Life; As It Happens: 5 - The Call

[Cactus]

September 19, 2015, 1:12pm
Recreation Park; 4900 E 7th Street
Long Beach, California

California wasn't exactly warm at this time of the year, but then again, after living in Australia for most of the last decade, what Keith Jackson knew about seasons in North America was but a faint memory. Honestly, in comparison, it was almost gloomy.

The eternal winter, or so it seemed.

Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, Keith sat in the parked car and absently tapped the steering wheel with his left hand. Since he'd returned to the United States several months before, it had seemed as though privacy was almost always at a minimum for him. If it weren't the lawyers and federal agents constantly at his side, it would be his parents. Having time to himself had been at a premium for a long time, and after months of it, to actually sit in a parked car with nothing but the sound of his own breathing felt natural. It felt normal.

It felt nice.

He had parked the small sedan in a parking lot that overlooked a large park. Walking paths stretched into an underbrush that curled off into a wooded area, and a small playground sat closer to the lot. The park was mostly devoid of human life at the moment, only a single man walking his dog had trundled down the path ten minutes ago. Other than that, Keith sat alone in the parked car, the park seemingly to himself.

The car itself wasn't even his - he'd borrowed it from his father. Transferring his assets over from Australia had proven to be a hurdle that he hadn't quite been able to clear as of yet. The fact that he'd lived under an illegally-obtained false identity ordinarily would have subjected him to prosecution, forfeiture of assets, and a whole whack of legal troubles, but due to the unusual life that he'd lived, both the American and Australian governments ultimately deemed it appropriate to look the other way and just let the poor man get on with his life.

Bureaucratic red tape, however, never completely went away. So for now, he lived in his parents house, unable to work, unable to spend any of the money he'd earned, unable to do much of anything except sit and stew. Relatives that he barely remembered were constantly flooding in, telling him how happy they were to see him, and expressing platitudes that he generally assumed were for show. His parents had aged since he'd last seen them, which was to be expected. They'd been through the death of a son and his subsequent resurrection; that was enough to add a few greys to anyone's head. Everyone was generally overjoyed at his return, though he could see most of his siblings treating him with kid gloves. Everyone but Kris. When he'd first seen him, his eldest sibling had looked him up and down, made a crack about Keith's absence of hair, given him a hug and had left him alone.

Right now Kris was one of his favourite people in the whole world.

There hadn't been a lot that Keith had to do at this point. He'd been debriefed as best as he could be by the American government once he'd initially returned home. That had been days and days of recollection, days and days of near-panic attacks, and even more days of waiting. He'd called Dr. Jardine almost immediately, and he was thankful that he had. The Doctor had kept his promise, and been with him every step of the way. The poor Aussie had travelled to the United States and spent almost a month by his side. Keith knew that yet again, had it not been for him, his mind probably wouldn't have stood up to the intense scrutiny. Ben had warned him that it'd be like that. But now... it was over with.

They'd told him that the fates of those involved in the escape attempt had been a mystery - the camera feeds had cut out and all of them had been publicly declared dead by Danya and his band of miscreants. That Keith was able to provide closure to a great many families was something that likely earned him some leverage, and he guessed was the only reason that he was getting access to his assets from overseas.

Closure. It was a funny thing. It was often said that getting closure was a way to make families feel better about their missing loved ones, but Keith privately wondered how much of that was just a bullshit word, made up to make the messengers feel better about giving people bad news. The only reason that he now sat in the car, by himself, was in the name of closure. It was the one phone call that he'd been dreading having to make. Keith glanced at the faded and beaten envelope sitting on his passenger seat. He frowned. If he were being honest with himself, he'd been putting this off for months, let alone the years he'd been unable to do this. But finally, here and now, he had figured it was time. The cell phone in his right hand sat, number already typed in, awaiting his finger's pressure on the green call button.

It had been ten minutes that he'd sat there, waiting.

Thinking.

Stalling.

"Enough."

Closing his eyes, he pushed the button, and held the device up to his head. It rang three times, and then a voice clicked in on the other end of the line. An older man, sounding tired. In the background he could hear what sounded like children's laughter.

That was nice.

"Hello, is this Paul Dodd?"

Hesitation. Keith knew the feeling - was this some asshole journalist or just a simple telemarketer?

"Yes, it is."

"Mr. Dodd, my name is Keith Jackson..." He let his name hang in the air, allowing the words time to breathe.

"I see."

He swallowed, a lump in his throat. This wasn't easy.

"Mr. Dodd, I was hoping that you'd have a few minutes to talk about your son, Adam. He was wi-"

Being interrupted wasn't what he was expecting.

"Hold on one second, please."

A pause on the line, it sounded like the phone was being walked somewhere. Keith sat pensively, waiting for a voice to come on the line. He could hear something muffled, some sort of conversation he wasn't privy to. A moment later, a voice came on the line - this one younger, fuller, deeper.

"Mr. Jackson?"

"I'm still here."

This voice was far more sure of himself.

"Mr. Jackson, my name is Lucas. Adam was my brother. Can I please ask you what this is about?"

Keith stiffened. He hadn't expected to be handed off. Stumbling over his words, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat once more. The man with the dog had returned from the woods and was walking down the path in the other direction now.

"Ahh, it's... I... your brother. He, uh... he saved my life out there, and I was with him when he... when he died. He expressed some things that I think you should hear."

Silence on the line. Then, a breath - a sigh.

"Mr. Jackson... Keith. I appreciate that sentiment. I have a lot of respect for what you went through, and I know that you've probably seen horrors the likes of which most of us will never know." He paused. There was a but coming. Keith kept quiet as Lucas continued.

"I am very glad that you managed to survive, and I don't imagine that living in another country under a fake name for so long was much of a treat, either. So that you're back... I think it's probably a miracle for your family. I... we've been there. We get that. But I don't think what you have to say would do us any good."

Keith furrowed his brow.

"What do you mean? Why not?"

Lucas sighed on the other end of the line.

"Look, Keith. Adam disappearing once was traumatic. When he came back, it... it brought us together and pushed us apart. When he left for the second time, it nearly broke my parents. When he was kidnapped and vanished for the third time, it destroyed us. It..." A pause, holding back emotion. "... it literally killed my mom. Broke my dad goddamn near in half."

Keith's eyes widened and he felt as though he'd been punched in the gut. He glanced again at the envelope on the seat, now never to be delivered. The emotional cost on the families was high, he'd discerned that from the way his parents had aged once he'd returned. He hadn't expected it to be that costly.

Maybe this call hadn't been such a good idea after all.

"Now, I get it. I understand what you're trying to do. It's noble, it really is. I read the papers, I'm up on the news. We know what's going on. But we accepted and understood that Adam had died a long time ago, Keith. We mourned him in 2007, and now we celebrate what he meant to us. To dig that all back up and go through it once more?"

Lucas paused, his tone sadder when he resumed.

"I don't think it would do my Dad any favours. We're in a pretty good spot with how we choose to remember him and honour his memory. If you were there when he died... I don't know what he told you, or what he said, but it doesn't matter. Unless..." He choked, his voice breaking slightly. "Unless you're calling to deliver us another miracle... unless you're calling to tell us that he's alive and out there somewhere? I really appreciate what you're trying to do, but we've moved on."

Lucas Dodd had taken the wind completely out of Keith's sails, but he understood completely why the man on the other end of the line was saying the things he was. That family had lost so much. To open that wound again? He was right. They were probably better having left it in the past. Some things were better left unsaid.

"I... I understand. I'm really sorry to have bothered you. Th-"

Keith's instinct was to get off the line immediately, but the man on the other end interrupted him.

"Wait. You said he saved your life?"

Keith nodded, though he was on the phone and sitting in a car alone with no one to see his nod. Recognizing it, he stumbled over his words.

"Uh, yeah. Right before he died."

Silence. Then... laughter?

"Asshole always did have a hero complex." The tension deflated from Keith's body. "Thank you for the call, Keith. Please live well."

As the line disconnected on the other end, Keith slumped back in the car chair. That had not gone the way he'd expected at all. He'd figured maybe some tears, maybe some recollections that he'd have to sit through, but... to be turned away like that? He supposed that a lot of families probably felt like that. Get through the grief and move on. His had essentially done that. He stared at the man walking his dog down the other end of the park. That guy looked happy. His dog looked even happier.

Live well.

Strange way to end off a phone conversation. He looked at the envelope on the seat, now off the hook for its delivery. Frowning, he opened the glove compartment and stuffed it inside. Opening the door to his car, Keith exited the vehicle and stretched his legs. At the very least, it was a load off his shoulders. One more step towards putting Survival of the Fittest behind him for good. Getting back to living his life - but this time, his real life.

He stared after the man with the dog, getting smaller and smaller in the distance.

A dog. Now there was a novel idea.

Smiling, Keith looked around the park. The sun was starting to peek through the clouds, and if only for a moment, maybe the day wasn't so gloomy after all.

---

<<< Part IV <<< || >>> Part VI >>>