Eye of the Beholder

glanced down at the vividly decorated reproduction of an ancient map in her hand. It featured a host of dragons and strange beasts at the edge of the known world. Monsters. "I just hope Joanna will be all right."
    "Have you heard anything about her, yet?"
    "No. The hospital says she still isn't seeing visitors. Not even Webster."
    Dylan looked alarmed. "You don't think there's a chance she'll be permanently—" He broke off to lower his voice. "You know, brain-damaged or something? I mean, gas and pills sounds like a pretty wicked combination."
    "Webster says she's expected to make a complete recovery, at least physically. I got the impression that her real problem now is a combination of depression and anxiety."
    "Poor Joanna. She kept saying that the past should stay buried."
    Alexa stared at the golden-eyed monster on the map. "But none of what happened here during the past few days had anything to do with the past."
    "Maybe not directly, but you have to admit that it was Trask's return to Avalon that set things in motion. If he hadn't come back ..."
    "Trask had nothing to do with anything that happened." Alexa whirled around, sudden rage welling up from an inner spring of emotion that she had not suspected she possessed. "Nothing at all. I don't want to hear any more talk about how Trask set a bunch of negative vortices in motion, do you hear me, Dylan?"
    Dylan blinked a couple of times and took a hasty step back. "Uh, sure."
    "That's garbage. Absolute bull. Understand?"
    "Right." Dylan's head bobbed up and down. "Complete bullshit."
    Alexa knew from the wary look on his face that she was in the process of losing it. She took a deep, steadying breath. "Sorry," she said gruffly. "I didn't mean to yell at you. But I really do not want to hear any more of those stupid theories about negative vortices."
    Dylan smiled weakly. "Got it. No more stupid theories."

    "So, when are you coming back to Seattle ?" Nathan asked.
    Trask gripped the phone and looked out the balcony window at the surreal landscape. "I'm not sure."
    "Damn it, JL, you just told me that it was finished. You said you were finally convinced that Dad's death was an accident. Why not come home?"
    Trask studied the starkly sculpted red spires outside the window and wondered why the cool green-and-water world of Seattle did not beckon, why it no longer felt like home.
    "I haven't finished my vacation," he said.
    "Finish it at one of the Hawaiian Avalons ."
    "I like it here." Saying the words out loud sent an unexpected spark of awareness through him. It was the truth, he thought. In spite of everything that had happened and the things that had not happened, he liked it here in Avalon.
    "I distinctly recall hearing you say that Avalon, Arizona , was one weird place," Nathan reminded him.
    "Yeah, but weirdness has its charms."
    "What about all the loopy metaphysical types and the psychic nonsense?"
    "You get used to them."
    "What about the fact that there's no water? No lakes, no Puget Sound , no Elliott Bay ?"
    Trask thought about the afternoon he had sat with Alexa beside Harmony Spring. "There's water around. It just comes in different forms here in the desert." Nothing is so seductive .. .
    "Okay, what about the lousy coffee?"
    "I'm working on that problem."
    Nathan paused. "Are you feeling all right, JL?"
    "Yeah."
    "You sure you're okay with the truth about Dad's accident? You were so damned obsessed by your theory that he was murdered ..."
    "I'm okay with the facts. This is Bottom Line Trask talking, remember?"
    Nathan fell silent for a moment. When he spoke again there was a note of disbelief in his voice. "It's the Chambers woman, isn't it? Alexa? Is that her name?"
    "Yeah," Trask said. "That's her name."
    Nathan went quiet again for a while.
    "Are you sleeping with her?" he asked eventually in an unnaturally neutral tone.
    Trask said nothing.
    "You are sleeping with her," Nathan said.
    Trask did not respond.
    "I guess that's okay." Nathan sounded cautious now. "Maybe an affair is what you need right now. Might be therapeutic."
    "I wasn't asking for your approval, and I'm not interested in therapy."
    "You're probably a little vulnerable right now," Nathan said gently.
    Trask considered hurling the phone off the balcony. "Vulnerable? Where did you pick up that kind of language? You sure as hell didn't learn it from me."
    Nathan chuckled ruefully. "Got it from Sarah. If you don't want her advice, remember your own."
    "What advice is that?"
    "Don't get