Royal Pains : Sick Rich (9781101559536) (15 page)

“He's always banging and bruising himself,” Rochelle continued. “That's why his knees and back and elbows hurt all the time.”

Patrick rolled his eyes again. “See what I'm saying? She worries about everything.”

Rochelle looked at me. “The boy's had growing pains his whole life. Of course, he won't complain about it. I have to ask, but half the time he won't tell me. I remember once he sprained his shoulder really bad playing football and didn't tell me about it for a week.” She glared at her son. “Fact is, he didn't tell me at all. His coach did.”

“That's because you'd make a big deal out of it and I wouldn't get to play.”

“Hank?” Divya said. She nodded toward the front of the booth.

I turned to see a woman helping a middle-aged man. He had his arm draped over her shoulders and his gait was unsteady.

Patrick jumped off the exam table. “Dude, looks like you better lay down here.”

I agreed with Patrick and helped the man onto the table.

“What happened?”

“He's overheated. He's been out there running around like a fool. I told him he was too old to chase the kids.”

“I might've overdone it a bit,” the man said.

I gave him a quick examination and found that other than dehydration he was fine. I started an IV and began pumping him full of fluids.

Patrick watched everything, his eyes getting even bigger. “That's so cool,” he said.

“Maybe you'll be a doctor someday,” I said.

“If I'm not an NFL quarterback I just might.”

Lack of confidence wasn't one of Patrick's faults.

Chapter 18

Evan was in full schmooze mode. After spending twenty minutes in the massage chair and telling Niki and Lisa he would return later for another session, he made the circuit. He visited most of the booths that circled the track, asking if anyone needed anything and thanking them for signing up. The only problem he encountered was one booth where the power had died. He called Jill and she sent her volunteer electrician by. The problem was a disconnected cable two booths over. A reconnection and a duct tape wrap corrected it.

Evan soon reached Rachel Fleming's booth. The back flaps of the booth were open, revealing two brightly painted vans parked just behind. Rachel stood next to a blue one with oversized wheels and an attached Jet Ski trailer, talking with a family of four. Mom, dad, two sons in the twelve-year-old range. She saw Evan and nodded, holding up a finger to tell him she'd be there in a minute.

It was more like ten, but after the family left Rachel walked back into the booth.

“How's business?” Evan asked.

“Amazing. I nailed down two orders today and a dozen appointments for next week.” She brushed a wayward strand of hair from her face. “I'm glad you talked me into this.”

“Do you have time for coffee. Or ice cream?”

“No. I'm here by myself the rest of the day. Rain check?”

“Tomorrow. An ice cream date.”

“You're on.”

“Cool.”

Evan left and completed his circuit, ending up at Good Vibrations. Still busy. Two of the chairs were occupied by giggling teenage girls. One blonde, one brunette, both wearing cutoff jeans and halter tops.

“Looks like they're having fun,” Evan said to Niki.

“They're ripped,” Lisa said.

Evan looked at them again, now noticing that their eyes were a little glazed. The brunette said something to the blonde that Evan couldn't make out and they both burst into laughter.

“See what I mean? Stoned and headed toward stupid.”

Evan walked over. “How are you young ladies doing?”

“Peachy,” the blonde said. More laughter.

“More like strawberry,” the brunette replied. Even more laughter.

“You look stoned.”

“You think?” the blonde said.

“No, we're not,” the brunette said. “We're baked. Totally.”

“Totally,” the blonde agreed.

“Time's up,” Niki said.

“Dude, we're just getting relaxed,” the brunette said.

Niki helped her out of the chair. She staggered, bumping into Evan. He caught her.

“Whoa. Easy,” Evan said.

“See how relaxed I am?”

“Not the word I would use,” Niki said.

“Come on, Katy,” the blonde said. “Let's go somewhere fun.”

“Want to have some fun?” Evan said. “I know a cool place.”

“Who are you?”

“Evan.”

She propped one hand on her hip. “I'm Gloria. This is Katy.” She eyed Evan up and down. “You look like a cool dude.”

Katy was now upright. “So where's this fun place?”

“Just down the row here. My brother's booth. You need to see it.”

“Cool, dude. Let's go.”

Jonathan Wiggins, true to his word, returned with four cases of his mineral water. As Divya and I were opening the boxes, Danielle and Angela showed up. Danielle wore tight black athletic shorts and a white T-shirt with what appeared to be a red surfboard on the front. Hard to be sure with her sling strap partially covering it. Angela wore a blue dress and a broad straw hat. She maneuvered her walker like a pro.

“You're getting good with that,” I said.

“Not much choice. I'll be glad when I can get rid of it.”

“Patience.”

“You sound like those rehab thugs.”

Danielle laughed. “They came by this morning. Apparently they kicked up her program to the next level.”

“The next level? They nearly killed me.”

“I doubt it,” I said. “They simply want to get you back to your old self.”

“Don't talk about my age.” She gave me one of her sly grins.

I dragged the chair from behind the desk. “Here. Sit down.”

Once Angela settled in the chair, I offered her and Danielle mineral water. They each chose raspberry.

“I thought it would be good to get Grandma out and about, so we decided to come by and see how the fair is going,” Danielle said.

“Busy,” I said.

“Looks like it. The parking lot is nearly full. I had to let Grandma out and then go find a spot. Way in the back.”

“How's your shoulder feeling?”

She moved it back and forth. “Better. It's a lot less stiff and sore.”

“Let me take a look.”

“Sure.”

I tested her range of motion and palpated over her AC joint. More mobile and less tender. “It's getting there.”

“I think I'll make the meet.”

“I never doubted it,” I said.

“Me either,” Angela added.

“You can probably dump the sling tomorrow or the next day. If you're careful and don't overdo it.”

“Thank goodness. I'm tired of being one-armed.”

I heard giggles and turned to see Evan with two young girls. High schoolers. Hair disheveled. Eyes glazed. Pupils dilated. What had Evan gotten into now?

“Is this your brother?” one of the girls asked.

“Yes,” Evan said. “This is Hank.” He indicated the two girls. “This is Katy and Gloria. They're sisters.” He then introduced Divya, Angela, and Danielle.

Danielle gave Evan a look. One that said: “What's this all about?”

“I thought Katy and Gloria should meet you,” Evan said to me. “See the new van. That kind of thing.”

My brother. Mr. Sneaky.

The fact that these two young ladies were on something was obvious. Even to Evan. And to his credit he had tricked them into coming to the booth. I suspected that telling them they needed help would have run them off, but dragging them down here with a carrot rather than a stick worked.

“You don't look like brothers,” Gloria said.

“Maybe one of you was adopted,” Katy said.

Both girls burst into laughter.

Gloria's eyes widened and she looked at me. “Wouldn't that be like so gnarly? Finding out you were adopted?”

“Neither of us was adopted,” I said. “And we really are brothers, though sometimes I ask myself why.”

That brought more laughter from the girls.

Katy's eyes seemed to finally land on Danielle. She hesitated a beat, and then her hand went to her mouth. “Get out of here. Are you who I think you are?”

“Depends,” Danielle said. “Who do you think I am?”

Katy elbowed Gloria. “Are you believing this, dude?”

“Believing what?” Gloria still didn't have a clue.

“Danielle Delaney.”

Gloria looked around. “Where?”

Katy pointed to Danielle. “Right there.”

Gloria seemed to focus on Danielle for a minute. “Are you sure? Why would she be here?”

“Everybody has to be somewhere,” Danielle said. “Here is as good a place as any.”

“This is so like totally cool,” Gloria said.

“Totally,” Katy echoed.

“Will you sign something for me?” Gloria asked. She looked around and then at herself. She held her right arm out. “Maybe my arm.”

Danielle laughed. “I think we can do better than that.”

The two girls stared at her, waiting. Or maybe they hadn't understood. Hard to tell which.

“Give me your addresses, and I'll send each of you a signed photo.”

The girls laughed, Katy jumping up and down. “That would be radically awesome.”

“Speaking of radically awesome,” I said, “what have you girls taken today?”

“Who said we took anything?” Gloria said. She glanced at her sister and again they both giggled.

“I didn't say that,” Katy said.

“Me either,” Gloria agreed.

More laughter.

I stared at them, waiting. Finally the giggling died.

“Okay, okay,” Katy said. “It's no biggie. We took some magic pills.” She laughed. “Way magic.”

“How old are you?” I asked.

“Seventeen,” Katy said. “My sister is sixteen.”

“What did you take?”

“I told you,” Katy said. “Magic pink pills.”

There was that feeling I hate again. The one where the hair on your neck snaps to attention and a cold feeling slides down your spine.

“What kind of pink pills?” I asked.

Katy looked at me as if I was crazy. “Little round pink pills, dude.”

I smiled. “I meant what was in them?”

“I don't know.”

“We didn't do well in chemistry class,” Gloria said.

“Like totally bad,” Katy agreed.

They both laughed hysterically.

“Didn't do a
CSI
analysis either,” Gloria said.

“We just took them,” Katy said.

“Just like that?” I asked. “Someone gives you a pill and you swallow it?”

They stared at me as if I was from another planet.

“Well, duh,” Katy said. “That's what you do with pills.”

“And they didn't give them to us,” Gloria said. “We had to like buy them. Five bucks each.”

“They who?”

They stared at me, and then Katy said, “They what?”

“They. The people you bought the pills from.”

“Oh. This cool couple.”

The hair on my neck stiffened a bit more. “Where'd you see them?”

“In the parking lot.”

“When?”

“Dude, what's with all the questions?” Katy asked.

“If you want some, we can hook you up,” Gloria added.

“With this couple?”

“True story,” Katy said. She staggered a step, caught herself, and laughed.

Divya handed each of them a bottle of mineral water. “This might help.”

Katy held up the bottle and stared at the pinkish liquid inside. “This is so neat. Look at the color.” She twisted off the cap. No easy task for her, but she managed. She took a gulp. “Whoa. This is rich.”

Gloria took a sip of hers. “Way rich, dude.” Then she giggled. “Maybe we could make this stuff into pills?”

“Radical,” Katy said. “We could call it Raspberry Quick.”

“Raspberry Quick?” I asked.

Katy looked at me. “Yeah. The ones we took were Strawberry Quick. Raspberry ones would be like the ultimate.”

“Not only make you feel good, but they're good for you,” Gloria said.

“How so?” I asked.

Gloria gave me a quizzical look. I was now officially from another planet. “Dude? Are you serious? Strawberry? Fruit group? The food pyramid?”

At first I thought she was joking. Or maybe I hoped she was. But the seriousness on her face revealed that she wasn't.

“Somehow I don't think this is what they had in mind when they developed the food groups.”

“Maybe they should have,” Katy said.

“True story,” added Gloria.

“Tell me about this couple,” I said. “The ones that sold you the Strawberry Quick.”

“What about them?” Gloria asked.

“Do you know their names?”

Gloria shook her head, but Katy said, “Pete something. And her name was . . . I can't remember.”

I glanced at Divya and then back to the girls. “Erin?”

“Yeah. I think that's right.” Katy now focused on me. “Do you know them?”

“No. What did they look like?”

“She's cool,” Gloria said. “Skinny and hot. I wish I was that skinny.”

“And she always has the coolest jeans,” Katy added.

“She has long hair,” Gloria said. “Dark. Nearly to her waist.”

“The dude's hair is long, too,” Katy said. “He has like this totally stoked ponytail.”

“That sounds like the couple we saw at the beach,” Danielle said.

“It does,” Evan agreed.

“What couple?” I asked.

Evan told the story of the three stoned boys who had harassed him at the beach. “I saw them a little later talking to a couple that sounds like these two. It looked like they bought something from them.”

“The beach?” Katy said. “That's probably them. We hook up with them there sometimes.”

“And I saw them again yesterday,” Evan said. “Also at the beach. But they sped off before I could get their license plate number.”

Probably a good thing. I'm not sure Evan should get involved with this.

“Is the doctor here?”

I looked up. A woman stood at the entrance to the tent, her hand firmly clamped on the upper arm of a young girl.

“I'm Dr. Lawson,” I said.

“Can you take a look at my daughter?”

“What's the matter?”

“This.” She extended a plastic baggie toward me. It held two pink pills.

“That's them,” Katy said. “They're so much fun.”

I suppose I should have been shocked by Katy's openness. As if taking illegal drugs was no big deal. As if it was almost expected. A big difference from when I was in school. Back then those things were hidden and denied. A little water could mask the theft of alcohol from a parent's liquor cabinet. Beer drinking and marijuana smoking took place in private.

That's all changed.

As Principal Hyatt told me, the students now sit in their cars in the school parking lot and get stoned. They come to class intoxicated. They don't seem to respect or fear any type of authority. Like Katy and Gloria. They seemed oblivious to the fact that what they had done was illegal. Not to mention dangerous.

The woman glared at Katy and then looked back to me. “She's acting weird. Out of it. And I found these in her purse.”

“Where you had no right to look.”

See what I mean?

“You're fifteen, young lady,” the woman said, giving her daughter a shake. “You don't get to make the rules yet.”