The Last Answer, Part 7
I couldn’t do anything besides use hand signals to urge Midge to be quiet. Although I could tell she was as nervous as I was, she tended to believe confrontation could resolve anything. I couldn’t contain her for much longer. I sank into a crouch and tried to think.
After several seconds, I said, “Maybe she just wants to be left alone.”
Midge shot me a look. “What do you mean? Why would she want that?”
“Maybe she’s doing something.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Grown-up stuff.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes. “You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Whenever you don’t want me to know something, you always tell me it’s ‘grown-up stuff.’”
I didn’t answer, but she was right. I remembered all the times our mother had said the same to me.
Midge’s gaze returned to the horizon. “Eli, I don’t wanna wait anymore.”
“Shhh…..keep your voice down! Just let me think, alright?”
“Well, hurry it up. I’m getting cold,” she said, rubbing the goosebumps on her upper arms.
“Let’s just wait here a few more minutes, OK? We’ll make sure she’s alright, and then we’ll go back.”
“Without saying anything? Let’s just go to her. She is not going to be mad. We can just tell her we were loo-”
Mother’s voice rang out over the desert.
Like escaping prisoners caught in a searchlight, we looked at the ridge, but Mother’s back remained to us.
Midge and I became still. I could feel an ant crawling over the tiny hairs on my leg, but I didn’t dare swat it.
We held our breath and listened.
Then, Mother laughed. She sounded happier than I could ever remember, even before Dad disappeared.
I could feel Midge looking at me, but I acted like I didn’t see and kept my eyes on Mother.
Then, a strange horror gripped me.
Step by step, a man’s head appeared above the ridge; then, his shoulders and torso, until the entire silhouette of his massive frame stood next to Mother. She looked like a child beside him. I couldn’t see her expression when she looked up at him, but she seemed relaxed, as if inviting his presence. He looked down at her and said something, and then, bending nearly in half, he kissed her.
I shuddered.
Midge, her lips pursed, made a noise caught between a squeal and a growl and stamped her foot angrily.
My bones felt made of electricity.
The tall man spoke in a voice that seemed to resonate from underground.
Nothing with a face should have a voice that deep, I thought.
Mother accepted his hand, and they disappeared down the other side of the hill.
Without waiting for Midge, I sprinted toward the hill. The sun was fading, but my heightened senses caught the outlines of each stone so my feet could find the patches of dirt between them. When I reached the incline, my lungs started to burn, but I only pushed harder.
I heard Midge stumble behind me. “Eli! Wait up!”
There's no point in telling her to be quiet now.
A familiar pang of guilt plucked my pumping heart. Again, I was caught between the portal and Midge, lying hurt on the ground.
But as I reached the top of the hill, my guilt, along with everything else, was immediately forgotten. I stood, my chest heaving, peering into the valley.
In the fading light, I saw Mother and the stranger near the base of the two boulders.
“Hey!” I screamed, sounding more desperate than friendly.
Both of them turned, their faces hidden by shadow, and waved to me as though I were an acquaintance on an opposite sidewalk. Then, they stepped into the portal.
“Hey! Wait!” I screamed again. But there was no answer.
We were alone now.
I felt empty except for tears threatening to spill from my eyes.
“Eli!” Midge called.
“Midge!” I replied, still staring into the darkness that had swallowed Mother.
I heard Midge clambering up the hill behind me. I turned and found her halfway up the slope. Wiping my eyes, I scrambled toward her.
“Midge!” I said.
“You left me — You left me again!” she said between labored breaths. Tears cut lines through the dirt on her face.
“Midge,” I said, “Mom—Mom went in.” I bit hard on the insides of my mouth, and I felt nauseous. Standing had become a feat of endurance.
“Where? Between the rocks? Who was that?”
“They went in together. I’ve never seen him before.”
She punched my chest and then leaned into it. I hugged her and fell to a rocky seat.
“Eli,” she said into my shirt. “I don’t like this.”
“Me neither,” I said.
For a long moment, she didn’t reply. She only cried softly. Finally, she nodded. Then, pushing away from me, she wiped her eyes and nose with her sleeve.
I stood, holding my hand out. “Come on. I’m sorry for leaving you.”
“Again.”
“I’m sorry for leaving you again. From now on, no more ‘adult stuff,’ OK? We’re doing this together.”
“OK.” Her face became clear for a moment, like the sky between storms. She wiped her face again and took my hand. “Where are we going?”
“To find mom.”
She nodded but didn’t meet my eyes. She was as scared of the portal as I was.
I pulled her with me as we hiked back up the hill.
As we descended the other side, my thoughts began to argue.
I should tell her to wait for me. I can’t take her with me.
But I can’t leave her alone in the desert in the dark. Besides, who knows how long it will take? Or who I’ll be when I return…
Every argument seemed like a bad one.
We stood, holding hands before the mouth of the void that awaited us in silence.
I wondered how it could look so unassuming from here. It didn’t smell, no breeze passed through it, and no light reflected out of it. It reminded me of descriptions of black holes.
Nothing, no one escapes.
I shuddered and tried to shake the thought.
“Are you ready?” I said, afraid to look at her.
She squeezed my hand.
An icy breeze swirled between us, cutting into my bones. I remembered how books often describe brave men as ‘having ice in their veins.’ But, as the darkness closed in around us, I felt anything but brave.
“OK,” I said, and we walked into the portal.
