After I had my run-in with an antipersonnel mine in Narn, they told my
family I couldn’t possibly live. But I did. So they told me I couldn’t
possibly regain enough muscle control of my damaged face to speak
without impairment. But I did. Hell, they had a whole list of things
that were impossible-but none of them turned out to be. And I didn’t
have your husband’s advantage-this genetic business.”
“If you can call it an advantage,” she said, remembering the hideous
notched ridge of bone on Eric’s forehead, the nascent horns, the inhuman
eyes, the fierce hands.
“I should arrange other accommodations for you.”
“No,” she said quickly. “This is where Benny’s expecting to find me.
If I’m not here-” “Don’t sweat it, kid. He’ll find you through me.”
“No. If he shows up, I want to be here.”
“But-” “I want to be here,” she insisted sharply, determined not to be
talked into another course of action. “As soon as he gets here, I want
to.. .1 have to.. . see him. I have to see him.”
Whitney Gavis studied her for a moment. He had a discomfitingly intense
gaze. Finally he said, “God, you really love him, don’t you?”
Yes,” she said tremulously.
“I mean really love him.
“Yes,” she repeated, trying to prevent her voice from cracking with
emotion. “And I’m worried about him..
so very worried.”
“He’ll be all right. He’s a survivor.”
“If anything happens to him-” “Nothing will,” Whitney said. “But I
guess there’s not much danger in you staying here tonight, at least.
Even if your husband… even if Eric gets to Vegas, it sounds as if he’s
going to have to stay out of sight and make a slow and careful journey
of it. Probably won’t arrive for a few days-” “If ever.”
“-so we can wait until tomorrow to find another place for you. You can
stay here and wait for Benny tonight.
And he’ll come. I know he will, Rachael.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. Not trusting herself to speak, she merely
nodded.
With the good gr’ace not to remark upon her tears and the good sense not
to try to comfort her, Whitney pushed himself up from the kitchen table
and said, “Yes, well, all right, then! If you’re going to spend even
one night in this dump, we’ve got to make the place more comfortable.
For one thing, although there may be towels and some sheets in the linen
closet, they’re probably dusty, mildewed or even crawling with disease.
So what I’ll do is, I’ll go buy a set of sheets, towels… and how about
some food?”
“I’m starved,” she said. “I only had an Egg McMuffin early this morning
and a couple of candy bars later, but I’ve burned all that off half a
dozen times over. I made a quick stop in Baker, but that was after my
encounter with Eric, and I didn’t have much appetite. Just picked up a
sixpack of diet soda cause I was feeling so dehydrated.”
“I’ll bring back some grub, too. You want to give me a dinner order, or
do you trust me?”
She stood up and wearily pushed a pale and trembling hand through her
hair. “I’ll eat almost anything except turnips and squid.”
He smiled. “Lucky for you, this is Vegas. Any other town, the only
store open at this hour would be the turnip and squid emporium. But
hardly anything in Vegas ever closes. You want to come with me?”
“I shouldn’t be showing my face.”
He nodded. “You’re right. Well, I ought to be back in an hour. You be
okay here?”
“Really,” she said, “I’m safer here than anywhere else I’ve been since
yesterday morning.”
In the velvety blackness of room 15, Eric crawled aimlessly across the
floor, first one way and then another, twitching, kicking spasmodically,
hitching and shuddering and squirming like a broken-backed cockroach.
“Rachael..
He heard himself speak that word and only that word, each time with a
different intonation, as if it constituted his entire vocabulary.
Although his voice was thick as mud, those two syllables were always
clear. Sometimes he knew what the word meant, remembered who she was,