Page 1 of Dragon's Midlife Secret Baby
1
It was so cold,but he’d finally reached the shore. He pulled himself up onto the rocks with the last bit of strength in his arms, falling onto a patch of sand before rolling over onto his back. He tried to catch his breath, but his lungs had worked so hard, they didn’t feel like they’d ever recover. For a long moment, he simply lay there. He didn’t know what to do. He only knew that he’d made it.
He just didn’t know where he’d made it to.
Sitting up, he looked around. Several large boats were docked nearby, giant gleaming hulks with shining windows. He knew what they were, but it’d been so long since he’d seen one that they felt alien to him. He watched them for a while, bobbing slightly in their moors.
A man stepped off of one. He whistled to himself as he strode up the dock in his crisp white uniform. He was heading somewhere but stopped and turned. “You okay, man?”
He realized the guy in the crisp uniform was talking to him. Fear pierced through him, an instinctive worry after being imprisoned for such a long time. He tried to answer, but no words came out of his mouth.
The boater crouched down, but he kept his distance. He braced his forearm on one knee. “You’re soaking wet. Did you fall in?”
That, at least, was an easier question to answer. “No. I swam.”
“Swam?” The boatman’s dark eyebrows lifted, and his hazel eyes swept over the harbor. “A bit chilly for a swim, isn’t it?”
He shook his head. It’d been so long since he’d spoken to anyone. He always felt confused, like his brain was underwater. He’d tried to remember a time when it wasn’t like that, but he’d never been successful. Taking a deep breath, he tried again to explain. “They held me prisoner on the island. I don’t know for how long anymore. I got away, though—this time. I’d tried before, and it didn’t work, but this time, it did. And I swam here.”
“Okay,” the man said slowly. He adjusted his hat, which was as bright white as his clothing. “Hey, I’d like to help you if that’s all right.”
He shouldn’t trust anyone. His mind might not work right, but that was one thing he knew with all certainty. There was something about this guy that he trusted, though, something he found familiar. Still, he couldn’t be sure. “I don’t know that you can.”
“My name is Jace. Jace Brigham.” He moved forward and held out his hand.
Slowly, he returned the gesture. When he grasped Jace’s hand, he once again had that feeling of something being shared. “I’m…I’m…I don’t know.”
“You don’t remember your name?” Jace asked.
He shook his head, frustrated all over again.
“I see.” Jace rubbed this thumbnail against his lip. “I get the sense that you’re like me, though. I can’t really say much more about it, not out here, but do you know what I mean?”
A secret. Something he’d kept hidden about himself for a long time, but he wasn’t the only one holding it. It was cloudy, but the knowledge was there somewhere. “Yeah. I think so.”
“That’s a start,” Jace said with a nod. “Do you know where you live?”
He shook his head. “I only know thatI want to go there. I don’t even know what it looks like. It’s just a feeling I have more than anything.”
“Hm.” Jace rose and reached a hand out to help him up. “It won’t be an easy task, but I’d like to do whatever I can. I have some friends that might be able to help.”
Slowly, he got to his feet. He was exhausted, his muscles and bones weak from the long swim. It gave him a sense of hopelessness that weighed his body down even more than his wet clothes. “I don’t see how you can.”
Jace rolled one shoulder. “My friends are pretty talented, to say the least. Come on. My car’s right over there.”
With little choice, he followed Jace. He didn’t like having to rely on a stranger for help. Though he couldn’t understand why, he felt he shouldn’t need to. It should behimthat people were coming to for assistance.
“Listen, I know this sounds strange,” Jace said as he dug his keys out of his pocket. “If you don’t have a name, do you mind if I give you one? I just feel like it might make things easier.”
“I guess.”
“We can keep it simple. John, for instance. John could be anyone,” Jace theorized.
“Okay.” John. He tried on the name in his mind. It didn’t feel like his own, but how could he know? “Are you sure you want me to get in your car? I’m going to get the seats all wet.”
“They’ll dry. Trust me. I spend all day on the water, and I’ve gotten them wet myself. It’s no big deal.”
The car roared to life beneath them. Even moving through the parking lot made John cling to the armrest as the world passed by.
