The Reckless Rescue

by Adrienne Kress

  “Say, how did you get the shark to your place? I know you had a big tank and a crane, but the rest of it…how did you do it?” asked Evie.

  “It’s a long story. Let’s just say it’s good the loading doors go directly into the basement,” replied Erik. Evie gave him a moment to explain further, but evidently he didn’t feel much like sharing.

  “I have one question, though,” she said, changing the subject slightly. “Was that you outside my window the other night? With the wagon?”

  At that, Erik turned and looked at her. Then he nodded and faced forward. “Yeah, I was getting it some fish.”

  Evie felt victorious in her correct conclusion and turned to look out the back window into the bed of the truck. Catherine was holding on to the sides, trying not to flop about in the water. The shark was swimming in a slow circle over and over. It didn’t look happy at all.

  Not that Evie blamed it.

  To be perfectly honest, she was feeling pretty darn stressed herself.

  * Or “sharked,” as the case may be.

  “That was amazing!” said Kwan as they all rushed back into the wings, the applause from the audience still echoing in Sebastian’s ears.

  “You did it!” said Ujin, grabbing Sebastian around the middle and hoisting him up into the air. Considering how nauseous Sebastian was still feeling, having done what he’d just done, the action was definitely not appreciated even if the sentiment was.

  He was returned to earth just as Suwon approached with a smile. “Well done. The audience loved you. I never thought it possible, but evidently changing the band can be a good thing.” He stuck out his hand to shake, and Sebastian did not know what to do.

  “What is it?” asked Suwon.

  “I can’t. I can’t do this anymore,” said Sebastian. The adrenaline was wearing off quickly. He looked at Kwan. “You have to tell him, or I will have to tell him.” Lying was hard. More than that, it was just so exhausting.

  “Go,” said Kwan to the other Lost Boys. “I’ll join you soon.” The Lost Boys looked concerned but agreed and returned to the spotlight and the roaring fans. Kwan looked back at Suwon now with a sad expression. All the joy and light from the recent success onstage was extinguished from his eyes.

  “Kwan, what’s going on?” asked Suwon.

  “Sebastian doesn’t want to be a Lost Boy. We did this to prove a point,” said Kwan very quietly. Sebastian had never seen him so nervous before.

  “A point?”

  “You always say we are irreplaceable, but…I want to be replaced. I need to be.” Listening to the feeling in his voice, it was only then that Sebastian realized they were talking in English still. Kwan needed Sebastian to understand because Kwan needed his support.

  “I’m confused,” said Suwon.

  Kwan stood there silently, looking at his feet.

  “He wants to see what else is out there. He wants to leave the band,” said Sebastian, placing a hand on Kwan’s shoulder.

  “Oh,” said Suwon.

  “And we thought if we showed you that the fans would accept a new member, you’d see that he could be replaced, that the band wasn’t doomed.” Sebastian looked out at the Lost Boys onstage singing and dancing their hearts out.

  “It’s true,” said Kwan.

  Suwon thought for a moment. For longer than that. And then, finally: “Why didn’t you just come talk to me?”

  “Because—” started Sebastian.

  “Because I didn’t want to let you down,” interrupted Kwan. “Because I thought that if you knew I wanted to leave, you’d throw me out. Out of the compound. Out of…my family.” Kwan lowered his head so that Sebastian couldn’t read his expression.

  Suwon placed his hand on Kwan’s shoulder and sighed. “Oh, dear boy, I’m sorry. I’m sorry you feel this way. I would never have done that, I promise you. I would not desert you. Not like…not like…” He stopped. “I am very proud of you. I’ll always be proud of you.” He smiled then, and Kwan looked up. Only then did Sebastian see a tear shining on the boy’s cheek.

  Kwan nodded slowly and wiped away the tear.

  “So you will tell me the truth from now on?” asked Suwon.

  Kwan nodded. “Yes.”

  “And you always have a home with me, a family, no matter what you decide,” added Suwon. Kwan smiled brightly then. They smiled at each other.

  And then: “Um, Suwon hyung?”

  “Yes, my boy?”

  “Could we maybe get phones?” asked Kwan almost shyly. “And maybe a little bit more freedom? I think that you think we need to be protected at all times, but we’re older now. And we need to learn how to take care of ourselves.”

  Suwon thought carefully about this. “You are right. Let’s have a meeting tonight. After all, we have a new family member to integrate into the group as well.” He turned and smiled at Sebastian.

  Sebastian took in a deep breath. “Suwon, I’m not interested in being in the band. This was all to prove a point. I want to go home. To my family.”

  Suwon smiled that knowing smile. “But we are your family.”

  Sebastian sighed hard. “Okay, so you really, really need to believe me that I’m not a runaway and that I was kidnapped.”

  Suwon shook his head sadly. “Still in denial, I see.”

  “No, Hyung. He really was kidnapped,” said Kwan.

  “You had better go back onstage. We’ll talk about this later.”

  Kwan gave Sebastian an apologetic look, and then he joined his band members, who were stalling for time, doing more acrobatics. Once he joined them, the Lost Boys returned to their routine as if nothing had happened. But so much had. So much on and off the stage. There was extra life in Kwan’s performance, an extra bounce to his step. And when it came time for his flip, for the first time ever he was able to do a double. This, of course, caused the audience to roar with appreciation, as did the other band members.

  Sebastian was happy to see it, but he couldn’t enjoy the moment. The knots in his stomach reminded him yet again of their presence.

  Right. Escaping.

  It felt wrong, just leaving like that, no goodbye, nothing. But with Suwon’s fierce determination to prove everyone, including Sebastian, wrong about Sebastian’s family situation, and with Suwon standing close to where the stage began in the wings, and the boys performing, there was no better time than this.

  “Goodbye,” Sebastian muttered under his breath.

  Then he turned around and walked right into Mr. I.

  It took twice as long to get back to the cove as it had taken to get to Erik’s, as they were driving half the speed, but eventually they were out of the thick brush and moving along the wide sunny highway. It was actually a small saving grace that so few cars were coming to the cove these days. Otherwise, Evie envisioned a huge frustrated line of them behind their truck, beeping their horns, angry that they were going so slowly.

  Eventually the Outlook Inn came into view, and on their right, the beach. Ruby slowed to a stop. “Evie, open the back window,” she said.

  Evie did, and Catherine swam up to it. “Yes?” she asked.

  “What do we do now?” asked Ruby.

  “We get her back into the stretcher,” said Catherine.

  Ruby sat for another moment, thinking hard. Then she said, “Forget that. I’m backing into the sea.”

  “But your truck!” said Erik.

  “She’s pretty tall. I figure if we just get the rear tires in and open the back, that should be good enough. You two get out, though, just in case,” Ruby added.

  Catherine shook her head. “I’m staying with her till the last moment, to help keep her calm.”

  There was no arguing with Catherine, though. Erik made a few squeaks of protest. But he slipped out of the truck, and Evie clambered over the seat to join
him. They walked along the beach away from the truck and watched as Ruby slowly brought her vehicle around and started to back down over the boardwalk and onto the sand.

  Evie turned and looked out at the sea, and in that moment made a very loud gasp. Right there, in the shallows, was Steve. He was huge. Well, he’d always been huge, but to see him so close now was to get a true sense of just how huge he was. He wasn’t anything like the little shark, who was lean and sleek. He was broad and heavy, thick and leathery. Clearly somehow he had known that the little shark was nearby, and he was coming to find her. If it hadn’t been so scary, Evie would have compared it to a dad picking up his daughter at school, waiting in the parking lot for her to arrive.

  And maybe it was. If the dad had plans to eat the principal too.

  Though now that Evie thought about it, maybe that was a bit unfair. After all, the little shark had actually been quite nice to Catherine and even to Evie as well. Sure it had tried to attack, but it was scared, it was in a pool, it was hungry, and it had no idea what was going on. Heck, Evie herself could picture maybe having a similar reaction in a similar circumstance. She remembered her fight-or-flight response kicking in when the scary men had been coming after her.

  Evie felt a little guilty for judging the sharks so harshly.

  Ruby was slowly backing the truck over the sand and reached the water’s edge. The waves were much choppier now, crashing with some violence against the shore. She stopped the truck for a moment, and then backed up farther into the surf. It had looked almost like the vehicle had stopped to take a deep breath before diving into the water.

  The sea rose up around the back tires of the truck. The front tires were up on the sand so the whole truck was on a slight declined angle now. Then Ruby turned off the engine, stepped out of the vehicle, and quickly made her way over to where Evie and Erik were standing.

  “I can’t believe Catherine’s about to do this with Steve right there,” said Ruby, slightly out of breath.

  Evie couldn’t believe it either, and yet also she totally could. This was an extremely Catherine thing to do, really.

  There was a moment of quiet as they watched Catherine move toward the back of the truck, her bright red hair highlighting her movements. Then there was a pause. A pause that seemed to last a little too long. And then Catherine pushed down the tailgate of the truck.

  Maybe it was the two days of working out he’d done with the band, maybe it was the limited dance training, but whatever it was, Sebastian’s reaction time didn’t lag for one moment. He turned on his heel and darted away from Mr. I. Which happened to be toward the stage. A cheer greeted Sebastian’s return, which for a brief moment he did find kind of flattering, and the boys turned to see him standing in their midst. They grinned widely, and Kwan shouted out, “It’s Opera Boy!” There was another loud cheer, and Sebastian gave an awkward wave at his “fans.”

  Then he remembered. He looked to his right. Mr. I was being oddly polite, not coming onto the stage. Sebastian made a beeline toward the left side of the stage instead. But standing there was Mr. K.

  Kwan danced over to him and, covering his headset, asked, “What’s going on?”

  “My kidnappers, they’re back!” Sebastian pointed at them both, and Kwan stared in surprise.

  “The scary dudes!”

  “Yes!”

  The rest of the band gathered around just as Mr. I and Mr. K decided to break the threshold between the darkness and the light and step onto the stage. The audience made an “Ooh” sound at their arrival, anticipating some kind of theatrics. And, knowing these men, theatrics were not out of the question, thought Sebastian.

  Kwan shouted an order in Korean, his voice resonating around the stadium. Ujin and Toy darted over to Mr. I, flipping and leaping as they did. Yejun and Cheese meanwhile danced their way to Mr. K, drawing him into their routine most unwillingly. Sebastian, feeling very out of place just standing there, performed the short routine the boys had taught him two nights ago.

  What was he doing? He needed to run for it. He’d seen crowd surfers before in videos, and though this didn’t seem like the kind of concert where people did such a thing, maybe they’d be inspired to try it? The crowd was certainly thick enough. He darted to the edge of the stage and was about to take a leap, when he saw Mr. M standing there, front and center. Sebastian faltered and tripped over his own feet, lunging toward members of the audience, and they caught him.

  “Push me back!” he shouted. He also gestured toward the stage in case they didn’t understand. They helpfully pushed him back. His feet slid around underneath him, but he got his footing again on the stage and ran back to its center. He looked around. Mr. I and Mr. K were still being blocked by crazy acrobatics and dance moves, but Mr. M had pulled himself up onto the stage at the front and was coming right for him.

  “Stand on the X,” ordered Kwan as he leapt in front of Sebastian.

  “The what?” Sebastian called as Kwan lunged at Mr. M, shoving the man with the eye patch backward into the crowd. The crowd caught him and, thinking that he too wanted to be back onstage, placed him there politely, just as they had with Sebastian.

  Sebastian looked down and saw a large yellow X on the stage floor. He didn’t know what it meant, but he ran over to it and stood there.

  Nothing happened.

  Mr. M came charging at him, and Kwan tried to restrain him. But the teenager was much smaller, and despite his wiry strength, he was no match for the brute force of Mr. M.

  Standing there, literally on a target, just felt really wrong. But Sebastian at this point had no idea what else to do.

  Suddenly it seemed he was getting shorter. Weird. Sebastian looked down. The lift! Of course! The lift! He was being lowered under the stage, thanks to some very helpful technician, but, man, oh, man, was his escape taking forever.

  World’s slowest escape, that was what it was.* Kwan was now holding fast to Mr. M’s legs and was being dragged. Eventually Mr. M pried the lead singer off and threw him toward Sebastian. The last thing Sebastian saw before he was completely under the stage was Mr. M making one final desperate lunge toward him, and Kwan flying down into the hole with Sebastian, landing right on top of him. Once they were totally underground, the lift stopped and Sebastian and Kwan rolled to the side to allow the lift to return to place, much faster than it had gone down, and almost taking off Mr. M’s right arm, which he’d stuck down into the hole, reaching after them. Luckily for him, he snatched it out just in time. Sebastian was grateful. He’d seen a lot in the last few weeks, but he wasn’t sure he was ready to see a severed arm up close. And Mr. M really didn’t need to lose another body part. That wasn’t fair.

  Sebastian and Kwan untangled themselves from each other and stood.

  A firm hand was suddenly on Sebastian’s shoulder. He whipped around, prepared for a fight, but it was Suwon.

  “Come with me,” he said. And Sebastian, at this point thinking him very much the lesser of two evils, followed quickly, Kwan at his side.

  They ran through a maze of ropes and wires, and it was a miracle that nobody tripped and fell on their face. Then they were back in the cement corridor under the stadium. They raced along, even though no one was chasing them, all of them understanding that this was not the time to be complacent. They made it back to the parked bus, but Suwon ran right past it, leading them farther up the long wide ramp until they were out in the cold night air. A large crowd had gathered behind tall fences by the exit and was a little confused by their appearance. Then they noticed Kwan, and the cheer once again was deafening.

  Kwan ordered something loudly, and in one swift move the crowd parted. He thanked them and quickly took a selfie with a pair of girls as he, Sebastian, and Suwon made their way through the crowd and onto a main street, city lights bright everywhere.

  It was only then that they stopped. Suwon hailed a cab. Alm
ost as if it had been waiting for them, one screeched to a halt right beside them.

  “Take him to the airport,” he said to the driver in English so that Sebastian would understand. Sebastian looked at Suwon gratefully as he opened the door and slid inside.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you,” said Suwon.

  “I’m sorry I thought you were evil,” replied Sebastian.

  “You did?”

  “My mistake. But seriously, I think you need to start trusting your boys more.” Sebastian didn’t think he had time for this moment of advice-giving, but still, he felt obligated to do it. For Kwan’s sake. Kwan grinned gratefully, so Sebastian knew he’d done the right thing.

  “I think you’re right. Being protective, I suppose, doesn’t always protect,” said Suwon, smiling. For the first time Sebastian wasn’t suspicious of Suwon’s smile. Sebastian closed the door, but Kwan knocked on the window, so he rolled it down.

  “If you ever need anything, if you ever need the Lost Boys, just let us know. You’ll always be a member! And we take care of each other.”

  Sebastian really wasn’t sure when that time would be, but it was a gallant offer and he appreciated it. “Thank you!” he called back. Then there was a moment when he realized he was likely never going to see Kwan again, unless of course he pulled up some of the Lost Boys music videos or something on his computer. “Goodbye,” he said awkwardly.

  Sebastian hadn’t really ever said that kind of a goodbye before. The kind where he really meant it. Such a finite word. Not “au revoir,” which in English meant “until the next time we see each other.” Not “see you later.” But “goodbye.”

  Kwan seemed to be thinking the same thing. He gave Sebastian a sad smile.

  “Goodbye.”

  And with that, the cab drove off, leaving Sebastian very much on his own.

  * Technically it wasn’t the world’s slowest escape. That honor goes to Sir Archibald Buffle, who attempted to escape the Tower of London by hitching a makeshift wagon to a team of turtles.