Hidden in the Blood: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 5)

Chapter Nine: Al, Summer, 1979?

Al was rowing a boat to Poplar Island. He was thirteen, or about to become thirteen (his birthday was Halloween, so a couple more months to go,) but he was in his grown body, and he knew this because it had to be a dream, and dreams often had that uncanny quality where two contradictory facts could be true at the same time.

It was a rather large boat, because it had many occupants. Not only were Dad and Sam here, but Rachel, Lauren, Joe and Sunny, all thirteen and in their grown-up bodies as well. Danny Trybek was also there, but he was the only one who looked thirteen, probably because that was the last time Al saw him. Sparky, the dog Rachel fell in love with when the LSDC had the commission to make a younger child believe they'd found her dead dog, lay at her feet.

"This never happened," Al said to his father, who wasn't his father, and to Sam, who seemed content to let him row on his own.

Apparently, all of his friends were leaving him to do the rowing. All of them, except for Danny in his beige cable knit sweater and brown cords, were wearing what looked like the costumes they wore on the fateful Halloween of the year before, when Lauren threw Francis O'Rourke to the ground, except that these costumes were remarkably well done. Lauren's samurai armour looked like the genuine article, as if she had broken into a museum and stolen it. Joe looked both like himself and like the Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk, his green makeup professionally applied. Sunny's Luke Skywalker costume looked not store bought but taken directly from the Lucasfilm set, including his lightsaber. Rachel... Al forgot what Rachel was supposed to be that day, but she wore the gear Lauren usually wore when she was doing her martial arts exercises, but in her size, so it fit. 

Oddly, Rachel was looking right at Sam, because she was directly across from him, and no spark of recognition lit in her eyes. Then again, if this really was Rachel at thirteen, then she wouldn't be introduced to Sam for thirty more years. 

"You always wanted to be a pirate and row across the Fraser to Poplar Island from the Queensborough shore," Dad said.

Al looked at himself and discovered he wasn't wearing his Han Solo outfit, which he'd worn last Halloween, but the puffy shirt of a pirate. He didn't have a patch over his eye because he could see out of both but, feeling at his head, he could tell he was wearing a tricorn hat. "Did I tell you that? I don't remember telling you that."

"That's because this isn't really a flashback," Sam said. "Your father is just repeating what's already in your head."

"If that's true, then why did he tell me something completely new when he said he wasn't my father?"

"I can answer that one," Rachel said, to his surprise. "You probably already had that information in your subconscious. Sam told me the same thing when I first met him, that all the information he was giving me was just what was already in my head, since he was a figment of my imagination. He also told me I would cheat on you with Lauren two days after we first made love."

"I did," Sam confirmed.

Al blinked in surprise at the frankness of her statement, and also the implication that he must have known all along his father wasn't his father, but continued rowing. "That's a very profound thing to say, Rachel. Are you sure you're thirteen?"

"Of course I am. We're rowing to Poplar Island, aren't we?"

"Why am I the only one rowing?" Al asked, suddenly irritated.

"There's only one set of oars," Joe said quite reasonably.

"Well, why the hell don't you row?" Al demanded. "You're the Incredible Hulk, after all. You could probably row for days."

"Because you had sex with my wife," Joe said, also very matter-of-factly. Al noted that his friends were speaking with flat voices, as if they were not really his friends at all but CGI likenesses voiced by unenthusiastic actors.