Blood Test by Kellerman, Jonathan

by the Laminar Airflow room. But the woman had

been worrying out loud about a far more serious

rupture, one’ that threatened to rend the family as

irreparably as a guillotine on neck-flesh.:

Perhaps she’d known, then, that the wound was

too deep to heal. But she and her husband had

attempted to patch it anyway. To prevent the leakage

of the ugly secret by taking the child and running…

“They snuck him out behind my back,” Nona was

saying, squeeziv4g my hand, digging in with the

green nails. The anger was percolating within her

once again. A thin film of sweat mustached the

rich, wide mouth. “Like fucking thieves. She ‘dressed

up as an x-ray technician. In a mask and gown they

swiped from the laundry bin. Took him down to

the basement on a service elevator and out a side

exit. Th/eves.

‘-‘I came back to the .motel and all three ‘of them

were there. My baly was lying on the bed, so small

and helpless. They were packing and jo king about

getting away with it so easy.. How nobody had recognized

her behind the mask because none of them

had ever looked her in the eye. Putting down the

hospital. Him going on about smog and shit. Trying

to justify what. they’d done.”

She’d given me an opening. It was time to renew

my pitch. To convince her to come with me peaceably

as I carried her son out of there.

But before I could say anything the door burst

open.

24

Douc CARMICHAEL crouched in the doorway like a

commando in a martial arts movie. The arm.that ·

extended into the room held a rifle. The other hefted

a double-edged axe as if it were balsa. He wore a

black mesh tank top that exposed lots of hypertrophied

muscle. His legs were thick and corded, carpeted

with curly blond hair and encased in tight

white swim trunks. His knees were misshapen and

lumpy-surfer’s knots. Rubber beach sand, s cushioned

large rough feel The reddish-blond beard was

neatly cropped, the thick layered hair precisely

blow-dried.

Only the eyes had changed from the day I’d met

him. That afternoon in Venice they’d been the. color

of a cloudless sky. Now I looked into a pair of

bottomless black holes: dilated pupils surrounded

by thin rings of ice. Mad eyes that scanned the

trailer, shifting from the Southern Comfort bottle to

the drowsy girl to me.

307

“I ought to kill you right now for giving hr that

poison.”

“I didn’t. She took it herself.”

“Shut up!”

Nona tried to straighten up. She swayed groggily.

Garmichael pointed the rifle at me.

“Sit down on the floor. Up against the wall, with

– your hands under you. Good. Now stay put or I’ll

have to hurt you.”

To Nona: “C’mere, Sis.”

She went to his sideand leaned against his bulk.

One massive arm went around her protectively.

The one with the axe.

“Did he hurt you, babe?”

She looked at me, knew she was my jury, considered

her answer, ands, hook her head woozily.

“Naw, he’s been okay. Just talking. Wants to take..

‘Woody to the hospital.”

“I’ll bet he does,” sneered GarmichaeL “That’s

the party line. Pour more poison in and rake in the

bucks.”

She looked up at him.

“I dunno, Doug, the fever’s no better.”

“Did you give him the C ?”

“Yeah, just like you said.”

“What about the apple?”

“He wouldn’t eat it. Been too sleepy.”

“Try again. If he doesn’t like the apple there are

pears and plums, too. And oranges.” He tilted his

head at the shopping bags on the counter. “That

stuff is super fresh. Just picked, totally organic.

Get some fruit and fluid down him along with more

C and he’ll cool off.”

“The boy’s in danger,” I said. “He needs more

than vitamins.”

BLOOD TEST 309

“I said shut up! You want me to finish you off

right here ?”

“I don’t think he means any harm,” said the girl,

meell-y.

Carmichael smiled at her with genuine warmth

and just a touch of condescension.

“You go back in there with the little guy, Sis.

Work on nutrition?’

She’started to say something but Carmichael

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