Don’t Call Me Blue

Six months later, the future found Tomas and his mother on an unnamed stretch of tropical beach where the water changed from turquoise to deep blue just beyond the reef.

Kay had kept two promises.

Their past had stayed behind them.

And she had begun teaching Tomas the family trade.

Not the old version.

No smuggling for men like Kincaid. No weapons delivered to people who intended to hurt the innocent. No deals made in darkness because the money was too good to ask questions.

These days, their work looked different.

Sometimes they delivered medicine to villages no one else bothered to reach.

Sometimes they returned stolen money to people who had lost everything.

Sometimes they reminded the wrong kind of men that the world still had consequences.

Justice, Kay called it.

Robin Hood would have approved.

“Where are you going?” Kay called from the screened porch of their beach house.

The small, weathered house sat where the jungle gave way to sand. Palm shadows moved across its metal roof while the tide whispered against the shore.

Tomas slung his blue bookbag over one shoulder.

“Out.”

“Out where?”

“I’m practicing catching fish with my hands.”

Kay leaned against the porch frame.

“Remember what Remo said.”

“I remember.”

“Don’t grab anything with spikes on its back.”

Tomas grinned. “What am I, stupid?”

Kay raised one eyebrow.

“Don’t answer that. Next you’ll tell me not to get lost.”

“Smartass.”

The screen door slapped shut behind her.

Tomas ran down the path toward the lagoon.

Sand shifted beneath his feet as he passed through the shadows of leaning palms. Warm wind carried the smell of salt and hibiscus. Waves rolled lazily against the beach as though the world itself had decided to slow down.

The place still felt unreal.

Back in Twin River, there had always been fences.

Cameras.

Locked doors.

Here, there was only sky.

Remo was somewhere beyond the reef, guiding a fishing boat through the outer channel. He served as Kay’s pilot whenever they needed to move quietly between islands, but he had taken a special interest in Tomas.

School happened in the mornings.

Survival lessons came after lunch.

Fishing.

Tracking.

Knots.

Weather.

Navigation.

How to disappear when disappearing was the only way to stay alive.

Remo called it a complete education.

Tomas dropped his blue bookbag beside a pile of sun-bleached rocks and stepped onto the jetty. The tide had carved a natural pool there, protected by jagged stones that kept the water calm.

Dog snappers drifted through the clear shallows.

Perfect.

Tomas crouched and lowered one hand into the water.

The fish scattered.

“Yeah, yeah.”

He waited.

Remo’s voice returned to him.

Calm yourself. Fish feel your vibrations.

Tomas stilled his fingers.

A minute passed.

Then another.

The fish slowly returned.

Tomas moved one finger.

Gone.

“Motherhumperdink.”

A wave broke against the rocks and sprayed saltwater across his back.

Something near the bottom of the jetty caught the sunlight.

A stone.

Smooth.

Blue.

Tomas reached into the water and picked it up. It was about the size of a marble, polished until it shone like glass.

“Huh.”

He turned it between his fingers.

It wasn’t the first.

Over the past several weeks, he had found other blue stones scattered along the beach.

Always alone.

Always near the water.

Tomas opened his bookbag.

Eleven stones rested in the bottom.

He held the new one above them.

Twelve.

The moment he dropped the final stone into the bag, something shifted.

Not a sound exactly.

More like the memory of one.

Tomas.

He froze.

The fish scattered again.

Tomas slowly lifted his head.

Nothing moved along the shoreline. Palm fronds swayed in the breeze. Sunlight danced across the lagoon.

No one stood there.

He looked inside the bag.

Twelve blue stones.

Ordinary except for the way the light seemed to remain inside them after it should have passed.

Tomas rubbed the back of his neck.

“Not possible.”

The stones didn’t move.

He closed the bag.

Up the beach, Kay stood beside the house, waving both arms.

“Tomas!”

He grabbed his bookbag and jogged toward her.

“What?”

“I got a call. We need to go into town.”

“Business or personal?”

Kay made a face.

“A little of both.”

“Do I need anything?”

“No. Leave your bag on the porch. We won’t be gone long.”

They were gone for six hours.

The job began as a delivery of antibiotics.

It ended with a warehouse fire, two broken noses, three men tied to a fishing pier, and one extremely grateful village.

Kay called it a successful Tuesday.

By the time their truck returned to the sand path, the sky had turned deep purple with sunset.

Tomas dropped onto the porch swing and rested his head against the wood.

The night breeze cooled the sweat on his neck. If he didn’t stand soon, he was going to fall asleep without showering.

You know, if you think I’m going to let you call me Blue, you’ve got another thing coming.

Tomas’s eyes opened.

Across from him, his blue JanSport rested upright in the rocking chair.

He had left it beside the front door.

Now its straps were folded across its front.

Tomas stared.

“What?”

The zipper twitched.

I said, if you think I’m answering to Blue, you’re out of your mind.

Tomas sat up.

“Red?”

Look at that. He can learn.

Tomas blinked several times.

“You’re supposed to be gone.”

Temporary absence.

“You returned to another dimension.”

Strategic retreat.

“You said goodbye.”

I became unexpectedly nostalgic.

Tomas crossed the porch and crouched beside the rocking chair.

The blue bag tipped toward him.

“You’re really here?”

Yes.

Tomas reached for the zipper.

Buy me dinner first.

He opened the bag.

Twelve purple stones rested inside.

Completely purple.

Whole.

Tomas frowned.

“They were blue.”

Good.

“Good?”

That means the crossing worked properly.

“What does blue mean?”

It means I crossed intentionally. Blue is what the stones should look like between worlds.

“They were pink the first time.”

I was unconscious and injured the first time.

“And now they’re purple.”

All twelve are together. I’ve settled back into myself.

Tomas looked at the blue canvas surrounding them.

“You do understand why I might call you Blue.”

The zipper pulled into a hard line.

Blue is a color. Red is my name.

“Blue is also a mood.”

I’m aware.

“You seem grumpy.”

Red went still.

The playfulness disappeared.

I need a favor.

Tomas sat on the porch floor.

“What happened?”

For several seconds, the only sound was the tide moving against the beach.

Courtney is gone.

Tomas stared at him.

“Gone home?”

Gone.

“What does that mean?”

I don’t know.

“You were with her.”

Not when she disappeared.

“Did the Collector—”

The Collector is dead. This is something else.

Tomas looked toward the ocean.

“Did Courtney send you?”

No.

“You chose to come back.”

I came because I need your help finding her.

Tomas leaned against the railing.

Six months earlier, those words would have terrified him.

Collectors.

Keepers.

Dimensions layered over his own.

He had wanted all of it to be over.

Now he thought of Courtney walking alone into the darkness outside the airport because remaining one minute longer could have trapped them all.

She had returned for him.

It was his turn to return for her.

“Do you know where we start?”

Not yet.

“Do you know how we get there?”

Possibly.

“That doesn’t sound promising.”

It rarely does.

Tomas smiled.

Beyond the reef, the ocean stretched black beneath the rising moon.

Somewhere past the water and sky, another world waited.

And somewhere inside it, Courtney needed them.

Tomas rested one hand on Red’s strap.

“All right.”

Red’s zipper lifted slightly.

All right?

“We find Courtney.”

Just like that?

“You came all this way.”

Across dimensions.

“Seems rude to make you go back alone.”

Red’s straps tightened around Tomas’s wrist.

Moron.

Tomas laughed.

Something moved beyond the reef.

Not in the water.

Beyond it.

A disturbance too distant to see but close enough to feel.

For once, Tomas didn’t mistake confidence for certainty. He knew enough now to understand how dangerous the unknown could be.

He was still afraid.

He was also willing.

This time, Tomas believed he was ready.