“Okay, but Sally, Sean and Maggie, if they get within a hundred miles I want to know. Right?”
“Sure, Jo-el, I’m your man, well you know what I mean.” She laughed again, she worried me.
Chapter 44
MAGGIE
I nursed a single malt scotch at the Italian restaurant waiting for Maggie. The Russian was on my mind and it doesn’t hurt to change things up from time to time. The restaurant was modern, known for its eclectic Italian dishes, small potions but exquisite. For a Monday it was busy, most tables already full. I was seated in a booth, surrounded by etched glass, that was ample for two people and cozy for four. I had decided to keep quiet for the time being about my Alta-ego with Maggie, the less she knew the less, hopefully, she would worry. Once the world was a safer place, I’d confess.
I saw her enter the restaurant and speak to the hostess. She was wearing designer jeans and a dark green sweater, her hair looked ruffled, her face intense. She found me but there was no joy on her face as she marched to my table.
“What the fuck is going on, Dad?” she hadn’t even sat down. No ‘kiss-hello’ or ‘how are you doing?’ I was taken off guard. She slid into the seat opposite and waved at the waitress, who was close by, “vodka martini” she barked with a wave of her hand. She flashed her driver’s license at the girl, who left without giving it a glance.
“It’s not her fault, sweetie,” I said.
Maggie froze and glared at me, “no, it’s yours, isn’t it?”
Oh crap! what on earth does she know? I took a larger than normal swig of my beverage and delighted in the burn in my throat.
“What do you know, Maggie?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
“That’s the problem really, nothing. But I know something. I mean why the fuck would Sean and I be whisked off to fucking CIA headquarters without a damn word. Have you any idea how scared I was? I shook the whole bloody way there.” Her drink came, she took a deep gulp.
“Maybe a little quieter, sweetie,” I looked around the table, but no one seemed to be paying us any attention.
Maggie leaned forward, then stopped what was on her lips, she sat back again and viewed me up and down. Then she gulped another mouthful of her vodka martini. “It’s you!” she blurted out, her eyes widened with her mother’s sparkle. She looked a lot like Mary, reminded me of the time when Mary and I dated in Ireland. It made my heart sing just looking at her, allowing me to reminisce. “You’re him!” she now searched around the restaurant to see if anybody was listening. “You’re that freak, Jo-el, or whatever he calls himself.”
I was shocked. How could she recognize me so easily? What do I tell her now? I hated lying and telling my daughter an untruth was simply abhorrent to me.
I nodded, but kept my face straight.
Maggie sat back in her chair and emptied the cocktail, ungracefully. She searched for the waitress to order another.
“You’re different,” she said, “you look younger, leaner, more hair. How did you do that?”
I bowed my head. “I’m sorry, sweetie, truly I am. I wouldn’t wish on you and Sean what happened. They just wanted me. They weren’t going to hurt you.”
“They put us in a cage, Dad. Bars on every side, bars on the fucking ceiling for Christ-sake. It was like being Hannibal Lecter. I couldn’t believe it. The toilet was a hole in the ground, I had to go in front of Sean, it was disgusting.” I could see tears well up in her eyes. I reached out with my hand to touch her, but she pulled away.
“It was a mistake, Maggie. They were wrong about me, they’ve changed their minds, it won’t happen again. I’ll protect you.”
“Where were you, then, why didn’t you stop them if you’re so damn powerful?”
“It was too dangerous for you and Sean.” I left it at that.
Maggie’s second drink arrived and I ordered another. She had calmed down somewhat and was sipping her drink, now. She was examining me; she didn’t know if the man across the table from her was her father or a freak. The quiet interlude between us was healing the rift, I could see excitement come into her eyes. She was turning over various scenarios in her mind. Her father was Jo-el. Everybody on the planet wanted to meet him and here he was facing me. I was related to him, I had access to this weird being.
“How?” she asked.
“It’s a long story, Maggie.”
“Can you tell me?” She glanced around the crowded restaurant.
“It might be better if we were alone.”
Now she had changed, no more the father who had caused her so much fright and humiliation. Now the most famous individual of the moment. Her anticipation put a red glow on her cheeks, there was suddenly mischief in her mannerism. Her father was something special and she had him to herself. It was like meeting a pop superstar. Our waitress came and we ordered. I told her we could talk about it later.
“Have you spoken to Sean?” I asked.
“No, well, we did text a couple of times.”
“Is he okay?”
“Same as me, I guess, but I don’t think he suspects who you are.”
“Why not, you must have spoken on the way back?”
“Hardly, it was seeing you, Dad. You’re different.”
“I need to see him.”
She nodded.
“I’m staying at the Grand Hyatt.” She stopped eating and looked up.
“Why?”
“They trashed the house.”
“Damn! Right, I should have guessed. What are you doing?”
“Cleaning crew going in tomorrow. They even disassembled parts of my motorcycles.”
“Bet that pissed you off?”
“Bloody right.”
We made small talk, then walked over to the Hyatt and went up to my suite. Maggie was impressed.
“Splashing out, eh! Not like you, Dad?”
“Another story.”
She plonked herself down on the sofa where Sally had been, then looked at me expectantly. “Do the change thing! Just to prove it.”
I changed into Jo-el with the wings.
“Amazing,” her eyes were beaming, she’d forgotten all the unpleasantness of our first moments. “You can change your face, you can be anybody, how does that work?”
“It’s a hologram, just like the clothes, they’re not really there.”
She came over and touched my face, poking her finger at my cheek to see if her finger passed through the holographic image. But it was so thin, so she couldn’t see it.
“So, are you going to tell me, or what?”
“Maybe I should show you something else.”
“Whatever!”
“It’s hard to know where to start. Let’s go have some fun.”
Maggie was excited, like the little girl I remembered on her first trip to Disneyland. “Where would you like to go?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?”
It was like seeing a kid with a new toy, her face was alive. “You’re kidding?”
I shook my head and waited. “Oh, Europe is out, middle of the night there.”
“What? We’re going to fly somewhere?”
“Sort of.”
“Dad, tell me,” she begged.
“How about Hawaii? Waikiki Beach. It’s early evening there, we could have an ice-cream.”
“We’re going to fly three thousand miles for an ice-cream? How long will that take?”
I asked Sally what the temperature was in Hawaii, she said seventy-five degrees, perfect. “Take your sweater off, Maggie.” She did what I asked. I changed back to Dave Murphy in light slacks and a golf-shirt.
“Man, I’d love to be able to do that.” Maggie said.
“Hold my hand.”
“Bit weird, Dad?” Maggie was confused.