utricularia purpurea by DEVIN HIGGINS
Visiting the Everglades had never really been on Brooklyn’s bucket list, but when the tour boat had ventured deep enough to hide the urban noise of Fort Lauderdale, she wished she had thought of it sooner. She could have made the trip on her own—or with her brother Todd—instead of with her dad.
“At least this is cheaper on my end,” she muttered as she looked out at the murky water. Thousands of little purple flowers floated on the surface, supported by long, thin stems.
Brooklyn wrung her hands as they rested on the railing of the boat, wondering what exactly they were. Just as she finished that thought, the voice of the captain blared through the old speaker. “We’re currently surrounded by thousands of utricularia purpurea, or purple bladderworts. Though they look pretty and harmless, they feed off the insects unfortunate enough to get too close to it.”
It wasn’t long before her dad was at her side, looking out at the lavender-dotted waterscape. “That’s a sight right there,” he said simply. “Should we bring some back for your mother? She could use an addition to her pond.”
“I don’t think we’re allowed to take anything. You know, nature preserve and all that.”
“Fair point.” He laughed. Brooklyn didn’t join him. This time, he caught on. “Are you doing alright, Brooklyn? I thought this would be fun for you.”
Brooklyn took a deep breath and chose her next words carefully. “It’s fine. It’s…educational, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen this much water.”
“What, is the lake house too small now?” He clapped her back and laughed again, but she only clenched her fists around the railing. She didn’t know what to do. Before this, she hadn’t talked to her dad in months, and it had been even longer since she had seen him. Now he was trying to act like nothing had ever been wrong by making jokes. Jokes that made Brooklyn feel stuck-up more than anything else.
She wished he would back off of her. Both him and Mom had permanently broken her trust when they pushed Todd into Harvard, at the only time he dared to speak up against it.
Along with her trust, her patience was soon to follow. There had to be another reason he decided to take the two of them here, and that reason wasn’t for funsies.
This had happened before. He would take her to concerts, to silent auctions, to galleries and operas and country club dances. Every time, he took it as a prime opportunity to make her feel bad for not living her life the way he wanted her to. He would use these things to guilt-trip her, to convince her that she was the one in the wrong for never forgiving her parents and moving out at sixteen like some anime protagonist.
This was more expensive than anything else he had offered her in the past, though. She must have tripped up badly in their eyes.
Brooklyn’s blood ran cold. Did her parents find out about the contraband textbook ring?
She waited for her dad to say something that would prove her right for the umpteenth time. But he never did. Instead he leaned against the railing alongside her and said,
“Brook. I—I feel like I’ve been a bad father.”
She held back a less-than-forgiving response, admiring her unmatched strength as she did. Instead, she said dismissively,
“You don’t have to say father. It’s the twenty-first century.”
“Sorry, I—I just, I never know when, uhm…”
Brook cast him a sideways glance. He never got this tongue-tied over his words. He was a lawyer, for crying out loud. Something grated at Brooklyn, but she heard him out with the narrow possibility that this really was just a vacation. That there was no intricate system of bladders to pull her in and digest her as she was drawn to the pretty flower at the top.
“I want to make things better between us. I want to be the dad I wasn’t when you were growing up.”
Against her will, Brooklyn’s resolve wavered like a ripple in the murky water below.
He sounds genuine. Maybe this time is different.
But that’s what she thought every time. When would he realize that it was too late for her? If they really wanted to mend things, they should start with Todd. He’d be more likely to forgive them, and his big sister be there to make sure he still had a spine afterward. Just in case.
In fact, why not start now? Why not turn the tables and become the trap herself?
“What about Todd?” she asked, turning to face him. “Do you plan on having this same conversation with him?”
A flash of anger stirred through her when he didn’t respond, instead avoiding a gaze that became sharper by the second. The pessimist in her was satisfied that she was right about everything, again.
But another, bigger part was so tired of him disappointing her and Todd as a father, once again. And deep down, she wanted things to be better. She wanted all of them to be a family again. She wanted Dad to finally see how selfish he’d been for all these years and apologize to Todd for everything he’d done and said to tear him down.
“I got a call from Harvard. About Todd.” His knuckles were bone-white as he gripped the boat’s railing.
Brooklyn froze. “Oh. What about?”
Her mind raced with possibilities. Had he also set up a contraband ring? Painted the inside of the chancellor’s office in Yale’s colors? She bit her lip to hide a proud smile.
Maybe her brother was finally starting to take after her. Maybe he was finally starting to determine his own life instead of letting Dad intimidate him into the path that led him to be at Harvard in the first place, and that, unsurprisingly, bothered Dad.
If it was true, then maybe, just maybe, things could start to be better. It would be messy, but it would be worth it. It could be a new beginning for Todd. For all four of them.
Her dad was silent for a while longer. Too long. Brooklyn knew right then that all of this really was a trap for her. A trap more deceitful and devastating than the rest.
“He got into a car crash a few days ago. He didn’t make it out.”
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- CREATIVE WORKS: FICTION & PROSE University of Alaska Anchorage Department of English