Page 111 of Midnightsong
“Okay.” Bàba gave his non-weight bearing leg a quick stretch. “Just took my painkillers. I can’t wait until I’m off them. They’re giving me stomach aches.”
Angie gave him a half-smile. He was only taking the painkillers because if he didn’t, he spent his nights cursing and groaning in bed and complaining of extreme agony during the days. She thought back to when Bàba kept blood pressure medication around “just in case”. Angie knew better. He never intended to take it, believing Western medicine was for emergencies only. “I’m glad. I wanted to ask you, though, do you have access to the security tapes from the night the Mer-Queen died?”
Bàba’s crutches clicked as he hopped on his good leg, turning to face Angie. “No, but I can ask the security team to send footage from their cloud systems. They should be able to access it from their computers at home.”
Outside of spending time with her family, if there was a singular thing Angie had to be grateful for, living downtown with Mia, it was that they had Wi-Fi and could receive the footage.
She followed Bàba inside and helped him sit on the living room couch and handed him his phone. “Do you want anything to drink?” she asked, heading to the kitchen.
“Could you brew somebáiháo yínzhenchá? I’m emailing the security team now.”
“Sure thing.” Angie reached for Mia’s cupboard full of loose-leaf teas and pulled out the box of white tea Bàba wanted, aptly named ‘white hair silver needle’. She could go for a cup herself. Angie scooped a spoonful into a cast iron tea pot, from the set she and Bàba had gotten Mia as a birthday present one year and poured boiling water inside.
She waited for the security team to answer Bàba while the tea steeped.
“Here you go. I logged on Doudou’s laptop so you can look at them. They gave us the footage from the week,” Bàba said two hours later. Angie reached the bottom of the stairs after checking on Jack, who was still asleep, sprawled on his back like a little starfish and his mouth wide open.
She thanked Bàba and gave him a hug. With a second cup of white tea at the ready, she sat andsearched through the footage from that night, and the night before and after.
Mia knocked on the study door hours later. “Mèimei? You want to help me with dinner?” The door creaked open, and Mia’s reflection came onto the computer screen. “Bàba’s trying to help and won’t listen to me when I tell him to sit down.”
“Yeah, give me an excuse to get away from this damned computer for a bit.” Her vision was bleary from watching the footage nonstop, and she paused the shot.
Mia leaned in and stared at her sister. “How long have you been in here for?”
“Four hours?” Angie fumbled. She peered at the time on her phone. It had been over four hours. “Feel like my eyes are going to fall out of my face.”
“You haven’t found anything?”
“No,” she mumbled. “But let’s get Bàba out of the kitchen.”
“Okay, now I’m glad I came to get you.” Mia led the way downstairs. When they got to the kitchen, Bàba was struggling to reach an overhead cabinet.
“Need help?” Mia sidestepped around him and reached over his head for a glass.
“I could have gotten that,” Bàba mumbled between heavy breaths.
“Yeah, but let us make it easier for you.” Angie put her hand on his arm, steadying him as he turned toward the stove. “Why don’t you rest, and we’ll take care of dinner?”
“No, I have to do these things myself. Or else I will never get stronger.”
Angie exchanged a glance with Mia but stayed back as Mia carried his tea to the family room. Bàba had always hated the notion of becoming dependent on someone else, and if he said he didn’t want help, nothing would convince him to accept it, even from his daughters.
She chewed on her lower lip. Bàba hobbled around the kitchen, grabbing a packet of frozen fry bread from the freezer and tossed it on the countertop. He grunted with effort as he reached for a canister of dry white rice from Mia’s pantry, and a packet of seasoned and alder smoked reindeer sausage from the fridge.
“Bàba.” Angie lunged forward to grab the packet of sausage when his face contorted with pain, and it slipped from his hands. It was a kick in the stomach to see her vibrant, healthy Bàba struggling to make a simple meal, and in so much pain. If she had to guess, he didn’t take his second dose of painkillers. “Why don’t you focus on the rice, okay? I’ll get the fry bread and sausage.”
He said nothing as he stared at her for a moment, his shoulders sagging as he relented.
When dinner was ready, Angie carried out the dishes to meet with Mia, who held a fire poker and fiddled with the burning logs and rolled up newspapers. After setting the table, Mia went to help Bàba while Angie got Jack and Rosie downstairs.
After dinner, Angie’s eyes still didn’t feel better, but she only had an hour left of footage to go through.
Angie kept going, still seeing nothing of note, even with the footage from up and down the shoreline. There was only one dive point from the docks, unless they had taken a boat out.
When her eyes burned and she was about to resign herself to becoming a blind cavefish, a flash appeared from the corner of the screen. She froze, looking closer and squinting.
A glint.
