Chapter Three
When the police arrived at the front door, Uncle Robbie talked with them quietly on the front porch. When he walked back into the house, he was very sad, a state he was never in, and he took Tracy out to the table rock to talk.
“Tracy, something happened. The police say your mom and dad had a serious car accident. The story is they died, but they are not dead, got it?”
Tracy went slack and Robbie worried she might faint. She said, “Huh? What do you mean?”
Robbie sighed heavily, “I wish I could tell you more, but I am not sure where they went. I do know they are alright. They went to do something very important.”
Tracy sobbed, “They just left me here? Alone?!” She crumpled into his arms and cried. The sense of loss was crushing her heart.
Robbie said, “Hey, you’re not alone! I’m here, plus they’ll be back. The world needs to think they’re dead. Remember when they went on vacation to Hawaii? It’s like that, just longer.”
Tracy said, “I don’t understand. Mom left me this note, why would they do this?” She squeezed the paper in anger.
“The world needs them. We need them to do this.” Robbie said. “I find it hard to accept, myself, but I just know it’s the truth. Hey let’s go for a walk. Sitting here will just keep us stuck in sadness.”
They walked through the woods. The air was cool and the bare tree tops were clacking together in a breeze. The floor of the woods was covered with the newly fallen leaves and it was a mix of shades of brown, yellow, and red. A squirrel barked at them from a tree.
Tracy said, “That guy is huge!” She wiped the tears from her eyes.
Robbie pretended to listen to him, “I think he’s saying we need to get off his lawn.”
“It’s more like, where’s my f’ing peanuts, humans!”
Robbie asked, “Do you ever feed them?”
She nodded, “Yeah, at Tweedy, we fed them. They’re really tame. Needed to make up for the lack of pets.”
“Do you like it there?”
She thought for a few moments and in her mind, she ran through her experience there so far. “No.” She said conclusively. “I do think I’ll stick it out until the end of the year, though. That was the deal with Mom.” She stifled a sob. “Then, I’ll get back to Chardon. But, man, I don’t want to be stuck there all the time. It’s like a prison.”
Robbie’s eyes lit up. “Any time you want outta there, I’ll pick you up. How old are you now anyway?”
She rolled her eyes. “Dude, you don’t pay any attention!”
He shrugged, “Hell, I barely know what year it is! I don’t even remember how old I am without doing the math.”
“You rebel! The Man can’t tell you what to do!” She actually smiled. “I’m fourteen.”
He considered for a moment. “Well, you never did much driving or riding around on tractors, right… Probably too young to drive, or ride a motorcycle.”
She nodded. “Not that I wouldn’t like to try.”
They were quiet as they picked their way down the path to the spring. The cool air and the familiarity of the place lifted their moods. They gazed down into the dark pool. Their dim reflections shimmered on the surface lit by the pale blue of the November sky.
He smiled. “Alright, this is a huge opportunity for both of us.”
She was intrigued by what he might be thinking. “What do you mean?”
He put up both of his hands as if framing a scene, “Picture this. You finish up at Tweedy. Come home any time you want. If you want to finish up the year, good, if not, that’s fine with me, too.”
She nodded enthusiastically.
He continued on, “You run your own life. Make your decisions, with my advice of course. You get to live as an adult. I am pretty sure I can’t treat you any other way, anyway.”
She tapped a finger on her chin, “What about money, Uncle Robbie?”
Robbie waved a hand dismissively. “We’ve got plenty of money, but here’s a challenge. I’d like to see you get by as much as you can on your own. Get used to running this place, seeing what it takes, got it? But you can ease into it at your own pace, alright?”
She put out a hand to shake on it. “Deal.” she said emphatically.
He added, “Once you turn 18, we’ll re-orient, and who knows, Matt and Telia might be back by then.” He shrugged.
She asked him, “Did you ever go into the spring? I always wonder what’s down there.”
He shook his head no but smiled broadly and said, “That’s the spirit. You should wonder about things and try to figure them out, too. Maybe we’ll try to see how deep it is this week. I wonder if we can get a camera down there.”
They walked back up the hill. She re-read the note from Telia. It was just a short love letter, but it made her believe Robbie’s story. “So everyone’s going to think they’re dead, right? What should I do?”
“Oh you mean, do you need to lie about it?” He shook his head no. “No, you don’t need to lie or even be evasive. Everything about the accident is fake. That said, you don’t need to shout it from the rooftops that they’re alive.”
“Alright.” She said simply. She was still stunned at the sudden turn of events but her mind was digesting it. “Really, if you think about it, I was going to be away at Tweedy most of the year anyway. I kind of got used to that idea. This is not such a huge change.”