The Variables

The child nodded.

“Good,” Ethan said. He started to gain ground, sliding past his sister with an air of stubborn determination. “I believe that, too.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The captain warned them it would be an intense landing. He said it as a throwaway comment, with the same intonation he had used to declare the cruising altitude. Yet when he brought the plane down on to the stretch of Maine coastline, the crazy, bumpy descent made her confident that her fate was sealed. Every movie or TV show with a plane crash ran on repeat in her head. This was how those scenes looked: overhead compartments popping open, people bracing for impact, excessive bouncing and shaking.

Lucy would never have a chance to live out her actions in Cass’s tarot cards. She would die right here in a fiery ball of twisted metal and burning flesh. Everything in her line of vision blurred as the plane shook and rattled and approached the long stretch of beach and the short stretch of a temporary runway with acceleration, not a decrease of speed.

“He trained for this,” her father reminded her. “You’re okay.”

But Lucy was not okay.

The wheels touched down, but only briefly before the plane shot up again, and then jerked back down. Lucy held on to the seat in front of her and braced for impact. An intense whoosh passed through the cabin and Lucy looked out the window to her right—she realized the ocean was right outside, swirling by in a blur.

When the plane came to a stop, those sitting in the emergency rows yanked open the doors and deployed the bright yellow slides. With her anxiety climbing, Lucy felt like she wanted to hit something, but she had spent the entire plane ride sitting next to a snoring Galen, and hitting him seemed mean-spirited.

“Okay, Kings,” Maxine called in her take-charge voice. “Let’s all stay together. Big kids help the little kids off the plane.” Big kids help the little kids. The motto of their family—it was always Ethan, Lucy, and Galen assuming responsibility for Malcolm, Monroe, and Harper. Galen let the twins slip ahead of him as they made a beeline for the slide. Lucy looked for Harper, but her mother was already holding tight to the girl’s hand. Ethan was busy with Teddy, packing up his acquired belongings: a toy car, a stuffed hippopotamus, and a collection of books. Blair had packed every toy, blanket, stuffed animal she had procured for him. Of everyone on the plane, Teddy had the most things. Allison lurked behind Ethan, grabbing the extra bags and looking altogether useless.

“You coming with me?” Cass asked and Lucy nodded, relieved to have the companionship. “I’ll wait for you.” Cass waited her turn in the line of people disembarking the plane, and then swung down on to the inflated slide, holding her bag in her lap as she went.

Lucy hesitated at the door and felt the push of the people behind her. She realized too late that she had picked a bad day to wear a dress, and yet she jumped, sliding down until she reached the sandy bottom. Slipping off her shoes, Lucy stood and wiggled her toes. Sand. The sand was cold and wet against her foot, the grains rubbed in between her toes. Tucking her bag into her body, Lucy looked up.

Looming in front of her, to the left of the plane, was an amusement park. An abandoned Ferris wheel sat unmoving, its carriages drifting back and forth in the wind. A steel rollercoaster peeked above a red and white circus tent. The strong gusts of coastal wind whipped through the tent and pieces of it flapped angrily against the sides. Lucy walked forward, drawn to the park by some invisible string, her mouth agape. A giant collection of swings danced and creaked from a carousel. Nothing looked gloomier than the paint-chipped clowns and empty carnival game stands; stuffed animals dangling ownerless for the rest of time. Lucy took another step toward the park, and kept her eyes trained on the motionless rides. In the not too distant past, this was a place of laughter and mirth.

It reminded Lucy of an old friend from elementary school whose family moved away quite suddenly. Maxine took Lucy over to their apartment to check on them and they found the apartment abandoned and trashed. In one of the back bedrooms, a place where Lucy had played with her friend for hours, they found a half-empty toy box. Inside: a half-dressed Barbie doll that had undergone a haircut. Lucy remembered playing Barbies with her friend, but seeing that doll—alone, dirty, left behind—made Lucy sad. It wasn’t right to have to leave without your toys; it wasn’t right to abandon something that had once been so well loved.

The carnival made her sad for the same reasons.

Lucy heard Cass whistle. She turned. No more than a hundred yards in front of the plane was a pier. It jutted out into the water, waves lapped against its barnacled posts. She gulped. Had their pilot not stopped the plane exactly on that stretch of runway, they would have run right into the raised platform, splintering the wood and sending the whole jetty crashing into the ocean. Lucy’s eyes were on the pier and the amusement park in her periphery when she followed Cass’s gaze.

It was not the pier or the towering rollercoasters that attracted her attention.

No, Cass had wandered down the beach, away from the disembarking travelers, and she was looking outward into the ocean. As the waves rolled in, the sun passing by overhead, Lucy caught a glimpse of a tower out at sea. It rose and then disappeared. Its top was present for a second, then gone. Occasionally she could see other little mounds, which looked like glass rocks in the distance, but after peering further, she realized the mounds were co

“Is that Kymberlin?” Lucy asked when she reached Cass on the beach. She realized that this must have been how Dorothy felt when she first spied the glimmering beauty of the Emerald City. Huck’s crowning achievement was majestic.

Cass nodded, her eyes wide.

Lucy held her shoes behind her back and stood on her tiptoes to see. Then she walked forward, absorbing the distinguishing details of this city on the sea. It had a mirage quality to it: a dreamlike appearance. It was as if it could have been tangible or a hallucination, all at once.

“It doesn’t look real,” Lucy said. “It’s so...futuristic. How could anyone not notice this thing cropping up in their backyard?”

“It’s real,” Cass answered. Then she turned to Lucy, “People believe what you tell them. Conspiracy theorists are shot down as wackos. If the news tells you it’s a scientific station to study wave energy, then you don’t wonder why the military is involved. Why boats that got close were lost at sea...”

“No way,” Lucy shook her head. “I didn’t hear about any of that.”

Cass shrugged. “Of course not.”

“It’s not that far away.”

Cass turned and shook her head, her braids drifting across her back. “It’s very far away. The land gives the illusion that it’s closer than it is. But don’t be fooled, Lucy. Huck might want comfort for his handpicked population, but he certainly doesn’t want them capable of leaving the Islands.” Then, without saying anything else, she turned and left Lucy alone on the beach.

From the distance, Lucy could hear the chop chop chop of a helicopter approaching. She sca