Limbo's Child (24 page)

Once he extracted himself from their talons he joined Miles in the middle of the hall.

“What?!” he said to Miles’ judgmental sideward glance, apparently totally sincerely. Miles just rolled his eyes and followed Hokharty.

Miles and Schuyler approached Hokharty cautiously. Miles didn’t know what the protocols were now. Wallach had always required the most obsequious gestures of loyalty, but that wasn’t Hokharty’s style. Should they kneel or bow? Before either could decide on what to do, Hokharty simply gestured them over to the steps of the dais.

“I have work to do in the city, and you two cannot yet travel in daylight.”

“
Yet?!”
thought Miles. Was that even an option?! Miles exchanged hopeful looks with Schuyler.

“I will take Tim. You will remain here with Graber and train the others. I will return for you this evening. I have an important task for you to perform when I get back.”

“Train?!” said Schuyler incredulously, “To do what?” then added “Master” when he realized he might have sounded a bit curt.

“To fight, Schuyler.” Both Miles and Schuyler raised their eyebrows at this and looked at each other, but said nothing. Even with the battlefield promotion, they weren’t exactly first bench. Miles just trusted that Hokharty knew what he was doing.

Hokharty leaned in close to Schuyler and spoke softly, “I trust we know whose side we are on now?”

Schuyler looked definitely terrified, but he bowed convincingly and said only, “Yes, Master,” without much theatrics. A subtle nod from Hokharty told him he was released for the moment. Schulyer quickly turned back to his new fan club.

“Where were we, ladies?!” As he made his way over to them they giggled and cheered as if they were Japanese schoolgirls, and he was their rock star boyfriend who had been away for ages. Miles shook his head. As he turned back, Hokharty had already turned his attention to cleaning the chaise lounge he had just set up.

Miles thought how odd it was to have a new master and how different he was from Wallach. He certainly hadn’t expected this turn of events. “
Master
,” the word wasn’t filled with contempt and dread for him anymore, but he was still afraid of this new master all the same. The thought reminded him of something Tim had said out in the garden.

“Master Hokharty?” Miles approached him carefully.

“Yes, Miles?” Hokharty didn’t turn but kept on his task of preparing the lounge for something.

“Tim said…well, out in the garden, he said that ya were just a corpse in a morgue a few hours ago. Is that true?”

“Yes, it’s true.” He went on silently preparing the lounge, flicking off pieces of debris.

Miles swallowed. “He also said that a strange man brought you to life?”

“Yes,” Hokharty replied, “That is also true.”

Miles pressed on. “It’s just…it’s just that line ya used with us in the alley, and again with Ulami, and again with Wallach. Every master has a master…”

“Until there is at last a master who is master of all,” Hokharty finished. He stood up, faced Miles and dusted off his hands. “You are wondering if I too have a master.”

Miles nodded weakly.

“That’s very perceptive of you, Miles. I’ve come to expect no less of you. Yes, I have a master,
two
in fact…”

As Hokharty said this, the thudding steps of Graber entered the room. Tim was right behind him. Miles turned. Whatever Miles had expected Graber to be carrying, it wasn’t this. Graber was carrying the body of a woman with brown hair, wearing flats, blue jeans, and a red flannel shirt over a pink t-shirt. She had a kind but strong face. When Miles looked at Graber, Graber smiled, and Hokharty smiled back.

“And I expect that you will meet them very soon.”

Chapter Sixteen
Yo-yo

Lucy sat on the edge of the counter of the hospital information booth idly kicking her dangling legs and trying to not feel like a little kid. It wasn’t easy. The purple and pink princess kitten pajamas she was wearing weren’t helping. After last night’s outburst, the whole hospital staff had heard about her plight and they had sort of adopted her. The next morning there were balloons and flowers, and the doctor from the previous evening had even snuck in a couple candy bars. Balloons, flowers and candy were good, and the people were very nice, but a smile from someone she knew would have been worth a thousand flowers or balloons or cards signed “The Staff and Administration of Pinnacle Health.” Trouble was, she didn’t know anyone but her mother and she was now gone forever. She couldn’t even mourn her because the body was stolen. They had had some close friends back in Texas, but that was nearly a year and a half ago. She kept imagining that someone from back there would show up and take her back with them, but she had a hard time believing it would actually happen.

The pretty, dark-haired doctor that had held and rocked her back to sleep last night came by to check on her mid-morning. She reminded Lucy of her mother. She was nice, only she obviously didn’t have any children of her own. Her mom always talked to her like a person; the doctor talked to her like she was five. She had brought Lucy the pajamas and a white bathrobe. The pajamas were bright pink and purple and covered with cartoon princess kittens with enormous eyes complete with wimples and crowns. It was weird. She had never liked things like that as a kid, but the doctor was trying to make her feel better, so she had just said, “Thank you,” and had taken them without a fuss. She hadn’t even known they made things like that for girls her age, but they fit well, they were comfortable and they were better and warmer than the thin hospital gowns that were open in the back. She put them on and wrapped the white bathrobe tightly around her so no one could see the freaky, big-eyed princess kitties.

The social worker had also come by that morning. She was a nice, middle-aged, plump lady with big hair and a heavy New Jersey accent in a large, floral-print dress. She was friendly and loud. Lucy didn’t say much. There wasn’t anything to say. Her dad was dead, grandma had died six years ago, and there were no close friends nearby and no other family at all. The social worker did ask her about an uncle, but Lucy didn’t have any uncles. It was strange. Lucy asked what was going to happen to her, or what happened to her mother’s body, but the social worker didn’t have any answers for her yet. She promised she would soon.

Since she was healthy enough they had disconnected her from the monitors and IV. The social worker recommended that it would be good for Lucy if she could get out of the room for a change and the doctor agreed, but she always had someone to babysit her. The current babysitter was a young, male orderly. The orderly was supposed to walk her down to the cafeteria for lunch, but right now he was chatting it up with the pretty receptionist, so she had to wait until he was finished.

He didn’t look like he was going to stop any time soon, so she hopped down from the information desk and walked idly across the lobby. She had always chafed under her mother’s restraints and rules but now this being constantly watched and tended and mollified was far worse. What she wouldn’t give to be in her own room under one of her mother’s time-outs. She walked over to the nearest window, a wall of plate glass stretching from floor to ceiling, the kind that all institutional lobbies seemed to have. She couldn’t see much of the swath of green along the riverfront because her own reflection was in the way. She took a moment to examine herself. She could see the horrid, pink and purple kitties and their big, googly eyes staring back at her, so she pulled the white bathrobe tighter around her. Once the gigantic eyeballs of the pink kittens weren’t staring back at her, she had time to look at her own face for the first time since the accident without distraction.

There was a butterfly bandage over her left eyebrow, but other than that, there were no obvious marks left by the accident. She touched it briefly, but then flinched when her finger barely grazed it. It still stung. She was sore and tired, but otherwise, she was fine. She was amazed that somehow she had managed to go through the wreck, be thrown from the car and still survive. How had she survived when her mother hadn’t? It didn’t make any sense. They had both been wearing their seat belts – mom always insisted – but somehow during the crash they had both been thrown from the car.

Then she thought of her mother’s body. Somewhere her mother’s broken body lay lifeless and no one knew where. Her body had been stolen, stolen by some common thief for spare parts. The thought nearly started her crying again, but then she bit her lip and found her resolve. Anger began to slowly replace sadness in Lucy’s heart. It just killed her that somewhere in some ugly back room, somebody, some monster, could be cutting her mom up to sell. She closed her eyes tightly and squeezed a few hot tears from her eyes. As she gripped her hands into tightly balled fists, she made an oath to herself that somehow, someway, she would find her mother’s body and she would avenge herself on the people that had taken her mother from her.

Suddenly, with her eyes closed and burning from salty tears, she saw a flash of a vision. She was somewhere dark, rumbling, like the trunk of a car, and then she was lifted out by someone large, gigantic even. It was dawn. He was carrying her towards a house. It was surrounded by a high stone wall, somewhere with overgrown trees, and in the center, a big brick house with a large porch and fancy columns. Then, the face from the water stain suddenly appeared before her.

Lucy’s eyes snapped open. She was breathing hard. She had been seeing a lot of strange things lately, even with her eyes open, but this was different. She was certain that the water-stain face, the woman with long, black hair and grey eyes, had just been her imagination, but the boy…the boy she had seen through the window last night…now she wasn’t so sure. She knew he was the same boy she had seen in the headlights, the boy with the yo-yo, the one who had caused the whole accident in the first place, but whether either of them were real, she just didn’t know anymore.

The doctors had told her that her head was fine; the CAT scan was clean, she didn’t even have a concussion, but she wasn’t sure she believed them. Maybe they had missed something and she was hallucinating. At that very moment, she just wasn’t certain about anything. Some moments she was convinced the boy was real, and the next moment…well…she had hoped
soooo
hard that the whole last day was a dream, that she just didn’t know what to believe anymore. She desperately wished more than anything that her mother was still here to tell her what to do, but if her mother was here, she wouldn’t need to, and everything would be fine, and she would never complain about spilled paint, or old musty houses or her mom dunking her fries in her chocolate shake ever again.

Lucy leaned forward and thumped her head on the large plate glass window. The split wound under the butterfly bandage stung a little, but it felt good against the cool glass, so she just kept leaning against the glass pathetically. She rolled her eyes to the side. The orderly was still yakking it up with the pretty receptionist. She was interested but not that interested. Unfortunately, she kept giving him just enough attention, so he wouldn’t give up. “Ugh,” thought Lucy, “I’m going to be here all day.” As she stared down at the simple, institutional hospital slippers she was wearing she was grateful the doctor hadn’t gotten her a matching set of googly-eyed princess kitten slippers.

Her eyes casually flitted back between the reception desk and the orderly’s endless crusade to get a date and her reflection in the window. Then something moved beyond her reflection. It was a boy, a boy in a striped shirt and shorts with a baseball cap. It wasn’t just any boy; it was
the
boy, the boy with the yo-yo. She looked to the orderly. He was still not giving up. She looked back through the window. She saw him again. He was still there. The boy was hiding in the bushes across the street in the green park space that lined the riverfront. She looked to the orderly and then back again. He was
still
there. She had not imagined it. Here he was in broad daylight! She leaned back and placed both hands on the window and looked intently, trying to see past the reflection of her own dumbstruck face. She couldn’t see him anymore, so she leaned forward, right against the window and cupped her hands around her eyes to shut out the reflection. The boy peeked his head above the bushes. He was still there! He was looking at her! Then his head disappeared behind the bushes. Uh, oh…he had seen her looking back!

All at once, the boy got up and started walking away quickly, a few steps on and the boy broke into a run. Figments of your imagination don’t run off – they just disappear. The boy was real! The boy she had seen last night and at the accident. He was real, and he was leaving. Lucy looked back at the orderly at the reception desk. If she bolted, he would eventually notice, but for the moment, he was doggedly clinging to false hopes. She hesitated and looked around. The automatic sliding doors to the lobby were to her right. She didn’t know what to do. Her eyes went from the reception desk to the doors and then back to the window. The boy was already gone. What to do?!

Just then, someone came into the lobby. The doors slid open. Lucy stood there bouncing on her toes, anxious, eyes darting back between the orderly and the open doors. They stood open for a moment, and then, just as the doors began to close, they helped Lucy make up her mind. She darted across the lobby and had to turn sideways to barely escape having them close on her.

She was outside. On the way out, she thought she had heard a woman yell, “Hey!” It sounded like the receptionist the orderly was chatting up, but she wasn’t sure. Either way, someone was bound to be after her soon so she had to hurry. She ran to the sidewalk’s edge and paused. She looked each way only for a second and then ran. There was a sound of honking horns and screeching tires. She ran with her head down, half crouched and her arms up around her ears. She didn’t stop ‘til she crashed into the bushes on the other side. She knew that if her mother had been there she would have thrown a fit for pulling a stunt like that, but Lucy was desperate; she had to find that boy.

She turned around and gasped. The cars were already moving again – it hadn’t been as close as she thought. But then she saw the blue scrubs of the orderly emerge from the sliding doors. The receptionist was right behind him. He was looking frantically left and right calling for her but hadn’t seen her yet. She stopped herself from screaming by slapping her hands over her mouth and turned and dove into the bushes. She had no idea what to do next. Think! Think! She started to tell herself. Where had the boy gone?! Left! She had seen him go left. She got up and ran to the left.

She paused and stopped momentarily when she got to an opening. There was a jogging path and some more trees and a large stone bridge crossing over to an island in the river. A few joggers and people out in the park gave her some odd looks, but there was no boy.

“Arrgh!” She stomped the ground and almost started crying again. Where was he?! Think, Lucy! Think! She looked around frantically. The park area was pretty narrow and open between the river and the street with trees openly spaced. There was nowhere to hide. Where had he gone?! Then she looked down towards the river where the bridge met the water’s edge. The bushes were thicker there. She instantly took off for the bushes. As she pushed her way past the dense branches, she came to a small, open patch concealed from view. She heard the orderly’s voice and the receptionist’s. She instinctively hunkered down and went silent.

She tried to control her panting breaths. The joggers and park-goers had seen her. If the orderly got this far, they would tell him where she had gone. She only had a few moments to find the boy before she would be caught. If the boy was here, he was hiding too. Maybe she could hear him. She tried to be as quiet as she could. She heard a twig snap behind her. She moved slowly in that direction. Something bolted out of the bushes behind her, but it was running away. Lucy jumped up and ran at an angle to cut it off. She came crashing out of the bushes and collided with something hard and the two tumbled to within feet of the water’s edge. Lucy’s head hurt, but she sprung back up and looked down. A boy in shorts and a striped shirt lay cowering in the mud in the fetal position. His baseball cap was lying on the ground beside him, knocked off by the force of the collision. He was covering his face with his hands. Lucy couldn’t see much more than one frantic eyeball, but in one hand he held a large, red, white and blue yo-yo. He
was
real.

“DON’T HURT ME!!” the boy screamed.

Lucy winced. His screaming would draw attention, and she needed enough time to get answers.

“Shut up!” she hoarsely whispered.

“DON’T HURT ME! OH, PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” the boy went on yelling.

Lucy crouched down, grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. “Hey…stop…listen to me…SHUT UP!!” she eventually yelled. The boy went quiet.

“I’m not going to hurt you!” Lucy went back to the hoarse whisper.

The boy panted; he was terrified. “Y-You…promise?”

“I promise.”

“Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye promise?” the quavering voice asked.

“Yes! I promise! OK?!” Lucy said a little too forcefully.

The eyeball hiding behind the hands moved frantically. It didn’t appear convinced of Lucy’s sincerity.