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The sand near the water was the best place to make a sandcastle.
Percy didn’t just think that because he loved the water – though he did, he loved the water – but because his sandcastles stayed up. His mom told him it was because the sand was wet and stuck together, whereas when the sand was dry all his hard work just crumbled to nothing. This proved Percy’s point that the sea was the best thing in the universe. His mom had smiled when he’d said that, very bright and very happy.
Percy liked making his mom happy.
Anyway. He was having so much fun building his sandcastle that he didn’t notice the man approaching him until he was right there, casting a shadow over the highest tower. Percy looked up.
The man was tall. That might be because Percy was sitting down and the man was standing over him, but he’d still be tall, because he was a man, and Percy was only five, and small for his age – that was what Jamie in his class said, but Percy thought he was stupid because he wasn’t that much taller than him, no one in class was that much taller than him, Mrs Peters was taller than all of them and she was smaller than all the other teachers, so Percy had decided Jamie was stupid. But the man was tall, and he was looking down at Percy with an expression he didn’t like. It reminded him of Gabe. There was dislike there. There was an unspoken accusation. Gabe was always accusing him of things he didn’t do.
“My mom said I can’t talk to strangers,” Percy blurted out, so the man would go away.
His mom had said that. He wasn’t lying.
“Perhaps your mother shouldn’t talk to strangers either,” the man replied. He looked out over the sea and wrinkled his nose slightly. “Strangers can come with heavy burdens.”
Percy didn’t know what he was talking about, but he understood that the man was insulting his mom.
“My mom is a grown up,” Percy said heatedly, all unease around the man gone and replaced with anger. “She can talk to whoever she wants to talk to. But I don’t want to talk to you.”
The man looked down at him and smiled. It wasn’t a friendly smile, or at least it wasn’t warm like his mom’s. It reminded him of the way Mrs Peters smiled when one of them got an answer wrong.
“I don’t particularly want to talk to you. I shouldn’t be talking to you. You should not even exist. And I would be doing everyone a favour if I got rid of you now. It would be easy. No one would know.” He rolled his eyes. “Except Father, of course, but I am sure I could make it look like an accident. Or a monster attack. The monsters will be coming for you soon, if they are not already.” The man sighed, like he was enjoying a daydream. Percy liked daydreaming too. “But if Father has not already done it himself, knowing the great risks, he must … care.” The word was pronounced like it was a very bad word. “It does occasionally happen – though why is beyond me. Why must be stray from Mother, why must he find his pleasure elsewhere. He has a wife for a reason.” The man was scowling out at the sea like it was the blame of all his problems. “He has a wife and a kingdom and children that should be – that are – more than enough. We are his rightful children, not you half-breeds that walk the land and have no concept of the duty that befalls you as the son of the king. You are arrogant little spawns that think the world revolves around you when you take no interest in Father’s people – not, of course, that we would welcome you,” the man added, looking down at Percy, as if to make the point clear.
Percy still didn’t know what the man was talking about, or why he was talking to him, but he was pretty sure that the man was threatening him, and that the man didn’t want him somewhere. Maybe the man wanted to sit where Percy was sitting. It was the best place on the beach after all.
“Do you want to build a sandcastle?” Percy asked, patting at the sand he had piled up in front of him.
The man stared at him. The man had green eyes, he realized. Percy had green eyes too. And black hair like the man. Did they look alike? Oh! Maybe the man was his dad. Maybe that was what he was talking about. Father was another name for Dad, Percy remembered suddenly.
“Are you my dad?”
The words burst out of him excitedly and he straightened up, almost leaping onto his feet. But his excitement drained in the next moment as he saw the man recoil, face scrunched up.
“No!” the man protested.
Percy’s shoulders slumped as he deflated. “Oh.”
Maybe the man was talking about his own father then. He didn’t sound like he liked him. Percy didn’t know his dad, but – Gabe was not his dad, but he didn’t like him, so maybe the man’s father was like Gabe. Percy could understand why he wouldn’t like him. Maybe that was why the man was mad.
“I just remembered ‘Father’ is a word for ‘Dad’,” Percy explained, as the man continued to stare at him with a bewildered expression. “Mrs Peters taught us that. Mom is my mother, Dad is my father, and I don’t have any brothers or sisters. I don’t have a dad either. He … went away. He got lost at sea.” His voice quietened. “I thought maybe you were him ‘cause you were talking about a father.”
The only sound was the gentle rush of the waves upon the shore. Percy liked it. It comforted him.
“I am … not your father,” the man said slowly after a long moment.
Percy nodded. He’d understood that part already.
“I imagine he … is still at sea,” the man went on in the same slow voice.
Percy peered up at him curiously. How did he know? His mom had said that, but how did the man know that?
“I imagine that one day you will meet him. And –” the man’s face scrunched up, like he was saying something he didn’t like, but was forcing himself to say anyway “– I imagine he does care about you. And … your mother. You would not be here if he didn’t,” the man added in a quieter tone, but Percy heard him anyway. The man cleared his throat. “You will understand one day.”
Percy nodded, though he didn’t really think he would.
He looked down at his sandcastle, just to look at somewhere else, because he didn’t really want to man to see him upset about the fact he was stuck with Gabe while his dad was lost at sea. He wanted his dad to come home and take them away from Gabe. But maybe the man would understand that.
“I –” Percy started hesitantly, looking back up at the man.
He was gone.
The beach was empty, except for Percy and his sandcastle and the gentle waves.