Come Alive Ch. 07

She smiled, batted her eyes a few times while she nodded. "You are a devil, Henry Taggart," she whispered - in Latin.

"Be careful what you ask for," he replied in kind - and in Latin, as luck would have it. Then he turned to Astrid: "Do you have any sailing gear?" he asked.

"A bikini. Does that count?"

"Excellent! That's just - perfect!"

Leaving Dina to smile before she spoke up: "Perhaps you could swing by tomorrow. We'll need to pick up a few things for you before we leave."

Rolf returned to the table, his face red, his palms sweaty.

"You feeling okay there, Sport?" Henry asked.

"Yes, very much so. Thank you for asking."

"Excellent!" Taggart said to the world, smiling once again - just for the hell of it.

They dropped Astrid off at her home and made it back to the Bandit in time, hopefully, for one last performance by the Russian acrobats - but the yacht was gone and Rolf was devastated.

"This has been a real educational trip for you, hasn't it?" Taggart asked.

"I suppose so, but could I ask you a question?"

"Fire away."

"How old were you when you did it the first time?"

"Oh, geez, I think I was in college...or maybe I was still in high school. That's funny...I really don't remember."

"If it was a big deal you'd remember, right?"

"Well, it can be a big deal, Rolf, and in a good way, or you can take a devastating emotional hit and that's a lot harder to get over."

"What was yours like?"

Taggart shook his head. "Like I said, I really can't remember, so it must not have made much of an impression on me. The truth of the matter is, Rolf, I never really did it all that much. I think I convinced myself that I was just too busy to be bothered..."

"Do you regret that now?"

Taggart thought for a moment then nodded. "Yeah. You know, I think I do. I missed out on a lot by keeping to myself, but on the other hand, I was able to stay focused on my work. Maybe that was the trade-off I was willing to make, and maybe because it just never seemed fair to me to have a parent who was focused on work all the time. The kid takes second place, and that's not right."

"Your dad was a lawyer, right?"

"Yeah."

"What did your mother do?"

"So was a doctor, a physician."

"So, like my mom, right?"

Taggart nodded. "Yeah."

"She works all the time too, hardly ever gets home while I'm still up."

"It's gotta be hard being a single mom."

"I guess. Still, I sometimes feel like she'd be better off if I wasn't around."

"Really? I never got that impression."

"Henry?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to die soon?"

"Well, not tomorrow, but yeah, pretty soon."

"I'd like to stay with you. Until, you know."

Taggart looked down, shook his head. "Yeah. I know what you mean. Still, you've got a responsibility to yourself now, Amigo, and not just to your family..."

"But you're a part of my family now too, Henry. I mean, think about it. My mother is going to have your baby, and that baby is going to be my brother, or sister. See what I mean?"

"Yeah. I've been thinking about that a lot myself."

"My father is gone, Henry. Now, you're the closest thing I've got to having a father in my life."

Taggart nodded. "Here's something else to think about, Rolf. After I'm gone, you are going to be the strongest link your little brother - or sister - has to me."

"Then that's another good reason why I should stay here with you."

"Maybe. So, tell me...what did you think of Astrid?"

"She's hot, man. I mean, really really hot."

"As a firecracker, Amigo."

Then the boy was in his arms, holding on for dear life, deep sobs muffled through layers of clothing... "Don't die, Henry. Please don't die..."

He felt himself choking up, and through tear-rippled eyes he saw Dina in the shadows of the companionway, maybe halfway up the steps - but she stopped just then, and now she was staring at Henry. He held the boy to his chest, felt the hot anguish in the boy's tears and he closed his eyes to everything else.

When he opened them a while later Dina was gone. He heard her down below, talking on the telephone, and he could only guess what was coming next.

© 2020 adrian leverkühn | abw | this is a work of fiction, pure and simple; the next chapter will drop in a week or so.