Retrieval

Sean leaned on the pickup for a second, before realizing that his midnight-blue pants were smeared with the dirt on the door. He couldn’t leave the “grocery” in there because his uncle has disappeared along with the keys. His eyes moved between the parking in front of the supermarket, and his silver Rolex, gulping the anxiety of what it tells. Behind the supermarket was a vast, dense forest, where his uncle emerged out of the shrubs.

“Sorry it took so long, had to answer the call of nature.” He said as he was buttoning his jeans.

“You didn’t answer my call.”

“Well, she called first. What did you find?”

“I got.. uhm,” Sean took out a can to look at “Leeches. Grant, why exactly do we need leeches?” He didn’t swallow any of this.

“The fish appreciate a little food on your rod sometimes, y’know? Come on.”

The two got in the pickup truck, and Grant took it back to the highway, as Sean put the bags in the back, next to two fishing rods, an ice box, and various items he didn’t recognize. He turned his sight back at the autumn trees flanking the road, as he thought of how and where to start. He wanted anything but to screw this up.

“So, did you pay Trish a visit?” Thank God the start was granted.

“Gave her a quick hello on the phone when I came out the airport. I’ll make sure to stop by the house tonight.”

“She’d want to see you.” Grant spoke with his eyes nailed to the road ahead. “She wanted me to drive you to her place. But I reckon you have something to talk about first.” He continued with an effort to discipline a bitter tone, “So? I’m all ears.”

“Well, I just wanted to ask first: Where are we heading?”

“There’s a nice spot in Lake Cascade. Caught a lot of bass and walleyes there.” Grant stole a peak at Sean, who was struggling with the network to send a message “You haven’t forgotten your way around here, have you?”

“What? No.” Sean shrugged it off “I just hope I make it for a meeting I got tonight, and the dinner of course.”

“Yeah, that’s right...”

“So back to where we left off,” Sean put the phone aside and sat up “It’s mainly legal work. To sum things up, we are very close to get the deal with the people from LA. They want to look at the site before their architects start with the initial drawings of the hotel. I’m told if I present my dad’s will,” He coughed to catch up “the updated version of course, they will start the project drawings in parallel with finishing the legal work, they’re that excited!”

“You seem excited as well.” Grant pointed out.

“It’s a shot I can’t miss.” Sean replied, “I know it’s been only a month since dad passed away, but I’m sure you’ll understand: If he didn’t trust me with this land he wouldn’t have changed the will in the first place.”

“Do you even know where it would go in the first will?”

“To the state, to be part of whatever this is.” Sean’s hands pointed all around the highway “It’s a perfect spot on the lakeside. People will be flooding to this hotel. It’s a better alternative in every way to the dump this place has become.”

“We’re here.” Grant took a turn and pulled up in front of a gate, where a dirt road led inside the forest.

“Lake’s this way.” He was gathering all the tools in the back along with the fishing rods “Don’t forget your backpack.”

“I won’t.” He said while checking his watch again.

As Grant silently led the way, Sean took out his sanitizer to guard himself as he pushed through the bushes and tree branches. The afternoon sun was slowly leaning towards the horizon beyond the distant trees on the far side of the great lake, as light orangeness seeped through to gently tint everything visible.

The spot was a small, open area where the waves tickled the shore, and tall fir trees weaved together enveloped the place. It was waiting for the two as they finally appeared out of the trees.

“I think I stepped in something. Anyway,” Sean went over the checklist in his head as Grant was setting the fishing equipment “I wanted to talk to you about the environment people; I hear you are good friends with them.”

“I’m the head of the committee actually.”

“Even better,” Grant bitterly watched as his nephew went on “you can convince them this project is a gift for all of the people here. They’ve been kind of a pain the last few days, but I wanted to talk to you first before making anything official, just to keep it friendly.”

“What are you holding there?” Grant pointed.

“Just some sanitizers.” He answered with half a laugh “There’s a lot of mud and.. twigs. You never know what to expect in this place, right?”

Grant watched him come and sit to his right before he cast his sight along with the lure into the water.

“Look, I wanna just… make sure you have the paper with you so that I’ll have it by me at tonight’s meeting.”

“Yeah, sure.” Grant adjusted Sean’s grip on the rod “You want to have your other hand on the butt of the rod to better control your cast.” He let him go and turned his sight back to the lake “Just cast it towards your dad’s land.”

“I… Uhm, does this have to do with the water current, something like that?”

“Just cast it in the direction of your dad’s land.”

“Well,” Sean swallowed his words, and took a better grip “Okay then.” He swung the rod and cast it. It landed on their far right.

“Nice swing,” Grant scratched his beard “but your dad’s land is over there.” He sharply pointed to their left.

“I see.” Sean was going for another cast “I got it.”

“There will be no need for that.” Grant explained “It’s getting late, and I realized that there is no point in what I was gonna say, plus you said you have a meeting tonight?”

“Yeah.” Sean’s confusion surfaced “I don’t.. never mind. Just give me the will and I guess I’ll be on my way then.” He faked a smile. “Do you have it?”

“Yeah,” Grant replied, his sight still fixed on the middle of the lake “It’s right there.”

“Right there, where?”

“There, in a safe down in the middle of the lake.” He went on “Trish told me you you’re a fair swimmer.”

“Wha..” He let out a tense laugh “Are you joking?”

“No. It’s right there.”

“You’re joking with me. I’ll need you to get me that will.”

“That’s not gonna happen. You see,” Grant finally turned to him with a piercing look “You come here after years, to take something you don’t have the slightest idea about, to throw it away and build what? A hotel, so that more assholes from around the country come and dump their trash here? That’s not gonna happen.”

“What? No, no, this thing will get you all to another level! You’ll have jobs, this town will finally be heard of. Do you want to remain stuck at your job, driving your dusty pickup around and barely making ends meet?”

“And I suppose you have a nice new model – something to match that watch maybe? You come here and all you think about is how all this nature is a pain in your ass and what the most profitable way to get rid of it is. I don’t know how you got into Danny’s head to change the will, but he made a mistake.”

“You're not even close to having a right to judge. Sue the company after the project is built.”

“I’d start taking my shirt off if I were you. I was told that your dad’s safe is waterproof but still pretty old, and the water might start leaking at around midnight or so.”

“I’ll report this. You stole my documents! That’s exactly what you did.”

“I got a friend who works on a boat here. He helped me put the safe and he would help me again if you reported. People won’t find a thing, and the original will is gonna be put into effect.”

“You want to doom your town to keep living in this shit, and you literally stole my will for it, Grant. I expected better than this.”

“You expected-?” Grant threw his rod before he could break it “How dare you? You threw everything we gave you to go live in the city, and come back all… hollow, and your work target is to destroy the place you came from, and I you expected better? You don’t even know where the damn land is! Where is Trish?”

“What do you mean?”

“Where is your mom right now?”

“She’s… back home.”

“You don’t have a fucking clue, Sean.” Grant caught his breath “I thought it would be too daring to go on with you about visiting her place tonight - never mind she’s been hospitalized for two weeks now – but congrats; you proved my point.”

Sean looked at Grant’s dry, piercing eyes.

“If you think this is supposed to shake me off…”

“Shake you off? This is really bad, Sean. You really missed your shot now.” Grant looked away in revolt, and picked up his rod “The combination code is 9374. If you swim straight ahead, even you can’t miss it.”

“I am not doing this.” Sean retreated in anger and perhaps distress. He took out his phone as Grant returned his tools to the bags. There was no time to think properly.

“Grant, listen to me,” Sean approached once more “Think of what happens to us. I’ll be sending checks and you’ll be able to get out of here.”

“Who said we wanted to leave? They really blinded you with their checks, eh?”

“No way. I’m not like this. I want the best for all of us.”

“Don’t you dare, Sean! Your ruining everything and you can’t even see!”

“But think of the life we’ll have-”

“And I mustn’t tell Trish anything about the emails and phone calls the committee gets, bribing us to greenlight this thing, to prevent you from breaking her heart! We will not shake hands with the criminals you work for.”

“But I’m your nephew! Doesn’t that mean anything, Grant?”

“I don’t have a nephew who comes to tear my home apart. This talk is over.” Grant sat down and picked up a stone from the ground. The deadline was approaching as the orange sun touched the line of trees on the horizon.

The meeting kept bouncing back and forth in Sean’s head, but he didn’t want to look at his watch.

“What does she have?” He asked. Grant was staring at his stone.

“Grant, what does she have?”

“Turned out she had a valvular heart disease. Two weeks ago she had a failure.”

Sean turned to the lake in distress. He could feel shackles on him.

“Look, I can’t go in there.”

“There’s no way around this. If you ever want to sell what your dad left you, you will need to know what it is first at least.” Grant murmured “God, why do I give a fuck?” He threw the stone in the water.

A grey shirt, a blue pair of pants, a silver Rolex, black derby shoes, a pair of socks, and a backpack were piled up on one chair. Sean decided to keep his undershirt on.

“What was the code again?”

“9374.” Sean looked at his uncle, who was cleaning his rod reel, hardly noticing him. He looked at the sky and thought there perhaps an hour to sunset, or whatever the time he needed to remain mildly positive about this. He looked straight in front of him, took a deep breath, and jumped in, as Grant lifted his eyes to watch.

The water was colder than what Sean could prepare for, and the late afternoon light hindered the navigation. Sean swam on, focusing on avoiding any swerve with the current, but realizing he left the sanitizer in his pocket, and now he’s in the middle of dreadful waters, naked. He was using stuff he learned on a mental improvement course to not fall into panic, breathing regularly and focusing his mind on the goal in front of him. He noticed he was way in, and the water was too dark to tell if it was the right spot. The night’s marching was visible as the sun completely hid itself behind the trees.

Sean thought of coming back, and justifying to his uncle- no, confronting his uncle that he will not dive to look for a safe, that it was too dangerous, and it was his responsibility to get a diver to bring the safe before the meeting. Sean nearly teared at the thought and at how absurd its realization is. As he floated, he acknowledged that it was only logical to take a look down the lake rather than swimming all the way to the shore, before he saw what he thought to be something shiny. A deep breath later, he was inside the dark lake, holding his breath and trying to see through the mass of water. He decided to give up to the unbearable discomfort, and head back to the shore, when he noticed a flicker of light reflecting off the side of the safe, which was resting at the bottom. He returned to the surface to take another breath. He thought he noticed someone standing with Grant on the shore, before he plunged down.

“Just keep your eyes on the safe.” Sean held onto his thoughts as he made his way through, catching glimpses of the safe’s reflection. His feet finally touched the dark bottom in front of it as his hands instantly looked for the best place to grab it before he runs out of oxygen. It was heavier than he expected. One try after another failed to budge it. His head started aching. He had to do something while he has any oxygen left. What was the code for the safe? No, the safe will obviously be flooded, why did Grant give it then? Until he sensed some motion, but one that spoke of something terrible: the door was open. Did he break it? Was it open from the start? Sean moved around hysterically for a few moments to reach for any sight of files, anything at all to get him out. He wanted to go up, but the way was too long, and with the sun gone, he started flailing in panic. Everything collapsed out of control. He couldn’t bear to keep his eyes open anymore, and finally gave himself up to the water.

It was completely dark when he felt something grabbing onto him. His instincts put any power left into desperate choreography, before opening his eyes. He finally caught a strong odor and woke up, half conscious, to a round face with a thick mustache and a coastguard cap. He didn’t have the energy to talk, or do anything at all.

“The hell were you doing down there?” The face spoke as he put the cologne aside.

“Let him breathe, Ronnie.” The other voice was familiar.

“Do you know this kid?” Said the coastguard as he got up to start the boat, and in his place sat down a worried Grant, with some files in his hand, and a towel to cover his nephew with,

“I think I do now.”