"Now,
Daddy, don't do anything rash," I said.
"Maxine…you
know who this is?" Daddy kept his eyes on Lydecker. Daddy's fifty-seven years
immediately changed to sixty-seven. Deep lines etched within his forehead.
"Yes…I
do," I glared at Daddy. "I know who he is and then some."
Daddy
and Lydecker stared at each other coolly.
"Well,"
Lydecker coughed. "I can see I'm not wanted here, Maxine. I can catch a bus
home."
"No,"
I grabbed his arm as he turned to leave. "Daddy…Colonel…I know I'm acting
childish and I feel embarrassed about this moment but I just assumed…"
"Well,
you know what they say," Daddy interrupted. "'Assume' makes an ass out of you
and me."
I
winced. That hurt.
"Either
way, we have a guest. Gina?"
Gina,
who had been studying her shoes, looked up. "Hmm?"
"Go
get Colonel Lydecker some coffee."
"No, that's okay," Lydecker insisted. "I just want to see what Maxine had in mind for us men."
"I was wondering that, too."
All
eyes were on me now, even Gina's. My heart fluttered like a caged butterfly.
"First,"
I said shakily. "I want to know how the two of you know each other."
"I
know this has to do with your mother in one way or another," Daddy muttered. He
turned around in his wheelchair and went into the living room. Gina, Lydecker
and I followed.
Once
we were all seated—Gina and I on a love seat and Lydecker on the couch and
Daddy across from Lydecker in his wheelchair—Daddy cleared his throat and threw
another hard glance at Lydecker.
"If
you must know, Maxine, Lydecker and I both knew your mother very well in one
way or another."
"Of
course you knew the girl very well, you married her even after that damn
virus," Lydecker blurted. "It's obvious you were smitten with each other the
last time we met."
"Virus?"
Gina and I exclaimed simultaneously.
"After
that was cleared up we were married," Daddy said. "I never forgave
Manticore after that. It made Max miserable."
"It
wasn't my fault. Blame that witch Renfro. Lucky she's dead or I would a killed
her myself."
"Whoa,
whoa, whoa," I stood up. "I'm here, too…someone want to fill me in? Daddy?"
"What?"
Daddy didn't take his steel blue eyes off of Lydecker.
"Can
you do me a teeny favor and tell me what the hell you are talking
about? Did you happen to skip a tiny detail and forget to tell
me about a virus?" I crossed my arms and glared at my father. Gina
grabbed one of my belt loops on my jeans and tugged me back down onto the love
seat on which we were sitting. I flopped down ungracefully but my cold stare
didn't break.
Daddy
exhaled a big puff of air and wheeled back and forth like a rocking chair.
"Damn it all to hell," he muttered. He ran his fingers though his hair, a poor
combing job. "I really didn't want to tell you this."
"You
were gonna have to sooner or later," I pointed out. "What if this virus catches
up to me or something?"
"That's
not possible," Lydecker assured. "It's been terminated and that's all there is
to it."
I
was taken aback. "I want to know everything," I emphasized harshly.
"Last time you left this part out."
"I
didn't think it was important at the time," Daddy snapped. "It was a painful
memory, Maxine."
"Every
thing you told me was a so-called 'painful memory'," I fired back. "What's so
different about now? For the love of God, I'm 16 and I have no mother and I
sure as hell want to know why."
"Maxine,"
hissed Gina softly in my ear. "Chill or you won't get anything."
I
put the back of my hand to my lip and bit down on the second joint of my index
finger just soft enough not to draw blood and stayed quiet. Lydecker cleared
his throat and began. Daddy didn't object.
"I was run out of Manticore by this…bleached blond bitch, Renfro. She murdered one of my kids, an X5 named Tinga. Needless to say I was out for revenge."
So
far it sounded like the beginning of a bad horror flick but I nodded.
"Your
mother, Max, made a few careless mistakes and was taken back to Manticore by
Renfro after her heart transplant. I trust you know about that?"
"Yes,"
I said softly. "Zack committed suicide."
"Yes,
well…Max was believed to be dead by everyone including your dad. Really, she
was just taken back without a word."
"I
watched her die," Daddy said softly. He had dropped his chin to his chest and
was sitting back in his wheelchair. He looked as if he was sleeping but he was
wide awake. "I thought I'd lost her forever." Daddy's sorrow from remembering
my mother this way shook him terribly.
"Your
dad had this…newscast called Eyes Only—"
"Television
hack," Daddy corrected. "It informed the state about what they knew little about.
Eyes Only revealed Manticore for what it really is. They disguised it as a VA
hospital. No one knew what it really was until I blew the cover."
"Anyway,"
Lydecker picked up again. "People were after me…trying to kill me. Several
people."
Daddy
muttered something under his breath.
"You
want to adlib here, Cale?" Lydecker sneered.
"No,
go ahead," Daddy growled.
"You
just to be a bigger man, Cale. Last time I saw ya you had regal snide. Stood
taller. What's the matter, huh?"
"You
gonna tell the damn story or play witty banter, Lydecker?"
"Ain't
my story to tell."
"Tell
it or not, I don't really care," Daddy waved his hand non-chalantly.
"When
was the last time you saw each other?" Gina asked. I nudged her. If I had to
stay quiet so did she.
"Back
in '20, I think," Daddy said. "You said you had something for me and then you
shot me."
"I
told you to duck, didn't I?" Lydecker practically chuckled. "Those legs you had
on weren't as swift as you thought, eh?"
"I
threw those out years ago. Piece-of-crap scrap metal."
"You…had
on other legs?" I was confused.
"Robotic
braces," explained Daddy. "An exoskeleton. I tossed them in a dump while you
were still an accident waiting to happen." He tugged my curls and laughed
lightly.
"You
were an Eyes Only informant?" Gina asked Lydecker.
"Something
along the lines of that."
"What
ever happened to Manticore?" I wondered out loud.
"It
burned to the ground, thanks to Renfro."
"Where
is Renfro now?" My mind was all ready planning to track her down.
"Dead.
She took a bullet for your mom."
My
hope deflated. "Any special reason?"
"Who
knows. She was a crazy ol' fossil. Better off dead anyway. I hope she's giving
Satan orders down in hell and he's wishing she was good enough for Heaven,
thinkin' maybe she was another punishment for him," Lydecker reached into his
pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He didn't open them, just held them
in his hand.
"About
the virus…what was it?"
"It
was a genetically targeted retrovirus" Daddy said. "They implanted it in Max to
get to me. Renfro knew I was gonna blow the lid off of Manticore and I was on
the hit-list along with Lydecker. We weren't allowed to touch—we couldn't
touch. Renfro knew Max was…involved with me. They were trying to destroy
me—kill me—through her."
"And
it was cured?"
"Of
course. They did find the cure. Your mom and I were married in '29 and…here you
are."
"Here
I am," I repeated. "Anything else I should know? My mother wasn't from another
planet or anything? No mental illnesses? Anything that should worry me?"
"Nope,"
Daddy assured me. "I believe we've told you everything. No more lies."
That
night, after Lydecker had caught a bus home on his insistence, Daddy, Gina and
I sat outside, listening to the crickets and the water lapping on the dock. We
were set to leave the next day and we were enjoying the sereneness of it all
before our return to the noisy Seattle streets. After about two hours, Gina got
cold and went inside, leaving me alone with Daddy.
"I'm
sorry if I upset you today," I said to him.
"Don't
worry," Daddy said. "You had a right to know. You were acting out. Only
natural." He motioned for me to come closer and I did, hugging him. He wrapped
his finger around one of my corkscrew curls and tugged gently, his common show
of affection. "I'm sure your mother is looking down from Heaven and smiling."
I
looked up at the stars…and one of them winked at me.
