Page 35 of Anchored to the Storm

Now my eyes closed. I remembered that night, being rushed into a multi-level parking garage, and seeing a bike. Noma had promised he was a ‘friendly’. My grandpa was there the whole time, watching over us.

Styx continued, “… I had to know. Had we truly not wasted our time? Was it possible? Had a little female mermaid saved your life? I was told you had a destiny. We believed it. We prayed for you not to be heartbroken like Lennox.”

My eyes opened. “Who are we?”

“Well, besides my brothers …” His heart was raw and exposed as he softly told me, “Your dad.”

I thought of all my leathered uncles, how they all treated me as if I was the star in their eyes. Now I knew why. They knew what Dad and I were. And they all were trying to protect us both.

My hand lay on my chest as I silently thanked them for a loyalty I didn’t believe I had earned. I thanked them for a sacrifice beyond any other, by losing their lives.

Then a warmth flowed through me, knowing my father had prayed for me. Hoped for a better future for me. He had failed. My life had been hard for the last few years, but damnit, man. I hadn’t been some kid he visited only when time permitted. He was actually working toward my happiness. “Wait, you said wasting your time. On what?” What had they been up to?

Time almost standing still, I watched Styx walk away from me and to the center of the room. Ever so slowly, he turned to face me. “He wanted you to know the truth. He wished I had told him sooner than I did.” His chest heaved for a couple of seconds before he told me, “He was going to tell you…” His voice cracked, “On your tenth birthday.”

Oh my God.

“That’s why we were headed here.” He pointed to the workstation on sawhorses. “Do me a favor?”

Numbly, I walked over there, in shock that the last day my dad spent on earth was the one he was going to reveal all this. How I wasn’t, nor ever would be, a normal ten-year-old boy. And he believed I should know it.

The pride on every uncle’s face that day now went so much deeper than I had thought.

Styx asked, “See that remote?”

Numbly, I picked up the white medium-sized remote.

He instructed, “Push the numbers zero-four-nine-nine.”

The way he said nine-nine made me pause. Gramps was trying to tell Silly Rabbit something.

As my door code’s true meaning revealed itself, my jaw unhinged. “You knew of Tallulah.”

Styx delivered one chin dip and spoke as if having limitless sympathy. “And that you would never be hers.”

Zero for the beautiful girl who called me Nine.

Even though I knew, irrevocably, this to be true, I couldn’t help but feel for the brilliant-minded young woman who never had a chance with me. I had thought there was hope, but she knew the truth all along. “If you ever looked at me like you do water⁠—”

“Press the numbers, Maddox Gentry.”

Stunned, I did as told. Then, my thoughts—my brain’s functions—all came to a standstill as Styx began to move. No, not him. The floor under his feet started to move. Any tool, item, or piece of furniture on top of the huge plate of concrete moved with him.

Not trusting my eyes, I practically stumbled forward.

Like I would stop at the seawall outside, I stopped at the edge of a huge empty concrete crater. Barely able to catch my breath seeing this miracle, I gazed at my grandpa, wordlessly.

He smiled. “You were his world, kid. He wanted your impossible… possible.”

In the center of this incredibly spacious room was a hidden Olympic-sized pool.

Styx was proud. “Lennox called it The Lagoon. Happy late Life Date, Baby Boy.”

Noma…

Overwhelmed by so many things, I covered my face with my hands. “I’ve been cursing you for days now, yet you’ve been fighting for me. You all have. Noma did so much, too. U-Uncles died. Dad is gone, yet right here with me. And I’ve hated my birthday for so long⁠—”

Styx teased, “Oh, that’s just what Sinners do.”