Inspiration Point (9 page)

“Having fun?” I whispered.

He brought my lips back to his, kissing me so
passionately that I felt a little dizzy when he stopped. 

“I think, you’re the dangerous one Miss Knox,” he said
breathlessly. “Not that I’m complaining”.

It took a moment for me to catch my breath as well.
“So I suppose, we should go to bed now,” I said, not really wanting to, but not
having any other options.

“That’s probably what we should do, since your brother
is just down the hall,” he said obviously not wanting this moment to end just
yet either.

“That’s true,” I said.  “So I guess I’ll see you
in the morning then.”

“I’m not leaving Hayl’s, not unless you ask me to,” he
assured me. 

He let go of my hands so I could go back to my
room.  I was just starting to close the door when he said, “and if you ask
me, after that kiss, I don’t think Tyler stands a chance.  Sweet dreams
Hayl’s.”  I could hear the smile in his voice and felt the same smile
reflected on my face as I started to realize the truth in what he said.

I checked my phone before I got into bed.  There
were no missed calls, so I lay down and went to sleep hoping I would dream of
that kiss with Zeke, and not have another nightmare.

When I woke the sun was only just coming up, I quickly
reached for my phone – no messages, so I dialed his number but it didn’t
ring.  I got up and pulled my hair back out of my face and went
downstairs.  There didn’t seem to be anyone up so I was surprised when I
saw my mother in the kitchen.  For a fleeting moment, I thought of leaving
again, but then rethought it.  It is my home after all, so I went to the
fridge and grabbed the orange juice.

“Morning Hayln, did you get much sleep?” she asked
pleasantly, obviously making an effort.

“A bit,” I replied.  Acting like her presence in
my house didn’t bother me. “What about you?”

“Not really, this isn’t like him.  Not even to
call I mean,” she said.

“I know, I’m worried too,” I agreed.  At least
they were starting to take this more seriously.

We sat together for a while saying nothing, she played
with her food a little but didn’t try to start a conversation with me. 
Her face still looked hard when I decided to ask her a question. 

“Do you still love Dad?” I asked not giving her any
warning, I wanted to see her reaction.  She didn’t seem surprised though.

“Yes, I still love him, but it’s not as simple as that
Hayln,” she explained.  “Your father and I have certain issues that aren’t
going to go away.”

“I don’t suppose you will tell me what they are?” I
asked.

“Not now Hayln, but maybe one day,” she said as her
face softened a little.

The boys arrived in the kitchen only moments later,
“no word from Dad then?” Emin asked.

“Nothing yet,” I replied catching Zeke’s eye as he sat
down at the table.

“So what are we going to do then, we just can’t keep
waiting around for him doing nothing,” he exclaimed.  Obviously everyone
had now decided that something was wrong.

“Well, I have been thinking about that,” my mother
said.  “I am going to start by calling some of his old friends, starting
with Able Crowson, and you three are going to your classes.”

“No way,” I spat out.

“Me either, I am not leaving, I want to help,” Emin
said.

“And what about you Zeke?”  My mother asked
although she knew what he would say.

“I am staying with these two,” he said confidently.

“I thought as much,” she said.  “Well once you
have all finished breakfast, go have showers, you look as if you’ve been up all
night.”

My eyes flicked to Zeke's again, but didn’t say
anything, none of us did.  We all finished and went upstairs.

I had finished in the shower and got dressed in my
blue jeans and my favorite t-shirt when I remembered I had promised to meet
Tyler before school.  So I grabbed my mobile and dialed his number. 
He picked it up in two rings.

“Hayln, are you okay?” He asked quickly.

“Fine Tyler.  It’s just that Dad’s still not
home, and I am going to stay here and try and find him,” I said very matter of
factly.

“I can come over and help,” he said, but the last
thing I needed was him and Zeke in the same room today.

“No, it’s fine Tyler really.  Emin, Mum and Zeke
are all here.  Besides Aunt Maive would flip her lid if she knew you
missed even one class.”  He didn’t like it, but he knew I was right.

“Well, I will come over right after school okay,” he
said.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to argue with him about this, so I
agreed.

“Alright, I will see you then, hopefully I will have
some news,” I said.

“Take it easy Hayln, it will be okay.”

“Bye Tyler,” I said as I turned the phone off.

When I got downstairs everyone was waiting for
me. 

“We thought you would want to be here when your mum
rings this Able Crowson guy,” Zeke said.

“Thanks,” I said smiling.

My mum pulled a notebook from her handbag and flicked
through to find the right page.  “Here it is,” she said as she grabbed her
phone.

Just then we heard a car come to a sudden stop outside
the house, and we raced to the window.  We all saw the same thing, my father
getting pushed out of the back seat of a car.  He was getting knocked
around by some burly guy I had never seen before and then we saw my father’s
face.  Bloody and beaten down the left side and he also seemed to be
struggling to stand up straight.

I didn’t need to see anymore, I raced to the
door.  By the time I was outside, the man who pushed Dad from the car was
getting back in saying, “you have 48 hours Knox – no more,” and then he drove
away.  I was on the ground with my father in my arms as the rest of my
family raced out to meet me with their mouths open in shock.  I looked
down at my father – his blood was everywhere.

My mother raced inside to get a medical kit as Emin
and Zeke propped Dad up on their shoulder, and brought him inside to the
lounge.  Mum had already covered a lounge with a sheet and had the medical
kit ready, along with ice and bottle of bourbon.

She attended to his head wound first because it was
bleeding badly.

“It isn’t as bad as it looks,” she reassured us. 
“Head wounds bleed easily, but this doesn’t look too deep.

She cleaned the wound well, taped and bandaged
it.  She then washed his face, cleaning all the blood from his hair and
skin, he looked much better.

“Now tell me where else it hurts,” she said to Dad. 
“Is it just your ribs?”

My father spoke for the first time, his voice rough
from his dry throat.  “Yes, just my ribs,” he confirmed.

“Hayln, go get him a drink of water,” my mother
said. 

But Zeke’s hand found my shoulder.  “You stay
here with him, I’ll get the water.”

“Dad, what happened, are you okay?" I asked in a
scared voice.

“I’m fine now Hayln,” he said still in pain.

Zeke helped him drink the water, then stood by my side
with his arm around me.  “He’ll be okay Hayl’s, just give your Mum a chance
to fix him up.”  I knew he was right.

I sat back and watched Mum take my father’s shirt off
to assess his wounds.  There was bad bruising down his left side.  My
mother felt the bruised ribs and my father flinched as she examined him.

“You’d better have some of this,” she said as she
handed him the bourbon bottle. “It will probably hurt when I tape you up.”

Emin helped her as she tightly taped his ribs and then
bandaged his midsection.  I realized as I watched her tend to him that I
had never seen using her skills before.  She was a nurse when she met my
father, but gave that away when she married him.  I must admit watching
her now, it was hard not to be impressed.

Mum had done all she could for him with our limited
medical supplies but was quite happy with her work as she put the ice pack on
his ribs. 

“Zeke could you come with me for a minute,” she said.
“I’d like your help with something.”

I watched them walk out of the room then turned back
to face my father.  He reached out to Emin and I, we came forward to hold
his hands. 

“I am so glad to see you both,” he said.

“Were glad your home Dad, you gave us a scare,” Emin
said to him. 

From behind me I could hear Zeke getting upset, I got
up, kissing my father’s hand and told him I would be right back.  I walked
into the kitchen just as my mother was asking Zeke to leave.

“What’s going on Mum?” I asked not understanding what
was happening.

“I just asked Zeke if he would give us some time alone
with your father to sort a few things out,” she said.

“And I was explaining to your mother that I wasn’t
going anywhere unless you knew, and were okay with it,” he said defiantly.

“Zeke is family,” I said to my mother trying not to
raise my voice too loudly.

“I know that Hayln, but I need your father to explain a
few things to you and your brother alone,” she said adamantly.  “If either
of you would like to confide in Zeke after that, I will understand, but for
now, I think it needs to be just us.”

I thought about this for a moment and then looked at
Zeke.  “Will you come back?” I asked almost begging.

“Of course,” he said smiling at me.  “How about I
go get something for lunch, and I will be back in an hour or so?”  He
looked to my mother to see if that would be enough time, she nodded.

“Okay, but not too long,” I said.

He stood and smiled at me a minute more.  I could
have been mistaken, but I think he wanted to reach out to me.  However,
with my mother there watching he grabbed Emin’s keys from the bench, turned and
left.

My mother and I went back into the lounge room, I
knelt beside my father and she put her hand on his forehead. 

“You have more color in your face now,” she commented.

“Was everything okay in there?” Emin asked her.

“Yes, Zeke has just gone to get a few things for me
while we talk to your father,” she said calmly.  “We are going to be
honest with each other about everything, once and for all.”

I looked at my father’s face, he looked ashamed.
 “I guess I should have told you both this years ago, but I was only
trying to protect you – all of you, but there’s no going back now,” he said.

“Could you please start with what’s happened over the
last couple of days?”  I asked him.

I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready hear stories about
my family just yet, but I thought this was a decent enough place to start, and
he seemed to agree.

“Well, on Friday I got a visit from Able Crowson my
old partner, but I guess you figured that out by now,” he said looking at me, I
nodded so he continued.

“He came to ask me questions about the last project we
were working on.  He told me that we were both in danger and that I needed
to help him, or they might hurt my family,” he explained.

“I don’t understand Dad who are
they
, and what
danger?” I asked him terribly confused.

“Hayln, it might be better if you just let your father
tell the whole story first,” my mother said, so I was quiet while he continued.

“Able and I made a tremendously important discovery
before you were born Hayln, one that could have possibly changed the world
significantly.  But once we found the true extent of its potential I knew
we couldn’t make it public.  If it fell into the wrong hands it could be…
disastrous.”

“Of course, this is where Able and I disagreed. 
He saw the potential to be famous and make a lot of money, I saw how it could
be abused.  I was told by our lab assistant that she overheard him making
plans to talk to someone at a government level about our work.  I had just
about finished having the basement converted to a lab so I moved everything
here without Able’s knowledge.  On the Monday, he arrived back in the lab
with a government official named Spencer, he demanded to see all our findings
and lab work on the project.  So I lied,  I told him I knew nothing
about it, that we had been doing no such work and that Able was just looking
for easy money by way of a government contract.  Spencer was furious, but
still went through the lab checking for any sign of our work.  He even
questioned our lab assistant who denied knowing anything about Able’s claims
and then he left – irate.”

“His fury, was nothing compared to Able’s though, he
couldn’t believe I had betrayed him that way.  He cut all ties with me,
promising to continue the work himself.  I hadn’t seen or heard from him
until Friday,” he took another drink of water before he
continued.   

“He said after he left all those years ago, he made
numerous efforts to replicate what we had achieved in our lab without
success.  After a few years, he gave up and went to work in a lab in
King’s Valley.  He had put it all behind him until this week when he had a
visit from Spencer, he told him that they had evidence of our work being a
success, and he needed him to develop it further for the government.  Able
explained that he had been trying to achieve it himself for years but wasn’t able
to, but Spencer didn’t believe him.  He told him to find our entire lab
work from years ago and that he would be back to collect him in a few
days.  Spencer then went on to say that Able was being watched and that
his life depended on him getting the information he wanted, and he left –
that’s when he came to visit me.”