Brendan stood over Richard’s sleeping body, the pillow in his hands.
He felt as if he were trapped in a tale by Edgar Allan Poe.
I can do this.
I can.
He stopped for a moment to gauge his feelings, putting his finger to his own carotid artery to feel his pulse. He checked his watch. Sixty beats per minute. Normal. Cold-blooded normal.
His eye fell on the contents of the bed stand: a glass half-full of water and three prescription vials. Old-man meds. Crazy-boy meds. The same amber vials.
Richard’s disheveled white hair looked like a scattered cloud above his head. Brendan bent over him until he could smell the mustiness. Brendan held his breath.
Richard was not breathing.
Brendan lowered his ear to Richard’s mouth. No wheezing. No scrapping air. No flutter of his uvula.
Brendan peeled back the covers to see if he could detect movement of his chest. Nothing.
Jesus! He’s already dead. He had not expected this.
A sensation rippled inside his breast and he dropped down on his knees.
“Richard?”
Nothing.
He put his hand on the old man’s shoulder and gave a little shake. “Richard!”
Still nothing.
“Richard?”
Richard’s body jolted. “Wha-what? What’s the matter? What’re you doing?” His eyes were no longer gummed with sleep but huge with alarm. “Why you holding that pillow? What the hell’s going on?”
“It f-f-fell off the bed. It’s okay,” Brendan said. “I d-d-didn’t think you were breathing.”
Richard was now fully awake. “Well, I am … for what it’s worth.” Richard rubbed his eyes and pushed himself up onto his pillow. “Why, you worried I wasn’t?”
“I guess.”
Richard humpfed. “Hell, I’ve got a few breaths left in me still.”
Brendan was full of words, but he could only nod.
Richard looked around the room. “So, what are you doing in here? Is something wrong?”
To see if I’m human.
To see if Death is the mother of beauty.
“To g-g-get the truck keys. You left them in your p-pants when you moved it.”
Richard craned his neck to see the clock radio. “Jeez, it’s after ten. Where the hell you going at this hour?”
“To g-g-get some air.”
Richard humpfed again. “Well, I hope it’s female air.” Then Richard gave Brendan an odd look. “You were really worried about me, huh?”
Brendan nodded and moved toward the doorway. In the light he could see Richard smiling.
“Be back before midnight. And careful driving, for cryin’ out loud. Lotta drunks on the road at this hour.”
“Yeah.”
“You take your meds?”
“Yes, I did.”
Another thing he was always after him about. That, eating right, and going back to school. What was left of his life’s checklist.
“Good boy. You need some money?”
“No, I’m fine.”
Before Brendan stepped out, he looked back at his grandfather with his cotton-wispy white hair and face so pale it seemed to glow in the dark. “Good night, Richard.”
“Good night, kiddo. And thanks for looking out for me.”
“Mmm.”
Then as the door was closing, Richard added, “Hey!”
Brendan stopped. “Yeah?”
In the strip of light, Brendan could see Richard’s mouth lopsided with emotion.
“I love you, Brendy Bear.”
Brendan could hear the catch in his grandfather’s throat. And for a moment, he was unable to breathe for the small glow in his chest. Then in a barely audible voice he muttered, “Thanks.” And he clicked the door shut.
But Brendan did not bound down the stairs as usual. Instead, he put his hand on his chest and gazed into the mirror again.
His heart was pounding. And his eyes were wet.
It was about eleven-thirty when Brendan pulled into the lot—a small tartopped parking area on the bluff hanging over the town beach. The only other car was Nicole’s mother’s SUV. She swung open the passenger door to let him in.
“W-w-what’s up?”
Nicole was dressed in white jeans and a Harvard sweatshirt. “I want to go down to the beach.” With that, she got out of the car, tugging a shoulder bag.
Brendan didn’t like beaches. He couldn’t swim. He didn’t like trudging in sand. He didn’t like the fishy brine. In the daytime, it was too hot and bright, at night it was dark and forbidding. But he followed her down the serpentine steps to the sand.
There were no lights on the beach, and the nearest residents were a mile away. The only illumination was a white crescent moon, which rocked in the sky about thirty degrees above the eastern horizon like a rib bone.
“I’m sorry for being such a bitch.”
It was a night of surprises. Brendan could not believe she was actually apologizing. Such a sentiment seemed antithetical to her nature. “N-no problem.”
“It’s just that what you said about getting a head operation freaked me out.”
Nicole didn’t freak out, he thought. “Your parents knew my parents. That’s what got to me—that note.”
“Did you ask them?”
“My mother said I got seizures when I was small. Maybe that’s what it was all about. I had chicken pox too. I don’t know.” She turned her face toward him so that the moon cast shadows across her eyes. “Do you really think they made you smarter?”
“I’m n-not sure, but that’s what the tests and the X rays s-suggest. Maybe I was au-autistic or had a t-tumor or something and they got me fixed. That’s what I don’t know. Whatever they did, I think it s-s-screwed me up big time. And I’d like to find the people who did it to me.”
Nicole said nothing.
“Did you ask them about that doctor—Lucius Malenko?” The name meant nothing to Brendan.
“Just that he’s some kind of specialist. I don’t want to talk about it.”
She took his hand.
“Don’t be afraid, I’m not going to jump on you.”
He was grateful for that.
“And I don’t think you’re a fag.” She brushed the hair out of his eyes. “It’s just that I wish I turned you on.”
“Sorry, b-but it’s not you.”
They were quiet for a while; still holding his hand, she pulled him up.
“How’s camp?”
“It’s okay. We just play a lot of head games.”
“It’s a g-g-genius camp, right?”
“There are lots of geeky kids there, if that’s what you mean.”
“What kinds of things do they have?”
“Computer workshops, physics, astronomy, math workshops, bio lab—stuff like that. It’s fun. Besides,” she added, “I want to go to med school someday, so it looks good on my record.”
“I’m s-sure you won’t have any p-p-problems there.”
“Whatever,” she said, then tugged on his hand. “I want to go swimming.”
“S-s-swimming?”
“Yeah, I’m warm.” She slipped off her sandals.
He watched her, but said nothing. He wanted to tell her that he couldn’t swim, but decided against it. She peeled out of her clothes, and, thankfully, she was wearing a bathing suit. A black one-piece.
“Come on.”
“Nah. I’m fine.”
“Don’t be a pussy.”
“I d-d-don’t have a bathing suit.”
“You don’t need one. Nobody’s around for miles. Or go in your underwear if you’re so modest.”
“No, that’s okay.”
But she wouldn’t take no for an answer, and began to pull his shirt over his head. But he stopped her and took it off himself.