Entry #3

May 7th, 2010

I woke up to the smell of bacon filling the air throughout my house. Lazily, I kicked my feet off my bed and got dressed for school. I knew that I didn't need to rush in order to get my fill of bacon. Arlo had been giving me his share of it for nearly 8 years now. Ever since that day, my dad had been working the day shift at the hospital instead of the night shift like he used to, and this allowed for him to get us ready for school and sometimes make us breakfast. 

Before heading downstairs, I checked my phone and saw several missed texts. My best friend Chosen had texted me asking to skip school with him that day and go to the beach. Just when I started to type up a response to him, I got another message. This one was from my other best friend, Naomi. This message had said, in simple terms, that I better be at school today. She had said that Arlo and Maeve were also going to skip, and she didn't want it to just be her and Aubrey. This was quite a dilemma for me, since I really didn't feel like going to school. But, I also didn't feel like dealing with a riled up Naomi, just because I wanted to go to the beach. I texted them both back, telling them that I'll make my decision once I get some breakfast in me. 

As I left my room, I realized that Arlo’s door was open, meaning he was already in the kitchen. My assumption was confirmed when I heard Arlo and my dad talking in the kitchen. Making my way down the stairs and through the hallway, I heard two more voices join the conversation. The two voices registered in my mind as Mayor Jeff, and his daughter Maeve. My heart jumped at the thought of seeing Maeve, and my lazy pace quickened. Maeve and I had always been good friends, and this was partially because her dad was my godfather. When we were kids, everyone in our two families had always joked that we would end up together. Unfortunately, they had been talking about the wrong brother. Arlo and Maeve had been dating since Maeve was a freshman, and Arlo was a sophomore. Now, Maeve was a Junior and Arlo was only 10 days away from graduation, and they were as steady as they had always been. It made me absolutely sick. 

Arriving in the kitchen, I realized that the vibe was different than I had anticipated. My dad, a tall white guy with short black hair, was cooking bacon and pancakes on the stove. I heard crying coming from the middle of the room, and I turned and saw Arlo, Maeve, and Uncle Mayor Jeff sitting at the kitchen table. Maeve was slumped on the table, her vibrant red hair was blocking her teary face from view. Arlo was sitting beside her, running his hands along the length of her hair. He looked shaken, which was more unnerving to me than Maeve’s sobs. Across the table from Arlo was Uncle Mayor Jeff, who was having an animated conversation with my dad across the kitchen. 

“Nothing can be done at this point Ayden,” my uncle said.

“You should have demolished that damn thing years ago,” responded my dad. “When Azure was taken.”

My dads use of my moms name caught me off guard, and apparently it caught Jeff off guard too. 

He waited a moment before gently responding, “You know why I can't do that. I tried my best to get it shut down.”

“You tried your best? How? By making it a tourist attraction? If you really cared about the victims' families, you would have blown it off the side of the continent.”

The Mayor’s face went as red as his hair, but his voice was still calm as he said, “By making it a historical monument, it allows me to shut it down for commercial use, while still letting the locals have access to it for their business, leisure, or whatever else they need it for. If I did tear down the lighthouse, I'd have to get rid of the docs too. And if that were to happen, the whole town would crumble before our eyes.”

I thought this was a bit of an exaggeration, but I didn't feel like mentioning it at that specific moment. Dad and Mayor Jeff were childhood best friends, but they could argue like siblings. I guessed that was one of the reasons that we always called him “uncle”. 

My dad took a deep breath, then sighed. He looked at his best friend from across the room, then said, “I didn't mean what I said Jeff, I know you care about the victims, that wasn't a decent thing for me to say.” He paused for a second, and then continued, “I still think you should let us tear the lighthouse apart though, brick by brick.” 

The Mayor smiled before responding, “Trust me, when Azure died-”

“-Disappeared,” my dad interjected. He didn't look up at Jeff.

“When Azure disappeared,” the Mayor corrected. “I wanted to line the tower with dynamite and end the whole thing right there. If I had, we wouldn't be dealing with this right now.”

At first, I thought he was talking about my mom, but that didn't make any sense. I wondered if something else had happened at the lighthouse, after all these years. 

With that thought, I finally announced my presence by loudly asking, ”Did something happen at the lighthouse?”

Everyone but Maeve looked up at me with surprise, then shock, then hesitancy. It was actually kind of funny, watching them all go through the phases of emotion. 

My dad was the first to speak. “August, I need you to sit down for a minute.”

I'm not sure why, but him saying that made me not want to sit down. Which was weird, cause I was just planning on sitting down. I held my place in the doorframe. My dad and Uncle Mayor exchanged looks, and some kind of mutual agreement must have come to fruition. The mayor stood up, which was a power move since he was about 6 foot 5 inches tall. All he did was wave an open hand towards the chair closest to me. 

I sat down. Arlo passed me a plate of bacon that he had clearly sat aside for me. I ate a piece of bacon as my dad started to speak.

“Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, at your birthday party, there was a native american looking girl there that had brought her little sister?”

I felt confused, because I knew who he was talking about. “Yeah, her name’s Aubrey Saint, and her sister's name is Kaiten.”

“Okay, well Aubrey’s sister went missing yesterday. She had been gone since her mom dropped her off for school around 8 am,” my dad told me. 

My heart dropped. Not just because of the implication that a 13 year old girl had been missing for a day, but also because of my dad’s wording.

“Had? What do you mean she had been gone? Does that mean that you’ve found her?” I questioned.

The loud silence in the room answered my questions for them. They had found her. I swallowed, then asked, “Are you saying that Kaiten Saint is dead?