In which Gordon Tracy honors a fallen friend; Virgil Tracy uncovers a flaw
Virgil banged open the door to the lounge and slammed it behind him. Kyrano, who had been passing by the hallway carrying a large plastic bag, stopped and raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry," Virgil said.
"Your brother is down by the pool," Kyrano said. "Perhaps you should join him."
Virgil nodded absently. After a moment, he noticed Kyrano was still watching him.
"What?" he asked.
"Your brother is down by the pool," Kyrano repeated.
"Got it," Virgil said. Kyrano gave him an oddly measured look, and continued on his way.
Virgil shook his head, and walked into the main room of the lounge. He could see, dimly silhouetted against the night sky, the tall figure of his brother standing out on the balcony. He slid the door aside and walked out to join him.
"I was just…" he checked at the sight below him on the patio.
Gordon was down on one knee at the edge of the pool, a large back of votive candles next to him. He was igniting the candles one by one, and placing them around the pool. The surface of the three tables on the patio were covered with the tiny flames; Gordon had turned off the overhead lights that normally illuminated the poolside, and the area glowed with pinpoints of uncertain light.
Virgil looked at Scott, who was staring bemusedly down at the scene. "This is new."
"Mm," Scott said. He rubbed the side of his face absently.
Virgil leaned over the railing. "Where on earth did he get all those?"
"Kyrano," Scott said.
"Who happened to have two thousand candles lying around in drawer somewhere?"
Scott smiled, and made a gesture to Virgil to lower his voice.
"How long has he been doing this?" Virgil asked, more softly. Scott shrugged.
"As long as all that takes. Probably a half an hour."
"Should we go and stop him?"
Scott turned, surprised. "Why would we do that?"
Virgil tried again. "Should we go and help him?"
Scott nodded, and finally turned his full attention to Virgil. "I was waiting for you, actually. Where were you?"
"In the silo, fighting with John." Virgil lowered his voice again.
"Virg…leave John alone. Leave the whole thing alone."
"He's asked if you'll take him back to Sydney."
Scott looked regretful, but resigned. "Well, that's his right." He turned back to watch as Gordon lit another candle and his face, serious and intent, was illuminated for a moment before winking back into darkness. "He needs to find his own way out of this."
"Yeah, but he's wrong," Virgil said, insistent. Scott just shrugged. Virgil stared at him.
"That doesn't bother you?"
"Of course it bothers me." Scott said. "My little brother would rather live on the moon than work with us; believe you me, Virgil, it bothers me. But at this particular moment, I want to deal with this." He gestured to the scene below. "Come on."
Virgil followed him as he walked down the stairs. "You think Gordon's losing it a little over this?"
"It's a tribute, Virg." Scott said. "Have some respect."
In the end, it was an hour before they ran out of candles. Kyrano kept bringing out more: tiny votives, waxy piles of slender tapers that Virgil stuck to the railing, thick pillars. And when Kyrano couldn't find any more he joined them, kneeling down not far from Gordon, lighting the candles and placing them randomly across the slate surface of the poolside. Nobody said anything much.
When they finished, they dragged chairs to the darkest corner of the area and sat, surveying their work. Kyrano went inside and brought them out cups of some smoky-tasting tea and then slipped away.
"It doesn't look like a party, does it?" Gordon asked.
"Nope," Scott said. "It's nice."
"It does look slightly unhinged, though," Virgil said.
Gordon laughed, finally. "Well, maybe it is."
"What gave you the idea?" Virgil asked.
"I have this weird memory of people putting all these candles in a river because a bunch of people died. I don't know where I remember it from, but I just thought…I was going to put them in the pool, but then decided that was probably a bad idea." He paused. "Do you remember what she used to say to me every time after I'd come back from pt in Sydney?"
Virgil laughed. " 'Can't you walk yet?'"
"She once gave me this whole routine on how she was convinced we were making crystal meth and that was how we had all our money," Scott said. "Because god knows we weren't smart enough to come by it honestly. Except Dad."
"She loved Dad," Virgil said.
"He liked her as well," Scott said. He swung his voice into an imitation of their father. "That Nancy. She's a good pilot."
"He was that sentimental?" Gordon asked. "Wow."
"Dad likes people who have tiny struggling businesses that are doomed to never make any money," Virgil said. "Kind of the way some people like dogs."
"Nancy and Jane were doing okay," Scott said.
"I mean real money. Dad money."
Scott frowned.
"Hey, where the hell is John?" Gordon asked suddenly.
"On the roof of the roundhouse," Virgil said.
"What makes you say that?" Scott asked.
"Because he's on the roof of the roundhouse," Virgil said.
"You can see up there?"
"No. I saw a light go on while we were doing our candle thing. Unless it's a ghost, he must have gone in there."
"How'd you get that he's on the roof from one light going on?" Gordon asked.
"Why be down here with us when you can be up there railing against us?" Virgil muttered. Scott threw him a quieting glance.
Gordon stood up. "I'm going up there."
"Be careful," Virgil said.
Gordon gave him the finger as he was walking away. Virgil shook his head.
"I've got to stop doing that. I know it drives him up the wall."
Scott nodded. "You should. Try to stop, I mean."
Virgil tipped his head back and sighed. "Why are we all so mad at each other?"
The question caught Scott by surprise. "I don't know."
They sat in silence for a while, watching the wind blow the candles out one by one. "You know what the problem is?" Virgil said finally. "Dad keeps impressing on us that we're the core of this thing we're going to do. That we're going to be this great family team, something out of a movie. But Gordon won't talk to us, John is in his usual low-grade seethe; who knows how Alan is going to react. How are we supposed to trust each other if Dad doesn't even trust all of us to know the truth?"