Chapter 5 - THE BABY IN THE PHOTOGRAPHElena did not speak for almost a minute.
She kept looking from Caleb to the photograph and back again.
Finally:
“You had one too?”
Caleb nodded.
“I guess I did.”
Vivian corrected him immediately.
“You were born with one.”
Caleb turned.
“What’s the difference?”
“A significant one.”
“Explain it.”
Vivian looked toward Lila.
“No.”
Elena’s arms tightened.
“Then I will assume the worst.”
“That would be foolish.”
“You told me to take my daughter away.”
“I told you to protect her.”
“You said the family would never accept her.”
Vivian’s expression hardened.
“Because I know this family.”
Caleb gave a bitter laugh.
“You are this family.”
“No. Your father was this family.”
That changed the room.
Caleb stared.
“My father is dead.”
Vivian looked away.
“Yes.”
“You said that like it means something else.”
“It doesn’t.”
Caleb no longer believed anything she said automatically.
He picked up his newborn medical file.
“What treatment?”
Vivian remained silent.
“What happened to the tail?”
“It changed.”
“How?”
“We followed a protocol.”
“Whose?”
“Your grandfather’s doctors initially developed it.”
Elena’s face tightened.
“For what?”
Vivian looked at her.
“To allow children like Caleb to live ordinary lives.”
“Children like Caleb,” Elena repeated. “You mean children like Lila.”
“Yes.”
Caleb opened the file.
“These notes mention exposure.”
Vivian said nothing.
“Exposure to what?”
“Sea water.”
Elena frowned.
Caleb looked down again.
“The ocean?”
“Not exactly.”
Vivian walked to the shelves and pulled down an old leather folder.
Inside was a map of the Rhode Island coast.
A section near the Marlowe family’s private shoreline had been circled.
“There is a tidal chamber beneath the cliffs.”
Caleb stared.
“A cave?”
“Yes.”
“You took a newborn baby into a cave?”
Vivian’s tone sharpened.
“You survived.”
“That does not make it sane.”
“You think I enjoyed it?”
For the first time, emotion broke through her polished control.
“You think I wanted to carry my three-day-old son into freezing sea air while your father told me not to cry?”
The room went silent.
Vivian looked away as though regretting the confession.
Caleb’s anger shifted.
Not gone.
Changed.
“What happened there?”
Vivian took a breath.
“The water is different.”
“That means nothing.”
“It contains minerals, organisms, something we never fully understood.”
“And you put me in it?”
“For seconds at first.”
Elena looked horrified.
Vivian immediately added, “Under medical supervision. You were never in danger.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it had been done before.”
There it was.
Again.
Caleb looked toward the boxes.
“Miriam?”
Vivian did not answer.
Caleb pulled out the photograph labeled MIRIAM.
“Who is she?”
“A relative.”
“What happened to her?”
“She was treated.”
“Where is she?”
Vivian said nothing.
Elena spoke.
“Is she alive?”
Silence.
Caleb’s eyes narrowed.
“You don’t know.”
“I know what I was told.”
“Which was?”
“That she did not return.”
Elena’s face changed.
“From the cave?”
Vivian nodded once.
Caleb stared.
“How old?”
“A baby.”
His stomach turned.
“You took me to the same place where another child disappeared?”
“It was not the same procedure.”
“You just said it was.”
“I said there was precedent.”
“You’re playing with words.”
“And you are judging decisions made thirty-five years ago with no understanding of the consequences.”
Caleb stepped toward her.
“What consequences?”
Vivian pointed at Lila.
“Look at your daughter.”
He did.
Lila slept peacefully.
“That is what I’m doing.”
“No. You are seeing a baby. The world will see proof that everything humans believe about biology may be incomplete.”
“So?”
“So she will never be left alone.”
Vivian’s voice dropped.
“Universities will want her. Governments will classify her. Religious fanatics will call her an omen. Reporters will camp outside your gates. People will offer money for photographs. Others will try to steal her.”
Elena looked down at Lila.
For the first time, fear appeared on her face that had nothing to do with Vivian.
Caleb saw it.
Vivian continued.
“Your father understood that.”
“My father cared about the family name.”
“He cared about survival.”
“Whose?”
Vivian did not answer quickly enough.
Caleb saw the truth.
“The family’s.”
“Yes.”
“Not the children’s.”
Vivian’s eyes filled briefly with something resembling shame.
“You don’t know what happened.”
“Then tell me.”
She looked at Lila again.
“There is one chance.”
Elena immediately stiffened.
“For what?”
“For the tail to recede naturally, as Caleb’s did.”
Caleb frowned.
“You just said treatment.”
“It accelerated a process that had already begun.”
“What happens if we do nothing?”
Vivian hesitated.
“I don’t know.”
Elena stood.
“Then nobody is touching her.”
“Elena—”
“No.”
Vivian’s expression turned cold again.
“You may regret that.”
Caleb stepped beside his wife.
“Threaten her again and you leave this house permanently.”
Vivian stared at him.
Then she picked up the map.
“You have until the next high tide cycle.”
“For what?”
“To decide whether you want Lila to have a normal life.”
Caleb looked at his daughter.
“What if normal isn’t what she needs?”
May you like
Vivian’s face went still.
Because no Marlowe before him, apparently, had ever asked that question.
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