The Fallout by S.A. Bodeen

drive, I caught sight of Reese running out the front door toward the guardhouse.
    By the time we got the kids out of the car, she had returned, carrying the package into the house. Reese had gotten so helpful around the house. A few days before I’d seen her with the vacuum. I appreciated how much she had been helping. Maybe it made me feel less guilty whenever I went out and left Mom with all the little kids. I knew she had Gram and Els to help, but I liked knowing Reese was there, too, taking on some responsibility.
    Lucas ran ahead of us into the kitchen where Mom was sitting, feeding Quinn lunch.
    Lucas proclaimed, “I got lost!”
    Mom smiled at him, and then up at me and Eddy. She winked. “I’m sure you did.”
    “No, I really did! I went out the door with the red light on it and it beeped and then I was outside in the rain and this boy found me.”
    Mom’s smile disappeared and her eyes narrowed. She asked me, “What happened?”
    I breathed deeply. “He came out of the bathroom and went out the emergency door.”
    “Where were you?”
    “I was in the bathroom with Lucas.” I pointed at Cara. “But then she was with Eddy and threw up, so he called me.”
    Mom frowned. “And you just left him?”
    “For two seconds!” I said. “He was in the stall and I sent Eddy right back for him.”
    Eddy shook his head. “He had already left.”
    Mom shook her head. “This is done. This is all done . No more outings, no more—”
    “Mom!” I interrupted her. “He’s fine. We got him.”
    She crossed her arms and glared at us.
    Eddy said, “Yeah, a guy found him and brought him to the front, and we were there.”
    “A guy? What guy?” asked Mom.
    Eddy shrugged. “His name’s Tony.”
    I flashed a glance his way. How did he know that?
    Eddy continued. “He’s cool. I got his number so we could send a thank-you.”
    When did he do that? And why would he do that?
    Mom sighed. She looked at Cara, who was a mess. “I’d better get her a bath.” She picked her up and started to head upstairs. Then she turned back around. “This discussion is not over.”
    It was safe to say the outing to the aquarium was a complete bust.
    I made a turkey and Havarti sandwich with avocado and took it up to my room. I set the plate on my desk and slid the mouse back and forth. My desktop computer popped on and I hit Google. Our close call at the aquarium, the one before we lost Lucas, made me think.
    What if Lucas had rambled on about us? Maybe called out our last name?
    Would people have put two and two together?
    Once again, it made me wonder what people were thinking about us. If they were thinking about us.
    I typed in Yanakakis . Of course, thousands of entries popped up, most about YK and Dad, all related to the business. I scanned through, looking to see if anything was related to the family, and to more recent events. There were news reports from when we escaped of course, but not much lately.
    Social media had changed so much since we’d been away. When I changed the entry to “ Eli Yanakakis ,” a post popped up. “Maybe saw Yanakakis twins at Niagara Falls! #YKsighting.”
    YK sighting? Was it a club or something?
    I clicked on that and saw a bunch of posts. A bunch of posts that all seemed to be about encounters with me and my family.
    “Saw them in Times Square!”
    “Caught a peek at Disneyworld. Twins and a bunch of kids.”
    “My uncle in Vail said they’ve been there for a month.”
    I had to smile. They were all so full of it. No one was even close.
    I shook my head, thinking I was dumb to be so stressed about it. Then I realized I had the order switched, and made the older ones go to the bottom. One popped up, by someone named @dpreppin, with an icon of a nuclear cloud.
    “Tailed them at Seattle Costco.”
    I froze. The guy in black. Was that him? If so, I wasn’t wrong to be paranoid. He had been watching us. I clicked on his user name, and a link on his profile took me to a website