THE LAST BOY (26 page)

“It's going to take us a little time to get to know each other again,” said Molly finally. A fly buzzed by and settled on her leg. She shooed it away.

Danny, chewing on a long stem of grass, was watching the white clouds scudding past. They reminded Molly of her dream. She thought about Evelyn and her insight. Somehow the woman had actually been right. Could she really have
seen
Danny gathering wood—or had it been just a lucky guess? She had predicted that Danny would return and, when he did, he would call her “Mother.” And Molly could still hear the woman intoning:“When he returns to you he will be different. Changed.”

Molly looked down at her boy. With a fingertip she traced the lines of his profile, so noble, so pure, so possessed of angelic comeliness. She ran her fingers through his hair, and saw him close his eyes in pleasure.

“Maybe things feel a little strange now,” she said. His eyes remained shut. “But I want you to know that I love you. And I always, always will love you. You’re my boy forever and ever.”

He reached up and innocently rested his hand on her breast. “And I love you, too.”

“But you’re not exactly the same little boy that I once knew.”

“I’ve grown up,” he said, quietly.

She kept combing his locks with her fingers. “Well, yes. And you’ve changed. A lot, it seems.”

“Yes, I have. But you’ve changed, too.”

She looked at him askance.“You think so?”

“Yes.” He opened his eyes and peered up at her seriously.

“How?”

“I don’t exactly know how. You’re just different, too—I think.”

“For better or worse?” asked Molly getting up on an elbow.

“Just different.”

“Because of Trip?”

He shrugged.“I dunno.”

Molly let time pass.“You know,” she said finally,“I want us to be together just like it was before. Close. The two of us. You remember?”

He looked at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read. He seemed to be observing, studying the nuances in her expression in a way that felt cognizant beyond his years.

“Unless we talk about what happened,” Molly went on. “I’m worried that there’ll be something between us, always separating us. You know what I mean?”

He didn’t answer—which was uncharacteristic of the impulsive Danny she had known, the boy who could never keep quiet, much less hold a secret.

“Is it that you’re afraid of talking about it?”

“No,” he said resolutely.“I’m not really afraid of anything.”

“No one hurt you, or scared you, or—”

“Of course not!” he said, jumping to his feet. “Come on, let's keep going. I want to see more things.”

Later, they wandered down the back side of the hill, curving around the base as they headed home. This time Danny remained close to her side. For the first time since coming home he seemed truly content and, despite his reticence, Molly could sense a touch of their old intimacy returning.

“What made you come back?” she ventured as they hit the low ground and neared the swamp.

“Oh, I wanted to…I missed you.” He looked up at her, smiling with his eyes, his whole face.

“And you’ll never know how much I missed you, Darling.” She tugged him close, squeezed him tight.

“I knew. That's why I didn’t just want to stay…”

She tried not to react.

“At first he didn’t want me to leave. He said I wasn’t ready. But…”

Molly forced herself to keep walking.“Oh?” She could feel her heart fluttering, and strained to keep her tone calm. “Ready for what?”

“Just not ready yet.” Danny tossed his head. “I needed to learn lots and lots of new things. He said that I had this job to do. And that he was now too old to do it.”

Molly's chest was so tight, she found it hard to breathe, much less force a smile. She had come to a halt, but had not realized it until now.“What kind of job?”

“That I needed to learn enough so I could go around and teach other people. And that's why I should stay with him—come on, let's keep going,” he tugged at her hand. “I want to see if there are any ducks or birds in the water.”

Molly stood rooted to the ground.“But you didn’t stay?”

“No. I could feel you were worried.”

“Oh, I was. I was.” Finally, she continued to walk. “Terribly worried.”

“But you didn’t have to be. I was fine. Really I was.”

The thudding in her chest slowed, though her fear seemed only intensified.“Did you like the old man?”

“Sure. Of course!” Danny's eyes twinkled.“And he told me that you had someone—someone you liked, too.” He stopped and looked up at her.

What he said caught her completely off guard, and it took her a moment to gather her wits.“Yes. I like Trip a lot, yeah. But he could never, ever take the place of my little boy.” She took his face between her hands and kissed his lips. She could feel that she was in danger of crying and bit down on the side of her tongue.

They continued on. The wind had suddenly picked up, and now it was whistling through the cattails. It blew Molly's hair into her face, and she pulled it back so she could see Danny clearly.“But he let you go?” she asked finally, almost afraid of his answer.

“Huh?” he asked distractedly.

“The old man. The Hermit. John. He let you go.”

“Oh, yes! In the end he even wanted me to go home for a visit.”

“Visit,” she echoed with a choked voice.“
Visit?
”

When he saw the mask of terror etched on her face, Danny became alarmed. Molly understood. He had said more than he was allowed to. She tried to stem her swelling panic.“What does ‘a visit’ mean?”

“I dunno,” he said and turned and ran ahead to the edge of the swamp. Kicking off his flip-flops, he waded into the mud.“There's a big mother frog in here!” he called out.

Shoes and all, she stepped right in after him.“You mean you’re supposed to go back?” she persisted, grabbing him roughly by the shoulder and turning him to face her.

He struggled to turn away. “But the frog—” he said.

“Talk to me!” she begged.

“Huh?”

“‘A visit,’” she persisted. “What does that mean?”

“Look,” he squirmed out of her grasp, “they’re tadpoles here, too. And they’ve got little legs.”

“Talk to me!” she demanded, catching his hand and jerking him tight.

“Owww!” he looked up at her.“You’re hurting me.”

“‘A visit!’” she whispered, her voice tremulous. Danny was back in the bathroom washing his hands for lunch.

Tripoli listened intently,

“I don’t know what the hell he's talking about. It's insane. He said that he had all these things he had to learn, then something about the job he had to do because the man was too old to do it.
Job?
”

When she finished there was a long silence.

“You still there?” she asked.

“Yes. Of course. I’m just trying to take it in.”

“It sounds like some cult got their hands on him. Trip, they’ve got him programmed.”

“They? Or is it him, the old man…Look, I want you to do two things. First, you’ve got to stop worrying.”

“That's easy for you to say.”

“As long as I’m on this Earth, Danny's not going anywhere you don’t want him to go.”

“How can you promise that?”

“We’re going to nail this fucker and that’ll be the end of it.”

“Oh, Trip, I wish I could believe that.”

“Second, keep Danny talking. Just listen. Whatever you do, don’t let him see you’re scared or he’ll clam up on you. Just get as much info as you can. The more you can glean, the more we’ve got to go on, the sooner we’ll have this guy locked up where he belongs. He's not going to be grabbing any more kids. You can count on that.”

“I’ll bet you’re hungry,” she said as he came out of the bathroom.

“Oh, I’m starved!” He hung out his tongue.“That melted cheese stuff we had yesterday I really liked.”

“Okay, but dry your hands.”

“I like them wet. They’re nice and cool then.” He waved them in the air.

“And you didn’t even wash your face,” she said inspecting him. “Come here,” she took him back to the mirror. “See this,” she pointed to the smudges on his cheeks.“And here. Now, go back and try again and I’ll make lunch.”

He came back a minute later, clean but dripping.

“You know we’re going to have to get you some new clothes,” she said slicing two bagels.

“But I
have
clothes.” He jumped up on a chair at the kitchen table and sat swinging his legs.

“I know, but they’re too small. And the only shoes you’ve got are flip-flops. We
need
to go shopping.”

“More cheese,” he said, watching as she laid on slices of Mozzarella.

“I’d like to take you up to the mall.”

“The mall?” Danny hopped off the chair and came over to the counter where he snatched a piece of cheese and popped it into his mouth.

“You know on Triphammer Road. Where all the stores are.”

“The stores,” he chewed thoughtfully. He didn’t seem to remember the mall.

“We’ll get you some nice new sneakers—the kind that are really bouncy. Maybe a new pair of
Nikes.
The ones with the wings.”

“The kind you can run fast in?”

“Very fast. Or even fly!”

“There's too much stuff in here,” said Danny as they wended their way through harshly lit aisles of the Ames Store stacked with discount clothes and boots and auto parts.“And it smells horrible!” His nose was twitching like a rabbit's.“And my head hurts. Bad.”

It was true. It did smell of plastics and synthetics, insecticides and bags of fertilizer with weed killer—though she had never really noticed it before.“Okay, Honey,” she said, taking his hand and hurrying him out of Ames. “We’ll go over to Sears. It's nicer there.”

Cutting through the throngs of people in Cafe Square, the smells of Chinese fast food and pizza and baking cookies mixing with the odor of newly manufactured goods, Danny's features were sagging and his shoulders were hunched forward as if he were being whipped. “Oh, the noise,” he said covering his ears as he was overwhelmed by the swirl of sound, the cacophony of echoing voices and footsteps, cash registers ringing, toys beeping, music spilling out from a dozen different sources. Molly realized that after his months in the woods,
bringing him here was a big mistake. But, having come this far, she was loathe to give up.“Can you hang on just a few more minutes?”

His eyes seemed to be swimming in his head, and he didn’t seem to hear her.

When she bent down and took him in her arms, Danny burrowed himself into her breasts, blocking out all the light and sound.

“Just tough it out a little longer, Sweetie, okay?

He nodded, his face pressed into her. “Yes,” he said, his voice muffled.

Molly looked up to discover that she was kneeling amidst a circle of people crowding in close; men, women, children smiling and pointing and craning their necks in curiosity.

“Mommy is that the boy who…?” asked a little girl.

“Danny! Hey, Danny!” called out an old man waving to get his attention.

“Excuse me. Please,” Molly said, plucked Danny up, and lugged him over to Sears, a few people still trailing behind, curious.

“Ugh,” she said, putting him down in the section with children's clothes.“You’ve got to walk now. You’re just getting too big for me.”

“I feel dizzy,” he murmured. He staggered and she wondered if he was maybe laying it on a little for her benefit.

“Look, how's this? And this one?” she asked, pulling short sleeve knits off the counters and holding them in front of him.“This’ll fit, I think. And this green is a nice color for you.”

Danny was swaying from side to side as if trying to keep his balance.

“What's the matter?”

“I dunno. Just dizzy. From the smells.”

“But it's better in here, isn’t it?” Molly hurried on, grabbing two pairs of jeans off the rack with hardly a second look. “We’re almost done. Please try to hang in there,” she said, rushing him over to the shoe department.

A salesman wandered by.“Excuse me,” she caught his attention, “could you help me. I need some sneakers for him. Do you have a pair of these in size…?”

Danny slumped down in one of the chairs, closing his eyes. His face was chalk white. He was salivating profusely, a thin line of drool creeping out of the corner of his mouth.

When the man finally came out with a box of sneakers, they looked to be a size too large but Molly took them anyhow. “Can I just pay for everything here. I’m in a hurry and—”

“Hey, isn’t he the boy who…? Danny right?”The man's face lit up.“And, wait! You must be Molly—”

“Please, my boy's not feeling well. Can you just ring up everything here and…”

He looked at Danny and saw that he really did look sick.“Yes. Of course!” he said.

Molly got a handful of bills out of her purse, paid, took the packages in one hand and Danny in the other.“Come on, this way,” she said, pulling him along.“This is the fast way out.” But, turning a corner, she found herself dead-ended in a maze of mowers and air conditioners, freezers and water softeners. Danny's knees began to cave in, and she scooped him up and rushed down the aisle, past the electronics section where a half-dozen stereos were going full blast, racks of TVs running on different channels, people playing with the computers.

Danny lay limp in her arms, his head lolling to one side. Her shoulders ached and her muscles cramped. “Come on, Angel, hold on a little, please,” she begged as she came full circle right back to the clothing department.

Molly finally found an exterior door. “Whew!” she said, bursting out into the brightness of daylight. Propping Danny up on top of a concrete abutment, she bent close to examine him.“You all right?”

Danny opened his eyes and smiled weakly. “I’m fine now,” he said softly, then turned his head and threw up, vomit gushing out explosively. It kept coming. And coming. Until all that remained was a slimy green bile.

“Oh, darling, oh darling,” she repeated, holding his head as he continued to retch.“I’m so sorry.”

When his spasms finally ceased, she found a tissue and wiped his mouth. His breathing was shallow and rapid and Molly suddenly hated herself for dragging him through the mall. His breathing began to slow and he took a series of deep breaths. “Better?” she asked nervously. Maybe he needed to see a doctor. She wondered if they had found anything in all those tests at the hospital that they hadn’t told her about? Blood diseases, parasites, her imagination began to run away. What the hell did he pick up in those goddamn woods? What did that old creep do to him?