on following doctor’s orders.

Lois had already memorized the sports bar’s phone number, and planned to give Sam Lane’s
credit card heavy use.

*****

Time passed surprisingly fast over the next few days, and the menu from J.T.’s stayed
idle on the coffee table while Lucy fixed three meals a day and cooked a few outside on the
grill in the evenings. (“Years of cooking shows on PBS after you moved out. Mom needed to
do something besides the twelve steps, so we watched Julia Child and some frugal guy and
made chicken in more ways than I can remember.”)

The walks on the beach were more interesting than Lois would have thought despite how
tiring they were. They found seashells, driftwood and the odd pile of stones or long
branches stuck into the sand that seemed to be marking off areas in low tide. They would
walk west as far as a spot where the beach ended and a wide field of loose rocks and stones
covered the sand and were dangerous to walk over because they shifted and moved so freely.
They would carry rocks with fossils from the field back to the cabin and line them in a row
along the path to the house.

In the evenings, they would watch the news until the nurse came, then turn on a movie or
a comedy series or a baseball game to watch until they fell asleep or got tired of arguing
about the plots or game play and Lucy retreated to her bedroom in exasperation. (“Alright
already! I know anyone with a brain in their head wouldn’t go back into a haunted house a
third time, but where is the suspense in that?! They had to find out if the phones worked!
If they all drove away after the first incident there would be no movie! And don’t tell me
the attic door slamming shut didn’t scare you! I felt you jump through the cushion!”)

By the start of their second week at the cabin, the sisters had established a routine.
When Lucy went into town to get a newspaper, Lois began to come along to go to the library
and use the computers that were there for public use. She was contacting the newspaper,
probably Perry White, but Lucy said nothing. She knew she couldn’t keep her idle forever.
She emailed him, too, and gave him the latest updates- uncensored or unwatered down- from
the doctor. Lois was getting better, regaining her strength, but not enough to go back to
work with a couple of hot headed criminals on the lookout for her.
She kept her distracted and tried to keep her off balance by over mothering her, but she
knew she wouldn’t be able to keep her from trying to get back to work for long. She just
had to make sure Perry White didn’t jump the gun, either, before Lois was ready.

Most of all, Lucy watched the news and talked to the people in town when she could. She
made sure the storekeepers she met and their employees knew what Bates and McKinney looked
like and how easy it would be for them to change their appearance, and pointed out that
they probably had since they were eluding the police for so long. Talking to people let her
know that Sam Lane was a well-regarded figure among the locals. He didn’t visit the island
often, but when he did, he was in the habit of offering his services at the small hospital
free of charge. Lucy knew it wasn’t out of true altruism but, probably, boredom and the
need to have something to do. The locals were happy to finally meet his family and repay
his generosity in any way they could. Lucy told Lois none of this because she didn’t want
her to know the locals were keeping a close eye on them and because she knew her sister
wouldn’t believe anything good she heard about their father, anyway, so why waste the time
arguing and trying to convince her? Lucy could be stubborn but not unreasonable or adamant.
She, at least- she often told herself- could face reality without freaking out. That was
life between the sisters, and Lucy was used to running whatever interference was needed.

At mid week, after the nurse had come and gone, and the movie they’d decided to watch
was over, Lucy made the rounds of the cabin to check the doors and windows and the alarm
system. She did it every night, looking out toward the beach from the kitchen to be sure
the garage doors were closed, and to turn on the back porch light. The space light in the
front yard was brightly illuminating the entire area in front of the cabin. She double
checked the locks and looked through the peephole out of habit. She let out a small
gasp.
There was a car at the end of the sidewalk.
Lucy drew back in surprise, frozen for a few moments. It looked like the nurse’s car, but
she left hours ago. Looking back where Lois slept, she took a step toward the window.
Assured her sister was sound asleep, she parted the drapes a fraction and looked out. It
was the nurse’s car abandoned there and now she could see the driver’s side door was partly
open- probably so anyone inside the house wouldn’t be alerted by doors slamming. She
quickly moved around the room, carefully peeking out of a window to scan the grounds. Thank
god, for the space light, she thought. The grounds to each side of the cabin were well lit
by it, too. Though it was nearly midnight, she could see the lights on in a neighboring
cabin to the east, about a hundred yards away.

She crept into the kitchen, hugging the walls and crouching low. There were no curtains
in the windows back here, no blinds to obscure the view of the beach. She stood in the
shadow of the refrigerator and straightened up to look out the back door. One of the garage
doors was open, and as she watched, the porch light went out with the faint sound of broken
glass falling to the wooden deck. Ducking down, she scooted through the doorway into the
living room and ran to the alarm system keypad. She began turning it off and on as fast as
she could, keying in the password over and over, off, on, off, on . . . until the power to
the house went out.
Lucy slumped to the floor and put her hand over her mouth and tried to control her
breathing. Her heart was pounding and she’d been worried she would awaken Lois with the
beeping of the keypad, but her sister was still asleep breathing evenly on her cot in the
middle of the room.
She got shakily to her feet and crept to the sofa where she quietly picked up the telephone
receiver and held it to her ear. There was no dial tone. Oh, great.
Okay, Lois. Here comes the big test on whether or not those Try Kon- Tie Kon- Kondo kicking
lessons you dragged me to last year are worth anything. She hurried around the sofa,
swerved to grab a poker from the fireplace, and approached the door to the kitchen. Putting
herself between her sleeping sister and whoever was on the back deck was the most
frightening thing Lucy had ever done in her life, and she forced herself to walk forward
and crouch low to scuttle into the kitchen as fast as she could. She stayed low, dropping
to one knee beside the counter next to the back door. She held the poker firmly in both
trembling hands and listened.
There was a quiet ripping noise followed by a quieter click and a slow drawn out squeak.
When the doorknob jiggled she realized she’d heard the screen being cut and the latch being
unlocked. Now, someone was picking the lock. She shifted position quietly, and held the
poker across her knee and watched the top of the door. Though the back yard was in
darkness, the kitchen wasn’t. A battery powered plant light by the sink gave enough soft
illumination for her to see the brown door surrounded by light yellow wallpaper.
She heard another quiet sound of metal clicking and brushing against metal and the door
handle jiggled again. The door swung open slowly and the smell of cigarettes and the dark
shape of a man trod softly across the threshold. She fought down her fear and sprang to her
feet raising the poker high. . . She felt the shaft of the poker between her hands connect
with the dark figure at the throat and his head snapped back with a gasp of surprise. The
force of her weight pushed him backward to rapidly backtrack out the door. Before the
screen door could slam, she stopped her forward movement and kicked out with her right foot
and hit the man in the abdomen. He gasped again and stumbled backward across the deck, arms
flailing as he reached the steps and fell backward, hitting the ground hard. Something
thudded on the grass but Lucy was already turning to go back inside.

Though the screen was torn on the aluminum door, she locked it anyway and did the same
with the wooden door. Note to self, she thought and pursed her lips to hold back a nervous
laugh, the back door needs a dead bolt, too. She grabbed a chair from the table and jammed
the back under the doorknob and hoped it worked as a barrier in real life as good as it did
in the movies. She sought the shadow of the refrigerator and hid herself in it, leaning
against the wall until her shaking legs grew weak and she slid to the floor, sitting
with
her knees up and wrapping her arms around her legs. The poker was still clutched in her
hand and she was shaking again, but she stayed where she was: between the back door and her
sister. If she wanted to she could look around the side of the door and see Lois sleeping,
but she didn’t. She kept her eyes on the door and fought down the fear that was chilling
her to the bone.
Who was that on the ground at the bottom of the steps? One of the fugitives who shot her
sister? A local thief who knew the sisters were alone at Dr. Lane’s cabin? And where was
the nurse? Why had she left her car, the front door open, parked in front of the house?
Her heart and nerves were calming and her breathing was easier. She didn’t have to try so
hard to keep it quiet so she got to her feet and grimaced at how hard that turned out to
be. Must be the down side of an adrenalin rush, she thought. And when did I get covered in
sweat? She heard nothing further from outside but knew she had to check to make sure the
smoker wasn’t trying to get in again somewhere else.
She crouched, scooted around the table, and reached up with one hand and waved it around
until she hit the plant light. She grabbed it and brought it down to the floor to turn it
off. So much for trying to grow herbs indoors.
The back door should be secure for now. She left it and ran into the living room, circling
the room and listening carefully by every window and taking the risk to peek out at the
front yard. The car was still there and the side areas seemed to be clear. She heard and
saw no activity close to the house. Whoever was outside was using the darkness of the back
yard to prowl around. They weren’t willing to try to take out the space light in its lofty
perch when the porch light at the back door was so much easier.
Ohhh, she thought angrily. Someone had cased the cabin, probably when she and Lois were at
the library, and discovered the lay-out. Another note to self. The garden shed needs to be
locked, too.
The lights were still on at the next cabin and she wished she dared slip out the front door
and make a run for it to get help, but there was no way she was going to leave her sister.
Lois put up a good front, but she was still tiring too easily. The trauma to her body was
worse than she was willing to admit.

Lucy passed the cot reluctantly. She wanted to burrow under the covers and hide beside
her sister, but she wasn’t a little girl anymore, and this wasn’t a thunderstorm scaring
her. Lois couldn’t save her from this. Lucy had to look out for both of them.

At the back door, Lucy closed her eyes and breathed deeply, summoning every bit of
courage she had in her body before she removed the chair, unlocked the door and carefully
pulled it open. Through the screen door she could make out a dark shape on the gravel path
at the bottom of the deck stairs and knew it was the smoker still laying there with his
arms outstretched. Good! She ducked outside quietly and scurried to the shed, feeling her
way inside it and finding the breaker boxes on the wall. She found the switch and gripped
it firmly; raising it up until it caught and the garage light came on brightly.
She swung around to run for the door but only took a couple of steps before a figure rose
out the shadows of the deck furniture and blocked her way. Without thinking she swung the
poker wildly but the male figure was quick, too, and one arm shot up to stop the blow. He
grunted with pain and swore angrily as he twisted his wrist to grab the poker and tried to
wrest it from her grip.
Lucy took the two seconds of time he gave her and swung her leg upward to deliver a kick to
his groin that stopped the man dead. He let go the poker and she swung it again and whacked
him on the side of the head as he was bending down and grabbing at his lower body with a
strangled ‘whooof!’ She whacked at him again, not caring where the blow struck and he
stumbled sideways, doubled over and already off balance by the time his feet struck air, he
tumbled down the steps to land on the gravel beside the first intruder.
She looked down at them in amazement, lined up side by side. “That only happens in the
movies!” she muttered.
She sank down onto the top step and heard the second man moaning in pain. She whacked his
leg sharply as a police car, no sirens but lights blinking furiously, came around the
side
of the house with the crunch of tires on gravel and stopped close to the deck.
“Shut up,” she said breathlessly. “My sister is sleeping.”

*****

On the day the stitches came out, Lucy took Lois to J.T.’s to celebrate. Julie Johnson,
the nurse, and her boyfriend would be meeting them there. Julie had been on personal leave
from her job since the night Billy Bates and Ty McKinney had tried to infiltrate the Lane
cabin. Leaving the house that night, she had encountered them at her car where they’d
grabbed her and bound and gagged her before locking her in the trunk to get her out of the
way. Lucy had heard she was going back to work and invited her to join them for a small
celebration.
“A little chardonnay wouldn’t hurt anyone on the day you stopped being Frankenstein,” she
said as she drove onto the main street and followed Friday traffic as it inched along.
Though she’d only been on the island briefly, Lucy was aware of the weekend crowds from
the
city that packed the islands from Friday to Sunday. It was the last such crowd that took
back the news that Lois Lane was seen vacationing on Ste. Noelle.

“What kind of thing is that to say?” Lois asked. “I needed stitches. So?”

“I needed stitches when I was five and jumped out of a swing. You told me the
stitches
might get infected and spread and I would turn into a Frankenstein monster!”
She chuckled. “And I believed you!”

“I know you did!” They both broke into laughter as Lucy stopped and flicked on the turn
signal to enter the sports bar’s parking lot.

As they walked toward the bar’s entry, Lois nudged her sister with her elbow. “I guess
it is kind of funny that I thought I could catch a bird by advertising free bird seed.”

“It was cute.”

“And funny.”

“Uh huh.”

“And inspirational. You said so.”

“That, too.”

“Kind of clever, too, in a way, don’t you think?”

“Nope. Pretty darn stupid.”

“I was eight years old!”

“And pretty darn stupid for an eight year old.”

“I was not!”

“You stole the bird idea from a three year old. Me!”

“Like you hold the patent on it?!”

“Maybe I do!”

They entered the bar at full volume.

The End

Mentioned Without Comment

• Bill Henderson
• Ultrawoman
• New Kryptonians
• Bobby Bigmouth
• Valdez, the Smith or Jones of TNAOS
• Dancing In the Newsroom
• Cake Fights
• Handprints
• Ultraviolet Light: friend or enemy
• The Baby....???

THE STORIES

Nightfall
L&C Home Page
Comments