“We all have secrets,” Darla interjected. She knew as she said it out loud that it wasn’t the same.
“Oh, yes. Normal secrets. But my family didn’t have normal secrets...we had secrets that came equipped with clauses. Secrets that could kill you. My father would not have hesitated to dispatch his men if he thought I had compromised any part of his plan. He’s not loyal, my father. That’s the scary part. My brother and I just knew from early on that we wouldn’t get to live out an ordinary life.” Blair unhooked and hooked the tray table. She drummed her fingers on the armrest. When she finally looked at Darla, the dark circles under her eyes were prominent. She let all her sadness seep through. “And now the world is gone...and what hope do I have now? It wasn’t unreasonable to want to be a part of something outside of myself. Everyone else had families. And I was alone. He was alone, too. We were both broken...it wasn’t unreasonable for me to think that we could be good for each other.”
“I’m not following,” Darla said. She tucked her legs up under her.
“Teddy.”
It took Darla a second to respond. “My Teddy.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“My Teddy?”
“I looked at him and saw a boy without a mother.”
Darla was quiet. She looked down at the blue and gray patterned carpet in the middle of the plane.
“We had that in common. It was something I could understand. I’ve spent my entire life trying to understand how a woman can bring you into the world and then forget you existed. You don’t recover from that, you know. I wanted to tell Teddy that his mother didn’t have a choice...that she didn’t leave him. It may sound ridiculous, but I thought that maybe if he knew the truth, then he’d have a chance to be normal.”
“Because your mom left you?” Darla asked.
The question hung in the air and Blair batted it away. “I don’t need to indulge in a therapy session about my childhood.”
“I’m just trying to under—”
Blair sighed and then stood up; Darla wanted to reach out to her, but she restrained herself. “It seems stupid to you. That I attached myself to a kid that’s not mine. I shouldn’t have said anything. Shouldn’t have told you. But I didn’t know you were alive...and it changes everything...don’t you see? And now...”
“Sit back down,” Darla said softly and she pointed to the seat, but Blair ignored her. “I’ll even say please, if you need me to.”
She had started to cry. “What do I do now? It feels like such a loss.” She wiped away her tears and then looked at her wet hands with frustration. “When do I get to keep anyone that matters to me? Why is that too much to ask? So stupid. So stupid.” Her eyes were pleading. “How can I be so angry that you exist and yet so relieved that you are alive at the same time?”
The statement hit Darla like a sucker-punch, and she stared up at the woman whose love for Teddy was laid bare. She had thought of Teddy every waking hour since he had been taken from her; she had imagined his tears, his cries, and his calls out to her. It was the Teddy shaped hole in her own heart that hurt the most, and Darla had not for a second contemplated that anyone else could love him the way she did.
“Saving me cost you more than I realized,” Darla said to her. She rubbed her eyes as the plane bounced. “Blair...thank you. I can’t repay you.”
“No, maybe not.” The plane jolted again and Blair held on to the back of the seat to catch her balance. “But it’s not about me anymore. It’s so much bigger than me. I want to help you because Teddy deserves his mother...not some substitute. I want to keep him, Darla. But I can’t. Now that I know everything you did to get back to him...I can’t.”
A small ding-dong interrupted them.
Hank’s voice came over the speaker, “Alright y’all, we’ll be landing shortly and...as the last plane to arrive my margin for error is small. If I miss it, I’ll take another go. But let’s just buckle ourselves up. Bumpy doesn’t begin to describe what’s coming.”
Hank dropped the plane down on to the Maine coastline and hit the small runway on the first try. From Darla’s vantage point, she could see the lights of a city out at sea as they came in from the south. She couldn’t help but gasp. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. A tower grew upward to the sky and five arms stretched outward to other mini towers. Off of those towers were smaller structures and mounds, and the whole thing seemed to float above the water. It was lit up against the backdrop of the horizon with thousands of tiny white lights. That was what they were up against—a fortified city on the ocean.
When the plane came to a stop, Hank emerged from the cockpit and held up his hand. He stared at each of them in turn.
“They know I’ve landed. I had to call it in. They’ll be sending a helicopter over for me, Blair, and Grant within the next ten minutes.” He looked at Blair and she stood, and cleared her throat.
“Wait until we’ve left. Only then is it safe to leave this plane,” she announced. “When you exit, there’s a little amusement park. Go there. There’s shelter. Don’t leave. Don’t try to venture out. And wait for me.” She had taken off her heels mid-flight and she shifted her weight on the balls of her feet. From beyond the airplane, Darla thought she could hear the steady sound of chopper blades cutting through the air.
“That’s it?” Darla asked. “Wait for you? For how long? With what resources? There’s food there? That’s unacceptable. I want to see my son. Now.”
“It’s not that easy,” Blair added in a rush. “I’m doing everything I can...”
“I’m a mile away from my kid and you want me to go spend my time hiding in some empty funland? No way.” Darla hit the seat in front of her, and let out a disgruntled sigh. Her hands were shaking and she turned from the group to gather her emotions. “This can’t be happening...”
Frank sensed her anger and barked in her direction. Blair reached for his leash and tugged on him to quiet him down.
Dean stepped forward toward Darla, his hand outstretched, and then he moved back. He wrapped his arms around Grant instead and gave him a hug, holding him for longer than Grant felt comfortable with. When Grant pulled back, he noticed his father was crying.
“Hey—” Grant said, concerned.
“We just found each other again,” Dean said. “Feels wrong to just let you go.”
“I have to go, Dad.” Grant leaned in and hugged his dad again. “I’ll be back soon. I promise. But I have to go.”
“I know you do. I know.” Dean tousled Grant’s hair. “You come back to me, okay? You’re all I’ve got now and I am not going to lose you.”
Blair ducked to look out the plane’s side window and she swore under her breath. “We all have to go. You don’t have much time. Look, Darla, Teddy is safe with me. And I will bring him to you as soon as I can. Give me time,” Blair said, her voice pleading. “Time means a good escape...time means you and Teddy will be safe forever...”
“How much time?” Darla asked.
Blair shrugged, frowning. “Until I have it all figured out...how to get him to you, forever, safely. Don’t you see? It’s not like I can just go and get him, and come back here. What am I supposed to say? How am I supposed to explain that? There’s more to it than that...if you want to be safe, forever, if you don’t want to spend your life wondering if the bogeyman is coming back for you, then you’ll wait. And you’ll trust me.”