Chapter Eighteen
Family Ties
Eric stares at me. “No.” He waves his hands in front of him, pushing the truth away. “You’re don’t know what you’re saying. You’re upset - your parents...” His voice trails off, and he looks around, anywhere except at me.
“I don’t know how you brought us here, Mort, but I want you to take me home. I want to go home now, okay?”
At least he’s not swinging anymore. I nod. “Okay, but I think you’ve got to hold on to me to go through.”
His eyes narrow, but he finally reaches out to grip my arm. I hold on to my digital lifeline and walk through the screen, Eric right beside me.
He lets go the minute we’re through. “Now tell me where my dad is.”
I don’t know what to say. And I can’t think, because my head is ringing. Then I realize it’s not my head—the ringing is coming from outside the pit. “Is that your doorbell?”
Eric’s head jerks around. “Dad?” He races out into the hallway, and I follow.
“Eric, wait!”
I barely have time to wonder how he’ll react to seeing my parents alive before he pulls the door open and the color drains from his face. He staggers backward, his hand sliding off the doorknob.
I push past him and Mom throws her arms around me, crying, “What happened to you?” I guess some of the bruises are starting to show.
I can hear Eric muttering, “No - no - you’re dead - you can’t be here. Dad!”
“He caught me coming back from warning you,” I tell my parents. “I tried to explain who his dad really is, but he didn’t believe me. We kind of had a fight.”
Dad goes to Eric and grips his shoulders. “Eric, Mort told you the truth. Your father, my brother, is really Karon, the ferryman of the dead.”
Eric keeps shaking his head. I can understand his not wanting to believe all this. I don’t really want to believe it either, and I’ve had more time to get used to it.
“I don’t know why your father didn’t tell you,” Dad goes on, “except that I didn’t tell Mort about me and his mother, either. Your father told Mort, so I guess it’s right for me to tell you.”
“Where’s my dad?” Eric asks.
I remember challenging Karon about Aunt Daphne, when we were in the boat. He yelled at me to keep her out of this. Is there more to Aunt Daphne’s death than I’ve yet figured out?
“Dad,” I say slowly, “is Aunt Daphne a goddess or was she a living person? Is she in Hades?”
Dad frowns at me slightly. “This isn’t the time for -”
“Yes, it is,” I tell him. “If Aunt Daphne’s a goddess, can’t she come explain to Eric?”
Mom and Dad exchange a glance. Dad’s expression looks like he thinks this is a bad idea, but Mom’s shooting him an “I told you so” sort of look. I figure they’ve been talking about all this while they were coming to Wyoming to get me.
Mom’s the one who turns to answer. “Daphne is a nymph, Mort. Her father turned her into a laurel tree to keep her safe from Apollo, who wanted—well, he wanted to have his way with her.” She’s blushing, and I probably am, too. “Karon transformed her into human form so he could marry her.”
I read that nymphs are some sort of immortal nature spirits, but I guess Karon deliberately changed that when he took her out of the tree. “Okay, then what happened to her when - when she died?”
Dad turns, keeping one hand on Eric’s shoulder. “She’s in Hades, Mort.”
“Great.” Dad looks puzzled, but I can see the answer, now. “Bring her back. Bring her back so Eric has his mother.”
Eric’s eyes snap to me.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Dad says.
“Sure it does,” I tell him. “Orpheus could have brought his wife out of Hades, but he got scared and looked back at her. And Aeneas went into Hades and came back. So did Hercules. If Aunt Daphne’s a nymph, she was supposed to be immortal anyway, but Karon wanted her to be human for some reason. It’s not up to him, anymore, so why can’t we bring her back now?”
Neither Mom nor Dad says anything for a minute, long enough for a thought to hit me hard enough to knock the breath out of my lungs. “Or, do you mean if you go back to get her, you won’t be able to come back here yourself?”
If that’s the case, what will I choose? Eric’s mother, or my own mom or dad? I killed them all, but I didn’t want to.
Finally Dad says, “No. I can bring her back, Mort. But you have to understand—this isn’t the way it’s supposed to work. Once you send a person to the Underworld, she’s supposed to stay there.”
“I know,” I tell him, thankful that I don’t have to choose. “I don’t like it, but I understand what you mean. Only—Aunt Daphne wasn’t supposed to die, anymore than you and Mom were.”
I let that sink in. My parents aren’t exactly rushing to burn up in a truck, after all. “If I’d known who I was, if I’d had any idea what I could do, you know I’d never have wanted any of it to happen.”
Mom hugs me, and Dad nods, once. He goes out, and is back with Aunt Daphne before Eric has time to start asking questions again.
I stare at her, half afraid that she’ll be mad at me for what I did, even if I didn’t understand what I was doing. But at the same time I’m in awe of the power it must take to bring someone back from the dead—power I have, as well as my dad.
Aunt Daphne smiles at me briefly, as if to let me know she’s not angry with me, and then she’s holding Eric the way Mom’s holding me. He shuts his mouth on all his unanswered questions and simply leans into her arms.
I know just how he feels. There will be time for questions later, no matter how strange the answers turn out to be. We’re a family—that’s our real power, and holding on to each other is our real lifeline.
– End of Digital Lifeline –
