Megan was playing in the backyard again, getting sand all over the teddy bear she'd gotten two Christmas' ago. Liam knew he should be watching her, with his wife away he was the responsible one. Responsible one, I didn't even try hard enough to help my own brother! He knew he'd let go of Charlie too soon. Heck, he KNEW how hard it was to kick the habit when you were a junkie. Even with nearly dying to give you serious drive to do so didn't make it easier. He'd let Charlie walk away from him, just like he'd walked away from Charlie all those years ago. Well, not all those years, but it felt like it.

Back then he'd been the junkie and Charlie was the Church-going, music-loving person. Charlie made the choice to start and not stop. He tried to tell himself, watching Megan build a castle out of sand, laughing cheerfully. Yet, his wife always said that sometimes a person's choice couldn't be divorced from the pressures applied to them.

He wanted to be just like me, because then I would accept him and we could be brothers again. Liam realized, his reflection in the sliding glass door staring accusingly at him. He couldn't even remember too much of his time with Driveshaft, sometimes he couldn't remember the words to the song 'You All Everyone'. He did remember telling his brother in the Church that he would be rock god, and then, on a drug high, crushing that hope in the harshest manner possible.

Maybe I can still get him back, Liam thought. The phone was nearby, hanging on the wall. As soon as he had the telephone book, he dialed the number.

"Hello, Sydney International Airport," a female voice answered.

"I'd like to find a Charlie Essex, please," Liam said.

"We are not allowed to give out information to strangers."

"I'm his brother."

"One moment please."

It seemed a lot longer then a moment to Liam, but finally the woman returned. "Charlie Essex is on Flight 147 on its way to Los Angeles, California USA."

"Thank you, Miss," Liam said, for some reason feeling like a cloud had covered the sky.

"Have a nice day," she said in syrupy voice.

"You too," Liam answered.

Megan was waving to him from the sandbox her voice came faintly through the glass door, "Daddy, Daddy, look what I made!"

He forced a smile to his lips and readjusted his glasses, which some of the kids in the neighborhood said made him look like Harry Potter. At least Harry was still British.

Sliding the door open, he ran outside and began to play with Megan, hoping this would drive his sudden turn of feelings around.

He succeeded until dinnertime, when his wife came back from work with some chicken, potatoes, biscuits, gravy, and cauliflower. His wife was chipper about her job at the police station, she was a secretary there, and filled his ears with tales of would-be felons.

"Hey, you know that man I told you about, the one who died in the alley of a drug overdose?"

"What about him?"

"Well, I heard from the coroner that some American guy came in and claimed him as his father. Took him to the airport soon afterward trying to get a plane back to America," she said.

"He'll have a hard time getting his father's coffin on a plane."

His wife just shrugged, "If they can transport a fugitive from the law they can transport a dead body. They're taking that Kate I told you about back for her trial."

"Find out what she did?"

She shook her head, "either no one knows or people aren't willing to talk. I'm just a secretary, not a cop."

"I put a stop to that didn't I," Liam smiled.

"It's not every day a lady has an ex-rock god sweep her off her feet," she smiled back, but her look faded when she saw the expression on Liam's face.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"No, I used to call Charlie that," Liam answered. "He came here today. Said that Driveshaft's been signed onto a tour, or it would be if I would resume my position as lead singer."

"What did you tell him?"

"What do you think I told him? That I couldn't leave my wife and child, and I couldn't take them on tour, so I wasn't going."

"Do you still want too?"

"No, it's just.....he's still a junkie Clarissa. I offered him help, but I didn't try hard enough. I let him get away, go take a flight to Los Angeles and continue going down the drain!" Liam let it all spill out.

"Did you call to see if you could find him at the airport?"

"Yes, but his plane had already left, Flight 147 I think it was," Liam responded.

Clarissa smiled and said in voice that sounded forced, "Well I'm sure we can scrape up enough to get up to Los Angeles for an intervention."

Liam wasn't dumb; he knew that something was wrong. "What is it?"

She bowed her head, "Flight 147 vanished over the South Pacific Islands. The sonar we have indicates that it broke apart, but we can't find out where it was when it did so. The information isn't coming through."

"It vanished," there was a scrape as Liam scooted his chair away from the table. In the next room the sound of the Cartoon channel sounded tinny and false. "That's not possible."

"I'm afraid it is," Clarissa answered, "I can get you the list of people on the plane just to check though."

Liam bowed his head, "you don't need to, I already know."

Rising, Clarissa came over to hold her husband as he wept. The sound brought his daughter in from the television. She raised her hands up, distraught at the sight of her father crying. "What happen?"

"Uncle Charlie is gone, Megan."

"Uncle Charlie lost?"

"Yes, Uncle Charlie is lost."

Suddenly, Liam realized that you don't truly know the worth of something until you lose it.

It had been a week since the disappearance of Flight 147. No wreckage had been found, and no bodies recovered. They had vanished as mysteriously as Amelia Earhart had years ago. In that time Liam had taken a job teaching music lessons in the house, while his wife, Clarisse kept an ear out for any information she could find. From that point too there was no news, and gradually life went on.

Liam never spoke about Driveshaft, never about their hit single, and very little about Charlie. The only person he ever mentioned them to was his wife, but that was becoming less as well. Life went on, as it always does.

As his last student left, Liam felt a tug on his shirt. Megan was standing there with a drawing in her hand. Smiling, Liam looked at it, not able to figure out what the lines and stick figures were.

"What is this Megan?"

"An island," she answered smiling.

"Australia," Liam asked, trying to discern the country from the outline.

Megan shook her head, flipping her long curls in her eyes, "island in my dreams."

"What's this figure?"

"Uncle Charlie," Megan replied, she pointed to a yellow and black shape, "that's a bee."

"Charlie doesn't like bees," Liam answered.

"They stinging bees," she answered.

"Charlie really doesn't like them," he glanced at the other people, "who are these others?"

"That Hunter," Megan answered, "he hunts pig."

"Delightful," Liam answered, "who's this?"

"Big Lady has baby inside."

Liam was stumped; they'd never mentioned to Megan how babies were made.

"Yes, I can see that."

"Lady likes Uncle Charlie."

"Whatever you say dear," Liam straightened up, picture still in hand. "Megan, what made you draw this?"

"My dreams," Megan answered. "I watch in my dreams, sometimes Uncle Charlie comes, sometimes others. They don't see me, I hide."

"Do you see other's besides these three?"

Megan nodded. "They live on island after plane crash."

"Do you know where this island is?"

Megan shook her head.

"Well, I'd say it was just the child's way of grieving," Clarissa said as soon as Liam had told her that night. "Kid's are imaginative. She does live on an island, and she did just loser her uncle. Don't put it down as more then it is."

"I'm trying not too, but how did she know that babies are inside their mothers?"

"Her best friends mother was pregnant a short while ago, she probably learned it over there. Honestly Liam, I know your grieving but believing wild stories is something else."

Liam sighed, "I guess I wish I could see him just one more time."

"You'll see him someday," his wife said has he drifted off to sleep.

"Daddy," there was a tugging on his arm, he opened his eyes and saw Megan standing beside him. The air was muggy, humid and warm. Behind his daughter was a lush green jungle. "Daddy, wake up. My island."

"This is your island sweet heart?"

"Yes," Megan said, "I brought you with me. Come on, come and see."

Taking his hand, she lead him off the bed and into the depths of the jungle. They walked until they came to a small cave area, ringed by trees with a small stream at the opening. Liam could see people there, and some plane wreackage too. Then out of the caverns came Charlie.

He looked like he was going through hell. His eyes were shadowed, his hands shook, and he obviously didn't feel well. Still, he moved over towards a woman who was very clearly pregnant. Handing her a water bottle and sitting down by her side, taking out his guitar has he did so. Liam could see tape across his knuckles, tape with writing on it, and he smiled.

"We can't go down there Daddy," Megan moved to hold him back, though Liam was conscious he'd stepped forward. "They don't know we're here."

Charlie began to play, going slowly so his shaking hands wouldn't mess him up too badly. The pregnant lady lay against him for support and smiled. Once a tall man with a weathered face came by and seemed to silently ask if Charlie was alright. Charlie made an OK symbol and kept on playing.

"He looks happy," Liam said, "well as happy as a drug addict going through withdrawal can be."

"Time to go," Megan said, pulling her father away, "time to go."

Liam opened his eyes to the ceiling of his bedroom. His wife was curled against him and his daughter was most definitely in her own room. It had all been a dream, or had it? Everything had looked so real in the jungle, even the plane wreak looked too authentic to be a dream. Had he really seen Charlie again? Had he really been told that his brother was alright? Or was it all just a fantasy?

"There are somethings I just have to believe are real."