Chapter Twenty

Mackenzie poked Charlie in the ribs. “Charlie,” she whispered.

He grinned one of his smug told-you-so smirks. “I thought you said never to talk to you, But I knew you couldn’t resist me.”

“How much would you pay me for my bike?”

Charlie frowned. “I don’t think I heard you. What?”

Mac pursed her lips. “I need to talk to you. Meet me back down here after lights out.”

He treated Mac to another self-satisfied smile with a wink thrown in. “Finally.”

“Don’t get any ideas or I’ll kick your ass.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re the tough girl now. What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

Mackenzie folded her arms. “You want the bike or don’t you?”

* * *

Dante had snuck over to their cabin and he and Frankie wouldn’t stop whispering in the dark until finally Mackenzie told them she was feeling sick again. “I’m going down and crash in that empty cabin by the lake, so don’t worry about me if I sleep in, okay?”

A duet of, “Sorry!” and then, “Feel better! Jinx!”

Mac got her pack together and said, “You guys are such dweebs. I’m outta here.”

“See ya, Mac,” they said, then looked at each other and shrieked.

Mackenzie almost thanked them since they had created the perfect cover for her plan.

If Charlie would go along.

Instead of heading toward the empty cabin, she carried her bike down to the docks, hoping Charlie had waited. He had.

“Did I hear you right?”

“How much?” Mac asked.

“What’s the trick?”

They sat at the end of the dock. Charlie leaned on a corner piling and Mac took the other one and faced him. Not for the first time Mackenzie noted how similar they were. They both sat with one leg bent at the knee, dangling over the water, the other stretched out straight on the dock. They mirrored one another, and it occurred to Mac that if they weren’t the same size, her custom bike wouldn’t fit him, and her plan would never work. It still might not.

“No trick,” she said. “But there is a condition.”

“I knew it couldn’t be that easy.”

“You can’t tell anyone I sold it to you until the day after tomorrow.”

Charlie raised his eyebrows. “They’re idiots, Skater, but dontcha think they might just notice you riding my bike, and me burning the road on yours?”

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“They won’t see it because you’re not going to ride my bike, Charlie.”

“Why wouldn’t I ride it if I’ve just paid, um, $1,000 for it?”

Now it was Mackenzie’s turn to scoff. “Right. Like I’d ever sell it to you for a grand. It costs like eight times that.”

“Not with your pro discount. Besides, you want to sell it, so you must be desperate. Why, I don’t know, but my mama didn’t raise no butthead. Though my dad might argue that.”

Mackenzie said, “Before we discuss anything to do with price, you have to first agree to my conditions.”

“Well,” Charlie replied, curious, “explain them, then. I’m not ‘signing’ anything until I know what I’m agreeing to.”

Mac laid it all out for him, and for once, Charlie just listened without any of his usual smartass remarks.

“You’re going to come down with something really bad. You have to act sick until the day after tomorrow—maybe say you caught it from me. I’m going to put a note on my door saying I got sick again during the night and please don’t wake me. I already set it up so the Frankie and Dante think I want to sleep in. The cabins are empty until the weekend, Ma said, and since everyone wants to hang another day, I think they’ll wait it out until we’re both better. Since you’re alone in your own cabin, you can hide my bike there. By the time you guys leave, you’ll be able to ride the RC.”

“What do you mean, ‘when you guys leave’? Aren’t you coming?”

Mackenzie didn’t want to tell him anything he didn’t have to know but she didn’t see any way around it. “I have a problem at home.” She took a deep breath and added, “Uh, with my father.”

“My father is my problem,” Charlie said. “I can’t imagine anything that could make me want to go home early. Or on time. Or, come to think of it, ever.”

“I have to go back. Something’s come up I need to deal with.” She picked at a splintered piece of the dock. “You have no idea, Charlie,” Mac said.

He choked out an unkind laugh. “I have no idea? That’s a good one.”

“Glad you think it’s so funny.”

Charlie said, “Want to hear something even funnier?” He paused so long Mac wondered if he’d continue. “Ever hear the one about the expert cyclist who’s always ‘falling’ off his bike?”

Mackenzie started to laugh at his ego—expert cyclist?—but stopped just short because she was seeing him almost as though she’d never looked at him before. In the dark she could see the outline of his clothes. He had gotten the right gear for the trip, but he was still wearing stuff that covered him up. No tanks for Charlie. No short bike pants that might show off his muscular legs.

“Geez, Charlie. Why don’t you tell someone?”

“I thought I just did.”

As soon as she said, “Someone who can help you,” Mackenzie realized how stupid that was. She’d told someone who was supposed to help her, and nothing happened. Whether he hadn’t believed her, or just didn’t get it didn’t matter. If she’d gotten Mr. B. to listen back then maybe Lily would’ve been safe.

Charlie looked out into the darkness. He swung his dangling leg back and forth over the water, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “My dad’s an esteemed member of the golf club. He’s on the town council, the school board, and an all around Good Guy. Good Guy’s don’t beat the shit out of their kids. Everyone knows that. He’s a Good Guy. Who’s going to believe me? I’m the asshole, remember?”

They were silent, listening to the slurping of the gentle lake ripples against the pier. It seemed inconsistent with their conversation.

“I believe you.”

Charlie pulled his eyes away from the nothingness of the dark lake, and looked at Mac.

“Thanks.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, so you have some crap at home too, huh? It’s always something, ain’t it?” They shared a small, appreciative laugh, finding nothing funny. Charlie said, “Anyway, you’re going to hide in the other cabin and wait till we leave?”

“No, I gotta get going right away. The sign on the door will keep them away for awhile, and by the time they find out I’m gone, everything will be taken care of, and my uh, Barb, can call them to say I’m okay.”

“What about my bike?” Charlie asked.

“Do whatever you want with it. I just need the money to get back.”

“I have my debit card, and some emergency cash. But Skater, as much as I want it, do you really need to sell the bike?”

“I need the money to get home. What else am I going to do?”

“Borrow my money.”

She looked at him, a small smile on her face. “I thought you said you were the asshole?”

“Actually,” Charlie pointed out, “that’s what you said. Okay, and my dad has said it a few hundred times. But seriously, that’s your RoadCap you’re talking about.”

“I know. But it’s what I have to do. So you can have it for $3,500.”

“No way!”

Mackenzie stood up and put her hands on her hips. “No way? You were just about to give me the money.”

“Lend. Not give,” Charlie said, standing to face her. “If I’m buying it, I still want the best deal I can get.”

“Take it or leave it,” Mac said. She had to have that money. If she made a good deal, she might still have enough left over to buy one of the ready-made RCs when this was all over.

“Two grand, that’s my final offer.”

“Twenty-five.”

“Twenty-two,” Charlie said, and stuck out his hand to shake.

Mac hesitated. “Call it $2,350 and we’re done. And don’t forget you’re getting a brand new RoadCap for less than half retail, plus keeping your old bike.”

“You have to get the last word in, don’t you?”

Mackenzie smiled.

“Okay,” Charlie said, “it’s a deal.”

* * *

Mackenzie set off with her backpack, grateful to MaToya for enforcing the pack light rule. But seriously? Whoever heard of a world without cell phones? A mile down the road she found what must be the last pay phone on the planet. Thank God she had seen the day they rode in.

She leafed through what was left of the yellow pages hanging from a metal rod under a shelf beneath the phone. She got the number for the Lakeside Taxi Company and dialed.

“Yyyyellow?” a man’s voice chirped. Mac thought he seemed pretty cheery for eleven thirty at night.

“Hi. I’d like to get a taxi to the closest airport, please?” Mackenzie said, trying to sound older and more mature.

“When?”

“Now.”

“Now? There aren’t any flights at three in the a.m. and that’s as soon as you’ll get to the nearest airport. Is this some kind of joke?” the man asked.

Mackenzie’s belly did a familiar flip. She had to get to Lily right now. Before another night passed. She couldn’t bear the thought that she might have to live through one more visit because of her. And then another question hit her.

If she herself hadn’t even known, hadn’t seen the signs, how could Barb possibly know? Mac thought again about how Lily behaved with Stan. She stuck close to him. She treated him almost as though he were the child, patting his shoulder when he pouted or acted like she had rejected him. God, their father was a freak. She had to get home and she had to get home now.

“No, no sir! I have an emergency and I have to get to New York right away. I need to be at the airport to catch whatever the earliest flight is. Can I get a ride? Please?”

“It’s gonna cost you. That’s a three-hour trip, plus my guy’s gotta come back solo…” the dispatcher mumbled to himself as he did the calculations. “It’ll be three hundred bucks.” When Mac was silent, he added, “Not including tip.”

Mackenzie sighed. “I have no choice.” She gave him the address and exited the phone booth, and sat down on the railing that divided the road from the woods. It was quiet, nothing but tree frogs and crickets to keep her company. There was a light breeze and she could smell the coppery scent of the lake. Mac thought about Lily and how she was never scared of the dark. She knew there were worse things.

Soon, two headlights lit up the road, and a car stopped in front of her. The driver rolled down his window and stuck his head out. “Cab, right?”

“That’s me.”

“Hop in. You need help with that pack?” he asked, making no move to get out of the car.

Charlie had given her all his cash and his debit card, but only after she promised to FedEx it right back and delete his PIN from her memory until he could change it. They’d decided she should stop at an ATM on the way to the airport before it turned midnight, and then also at the airport because then she could withdraw whatever she needed. Plus, she could hide the first wad of cash in the privacy of the cab.

As soon as they pulled away from the bank, and she’d stashed the bills in various pockets of her pack, Mackenzie settled in for the long ride, wishing she could sleep, but knowing she was too tense. Her eyes drifted to the dashboard, where the driver had his cabbie license on display in a tattered plastic sleeve. Attached by an oversized paper clip was a new school photo of a little girl just older than Lily, with a smile big enough to show off several gaps.

Mac opened her pack and took out the gift she’d gotten for Lily, the little box with the cascading ribbons. She turned the box around and around in her hands, then pulled the longest ribbon, untying the bunch. Inside the box, nestled in pink tissue paper, lay the little princess.

Lily was his Princess now, and treated her like his special girl, just as he had Mac when she was that age. Lily handled it differently than Mac had. Mackenzie had been quiet with him; she tried to shut it out, to ignore the bad stuff. Lily was always trying to soothe him.

But it didn’t work, did it Lily? He kept on coming in at night, didn’t he?

Mackenzie didn’t know how she was going to live with herself, knowing she had not been there to protect Lily. Her father was doing the same thing to her baby sister that he’d done to her. Why wouldn’t he? It’s what he does.

How could she not have seen it? Of course her father had been making his night visits with Lily. Of course he had. And where had she been? Planning her own escape.

A tear splashed onto the face of the plastic princess. Mac swiped at her eyes. No! I will not let him win. I may not have been there for you before, Brat, but I am here now. I won’t ignore this, I promise. And we will face it together.

“Is that your little girl?” Mac asked the driver.

He touched his finger to the grinning gap-toothed girl. “Yes, she is very smart, too,” he said. He started talking about his daughter and the school play she had been in. His voice was quiet and soothing, but Mackenzie couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying.

She was at a party and couldn’t leave. She stood on the stairs watching Dante’s front door. Then Barb was there, handing her a water bottle with the RoadCap logo on it.

“I never knew,” Barb said, and before Mackenzie could answer, she was gone.

Mac looked at the door, and in walked her father, carrying Lily, her hands covering her mouth. She was wearing a dress with ruffled sleeves and big red polka dots. How did he get his hands on her? Mac had locked her in the cabin by the lake. How had he found her?

Suddenly, Barb was back. “Oh, you found your dress, Mackenzie.”

Mac looked down and saw she was wearing a suit of armor. She tried to take a step toward her father, but the metal was heavy, and her legs wouldn’t budge. She started to reach for Lily as her father walked past, but wasn’t strong enough to lift her arms. She was encased in the armor, and couldn’t move.

Lily looked at Mackenzie and began singing.

My little princess

You can go anywhere you want to go

Above the rain, beyond the snow

Below the sea, just come with me

And we can be our own royalty

Her dad walked past the stairs, still carrying Lily, and smiled straight at Mac. He said, “You’re not my princess. You’re a knight. Maybe we could have one more knight visit.”

Lily’s dress began to bleed. The polka dots exploded like fireworks, and a million red dots dropped like tears, flooding the floor. Mackenzie tried to reach for Lily, but her fingers only grazed the dress. With all her might, she stretched out to her, using every ounce of strength to lift her arms. After what felt like hours, blinded by sweat, she grabbed Lily and hugged her. She opened her eyes to look at her sister but instead found herself shivering and naked, trying to wash the bloody dress clean of its awful memories.

“Miss? Hello? Wake up, we’re here,” the taxi driver said.

Mac opened her eyes and sat up. She was still holding Lily’s gift, the box splayed open in her lap. She tied the ribbons back up.

“I don’t have enough money for a decent tip, but please, give this to your little girl, okay?” Mac tossed the box into the front seat where he caught it with one hand. He gave her a halfhearted waved with it like he knew a kid wasn’t good for a tip anyway.

As he drove off, Mackenzie realized she didn’t even know which airport he’d taken her to. She looked up and saw a big sign for Burlington International. Mac prayed she’d be able to get home in time.

The place was already awake with people streaming in and she made her way to the door and went straight to the closest ticket counter and got in line. How could there already be a line at this hour?

The dream she’d had in the cab bubbled to the surface, and for the first time, Mackenzie wondered how she was going to “save” Lily. What would she do when she walked into the house? Tell Barb what her father had done to her all those years? Kidnap Lily? Confront him? As hard as it was to believe, she suspected he didn’t really think he’d done anything that bad. He always said he was the only one who could love her right. Could he actually fool himself that much? And if he didn’t believe he’d done anything bad, how could she get anyone else to believe it? Why would they accept the word of a teenage girl over a town leader? A respected businessman?

She couldn’t prove her accusation. Mackenzie thought of Charlie. At least he had evidence. He had fresh proof almost every day. He should tell. I’d go with him, Mac thought. Ironically, she couldn’t want proof, because that would mean he’d gotten to Lily at that very moment, while Mac was on her way home.

Mac shifted her pack to her other shoulder and peeked around the guy in front of her. They hadn’t moved an inch. The lady at the front wouldn’t shut up. What was she talking about anyway, how cute her dog was? Let’s GO, people. Then Mac remembered it was Independence Day weekend. The news was always filled with reports about how packed the airports and highways were at this time of year. What if she couldn’t get a flight? What if her father had left early to avoid the traffic jams?

No, she’d get there. They’re not leaving until lunchtime at the earliest, she was sure of it. Dad wouldn’t hit the road before then, since he’s always trying to find the best route with the least traffic. “After lunch, people will already be at the beach, and enjoying their independence,” he always said, thinking he was the funniest guy on earth. “Their independence from work, that is,” he’d finish, laughing his ass off. Same stupid joke every year.

She would get there in time, and she’d figure out what to do when she arrived. She was too tired and too scared to figure anything more than the next step in getting home. Mackenzie would find an airline that would take her home. She had to.