Baby Face Monster's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

Ellie lowered the photograph. She took one small step toward him, and Baby Face Monster stepped back. The dim light at the cave's mouth slid off his shoulders and washed across his round cheeks. He saw her eyes flick to them, and his hand jerked up to cover his face before he could stop it. "Sorry," he said through his fingers. "Sorry. Give me a second." Ellie stopped walking. She clicked off her flashlight and slid it into her coat pocket. "Okay," she said. "I'll stay here." He turned his back to her and faced the deep hollow of the cave. His breath echoed off the stone. Every time she moved closer, the light moved with her, and his face lit up like a lantern. She would keep seeing the cheeks. She would keep having to correct herself. He could not talk about her father from behind his hand for the rest of his life. "I want to help you find him," he said to the dark. "But I can't stand in the light." "Then don't," Ellie said. "Come deeper in. I'll follow." He looked over his shoulder. She had already sat down on a flat rock near the entrance and was unlacing her muddy boots, like a person settling into a house. He did not understand it. Nobody had ever walked toward the dark part of him on purpose. He led her past the mouth of the cave into the wider hollow behind it, where the walls curved and the light thinned to almost nothing. He sat against the far wall. She sat across from him, close enough that he could hear her breathing, far enough that she was only a shape. "Better?" she asked. "Yes." "Good. Because I need to see you talk, not your hand." He laughed once, surprised. The sound bounced off the stone and came back to him. "Tell me about my dad," she said. "From here. Take your time." So he did. He told her about the camp the older man had set up near the ridge. He told her about the notebooks, the questions, the way her father had asked to shake his hand on the second day and had not flinched. He spoke without covering his face. In the near-dark, Ellie was only a voice and the shine of her glasses. She could not see his cheeks, and he could not see her seeing them. His voice steadied. His shoulders dropped. When he finished, Ellie was quiet a long moment. "He liked you," she said. "I can hear it in how you talk about him." "He did." "Then walk me out to the entrance," she said. "I need daylight to think." He stood. He followed her back toward the pale mouth of the cave. Halfway there, the light found his cheeks again, and this time he did not raise his hand. He kept walking. Ellie glanced back once and did not stop.