Devil’s Waltz. By: Jonathan Kellerman

served in Korea, on the front. Made it to captain.

“Really,” I said.

“Uh-huh. Because of her I tried out the service, too. Boy, this is

really taking me back a few years.”

“You were in the army?”

She gave a half-smile, as if expecting my surprise. “Strange for a

girl, huh? It happened in my senior year in high school. The

recruiter came out on careers day and made it sound pretty

attractive-job training, scholarships. Aunt Harriet thought it would

be a good idea, too, so that clinched it.”

“How long were you in?”

“Just a few months.” Her hands worked her braid. A few months after I

arrived I got sick and had to be discharged early.”

“Sorry to hear that,” I said. “Must have been serious.”

She looked up. Blushing deeply. Yanking the braid.

“It was,” she said. “Influenza-real bad flu-that developed into

pneumonia. Acute viral pneumonia-there was a terrible epidemic in the

barracks. Lots of girls got sick. After I recovered, they said my

lungs might be weakened and they didn’t want me in anymore.” Shrug.

“So that was it. My famous military career.”

“Was it a big disappointment?”

“No, not really. Everything worked out for the best.” She looked

atCassie.

“Where were you stationed?”

“Fort Jackson. Down in South Carolina. It was one of the few places

they trained only women. It was the summer-you don’t think of

pneumonia in the summer, but a germ’s a germ, right?”

“True.”

“It was really humid. You could shower and feel dirty two seconds

later. I wasn’t used to it.”

“Did you grow up in California?”

“California native,” she said, waving an imaginary flag. “Ventura. My

family came out from Oklahoma originally. Gold Rush days. One of my

great-grandmothers was part Indian-according to my aunt, that’s where

the hair comes from.”

She hefted the braid, then dropped it.

“Course, it’s probably not true,” she said, smiling. “Everyone wants

to be Indian now. It’s kind of fashionable.” She looked at me:

“Delaware. With that name you could be part Indian too.”

“There’s a family myth that says so-one third of one

greatgreat-grandfather. I guess what I am is a mongrel-little bit of

everything.”

“Well, good for you. That makes you all-American, doesn’t it?”

“Guess so,” I said, smiling. “Was Chip ever in the service?”

“Chip?” The idea seemed to amuse her. “No.”

“How’d the two of you meet?”

At college. I did a year at WVCC, after R.T. school. Took Soc

One-oh-one and he was my teacher.”

Another look at Cassie. Still busy with the house. “Do you want to do

your techniques now?”

“It’s still a little soon,” I said. “I want her to really trust me.”

“Well. . .I think she does. She loves your drawings-we saved all the

ones she didn’t destroy.”

I smiled. “It’s still best to take it slow. And if she’s not having

any procedures, there’s no need to rush.”

“True,” she said. “For all that’s happening here, I guess we could go

home right now.”

“Do you want to?”

“I always want to. But what I really want is for her to get bette’:”

Cassie glanced over and Cindy lowered her voice to a whisper again:

“Those seizures really scared me, Dr. Delaware. It was like. . “She

shook her head.

“Like what?”

“Like something out of a movie. This is terrible to say, but it

reminded me of The Exorcist.” She shook her head. “I’m sure Dr. Eves

will get to the bottom of whatever’s going on, eventually. Right?

She said we should stay at least one more night, maybe two, for

observation. It’s probably for the best, anyway. Cassie’s always so

healthy here.”

Her eyes moistened.

“Once you do go home,” I said, “I’d like to come out and visit.”

“Oh, sure. . “Unasked questions flooded her face.

“In order to keep working on the rapport,” I said. “lfI can get Cassie

totally comfortable with me when she’s not having procedures, I’ll be

in a better position to help her when she does need me.”

“Sure. That makes sense. Thank you, that’s very kind. I didn’t know

doctors still made house calls.”

“Once in a while. We call them home visits now.”

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *