Gina
lowered the baseball bat. "What the hell—"
"Christ,
Gina!" I gasped. My heart fluttered like a caged butterfly. "You scared me half
to death."
Gina
pinched my arm.
"Ouch!"
I cried and slapped her hand away.
"You
feel real," she said. Then she pinched her own arm and winced. "Okay, so this
isn't a dream." Gina held the bat like a cane and leaned on it. "So, what
brings you to my doorstep at—" She paused to look at her watch. "Four-twenty?
Screw this, good night!"
Gina
closed the door but I put my foot in the way. "Gina, please, help."
"I
can't believe I'm going to loose three hours worth of sleep…" Gina stepped back
and let me enter. "I know I'm your best friend, Maxine, and you're mine but
this is going too far."
"Do
you have any stomach settlers?"
"Umm,"
Gina scuffled to the kitchen, Norman the Jack Russell following her. "My mom
has some Tums here…"
"Good…I'll
take anything," I said, sitting on the couch.
She
tossed the bottle to me and I downed four of the little chewable pills before
Gina plopped down next to me.
"An
adult dosage is two, Maxine," she said, touching my arm.
"My
stomach hurts enough for two people," I grumbled. "I screwed up so bad, Gina."
She
reached into her robe pocket and pulled out a cherry Dumdum pop—her passion.
She sucked on it for a few seconds and said, "Are you pregnant?"
"What?
Hell, no! I wouldn't be here, I'd be out-of-state."
"I
doubt the rest of the country is in any better shape than Seattle, even though
it's been almost thirty years since the Pulse…so you're not pregnant?"
I
shook my head. "Daddy would freak, especially since my mother died having me.
He'd send me to a sanitarium."
"So
what's up?" she flipped her streaked blond hair away from her face and adjusted
her glasses. "What brings you to my humble abode four hours before I'm suppost
to be conscious?"
"Can
you keep a secret?"
"I'm
biting…"
"Do
you know anything about Manticore?"
Gina's
mouth fell open, the lollipop falling to the floor. Norman picked it up and ran
off. She didn't even try to stop him. "Manticore? Of course I know Manticore!
How do you know about it, Maxine? That place is creepy!"
"You've
been inside? Gina, tell me!" I grabbed onto her shoulders and shook her gently.
"Ouch,
stop it!"
"Gina,
please tell me!" I let go.
"Why
are you so in need of info about Manticore?"
"Because
my mother was Manticore property!" I blurted. "She had the barcode, the
military skills, the whole nine yards!"
"Manticore?
Property? No way!"
"Yeah,
way. My daddy's been hiding this from me until last night. I kinda went berserk
and smashed all the pictures of my mother."
"Wait
a minute…if your mother was in Manticore…people who are born in Manticore never
come out…are you trying to tell me that your mom was one of the escapees of
2009?"
"I
guess so."
"You
guess so? Deck's been tracking those sons-a-bitches down ever since!"
"Deck?"
"Hello,
sweetheart, are you in there?" Gina knocked on my head lightly. "Donald
Lyedecker? The messiah of Manticore?"
I
shrugged and shook my head, "Daddy didn't mention him. How do you know about
Manticore?"
"My
parents used to work for Deck before he shut it down."
"Shut
it down? Why?"
"None
of them were coming out right. They all had some sort of defects. X5's for
instance, had terrible seizures."
"My
mother was an X5."
"Whoo-ee,
this is so cool! My best friend is half X5! So that would make you X2.5,
right?"
"No
I'm not X anything. Wouldn't I have a barcode and super sight and stuff?"
"I
don't think barcodes are passed down, Maxine. Just traits. The barcodes are
tattooed on."
"So,
when did, ah, Deck was it?, shut Manticore down?"
"About
three years ago, after X15's had spontaneous human combustion."
"Do
you think it would be possible for me to find him?"
"After
what I've just heard, anything's possible."
"So…"
"So?"
"Can
I crash here or what?"
"Or
what," Gina mimicked. "C'mon. You can borrow Jedidiah's room or you can sleep
on my floor. I'd go for Jedidiah's room if I were you—my room is such a mess I
can't remember what color carpet I have."
Jedidiah
was Gina's 20-year-old brother who was at the convention in Portland with the
Drs. Robinson. He had aspects of becoming a neurosurgeon. Dr. Lillie Robinson
was a cardiologist and Dr. Charles Robinson was a radiologist.
"So,
were you born 'cause your mom was in heat?" Gina asked all of a sudden.
"Excuse
me?"
"Your
dad didn't tell you Manticore clones were twenty percent feline?"
"He
did, but 'in heat'?"
"Yeah.
All cats—mainly female—get hot sometimes. And when cats get hot, they get
all-ass horny."
"Aw,
jeez—over share! Didn't need to hear that!"
"I'm
just saying maybe you were just a fluke."
"Well,
I happen to know for a fact that my parents wanted kids and my mom was pregnant
twice before me but she miscarried. Then I was born and she died. I don't think
she was in heat, Gina."
"It
must really suck not knowing your mom, huh?"
"It
sucks not knowing my dad either," I grumbled. "I'm not going to school
tomorrow, Gina."
"Why
not?"
"I
need some time off. Just to think."
I woke
up around noon the next morning. At first I forgot where I was but as my head
cleared and saw the marks on my palms where I'd dug my fingernails in, the
whole terrible night came flooding back like a nightmare once forgotten. I'd
fallen asleep in my shirt and jeans the night before, too emotionally drained
and sore from all the slips on the ice I'd made yesterday to get into my
pajamas. I walked into the Robinsons' kitchen and found Gina sitting there,
scaring the crap out of me once again.
"You
have to stop doing that!" I hollered.
"Doing
what?" Gina yawned. "I stayed home from school so you wouldn't go nuts and
smash all the pictures of my mom."
"Not
funny, Gina."
"Coffee,
Maxine?"
"Yeah,
that'll work."
I poured
myself a cup of black coffee and sipped it. It woke me up quickly and helped me
focus a bit better. My hair felt damp and oily.
"Your
dad called this morning," Gina announced.
The mug
slipped out of my hand in surprise. "He what?"
"Great,
now look what you did," Gina looked down at the shattered mug. "That was Mom's
favorite."
"I'll
clean it up," I promised. "I'll pay for the mug. When did Daddy call and what
did he say?"
"He
called around eight this morning. He said, 'Gina, have you seen Maxine?' and I
said, 'No, Mr. Cale, who do you ask?' and he says, 'She wasn't in her room when
I went to go wake her up and I've already tried her godmother and she hasn't
seen her.' So I go, 'I'm sorry, Mr. Cale. If I see her I'll tell her to call
you' and he said, 'Thank you, Gina' and hung up."
"That's
it?"
"What
did you want me to say, Maxine? 'Oh, yeah, she's sleeping in my brother's room
because she destroyed her mom's pictures and is ashamed to come home."
"It
wasn't just the pictures."
"Oh? You
dug up her grave, too? Knocked down her tombstone and jumped up and down on it?
Trampled the tulips your godmother plants there? What? What?"
"You
remember that motorcycle I showed you? I told you it was my dad's before he
ended up in the wheelchair when he was thirty?"
"The
Ninja?"
"Yeah…well,
it wasn't my dad's…it was my mother's. I smashed it, too."
"Really?
With what?"
"A
hammer."
"You
go!"
"Stop
it, it's not cool. That was my dad's shrine or something."
"I never
knew you had the guts to do something like that. I never knew you had the guts
to do anything, actually."
"Gina,
I'm in such deep crap. I know Daddy never yells, but once he figures out that I
was the one who ruined the pictures I'm afraid that all that anger he's had
bottled up inside for all these years about my mother's death is just gonna
explode and take it out on me."
"I don't
think he'd do that, Maxine. You know, if he didn't love you as much as he did,
he'd have a real job."
"What's
that suppost to mean?" I asked angrily.
"Okay,
that came out wrong didn't it? What I mean is, your dad works from the house,
right?"
"Right."
"Well,
my parents are gone a lot. They neglect me. Look around you, Maxine! If this
were your house, your dad would be over at the stove there making breakfast,
Mozart would be pouring out the stereo and we'd be dressed. But no. My parents
favor Jedidiah and so neglect me by: staying at work late, going places without
me, and leaving a house totally empty of food!" Gina stood up and opened the
refrigerator to emphasize her point. I peered inside and saw a carton of milk,
four eggs, a loaf of bread, a jar of pickles and a package of 6 hotdogs. It was
a meager supply, but I didn't think the Drs. Robinson would purposely neglect
Gina. "Maxine, your dad is always home. He's there when you wake up and he's
there when you come home from school. You don't know what you have."
She was
right. I didn't.
Around
four P.M. I was struck with a sinus headache. I told Gina, who was watching
television and reading a magazine at the same time, that if anyone called I
wasn't here and I was going to lay down.
"No
one's called all day, Maxine," she said. "Don't worry."
My head
hit the pillow and I fell into a deep sleep. I dreamt about my mother again.
She was sitting under the cherry tree and I was up in a branch.
"What's
heaven like?" I asked.
My
mother stayed silent, but smiled wide and climbed up to sit by me on the
branch. We sat in silence for a few seconds.
"Mom?
What's heaven like? Are angels singing and are clouds made from marshmallows?"
I heard
a cracking sound. The branch was giving out! The limb tore from the tree and we
were falling…falling…falling…
I woke
up quickly. It was dark outside now. My watch said eight PM. I yawned and
stretched and went to go find Gina. I found her standing in front of the open
refrigerator.
"For
some reason, I don't feel like having hot dogs for dinner," she said when she
saw me.
"Me,
neither."
"You
know, my mom left me a hundred bucks in case I needed any extra cash. Want to
go out to eat?"
I didn't
really, but I nodded anyway.
"Great.
Let's go get fabulized. You can borrow my clothes."
I pulled
on a pair of bell-bottomed jeans and a red baby T-shirt with an ornate white
butterfly on it while Gina put on her black denim jeans and a maroon V-necked
T-shirt. She asked me to French braid her hair and I did.
"Where
are we going?" I asked as I slipped my feet into a pair of Gina's white
high-tops.
"Heck if
I know," Gina tied up her black tennis shoes. "I just want to get out of here."
We put
on our sweatshirts and stepped out. The air was cold and we decided to walk up
and down the street for a few minutes. After about half an hour we decided to
eat at a pizza place where most of the kids from school went. After chowing
down a whole medium pie, we both felt a little sick.
"I
haven't eaten in two days," Gina sighed. "That felt good."
"Yeah, I
haven't eaten since I heard Daddy talking about my mom."
"You
were really hung up on that weren't you?"
"I was,"
I admitted. "But not anymore."
"Are you
sure?"
"No."
"I knew
it," Gina took a napkin and dipped it in her glass of water. Then she took off
her glasses and wiped them with the napkin and dried them on her shirt. "You
wanna start heading back now?"
"Sure."
We took
the long way home, talking the entire way.
"I
wonder if my mother had parents?" I said out loud.
"Maybe,
in a distant galaxy," Gina said. "She had to have a mother."
"Would
it be possible to find her?"
"Nope.
Stuff like that was never released. But you know what?"
"No,
what?"
"Lyedecker's
still alive."
When we
got to Gina's building, my heart skipped a beat when I saw the cars in the
parking lot: Daddy's Aztec, the Drs. Robinsons' Toyota and Jedidiah Robinson's
Jeep.
"Uh-oh,"
Gina read my mind.
We ran
up the stairs and breathlessly stumbled into the penthouse.
"Gina!"
Lillie and Charles Robinson exclaimed the same time Daddy went, "Maxine!" The
three of them hurried over to hug us close.
One of
the two cops crossed his arms and said, "Are these the missing children,
ma'am?"
"Yes
officer," Lillie Robinson said. "Thank you for coming so quickly."
After
the cops left, the Robinsons' gave Gina a lecture about lying to Daddy and
leaving without a note and explained the rest of the convention was cancelled
on account of snow. Daddy just held me and whispered in my ear,
"I'm
sorry, Maxine…I'm so sorry."
