Mr Hook's Big Black Box

«Filling in the Gaps»

"So your uncle's circle was after the Box?" Ferrari genuinely couldn't believe what she was hearing this time. It wasn't an open secret that they'd all known without saying; this was outright betrayal from one of the people they'd all trusted most. Dwayne's betrayal, there'd been a little reason to suspect it any time she looked back on the events from her own perspective, but she hadn't realised Kris had a secret objective too. "Next you're going to tell us that the guys pretending to be CIA were with your lot, right?"

"No!" he exclaimed defensively, "That's probably the thing we all owe Uncle Sal thanks for. He could see the whole thing turning into a bloodbath, and he didn't want to see that while I was there. I don't know if he really cared that much for a cousin he'd not really known that well, if he thought I'd be useful to the family, or he felt responsible because he'd pretty much chosen the college for me when he helped me get in. But whatever the reasons, he did the right thing by us. He told his contacts to stand down, not to come near until I gave the signal to say I had the Box. They wouldn't get involved."

Ferrari nodded, still not quite certain if she could trust him after he'd proved himself to be such a competent liar.

"Besides," it was Destinee who cut in to save her husband-to-be from the prospect of angst, soul-searching, and suspicion, "I remember that much, the CIA guys were actual CIA weren't they? They had ID cards and everything, and Zach sent them back to America afterwards and told them they shouldn't have been there. I remember, because I got talking to one of them in the Brassic, and he was talking about his family and how he was scared, he wasn't sure if their orders were legal this time. You remember, Kris, that tanned guy Jeremy? We went to visit him when he retired, at his beach house, and we just didn't mention how we met to anyone, it was like a big secret and all his neighbours assumed we were spies too. When Nicole taught me to play kettle drums." Through the monologue Kris was nodding at each detail, the smile on his face growing as he remembered. Good times, clearly. Everyone else was hanging on, expecting the sentence to end any second, and maybe wondering if Destinee would have to pause to breathe before she finished mentioning every little thing that came to mind. Of course, running out of breath was a problem she had never seemed to suffer from.

"Yeah," Marco added, "The CIA guys had pretty impressive ID, I thought they were straight up who they seemed. It wouldn't make any sense for the Greeks to have so many American guys."

"You've got a point," Ferrari muttered, but it was clear to everyone she wasn't quite convinced, "Maybe I'm missing something. Anyway, we should carry on with the story. Do you want to continue, or should we go back to Dwayne?"

"You want me to lead?" Dwayne shrugged, quite happy to do so. In the years since college he'd become a lot more confident at speaking to a group, and made it seem effortless. If it wasn't for his dishevelled clothes, he would have seemed every inch a white-collar professional.

"It makes sense," Kris nodded, "You were always the club leader in reality. I became kaityou, but you were the one who brought us together and made the club happen in the first place. The only member, before you recruited us and somehow made it work, so I think that means you are our leader in every way that matters. Also to mention that you were the first among us to see the Box, and to decide what to do with it."

"Technically not true," Dwayne nodded at Destinee, "The Box was sitting in the room at least a half hour before I even got there. Monty had filled like five pages of her sketchbook with pictures of what she thought might be inside. I think really this story started when they first put the Box in the room, not just when the excitement happened. But that's maybe a moot point without any memories, let's just remember the bits we can."

"Umm," Destinee was a little more hesitant now. Bringing up a little flicker of detail that she struggled to even remember was a lot harder on her than rambling about an enjoyable holiday a few years after the chaos. Still, she raised her hand level with her face like a nervous schoolgirl trying not to catch the teacher's attention, and pressed on: "I think I might be able to remember a few things from that day. It's not so much, I can't tell a whole story like you guys, but if I can add something I want to, you know, say it."

"That's great," Kris put a protective arm around her shoulders, "If you want to say it, then say it. We're here to jog your memories, and anyone else's if we can, so we're all eager to hear what you saw. You were in the fire line more than any of us for many chapters, so anything that comes back to you will be a treasure. And if you're embarrassed to speak, if you remember something that the current narrator has not mentioned, you can just raise a hand to let us know you want to speak. Or squeeze my arm. We want to hear you, and if there is anything we can do to make that easier, we will. Right, LUSARS?" he looked around, and everyone else just nodded.

"Thank you," Destinee smiled just slightly, and looked down to hide just the first trace of tears in her eyes. This day was turning out way more emotional than she had expected. Her memories were vague and disjointed in many places at the beginning of this story, that was why she was so eager to hear everyone else's version and learn how she had come to be this way. But with those sincere smiles, she was sure that every little nugget of recollection would be of interest, and treated like a precious treasure. Then, with the others listening in appreciative silence, she started to tell her story.

Author's Note: This chapter may still need some editing, and I'm not sure if it conflicts with what the characters learn in a later flashback. If you spot a contradiction between this and another chapter, please let me know so I can get the continuity straight. It's hard to remember what happened, after so many rewrites changed who was where for which parts.

Author's Note 2: When I shared this story on Google Plus, I was posting an excerpt every Saturday. On here, I've been posting every Friday. But I recently read in a guide that it's better to post more often. Would you prefer to see two chapters per week, even if it means some of them are short ones like this? (So that we don't overtake my proofreader so soon)