Spiral (38 page)

Now the boy turned to him with trembling lips and said, "Daddy, you promised, right?"

"Yes, I did."

Ando had already prepared the reward he'd promised the boy for meeting his father's expectations and overcoming his fear of the water. He was going to let him meet his mother.

"Mommy's going to be so surprised."

His wife didn't know yet that their son had been brought back to life. Ando got excited just thinking about the moment when mother and son would be reunited. He'd have to think of a plausible story. Maybe he could say that the boy hadn't drowned after all but had been rescued by a fishing boat; that he'd had amnesia, that he'd lived with other folks for the last two years. It didn't matter how ridiculous the story was. The minute she touched Takanori, alive in the flesh, it would become the truth.

Whether or not they'd be able to make it as a married couple again was another question. Ando wanted to try. He gave himself a fifty-fifty chance.

A particularly big wave tame along and started to raise the boy's body off the sand. The boy gave a little shriek and clung tightly to Ando's waist. Ando held his son tightly to his side and waded out into the sea. He could feel his son's heartbeat. That rhythm was the only sure thing in a world facing destruction. It proved they were alive.

THE END