Page 26 of Lost
“You’re sure?”
The boy nodded.
Zack smiled. He didn’t know why he ever doubted the kid.
“Saturday,” he said as he straightened. “I’ll give you fair warning before we have to leave the house.”
“Thanks.”
With a nod Zack turned to go, but he stopped when his eye caught something on the bedside dresser that he knew hadn’t been there before. He focused on it — onbothof them. Two photographs, he realised. One of Dakota, and one of a woman. His eyes locked onto the latter and he found himself staring.
“Is that your mother?”
Lysander followed Zack’s line of sight, silently nodding when he saw where the man was looking. He turned back to Zack at once, a new look of curiosity in his eyes.
“Do you remember her?”
Samantha Maverick.
Straight, caramel hair. Freckles across her nose. And Lysander had definitely gotten his eyes from her. He put the picture and the name together in his mind, hoping that having both pieces of the puzzle would somehow open the door he’d been knocking at since discovering he had two children.
But nothing happened. No spark of recognition. No sudden memory of that one night. Nothing.
“No,” he said. “I don’t remember her.”
And it deeply troubled him.
CHAPTER TEN
Lysander woke bright and early that Saturday, his bedroom bathed in sunlight and the promise of a beautiful day. Most of his days in California had been that way, he had to admit, and it was a shame he hadn’t taken advantage of them. Back home a sunny morning would have meant an early run, sometimes followed by a day in the park or meeting up for breakfast with Kieran. Good times, he reminisced. But they didn’t have to be a thing of the past.
He pulled on his old track uniform and his favourite pair of runners, pocketed the spare key his father had given him, and made his way downstairs. Knowing that Zack and Georgia were both still fast asleep, he opted to leave a note on the kitchen counter.Gone running, it said.Be back soon.
The dogs both looked in at him from the back patio. He considered bringing one or both of them with him, but didn’t know how well they would respond to being taken for a jog. Zack had never bothered to take them on any outings, and Lysander hadn’t yet been inclined to ask. They had a dog walker for that. Deciding that he would rather not risk losing either and could talk to his father about it later, he smiled apologetically their way and headed toward the front door.
“Sorry, guys. Maybe next time.”
He locked the door behind him and made his way down onto the grass by the footpath, where he did the routine stretches his coach had always insisted on before practice. He and the rest of the team had often complained about them, but he knew they were necessary. And so he did them, while taking the time to figure out the route he was going to take. There were only so many directions he could go without the fear of getting lost, so he mapped them out in his mind and created a path for himself.
And then he ran.
He hadn’t been on a run since leaving Wisconsin, and he’d missed it: the feel of the wind in his hair; the burn of his calf muscles as he pushed himself to go faster, faster! But mostly he’d missed the feeling of being free, of knowing that nothing and nobody could hold him back. He was unstoppable.
He turned a corner and raced down the block. There were few people walking the streets at this hour, but those who were turned to look at him as he passed. A manic grin spread across his face when he ran past a man who shouted “Run, Forrest, run!” and he darted around another corner, narrowly missing colliding with a man who had just stepped out from his front gate, and headed towards the park at the end of the street.
Without his watch there was no way to know how quickly he had made the journey, but the protesting of his calves convinced him that it must have been pretty fast. He slowed to a gradual stop on grass still wet with dew.
He breathed in the early morning air, heavy with the scent of the ocean. That was something different. He’d never been to the beach before, had only ever seen Lake Michigan at a distance, and now there was sand and sea right there on his doorstep. He considered for a moment returning home, but it would be a while still before either Zack or Georgia crawled out of bed. He had time. Why not put it to good use?
He jogged this time, deciding against a flat-out run as he headed for the Pacific Coast Highway. There were more people out down this way, but he didn’t recognise any of them, and it made for a nice change of pace. Back home he would have known almost everybody that he passed, would have constantly needed to stop for conversation. Today he was glad for the peace. He needed the time alone.
Despite there already being a number of people strewn across the sand, sunbathers and early morning exercisers and a young family playing in the tide, the beach was as tranquil as Lysander had expected it to be. Taking the lead from others around him, he tugged his sneakers off and allowed his feet to sink into the loose grains beneath him.
It was cool between his toes, not at all as uncomfortable as he had expected, and he dug in deeper. Coupled with the sound of the waves pulling in and out and the sun warming his bare arms, he could have stood there all day and been perfectly content. Maybe trading snow for sand hadn’t been such a bad thing after all. This was bliss.
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply.
The salt on the breeze was more prominent than he had anticipated. He committed the scent to memory, marking it as what it was — the coastline; Mapleton Beach; the smell of his new home.
