"Save me from this prison
Lord, help me get away
'Cause only you can save me now
From this misery
Well I've been lost in my own place
And I'm getting' weary
How far is heaven?
I've been locked up way too long
In this crazy world
How far is heaven?
I just keep on prayin', Lord
I just keep on livin'
How far is heaven?
Tu que estas en alto cielo echame tu bendicion."
Heaven, Los Lonely Boys, 2004
I
September 22, 2004 -- Acadia Park, Miami, Florida
"…You'll want to get back here as soon as you can. We may have some new visitors."
Richard switched off the palm-sized camera and continued to stare past the newspaper he had previously been pretending to read. In truth he was transmitting video of a slight, brown haired, thirty-something mother and her tow-headed blond little daredevil of a son. No one seemed to notice him watching her, watching them on the playground. He hid his interest behind the business section of the day's Miami Journal and a Grande Americano from Starbucks. The subterfuge was intended to persuade a frustrated, homesick doctor thousands of miles away to continue her research in spite of the conviction that her work had reached a dead end and further testing would continue to be futile. Dr. Juliet Burke needed proof that her sister and nephew were well so here he sat, like someone out of a pulp-fiction spy novel, trying not to look like a pedophile. Strictly speaking, a man alone on a park bench so near a playground, not readily identifiable as father to one of the children playing, is often assumed by other adults in the area to be a suspicious and dangerous character.
Richard watched them a while longer. They looked so happy, laughing and playing together. There was no outward evidence that just a few years earlier the mother had been ravaged nearly to death by a pervasive, untreatable cancer. Yet here they are miracle mother and her miracle son, arm-in-arm, hand-in-hand; riotously swinging and sliding, tagging and tickling, reveling in the wonder that is childhood. The good doctor would call what he was doing emotional blackmail. Their leader might label it insurance. He intended it to be assurance.
Richard himself had come up with the cockamamie plan. It seemed the most humane and compassionate thing to do. Under no circumstances Ben would to allow Dr. Burke to return to her home in Florida. Richard reasoned if he could reassure Juliet of her family's health and safety it might give her some comfort and make her a little less miserable while continuing to live, for all intents and purposes, as their prisoner on the Island. Ben only cared that she was more compliant, cooperative and served his purposes. From the sobs and desperate pleading he had overheard coming from the other end of his transmission, Richard was certain it had not worked. She was not comforted. She was devastated. "Pay no attention to the man behind the newspaper!" Richard scoffed sarcastically to himself, "The great and powerful Oz has…failed."
When he recruited Dr Burke to come to the Island three years ago it was ostensibly to do research, to solve the problem of infant and maternal mortality. No babies had been born alive; no mothers had lived to carry a fetus to term in better than thirty years. She had agreed partly from an altruistic wish to save lives but also from an ambitious, frank assessment of what success in this difficult avenue of research would do for her career. Back in those days Juliet Burke and Benjamin Linus were using each other as means to their own desired ends. It appeared balanced, mutual and civilized. But now, the relationship was revealed to be about power and control; and it seemed Ben was in sole possession of both.
A murmur of voices caught his attention; his lingering presence had been noted by a group of mothers at a picnic table nearby. They cast accusing glares and agitated glances his direction over fistfuls of goldfish crackers and peanut butter with jelly sandwiches. It was time to leave. Richard pocketed the camera, calmly folded the newspaper and gulped the last of his coffee before sauntering back toward the parking lot. "All I have managed to do is make the poor woman more miserable if that was even possible." he observed, dropping both the paper and empty cup in the trash, flashing a dazzling smile and brisk nod to the concerned parents as he left.
Richard tossed his jacket in the backseat before starting the engine of his non-descript beige mid-size rental car. No upgrades on this trip; no amenities to draw attention to himself. His success today had depended upon being invisible. The previous trip to Miami when this entanglement with Juliet began had been all about Armani, McCutcheon and the Ritz-Carlton; fine dining and luxury cars. He had presented the image to Dr. Burke of power, success and an unlimited availability of funds to support her wildest research dreams and ambitions. This trip was about blending in.
It was an uneventful commute back to the airport in spite of rush hour traffic. He returned the car, checked his one bag, passed through security without incident and arrived at his departure gate well before the first boarding call.
Richard stepped in to one of the few remaining restaurants in the airport to allow smoking, a sports bar on his concourse, for a quick cigar and a drink to pass the time. Normally he would be content to read a novel at the gate or quietly "people watch" but today he was restless; his thoughts remained on Rachel and her son. "I'll take a Scotch please" he politely asked the bartender, "a double, neat" then turned his back slightly away from the entrance and its passing crowds of travelers, away too from the ubiquitous flat screen TVs blaring the latest baseball games and MTV videos of scantily clad young women and rough looking young men with wild haircuts, multiple piercings and tattoos.
He reviewed their dealings with Rachel as he sipped on his drink. He felt good about her healthy prognosis. Because of the Island, because of Jacob, because of forces he could not begin to understand her cancer was gone forever and she was able to bear a child. What concerned him about the situation was that the child would never know the love and affection of his devoted Aunt Juliet and that neither he nor his mother would ever know how much Juliet had paid with her life so that they could live. Children, especially, need a whole host of people around who love them unconditionally. "Like their aunts." Richard said aloud to no one but himself, then after a moment added "like their fathers."
Richard shifted on his barstool uncomfortably and waved away the eager bartender inquiring about a refill. He stared down into his empty glass and resisted the urge to light another cigar. Yes, today he felt restless, restless and old. Forty-one is middle age and certainly not old by 21st Century standards. He, however, had been forty-one for a very long time.
In his life "before" – before he came to the Island, before he met Jacob -- he had been a sailor. Richard moved his family from their home in Barcelona to find a better life in London. He had heard the infamous Magnus Hanso was sailing his Black Rock ship for Siam. He was seduced by Hanso's promises of glory and riches. Tempted by his own appetite for danger and adventure, Richard left his beloved Isabel with their boys, Diego and Esteban, nearly men they had been at 14 and 16, and the baby Milagros, the delight and joy of his life, just five years old, with dark curls, flashing eyes and dimples like her mother. He left them in 1845 to be Hanso's second in command, the Ship's First Mate, and had never seen them again. A pain went through his heart at the thought of his life long ago. "In nomine patris, et filius, et spiritu sanctus." Richard genuflected out of habit at their memory. Isabel had been Catholic. They all were Catholic back then in Spain. He was unsure what or who he believed in now after so long a life.
He marveled at what his choices had cost his family. He had seen enough of humanity's selfishness over the years to recognize it in himself and his decisions. His children had needed their father. His wife had needed her husband. He had not appreciated then how much he needed them. How had his family survived? When did they give up on him ever returning and move on? What became their fate? Had they had stayed in England or returned to her family in Spain?
There had been a violent storm which ran the Black Rock aground an impossible distance inland. He was mortally wounded. Like Dr. Burke's sister Rachel, he would have died without Jacob's touch. He never asked Jacob why he had saved him in particular instead of one of the others, or the captain. More than a century and a half later, Richard found himself still working as second-in-command to a series of captains just like Hanso, though not on a ship but an island. He had become the vizier, the power broker behind the Island's chosen leader. He advised, made recommendations, carried out their wishes. Leaders would come and go, but Richard remained and in the end answered only to Jacob for his deeds.
Richard's life before setting sail had become a blur, a faded, unfocused, sepia-toned photograph; In contrast his life from the storm at sea to awakening with Jacob in the Temple was a blank, just nothingness; and his life on the Island, while lived in a visual paradise of vibrant tropical colors, was some days – like today, neither black nor white nor beautiful but simply arduous and long.
The announcement came over the loudspeaker to begin boarding his flight. Rousing from his reverie Richard signaled the bartender for his tab and gathered his jacket and boarding pass. At the same time a special report interrupted the broadcast on the lone television tuned to news rather than sports or music.
"….As we reported earlier, there is no confirmation of a crash at this time however it has been several hours since the last transmission from the aircraft was received. Thus far there is no evidence of mechanical malfunction or foul play, and the national weather service indicates no adverse weather conditions along the flight path of the aircraft. FAA and NTSB officials are currently investigating. Again, Oceanic Airways scheduled Flight 815 out of Sydney, Australia has failed to arrive at Los Angeles International Airport this afternoon. We will have updates for you as more information becomes available." The ticker continued to scroll across the bottom of the screen as the CNN reporter moved on to other breaking stories: 324 people on board the Boeing 777 when it deviated from course and disappeared off radar over the Pacific Ocean.
The broadcast preoccupied his thoughts as he boarded the aircraft. He was not a nervous flier, as the bubbly flight attendant so obviously supposed from his grim expression. Settling into his seat he accepted the pillow but refused the headphones the eager young woman offered. He planned to ignore the in-flight movie. It was not any dread or foreboding about his flight that caused him unrest. It was that other plane, the one from Sydney, and Ben's cryptic last words to him about hurrying back to the island because of new visitors, that he could not dismiss. Even so at some point between the flight crew's instructions about how to use his seat cushion as a flotation device and the first offer of drinks and cocktail peanuts Richard drifted off into a fitful sleep, taunted by nightmarish images of a plane breaking up mid air, bodies and baggage falling from the sky to be consumed by a whirlwind of black smoke.
Author's notes on Chapter One:
"The Ancient Egyptian government included the powerful position of Vizier who answered only to Pharaoh and was charged with the entire operation of the government as well as the protection of palace and Pharaoh himself. The Vizier was supervisor of all other officials. Viziers were appointed to their posts on the basis of demonstrating extreme loyalty, exceptional talent and military prowess." quoted from an article housed at the Minnesota State University - Mankato web site
Information about the Black Rock and Mangus Hanso was taken from the apocryphal article "Find 815" at Lostpedia and is not considered strictly canon to the show.
Richard's wife and children are of course from my own imagination.
The quote at the top of the story is from the song Heaven by Los Lonely Boys. The Spanish line loosely translates: You that are in a higher place send me down a blessing.
