gasping mouths used to scare the hell out of me - almost as much as the hotel's owner.
Every time we arrived at the hotel, my parents would make me sit with them in the parlor while they "caught up" with Mr. Eli. Garrett was excused from this ritual, theoretically because he was helping Alex Huff with the luggage, which I resented to no end.
Mr. Eli had bought the hotel at public auction after federal agents seized it from its previous owner, a Thirties bootlegger who had been South Texas's answer to Al Capone.
Eli was eccentric in a different way. He was an old bachelor who never wore anything but pajamas and a Turkish bathrobe and slippers. He smelled faintly of lilacs. His skin was milky, his hair as black as an oil slick, and he had a strange mustache shaped like a seagull's wings on his upper lip. Years later, I realized that he must've been gay - one of those men who choose, for whatever reason, to live in a climate as hospitable to them as the Arctic is to a tropical plant. That wasn't what scared me. It was the fact that he seemed able to read minds. He would look at me with his watery green eyes and say "I believe young Tres is thirsty for lemonade," or "I see you had a hard year at school," or "Don't worry about Alex. He means well." Whatever happened to be troubling me at the moment.
In all, Mr. Eli seemed like the sort of man my father would detest, but my father always showed him the greatest deference.
On our last visit to Rebel Island as a family, Mr. Eli greeted my father in his usual manner. "Sheriff Navarre, shot anyone lately?"
"Not lately, sir," my father replied. Whether it was true or not, I didn't know.
We sat in the parlor with all the glassy-eyed fish staring down at us. My mother told Mr. Eli he was looking well. In truth the old man looked paler and thinner every summer, but he accepted the compliment with a nod. My father and Mr. Eli talked about the weather and fishing conditions. Mr. Eli seemed to know everything about the sea, though as far as I could tell he never set foot outside the hotel.
After a while, Mr. Eli asked what we would like to drink, and my father requested whiskey.
"Jack," my mother chided. "Remember?"
I didn't know what she was talking about, but apparently my father did. His face flushed. He could be a scary man, my father. His huge girth was intimidating enough, and when he got angry his eyes were as bright as a hawk's.
"I'll have a drink with our host," he told my mother.
"Jack, you promised."
My father rose from his chair. The air in the room was as sharp as broken glass. He turned to Mr. Eli and said, "If you'll excuse me, sir."
Once he left, my mother muttered a quick apology to Mr. Eli. "I'd better go, ah, talk to him. Tres, stay here, will you?"
That was the last thing I wanted - but my mother left me alone with Mr. Eli.
The old man smiled so his seagull mustache seemed to spread its wings. "Let's get you a soda."
He called for the maid, an elderly African American woman named Delilah. She brought me a Coke over ice with a maraschino cherry. Delilah had scars on the inside of her wrists, crisscrossed swollen pink lines like Chinese words. I'd asked my father about those scars once, and he'd told me that Mr. Eli had saved Delilah's life. He wouldn't explain how.
I sat on the sofa, drinking my soda and trying not to look at Mr. Eli. I wanted to leave, but my mother had ordered me to stay here. For once, I hoped Mr. Eli would read my mind: take pity on me and tell me to go away.
"Alex fixed the fishing boat," he said. "Perhaps he can take you out."
"Maybe," I said halfheartedly.
"You don't like Alex," Mr. Eli said. "But you must be patient with him."
"Why?"
Mr. Eli nodded. "Fair question. Alex and his father have had a hard life, Tres. A lot of tragedy. But they're good people. Loyal and compassionate."
I couldn't believe Mr. Eli was talking about the same kid who stuck bottle rockets in my shorts.
Mr. Eli smoothed a fold in his bathrobe. "Tres, I take in all kinds - all sorts of wounded souls. Enough time on this island can heal most scars eventually. Alex, as