The Gingerbread Boy (17 page)

“Please, sit,” he said, gesturing toward the facing chair.

Joanne lowered into the chair, suddenly feeling anxious in the gloom. As if reading her thoughts, Joey switched on the lamp. Pleasant amber light filled the area, helping her to relax. Then Joey sat on the sofa, his knees cracking, and folded his hands together. His long bare feet looked like boat paddles against the sea-colored carpet. Joanne was taken aback at how cute Joey actually was. She had to snap out of it. She had to remember why she was here. For Catherine. The thought stirred her into action.

“I have to know where Daniel is, Joey,” she finally said, “Catherine needs him now more than she’s ever needed anyone in her life.”

Joey’s voice was soft, but firm. “What happened?”

Joanne shook her head. “She’s depressed because Daniel is missing. She spends half the day soaking in the bathtub like she’s trying to scald off the pain. That’s bad enough. Then, a few nights ago, her old boyfriend broke into the house and tried to kidnap her.”

Joey’s eyes rounded. He leaned forward, his stunned expression imploring for her to continue.

“It was the man you and Daniel beat up at Harper’s a while ago.”

A vein pulsed in his Joey’s forehead, but he remained silent.

“Cathy’s all right physically, she continued, “Somehow she locked the jerk in the basement, and that’s where the police found him. He’s in jail, now, but it was quite a trauma for her.”

Joey lowered his head, his huge hands balled into fists. “I’ll
pulverize
the guy.”

That’s not all,” Joanne said, leaning forward. “The next morning she got a phone call telling her that her best friend in Maryland had a stroke. They’re not sure if the old woman is going to make it. Catherine lost it after that. She’d been certain something weird was going on by the tone of Hazel’s letters, but she didn’t write back until it was too late. The guilt is killing her.” Joanne raised her arms, “all of this, and not even knowing if the guy she loves is alive or dead. She’s in shock, Joey. She can’t handle it, and I don’t know how to help her. Only Daniel can help her.” Joanne paused, looked straight into Joey’s bewildered eyes. “Joey for Catherine’s sake, tell me.
Where is Daniel
?”

Joey sat as motionless as a stone, as if trying to comprehend all he was hearing and make sense of it. At last he raised his hands to his face, and sagged back against the sofa. He gazed helplessly at the ceiling.

“I can’t say.”

Joanne jumped to her feet. “You have to! You’re his best friend!” She raised a fist at him. “Don’t lie to me, buddy!”

Joey seemed to shrink into the upholstery. His eyes glazed over, and his voice was trembling. “He took off in the van with his parrot several days ago to visit his mother. I talked to her on the phone and she said Daniel had some things to ‘take care of.’ If she knows where he is, she won’t tell me.”

Joanne became hysterical. “Did anyone notify the police? Can’t they hunt for that ugly old blue van of his?”

“They aren’t concerned. He’s not officially missing if his mom knows what’s going on, but still, the whole band is scared. We’ve had to cancel bookings and I’m running out of things to tell everyone.”

Joanne raised her hand to her mouth, tears glistening.

What was happening?
Why was Daniel so irresponsible all of a sudden? What in the world was going on with ol’ Robin Hood?

“Aren’t you furious with him?” Joanne cried. “How could he do something like this to Catherine — to
all
of you? How can you just sit there?”

Joey closed his eyes and put his face in his hands. “I want to be mad at him, but all I am is scared. You don’t understand Daniel like I do. If he’s running, he has good reason to run. I don’t think he’s that well, Joanne. And maybe it’s good Catherine finds that out before it’s too late.”

Joanne sat back hard, her eyes huge. “Just what do you mean by that?”

Suddenly Joey shook his head. “Nothing. I meant nothing. We should all just relax. Daniel will turn up and be fine, just wait and see.”

But from the look in Joey’s eyes, Joanne wasn’t at all sure that Daniel was fine.

Chapter Fifteen

Daniel sat mutely in the thick, nearly viscous silence of Dr. Nobel’s waiting room. He eyed the clock now and then as he glanced around the room at the other two patients. They, too, were solemn, in direct contrast with the sunny yellow walls and splashy paintings on the neurologist’s wall behind them.

He didn’t want to look at his hands.

He’d look at
anything
but those detestable hands.

Sometimes the weakness crept all of the way up his arms to his shoulders, and lately, he felt it more in his legs than ever before. What was
that
all about? It took a conscious effort to walk without dragging a foot; it took conscious effort to appear even remotely graceful anymore.

What was happening to him?

Losing his grip on the ring and falling into the river had been the final straw.

Talk about losing one’s grip!

In despair
,
Daniel buried his head in his hands. His hair spilled onto his wrists, and he felt like taking it and tugging it all out of his head. What was wrong with him? Why was this happening so fast all of a sudden especially now, when his life was so full of promise? His career had sky-rocketed in the last year. His band was hot. So hot, Joey said, that they had an offer to tour as an opening band for the popular group Lift later this spring. It was a break all the guys had dreamed of, and deserved. They were like Daniel’s family now, and he was proud of those musicians. They were as close to changing the image of secular rock’n’roll to something good and decent as they ever might be. The band wouldn’t let him down.

But would
he
let
them
down?

It all depended on these test results.

Daniel prayed his problems were only symptoms of over-exertion. That would be a treat right now. Yeah, he’d gladly accept a little dose of over-exertion here, a swallow of stress there. A pinch of pinched nerves would be a delight. Those problems were all treatable. They were what he longed to finally explain to Catherine.

Catherine.

How could he approach her, somehow explain the monsters lurking inside of him? The thought of disappointing her was unbearable. How was she accepting this unexplained disappearance? What could he have told her, or anyone, without lying? That he had the flu?

What did he have?

Sometimes you can’t hit the ground with your hat.

Daniel was more scared than he’d ever been in his life. It was even more frightening now that the tests were over.

The tests had been horrid.

Body scans. Needles poked in his arms and legs with electric currents shooting through them. Being wired to space age machines that took readings of muscle movements. Foreign words bounced across Daniel’s mind, rang mercilessly over and over like the sound track from an old record listened to from another room: Muscle fasciculation, fibrillations. And the worst of them all, the doctor’s unintentional slip of the possible condition Daniel had gleaned from all his own study… degenerative nerve disease. Degenerative nerve disease and the list of M-words that it could signify: muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis. Even motor neuron disease. A disease that usually struck in middle age.

Please, God, no, not motor neuron disease. Not Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was only twenty eight, nearing twenty nine. He’d like to make thirty.

From a seeming great distance, Daniel heard his name being called. He looked up to see a receptionist addressing him a few feet away, her smile limp.

Daniel stood, and steadied himself. He felt as if a stranger was standing in his shoes, and that he was seeing and sensing everything from that stranger’s eyes as he rose and followed her to Dr. Nobel’s office.

****

Daniel drove all one hundred and twenty miles home calmly, his blue and yellow childhood friend perched protectively on his shoulder.

It was dusk when he pulled into his driveway and turned off the ignition. He loped to the front door, unlocked it, and stepped into the dark, silent kitchen. He didn’t bother to turn on the light. He shut the door and leaned heavily back against it, releasing a long, quivering sigh.

Then the shaking began.

Still perched on his shoulder, Yoo-Hoo ruffled his long feathers from the unusual vibrations.

“You are an epitome.” He squawked.

Daniel managed a weak smile. “Of what?”

“Of charm and grace.”

“Of charm and grace,” Daniel whispered. His voice dropped as his throat closed.

Before long, tears were running down his cheeks. He felt his sanity take a deep shudder, and slide closer to an invisible abyss. Still leaning against the door, he sank slowly down until he was nothing but a dark form huddling alone in the gloom.

Of charm and grace?

Never again.

Chapter Sixteen

Catherine sucked in her breath and walked to the next station, her fingers clenched fiercely around her clipboard. She stopped to gaze down at a small organ half covered in a towel lying on the table. Her stomach did a slow turnover at the sight.

At least she recognized this one. A placenta. They rarely asked what the organ was in these lab practicals; it was assumed the student knew. The questions were more like, what species did it come from… what main nerve connects to it… what muscles is it surrounded by? These lab practical tests were grisly, and seemed
anything
but practical. Catherine felt a little nauseated before each one.

This time was the worst.

There had been at least twenty stations so far, ten more to go. At each, whatever organ, bone or muscle that lay there filled her with fear.
What if Daniel was missing because he’d been in some catastrophic car accident?
The sight of each lung, liver or heart created ghastly accident scenes in her mind…darkened roads slippery from gore…

Catherine squeezed her eyes shut. She had to get through this! She had to think of poor Hazel, and what it would mean to the old lady if she continued to do well on these wretched tests. Hazel believed in her, believed in her enough to give her thousands of dollars in tuition. She
must
do well. Hazel was going to awaken one day and ask for her, and Catherine would not disappoint her. Hazel would awaken from her coma, and things would be fine. Better than they had ever been. Her husband could no longer torment her, and she’d realize that she was free at last. Free to be who she wanted to be and not the eccentric old ‘witch-Hazel’ children thought she was. She’d be able to visit Catherine and learn Catherine finally believed her that her advice had been right all along… men
were
vipers! Cave Pig was going to rot in jail and Daniel, wherever he was, well, he could just rot, too!

The blaring of a buzzer jarred Catherine from her thoughts. Her minute and a half was over, and she hadn’t written one word.

“Move on.” She heard a voice say as the next student approached. Catherine gazed bleakly at her, then shuffled to the next table.
“Vipers,
nothing but vipers. They can’t be trusted, can’t be depended on,”
came Hazel’s voice in her mind.

“I’ve got to concentrate,” Catherine mumbled to herself. “I’ve got to get through this. It’ll be over for the year in less than two months. I’ve got to get back on track with my dreams. This is what Hazel’s money is for.”

Willing control, Catherine steadied herself before the next table. A partially covered sheep pancreas lay before her like an alien life form. The ridiculous thought made Catherine crack her first smile in days, maybe enough to get her through one more day. She tightened her grip on her pen and began to write.

****

It was a long, dismal walk to her house in a sickening rain , which chilled Catherine and plastered her hair against her head. Why she hadn’t driven today, or taken the bus, who could tell. MSU had one of the largest, most stretched out campuses in the country.

Soaked, trembling from the cold, and somehow fighting to keep the books tucked beneath her sweater away from the moisture, Catherine lowered her head and scurried on. Lab had been miserable enough. She hadn’t done well, she knew it. She’d have to try harder. Not let some stupid man get to her. She had no business even thinking of a relationship with one while in school! Had she been insane the last few months? Stark raving mad?

She would forget Daniel. She would think of things more in her best interest. Things which were in her control. Both Penny and Joanne had advised that and they were right. Maybe she’d known it all along.

Yes. That segment of her life was all behind her. She couldn’t care less if Daniel fell off a cliff. Not now. No way. Hazel would be thrilled to learn all of this when she recovered. Thrilled! And Catherine was thrilled too.

Catherine wrinkled her nose as she walked on, bicycles hissing by, staring down at the slippery gray sidewalk sliding beneath her soggy tennis shoes. A strange, earthily rank smell in the air bothered her. It was said the smell came from the worms. Hundreds of them, maybe thousands of the mindless slithering noodles inched across the concrete before her, forcing her to dodge them in disgust. They had repulsed her ever since she and Tony were little kids and used to play in the huge puddles in Mr. Collin’s muck field after a rain. The water seemed deep when you were only seven years old, well past your knees. Catherine used to think the slimy stuff she occasionally stepped on was just extra slippery mud mashing between her toes. In black water, one didn’t know the difference.

Then Tony took her toward a section of the enormous puddle where the dirt had settled, and pointed out dozens of string-like objects squirming helplessly in the mud beneath the water. To this day, Catherine wasn’t sure she actually had loathed the earthworms themselves, or just the fact that they were drowning.

Feeling even gloomier, Catherine hastened her pace past the library, around the seemingly lifeless and gray botanical gardens, praying the rain would drown out her thoughts as well as the surrounding campus.