In the Grey (54 page)

“
I thought you were
getting out today,” Matthew asked.

“
Not me,” Alex said. “But
they do.”

“
Why?” Joseph
asked.

“
I’m still weak,” Alex
said. “I have this cough. And . . . I don’t
know.”

She closed her eyes and
was asleep.

“
She’s tired,” Max
said.

“
Why?” Matthew
asked.

“
Doctors don’t know,” Max
said.

“
And the cough?” Matthew
asked.

“
As far as anyone can
tell, it’s the tissue healing,” Max said. “She should have been
able to go home when Troy left,
but . . .”

Max shrugged.

“
We thought she was tired
because Max’s heart issues,” Steve said. “But she’s just worn
out.”

“
Can you blame her?” Raz
asked. “She’s been running full bore for years.”

“
Will you leave her?”
Joseph asked.

“
We don’t have a lot of
choice,” Max said. “It’s a hospital, not a hotel.”

“
We’ll get the video feed
and check back in tonight,” Joseph said. “Come on, Matthew, we have
work to do.”

Matthew raised a hand in
good-bye, and they left the room. The door had been closed for only
a moment when there was a knock.

“
I’m sorry to bother
you . . . ,” Margaret stuck her head in the
door.

“
Shh!” Max
said.

Alex jerked awake. She
smiled at Margaret.

“
Who is it?” Steve
asked.

“
Would you introduce
yourself?” Alex asked.

Margaret stepped into the
room, and a man came in after her. Like Margaret, he wore Operation
Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern digital fatigues and a
pale-green T-shirt. He had tan skin and a long black braid down his
back, but it was his white toothy grin betrayed his relationship to
Margaret.

“
Semper Fi,” Alex said,
and coughed. “Please introduce yourself.”

“
Sergeant Margaret
Peaches, sir,” Margaret went to Steve’s bedside. He raised his
hand, which she took. “You’re looking well, sir.”

“
Margaret,” Steve
smiled.

“
This is my father’s
brother . . . ,” Margaret said.

“
Gunnery Sergeant Ganny
Peaches,” Steve said.

“
That’s Sergeant Major to
you, white man,” Margaret’s uncle smiled. Steve laughed. He came
over to Steve’s bed. He put his hand on Steve’s shoulder, and the
men hugged. “How’d you know it was me?”

“
The smell,” Steve
said.

The Sergeant Major
laughed.

“
You must be Agent
Rasmussen,” Sergeant Major Peaches said.

The Sergeant Major turned
to Raz’s bed.

“
Yes, sir. They call me
‘Raz.’ Nice to meet you.”

“
Gando Peaches,” he said.
“And you . . .”

The Sergeant Major was
about a foot from Alex’s bed. He shook his head.

“
Hi Ganny,” Alex
said.

He put his hand on his
heart and his eyes welled.

“
You know each other?”
Margaret looked from her uncle to Alex and back again.

“
We’ve met,” Alex
said.

“
When?” Margaret shook her
head.

“
Jesse?” Gando
asked.

“
Didn’t make it,” Alex
said. “I thought you’d have heard by now.”

“
Just hard to believe,”
Gando said. “He’s here, right?”

Alex smiled.

“
It’s bad for a Navajo to
be around a spirit,” Gando said. “But if it’s an angel like Jesse,
I can tolerate it for a while.”

“
This is my brother, Max,”
Alex gestured to Max with her left hand.

Max waved.

“
Wow,” Gando said. “You
sure left an impression on him.”

He laughed.

“
You know these guys?” The
tone of Margaret’s voice reflected her surprise.

“
We’ve met,” Gando
said.

“
What’s going on,
Sergeant?” Alex asked.

“
I . . .
um . . . well, I guess I don’t know what’s going
on,” Margaret said.

“
My brother’s daughter
would like to bring her daughter Ooljee to Denver to live with her
and her soon-to-be husband,” Gando said. “I was home and my mother
asked me to check out this white man’s home.”

“
I married his brother,”
Alex said.

“
That’s what he said,”
Gando said. “Anyway, I toured the residence; very nice, I must say.
You will never believe who I ran into.”

“
Wyatt Klaussen?” Alex
asked.

“
Yeah,” Gando said. “My
favorite ranger. It’s quite the house. Next you’ll be telling me
that General Hargreaves stops by from time to time.”

Gando laughed.

“
What can we answer for
you?” Alex asked.

“
Is it all right that my
Ooljee comes to live with you?” Margaret asked.

“
We’re excited to have
her, and you,” Alex said. “We have plenty of space. We love having
Troy’s kids. You met them?”

“
Adorable,” Gando said.
“They’re so beautiful. Are you sure they’re Troy’s
kids?”

Alex smiled and Gando
laughed.

“
You don’t seem yourself,”
Gando sat down on the side of her bed. “There’s
something . . .”

“
My father’s brother is on
the shaman path,” Margaret said.

“
The Shaman Soldier,”
Steve said.

“
I remember,” Alex
said.

“
Something’s wrong. You’re
not all the way back,” Gando said.

“
I’m just tired,” Alex
gave him a weak smile.

Gando looked at her for a
long minute before asking, “Do you remember what happened when you
were in between?”

“
I remember being alone in
this grey . . . ,” Alex said. “Clouds or mist,
maybe fog.”

“
I went there too,” Max
said. “When I had the heart attack, I went there.”

“
I’ve been there,” John
said from the doorway. “Sorry, you didn’t hear me, and I didn’t
want to interrupt.”

“
Gando, this is my
husband, Dr. John Drayson,” Alex said.

“
The three of you have
been to this grey place,” Gando said. “How about you,
Pershing?”

“
Not that I know of,”
Steve said.

“
Rasmussen?” Gando
asked.

“
It sounds familiar, like
a place I went to as a kid, but don’t really remember,” Raz
said.

“
Huh,” Gando said. “What
do you remember, Max?”

“
Being alone,” Max said.
“I’m Alex’s twin. Even when I’m by myself, I’m not really alone.
I’ve never been that . . . alone, you
know?”

“
Dr. Drayson?”

“
The same,” John said. “I
have nightmares about being in the grey.”

“
What happens in your
nightmares?” Gando asked.

John’s face flushed with
emotion.

“
I don’t mean to be so
personal, but . . .”

“
It’s all right,” John
said. “What’s frightening is that no matter what I do or where I
run, I can’t seem to get out of the grey fog.”

“
And you’re alone, too?”
Gando asked.

John nodded.

“
When Alex got home from
the hospital the first time, I had this long-running dream of
trying to find her in the mist,” John said. “She was so depressed.
I felt like I fought to keep her away from the darkness by day
while my nights were filled with trying to find her in the
grey.”

“
Did you ever find her?”
Gando asked.

“
The few times I did, it
was even more horrifying,” John said. “She couldn’t see me or hear
me. She was just staring at something in the fog.”

John shivered. As if to
protect himself from his own words, he instinctively crossed his
arms.

“
Wow,” Max said. “Now that
you say that, I remember seeing Alex staring at something and the
fog . . .”

“
I do too,” Raz
nodded.

“
You’ve never spoken with
each other about this?” Gando asked.

“
Never,” John
said.

Gando took both of Alex’s
hands. He looked into her eyes.

“
You are so loved that
these men come for you in the grey fog,” Gando said. “When you’re
there, what are you looking at?”

“
No idea,” Alex shook her
head.

“
Huh,” Gando smiled.
“That’s interesting. Would you mind if I did a little journeying
around this situation? It would be a great honor for
me.”

“
We’re about to get out of
the hospital,” Steve said.

“
I don’t think it will
take too long, because the grey is here,” Gando said. “Do you see
it, Margaret?”

“
I do,” Margaret
said.

“
My brother’s daughter is
sensitive to the energies of the world,” Gando said. “You would
honor me by letting me help Alex and Pershing, her husband, and my
new friends, Raz and Max.”

“
I’m okay,” Alex said.
“You guys?”

Raz shrugged.

“
Sure,” Max said.
“John?”

“
You realize they are all
ill,” John said. “Not just Alex. Max had major heart surgery. Raz
is healing from a brain injury.
Steve . . .”

“
Your acupuncturist has
been in, right?” Margaret asked.

“
Of course,” John said. He
sat on the edge of Alex’s bed.

“
This practice pre-dates
acupuncture,” Margaret said. “Members of my family have always been
soldiers and always been shamans. My father’s father is a
traditional Navajo healer. He’s agreed to lead my wedding sing. My
father’s brother is more of a world shaman.”

“
You should know that
Ooljee is already on the path,” Gando said. “There will be hell to
pay if her time in Denver deters her from her destiny.”

“
Good to know,” Alex
said.

“
If it works, they will
heal faster; if not, no harm will come to them.” Gando said to
John. “Will you allow me to try?”

John nodded. Gando
smiled.

“
What’s he doing?” Steve
asked.

“
He’s rifling through his
bag,” John said. “To get something,
a . . .”

“
MP3 player,” Gando said.
He held it up. “I’m going to listen to a tape of drums rather than
drum here in the hospital.”

While John narrated, Gando
took a flower from one of the dozens of “Get-Well” bouquets sitting
around the room. He set the flower in the corner. With a towel
under his hands, Margaret poured water over them from a pink
plastic water pitcher. He took out a small pouch and called in the
four directions with ceremonial pollen.

“
Pershing, now that your
sight has been released, you should be able to follow me,” Gando
said.

“
I’ll try,” Steve
said.

Gando sat cross legged in
the left back corner of the room. He put on his headset and closed
his eyes. After a few minutes, he began to sway back and forth. He
said something in Navajo.

“
There is a horrible
creature, like a mime or a clown; big, tall like a building
and . . . ,” Margaret repeated something to
Gando. He nodded. “Evil. It’s horrifying.”

“
You were terrified of
that clown when we were kids,” Max said. “Remember Alex. He was at
that Fort Bragg festival.”

“
Wasn’t he a murderer?”
Alex asked.

“
We didn’t know that
then,” Max said.

“
Shh,” Margaret
said.

Gando said something in
Navajo again.

“
Sunflowers,” Margaret
said. “The clown . . . he’s lighting the sunflowers
on fire and . . .”

Gando moaned. He fell
silent for a while before speaking again.

“
There are. . .
um . . . honeybees?” Margaret nodded. “The bees are
dying. You followed the bees to the sunflower fields where you met
the evil clown. He burned the fields.”

Gando spoke between
coughs.

“
It’s not mist or clouds,
it’s smoke,” Margaret said. “From the fire.”

He had a coughing fit
before gasping out something else.

“
He’s almost reached you,”
Margaret said.

Gando held their complete
attention as he swayed back and forth. He gasped, and tears began
rolling down his face. As if he was listening to something, he
cocked his head. He moved his mouth as if to speak, but no words
came out. Still weaving back and forth, he nodded and wept until
his face broke into a smile. He began to laugh. He clapped his
hands together and opened his eyes.

He was troubled to find
them staring at him.

“
Did you follow along?” he
asked Steve in a booming voice. Margaret pointed to his earbud
headphones. He took them out.