Episode 100

Connor took them the long way home, to Miah’s satisfaction. As they drove down Gulf Boulevard, Miah rolled down the window and leaned out. The sun was setting on the Gulf, and its dying light stretched across the sky, bending the blue into fantastic shades of yellow, pink, and brilliant red. She’d never realized what home really felt like—how good it felt to return to a place she’d known for so long.

I knew I was homesick, but I didn’t realize how much until now. I’m so glad I’m home. Miah felt a shiver of delight go up her spine as they crossed a bridge and had a panoramic view of the colored sky. A deep breath, albeit shaky, did more to calm her jittery nerves than anything else had done all day.

Too soon they arrived, and the sight of Miah’s little house made her heart leap up into her throat. It looked so small now; it reminded her of one seeing something one had thought was so big when one was younger, and having grown taller, seeing how small it really was. Miah knew she had not grown in her absence, not height-wise: she had grown in her knowledge of the world and how complicated it really was. Her whole world had been so small, but now it had grown larger than she ever would have anticipated. She did not feel bigger—she felt smaller in comparison with this vast world that had swallowed her whole—body, mind, and soul.

The walk up the steps of her porch felt heavy to her senses. She had become accustomed to the feeling when walking on unfamiliar ground, but walking up to her own house, with the accumulation of memories, made the feeling foreign to her once more.

With the screen door already tacked open, she faced the door and forced herself to turn the handle. Earlier, her head had been spinning with so much information to absorb at the police station, but now, her eyes hurt with the intense concentration she felt herself pulled into. She heard every creak as she turned the doorknob and pushed it open. She stepped in carefully, leaving the door open with Ben and Connor’s existence acknowledged, and not wanting to leave them awkwardly alone outside.

When Miah’s eyes had adjusted to the gloom inside, which was evidence of the intermediate stage between daylight and the need of artificial light, she strained for any sign of her family. The door was open, so they must either be home inside or outside playing in the yard. Since they hadn’t been in the front yard, and they did not seem to be inside, she walked down the hall to the back door. She purposefully placed her steps loud enough to alert anyone to her presence: she was by no means trying to sneak around. The back door was locked, and a peek out the small window showed no activity.

“Mom?” she called out, her voice sounding small in the suffocating largeness of the house. Strange how it seems so much bigger on the inside, when I’m all alone.

She cleared her throat and walked quickly around to the stairway, dashing upstairs. “Mom? Dad?” she called, leaning in the door to their bedroom. No one. “Thomas? Gerald?” They were not in their rooms, either. Miah jumped down the stairs. She walked through the living room, and no one was there, either. Where could they be?

Then, she heard the telltale sound of slamming doors and commotion outside.

“Mr. and Mrs. Randolph?” she heard Ben’s voice call.

“Ben?” her mother’s voice replied, hesitantly. Miah was already running to the door, sliding around corners and through the wide-open front door.

“Mom!!!” she cried, arms wide. Her mom met her mid-way and crushed her in an overwhelming embrace, with her dad joining a half-second later. Everyone was crying, everyone was laughing, talking, jumping and hugging.

“We came back as soon as the police called us,” her mother said as soon as they all had walked inside and sat down.

“Where were you guys, then?” Miah asked, taking a drink of water that her brother had run to get for her.

Her father looked from her to her mother, and then back. “We’ve been looking for you! When you didn’t come home that night after school, I went out to the school and looked around, and no one was there; I went to the park, to the library, any of the places I thought you might be, and I didn’t see you anywhere.”

Her mother butted in, “He tried calling you, but then you didn’t have your phone, because it hadn’t been fixed yet.”

He nodded. “Yes. It wasn’t responsible of me to not try to get your phone fixed right away—you didn’t have it to call me on.”

“I know…I never even had time to try to call you.”

“And I haven’t gotten my phone fixed up to work in the States yet,” Ben added.

Connor looked sideways at Miah. “Don’t look at me,” he laughed nervously. “My phone has been hacked by enemy intelligence too many times for me to count, and I had all but thrown it away by the time I met you. And, when we were captured, they took it from me anyway.”

Miah had watched her family lean in with widening eyes as he mentioned “enemy intelligence” and “captured”, and was only waiting for the question to be asked.

It was Gerald who put the question. “So what happened?”

Miah, Ben, and Connor looked at each other, and then Miah took a deep breath. “Well…”