Away in a Tentacle Lair

18. Kai

Chapter eighteen

Kai

I creep around the house, hoping to avoid meeting anyone. If I'm spotted, I'll get roped into the last-minute Christmas preparations, but I'm hoping to avoid any questions from Dad or Nicholas.

“Kai, just in time to taste the gravy.” Aunt Nellie calls from the kitchen, and I know I'm busted. Nellie and Sophie will continue with the preparation after I'm sent to my room, so at least on that count, I have a way out.

“Is Uncle Nicholas mad at me?”

“No, no, my darling. We want you to be happy. You deserve it. But he is a marine biologist, so Nick just wants to protect you before we tell him something that could put your life in danger.”

“I don't want to be any trouble. I just want to be happy.” I grin like a lovesick fool and earn a chuckle from my aunts.

“Your father is worried about you, worried that he's stressing you out over this. There is no rush to tell your sexy boi about us, but there is a rush to tell Rogan you're okay before bed.”

My nod isn't so enthusiastic. I will abandon Leo with my relatives' company while I go upstairs tomorrow when the sun sets. I love the long summer days, but winter nights mean he'll spend every evening alone. Do I really want to do that to him?

Dad is waiting by the tree in the living room, hanging our family decorations alone.

“Did it hurt spending your evenings alone while me and Mum went to bed?” I ask from the doorway.

“Come and hang this for her.” Dad offers me the fat Robin ornament with her name on it.

“I was with your mother all day, every day. I imagine how sick we would have gotten with the other if we'd spent evenings and nights together, too.”

“Dad,” I groan.

“Okay, obviously I'd prefer to have her all the time, even now, what fifteen years later. But I'd rather have some of her than none.”

“You didn't get sick of watching TV alone at night?”

“I had Rich, Millie and Sophie. When you kids were born, the house was so quiet, but sometimes we’d have you little ones down with us in a big bucket of water, and we’d sit with our feet in.” Dad’s face drops at the memory, and I move closer to hug him. I remember those days. When Mum was alive, I would go up with her after dusk. When she was gone, Dad found all kinds of inventive ways to keep me from having to sleep alone. It's not easy being a human dad to a mourning octopus.

“I wouldn't have missed out on having you for all the tea in China.”

“Do you think I'm doing the right thing?”

“Falling in love, or telling him so soon after giving your heart?” Dad chuckles and wipes away a tear. “You are your mother's son, and we can all see how much you love each other. We welcome him into this crazy world of ours because the alternative is losing you to his.”

“You’ll never lose me, Dad.”

“You live a crazy life at the bottom of the sea. I know you sometimes sneak out as the sun sets. You spend your nights at sea in the summer. I need someone to share that worry with.”

“You know about that?” So why didn't he say anything?

“Nicholas is aware, too, and we chose to say nothing.”

My legs feel heavy as I find my way to the sofa to sit down.

“We know you are the mysterious creature who maintains the bay. We know the research centre is dying to find out what is doing the work.” Dad sits beside me. “We're desperate to end this curse, Kai, and you are the one willing to work night and day. We won’t stop you. Your mother swore it would be you.”

“I don't go around that side of the coast. I stay by our bay.”

“I know. If I were worried about you, I would have said something.”

I nod, feeling the pressure of my mum's dying wish hanging over me.

“I need someone to share the burden with, too,” Dad confesses. “You need to go out in the bay, day and night. What you do is more important and dangerous than anything Nicholas asks of anyone else in the family. I need someone with me while I stand helplessly by.”

“Wow.” That is a lot to handle. I had no idea he felt like that.

“I'm sorry if you didn't realise. It's because you mean so much to all of us. After your mother… well, you really were raised by a village.”

"Thanks, Dad. That means a lot." Isn't this what Christmas is about? Telling others how much you love them and learning some ugly truths about how much they love you.

"Come on, help me with these lights," Dad says, breaking into my thoughts like always. "Unless you want your old man to end up in a tangle worthy of a sea monster's embrace."

"I wouldn't dream of it," I chuckle, stepping forward to assist. Together, we string the lights across the fireplace, the soft glow illuminating our faces and casting long shadows across the floor. This is home; this is family, and tomorrow, we open our doors a little wider, hoping that love truly conquers all.

I watch Dad climb on the arm of the sofa to hang a more traditional bauble, a ball with octopus tentacles wrapped around it.

"Hey, you've never really talked about it, but what was it like... the first time you saw Mum change?"

Dad pauses mid-reach, an ornament suspended in his hand He turns his gaze to the fireplace, where the flames dance like the flickering memories in his eyes, or maybe it's just the tears in mine.

"Well, Kai," he begins, the ornament finding its place as he lowers himself onto the arm of the sofa. “I met her in the water and got to know her over the next week."

"Was it love at first sight? Or more of a 'what-in-the-davy-jones-locker-is-happening' moment?" I quip, trying to lighten the gravity of his recollection.

"Bit of both," he admits with a chuckle. “Your mother was the most amazing woman I have ever met. I was supposed to be on a working visa for two months during a gap year. I extended for another two months and then extended again until I just never left. The night she let me watch her change, I could only think how beautiful she was.”