Jay Lombardo

Jay Lombardo
South Beach, Wind Island, Cloud Lake

Moodboard by ch4rms

Jaegar Lombardo (Jay) is the older of Camilla Lombardo's two children with Heydon Mitchell. He was born in a time of relative peace within the Lombardo family.  His Aunt Eden had been satisfactorily murdered, probably by his mother. His Uncle Don was elderly but healthy. He had a little sister whom he loved and protected from their family as well as everything outside it.  Most important of all, Gabe still walked the world, although ‘stalked’ would be a more appropriate verb in Jay’s opinion.

Jay grew up in South Beach on the north shore of the peninsula facing the twin volcanoes.  It was a comfortable, wealthy neighborhood populated by families associated with the entertainment industry including musicians, the retired owner of a large publishing house, a model and her family, and the award-winning director of romantic movies. A number of children of a similar age lived on the peninsula. Jay spent time with them, whether he wanted to or not, but made no friends.

Neither Jay nor his sister needed much supervision nor did they get much from either parent.  The Lombardo family raised and trained their children to be as strong physically and mentally as possible, strong as defined by that family, and Camilla considered raising them at a distance to be part of that program.  They thrived according to their own standards. Jay’s were straightforward – he wanted to be a quantum physicist.

Jay wasn't popular.  He was impulsive, arrogant, and quick to reject any activity and any person he found boring.  There were a lot of those.  At age seven his parents were kindly (very kindly) asked to consider another school for Jay.  He had outgrown what that school could provide him in the areas he was interested in pursuing, and he was notoriously uncooperative when asked to learn anything else.  He was indifferent about the general, overwhelming rejection he faced.

Heydon had a childhood friend, Luca Dirac, who had married a famous astrophysicist. Kenley Dirac primarily worked in the western archipelago at the Wind Island Observatory but the family had homes in the north at Cloud Lake and down in the far south on Sandy Point where they raised their two daughters, both Jay’s age.  They were enthusiastic parents and mentors, knew Jay through their friendship with his father, and agreed to help.

Thus Jay began his unusual internship under the care of Kenley Dirac. She provided the boy support on both an emotional and intellectual level from childhood into his teens, and became the greatest source of joy and growth in his life.  She challenged him, and she had his back when things got rough.  He grew up living on Wind Island and at Cloud Lake and rarely came back to South Beach. 

Kenley began to suffer from what would have been a terminal illness but for her unexpected disappearance.  The house at Cloud Lake was trashed, blood stained the floor and walls, and Kenley Dirac was gone. No culprits were ever identified, no motivation was discovered, nor was she ever found.  

Jay was devastated and left both hopeless and unmoored. He spent time with the family trainer Rafe who had helped him through long summers and pushed him again now - stop thinking about the death, do not be an actor in someone's evil drama. Run, swim, sail, knock it aside. 

He had begun to try to find a way back, a trip that started with a return to Wind Island.