2005
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
CHAPTER FIVE – Attention to Detail –
"From the moment you first call upon us until well after services are completed,
we pay attention to every detail. It must be right. "
After changing back into their street clothes, Xelloss and Valgaav regrouped in the parking lot with the others, Zelgadiss found Vurumagen to turn in his resignation. Although he had changed clothes like the other two in the men's room, he didn't have to hide on the way out. It didn't matter if anyone recognized him any more. In fact, it was probably just as well if Eris did. She could report back that he dutifully showed up to quit his job.
"This is my formal notice. I'm sorry, but there was an unfortunate change of plans," Zelgadiss explained.
Vurumagen seemed to be taking it well. His usual flat expressionless face took on a definite glow of rapture.
"Ah, sir?" Zelgadiss stretched out his arm further and dropped the disregarded paper on the man's desk. He was growing more uncomfortable by the minute. "Well, I'll be going, then, if there's nothing for me to sign or anything."
"Promise you'll come back," Vurumagen said, rising from his chair and approaching Zelgadiss.
"I'd like to, but for now it's out of the question." Zelgadiss started to leave, but was held back by the other man's strong grip to his shoulder.
"Beautiful..." Vurumagen whispered as he pulled Zel closer and looked deeply into his face. "I can do so much better."
"What?" Not only was Zel greatly discomfited, he was utterly confused.
"Your make-up, honey. Very amateurish. But if you'd like, I could teach you all the tricks of the trade."
Oh, that. Zel regretted rushing his changing task and forgetting the girlish face he still bore. Zelgadiss also knew the man 'fixed up' the corpses for viewing– Xelloss had told him so. But he read all the intentional meaning into the man's words, and he wanted no part of his offer. "No, thanks. Ah, I have to go...now!" And he bolted out of the office in a blur of beige jeans and white t-shirt.
Xel took Zelgadiss directly to his home first. "We'll miss you, but don't worry, we'll hook up somehow. We have our ways."
Zelgadiss smiled weakly, "I wish. Well, thanks for the lift," and hopped out, trooping up the walk to his grandfather's house like a man to the gallows, which was closer to the truth than he would have liked to have thought.
The next day Zelgadiss rode to Zanaffar Pharmaceuticals with his grandfather, who was one of their founding research scientists, certainly their preeminent one. Zelgadiss was a combination janitor, message boy, and servant to the lab elite. He hated it. The job was smelly, dirty, demanding, and required an ugly grey work uniform; it was, in fact, a job like the one he had at the mortuary, but without the dead bodies and friendly banter. He had to wear his hair tied back and stuffed down his coveralls shirt, too. Without working at it, he could come up with a long list of 'things to hate about this job', but what topped it was the poignant: no friendly camaraderie. No friends.
He worked without a break until lunch, at which point he found a solitary spot in the cafeteria and picked at his meal. He was a social being. He needed friends and conversation, but here he was very much alone. The elites generally went out for lunch, and the 'peons' crammed into the basement cafeteria at the stroke of 12:00 noon. Within seconds he was sandwiched in between low-level technicians and office staff, but he was still alone. No friendly faces to be found.
He couldn't stand the noise, so he jumped up, tossed out his remaining food, and left the room. He had no idea where he was headed until he found the central patio exit. He pushed out the door to an over-hanging balcony and looked down at the tables and chairs heating up in the afternoon sun. Maybe he'd try eating out there the next day. Gloom pressed upon his heart. No, maybe he'd just escape it all and jump. Who was he kidding? He was too faint-of-heart to do any such thing.
"Hey!"
Zelgadiss started at the unwelcome voice behind him, "Huh?"
"You work in Dr. Rezo's lab?"
"Yes."
"Take this to him. NOW! It's urgent. He's been waiting for this information all morning!"
Zelgadiss wanted to tell the other man that it wasn't his fault the folder wasn't available earlier. He just worked there. But he didn't have the nerve to snot off to a superior (it was a good guess that the man was his superior, everyone was), so instead he took the document. "Fine, where is he now?"
"Lab 9, sub-basement level."
"That's restricted," Zel pointed to his ID badge which gave him no such authority.
"Oh, f! I don't want to have to do this now. I have this appointment at the racquetball court. Listen, here's the pass code, mine. Use it on the touch-pad entry lock to get in, then just give Dr. Rezo the folder. He'll be so happy to see this he won't question who it is that's giving it to him."
Zelgadiss reluctantly took the document, and asked, "And if he does?"
"Tell him Dilgear sent you."
"Dilgear. You're Dilgear?"
"Yeah, thanksmanyou'rethebest," Dilgear said in a rush of words, and then took off.
"Yeah, that's me," Zelgadiss sighed.
He hadn't been in the restricted area before. This was where the top secret formulas were concocted, he knew. Keying in the code gained him instant access to the laboratory. He wondered what he should call the man; 'grandfather' didn't sound very professional. He settled on, "Dr. Rezo?"
There was no answer. He carried the file into the empty room, empty of people but lined with filing cabinets. He could see that it was more of a large hall with a door at the far end plastered with WARNING signs. Above the door were three lights: green (lit up), yellow, and red. Green was good.
He knocked at the door and waited. Footsteps could be heard from the other side of the room and then the door opened. "What is it? This had better be important."
"You requested this file," Zelgadiss told his grandfather.
"Oh, yes. Good. Good. Who are you?" Rezo focused on his face. "Zelgadiss, what are you doing here?"
Zelgadiss watched his grandfather's face change colors. From the word "important" his face was washed in green from the light above the door. But around the time he had said the word "file", the color was golden, and by the repeat of "good", his grandfather's face was unquestionably red.
And mad. No, not mad exactly. Alarmed.
"Get out! OUT! NOW!"
Zelgadiss felt a force on his chest, which at the time he thought was his grandfather's hand pushing him backwards out the door. He tried to say something. Rezo was yelling, but he couldn't hear over the wail of sirens. The flash of red and sirens– those were the last impressions passing through Zelgadiss' mind before the explosion blew them apart.
Several days later, Xel, Lina, Amelia, and Valgaav were visiting Zelgadiss in the hospital. He was wrapped head-to-toe in gauze. Lina was explaining as best she could what had happened in the laboratory. "The investigations team believes that a powder on the file you delivered, or in it, set off a chemical reaction with stuff in the air from whatever your grandfather was working on."
"Problem is..." Xel began.
"Come over closer, Mr. Xelloss. Remember, he can't hear us very well," Amelia said.
He slid off is windowsill perch and stood by the bed, near Lina. "Problem is, no one knows where the mystery compound came from. The authorities blamed it on you at first."
"You mean...Rezo did." Zel blinked and with an effort forced past his still-raw throat a few more words, "I didn't know."
"Course not," Valgaav said. "You may have had dust in your hair from cleaning. Or it may have gotten there from someplace else before you even handled it."
"That's right. It's all conjecture on their part anyway. They haven't even a clue what set off the reaction. The lab is such a wreck that they still can't trace the residue. They may never know." Lina looked deeply into her friend's eyes then looked away, grief-stricken by the despair he had revealed.
"Oh, Mr. Zelgadiss don't worry about anything except getting better," Amelia said. "They won't let us stay long today, but we'll come tomorrow and the next day and the next...every day until you are all well and ready to go home!"
"Not...going back."
Xel and Valgaav exchanged glances, but remained silent.
"Okay, then we'll find a place for you. You just do everything the nurses and doctors tell you to do and we'll take care of the rest, right everyone?" Amelia asked the others in the room.
"Right," Lina agreed, although she didn't know how her poor friend was going to get past the next few painful weeks, days, hours. "You know about your grandfather, right?"
Zel looked at her sharply, and then shook his head, "No."
Amelia drew in her breath quickly, "Lina, maybe we should wait."
But it was too late; Zelgadiss was clearly agitated and wanting to be informed, so Valgaav went on. "We don't know much. He was admitted to the hospital the same time you were, and he's not here now, which means he's alive, anyway."
Zelgadiss nodded. Rezo hadn't passed through the Rubyeye Funeral Home and Mortuary was what he meant.
"He must have been hurt, or he'd be here visiting you. You might wanna let Eris in the next time she comes," Lina said. "She probably wants to pass on information from him."
Zelgadiss closed his eyes, shutting out the world. The explosion had damaged his hearing, his skin burned and itched interchangeably, and he ached all over. He couldn't move or eat. His grandfather blamed him for blowing up the lab and hadn't visited him yet, wouldn't visit him. The man didn't care. His parents didn't even care. They all just thought he was a worthless kid and now they'd been proved right. It would have been better had he died. Now he'd cost them all their life savings and retirement to save his wretched life. And what was under the bandages?
When he opened his eyes the room was empty. It was dark outside and the TV was on, sound off, or on, didn't matter. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes, soaking into his wrappings. What has happened to me? What is hidden under the bandages? He wanted to die. He suddenly wanted a pad of paper and pen to write his will, and so he buzzed a nurse.
Xel opened his door to find to his delight and surprise that Lina was waiting on his doorstep. "Hello! Why, Lina, how nice. Come in."
"Before you get any ideas, I'm here to talk about Zelgadiss," she began. "But I wouldn't turn down a soda. You still have cookies?"
Ideas were forming faster than dead skin cells, but ideas were all Xelloss had up to that point. "I'll get you something, but the cookies are gone."
"You've been checking in on him, right?"
Xel poured her a glass of orange juice and set a slice of pound cake at her place at the table. Her delicate-looking little fingers grabbed the cake before he could offer her a fork. He decided he would have to be quicker next time.
"Valgaav and I take turns daily. I saw him yesterday; he's there now and ought to be back in a few minutes for dinner then we're off to work for the night."
"He's depressed. I've never known him to be that way. I don't know what to say any more. I feel like just slapping him, but of course I wouldn't," she added quickly.
"Of course. I think he sees an uncertain future ahead of him and he's concerned about his appearance. The wrappings are coming off permanently some time this week and that's his primary focus. But I see resolving his living conditions to be the most urgent. Valgaav and I would like to offer him an alternative to returning to his grandfather's home, a place here with us."
"That sounds great, Xel. Perfect, if he'd accept. You know, Luna and I grew up with Nahga and Amelia. We were runaways and Phil took us both in. So the point is I know that there are times when a 'home' offers no home life. I'll go with you to convince him, if you go with me to gather his stuff and face Rezo and Eris."
"Deal," Xel smiled. He reached down and petted a long-legged black tomcat that nudged him hungrily.
He opened a cabinet, chose two cans from a stack of dozens, and began opening the cat food. Two turns of the opener, and two additional tails appeared from out of nowhere.
"Are they multiplying?" Lina asked. She recognized the fat tabby, but not the small grey female or large tom.
"So it seems. Valgaav has a soft spot. He collects strays, fattens them up, gets them vet checkups, and finds them homes. These are the latest. It would ruin the tough-guy persona that he cultivates if word got out about him. "
"Tough guy? He doesn't seem so tough to me. Quiet, maybe."
"Sensitive, too, but don't tell him I told you that either."
As Xel set out three bowls of fishy-smelling food, Valgaav stepped into the kitchen, "Don't tell me what?"
"Don't tell you how pretty you look in a dress," Xelloss said.
Valgaav reached across the table and punched his cousin, muttering something unsavory under his breath. Lina joined in with a shove of her own. "You're in my space. Move it! So, you just saw Zelly in the hospital?" Lina asked.
The boys sobered instantly and sat down. "Yeah. Doctor's taking off the gauze tomorrow morning. Almost did it while I was there, but they were still monitoring a recent climb in his temperature. Infection problems. Gotta tell ya, his hair's..." but Valgaav reached down for an armload of grey cat.
"I hope your about to say 'okay' 'cause his hair is his pride and joy," Lina said.
Valgaav shook his head, "I was there when they were checking a few spots for healing and it was around the back of his head. What I saw was stiff and silvery."
"His hair turned grey like an old man?"
Valgaav passed Lina the grey cat and nabbed up the heavy, black tom, "White maybe. From where I was the light wasn't good, but it wasn't dark, or long."
Lina shook her head, "Hope it grows back okay. This won't help his attitude." She met Xel's eyes. "Better make that offer to move in here before the wrappings come off. Hey, is that cat getting fatter?"
"I'm afraid she has," Xel smoothed the tabby's fur. "Vet says she's about to drop a litter any day."
"Holy...catnip! What do you have to so for that?"
Valgaav chuckled, "Make her a box with some towels and put it where the other cats can't get to it and hope she chooses to give birth in it." He moved to the sink to refill a water dish. "We woulda asked him to move in earlier, but I was waiting for word from my dad."
"Xel, you said he left a message?"
"Yeah, it's fine with him."
"Your dad, Gaav, doesn't live here much," Lina observed.
"No. He's got a lady-friend these days."
Lina sat looking at her empty glass, scratching the contented cat's head. "I don't think Filia's gone to see Zelgadiss but once, and that time was with Amelia. He's sick about losing her. He knows she won't like him if he comes out looking like a freak. She's very caught up on his, like, movie-star appearance. She wants to date a Seyruun golden boy. You know, she can only look past his Japanese heritage because he doesn't look obviously Asian. If he is scarred, she'll drop him like a rock."
"Then I guess it's up to the rest of us to work some magic to make rocks float," Xel said. "Because there is no way he's going to avoid chemical burns. I read his chart."
The doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," Valgaav said. He opened the door to find Amelia's sunny face peering up at him.
"Hi, Mr. Valgaav! I have great news!"
"I could use some. Come on in."
Amelia was bubbling over with excitement. "I got you jobs!"
"What?"
Xel and Lina joined them in the front room.
"Well, not jobs, but almost jobs...what's the word...auditions! At the Little Theater downtown where a new play's being cast. They want fresh blood and you two would be perfect. Here," she handed over a pair of scripts, "The cover paper has the details. Just be prepared to deliver those lines Saturday. Oooh, a kitty!" Amelia squealed in delight as the little gray female begged for attention.
"Yeah, she likes you," Valgaav said with a measure of tenderness Lina hadn't figured him for.
Her eyebrows rose as she registered its possible significance, and then the doorbell rang again.
"When did this place get so popular? I'll get it."
Xelloss watched his cousin lurch off to open the door, and then pulled Lina back into the kitchen with a touch and a tilt of his head. "Just you," he whispered.
"I'll be back in a sec, Amelia." Once in the kitchen she folded her arms, "Yeah?"
"You noticed." Xel didn't say what, but they both seemed to know that they were talking about Valgaav and Amelia. "How do you feel about it?"
She shrugged and returned to her seat at the kitchen table. "He's only a couple years older, but like a decade ahead of her experience-wise. She talks about him a lot, but then she talks about you, too, and it's not as if she's in love or anything, I don't think. She's all for 'causes' these days, so it's hard for me to tell the difference. He say anything to you?"
Xel smiled and shook his head, "You kidding? He wouldn't say anything to me until he had a ring on her finger. He's not the 'sharing' type, which is why I asked you. See, he doesn't get close to others. He's ordinarily unsociable. I know, he seems pretty average to you, but that was my point. He's been more outgoing since we met you guys."
"That right? Must be our beauty and charm."
"Possiblyit works for me." Xel tried looking into Lina's eyes, but she was averting them purposely. "He went to Atlas City to escape life at home. I was sent there to 'watch over' my cousin and take classes, naturally."
"That's where you guys met my sister and Nahga?"
Xelloss did not want to talk about his past love-life with Lina's older sister. "It wouldn't be in my best interest to answer that question."
Lina jumped up and leaped across the table in order to wrestle Xelloss into a head lock. "Think again, buster."
He nearly told her that 'it was a secret,' but decided that he'd have to face Lina with the truth someday. He might as well get it out of the way now and for good. So, it was with some reluctance that Xelloss admitted, "He and Nahga were only a convenience thing."
"Huh? What does that mean?" She tightened her grip.
"It made a foursome including Luna," Xel explained simply.
"A foursome? Who with...? You dated my sister? You were that guy?"
"I don't know; was he a good guy or a bad guy?" He was looking at Lina with a bemused smile.
"Too good to be true, and too bad to be real," was Lina's enigmatic reply, but she released Xel. "If Luna knew I was sitting in your house with you, she would kill me."
Xelloss let out the breath he had been holding. "We were mismatched, that's for sure. We were on opposite sides of every argument and every cause and I always got the higher grade in every class..."
"And you flirted with every other girl in the university and dumped her for someone thinner, prettier, and richer. 'Course she should have figured you'd be that way since she got you on the rebound from a dorm-mate, whom you left when you got her pregnant."
"Luna told you that! I can't believe she thought that about me. Sure, I broke up with...that girl, but it wasn't my baby. I'm pretty sure. She hurt me and I left her. Luna, well, she didn't strike me as the kind that would cheat on me, and she wasn't and didn't. I liked your sister fine, Lina, but we just didn't get along, and that's the truth."
"I know. I did some checking up on you guys on my own. You got your faults, but what you just told me was pretty much what I knew. Luna won't hear me out, but then she never has listened to me so that's no surprise."
"Then why did you say...?"
Lina cut him off, "Just testing you. If I really believed you were all that bad, I wouldn't be here. On the other hand, if I thought you were perfect, I wouldn't be here either. No one can be more perfect than me, ya know." Lina gave him a cute-as-a-button smile, which made him laugh.
The flow of further conversation was staunched by the soul-absorbent cry of Martina arriving in the house.
"So, you read it, right? I certainly have given you both more than enough time to read it. So, what do you think? It will make a great movie. What about those action sequences? Pretty exciting, right? I worked really hard on those. I stayed up all night reading about guns and ammo types and how the aiming thing works. I think it made it more realistic, don't you? Okay, so maybe the love scenes could be pumped up a little bit, but hey, it was my first attempt at lemony-type stuff and it's kind of icky to write about other people rolling around in bed. I mean, it's one thing to do it yourself, not that I do anything like that that much, I mean, I get plenty of opportunities but I don't want to spread myself too thin, if you get my meaning, so I was writing from my imagination mostly, but I have a great imagination that way because I've read a whole bunch of romance novels, the kinds you see at the grocery store with the pretty flowery covers and the hot guys. Wow, where do you think they find guys like them to pose for pictures, huh? I mean, you don't see guys like that everyday. Oh, but you're really cute, you know? Did you notice my hair?"
Valgaav noticed her new hair color the moment he opened the door. "Umm...yeah."
"I dyed it mint green to match yours!" she cried out.
That was the noise which brought Lina and Xel's conversation to a halt. Poor Amelia was speechless throughout the entire monologue.
It was a warm summer night, but not inside the cadaver keep where Valgaav and Xel were finishing up another embalming assignment.
"We could sure use more help if they're going to leave so much for us to finish up, at least they should replace Zelgadiss," Valgaav complained as he finished stitching the lips shut. He started smoothing wax into the crease.
"And he had such a nice touch with the hair," Xel added with his flair for whimsy. "But they won't. I told them not to."
"Not to what?"
"Not to fill Zelgadiss' position. I want him back. He's family and we need to stick together."
"Fine by me, you know that, but there's something else, isn't there?"
"You think so? Well, well, you knowthat it hasgot to be a secret then." Xelloss smiled briefly then frowned, "Gods, what a mess this one was. Don't you just hate the bullet-to-the-brain suicides? Without embalming, most remains become un-viewable within a short time, sure, but with these... What are these people thinking when they shove a gun in their mouth? Do they imagine they'll have perfect control and the bullet will make a clean hole in the top of their heads? They certainly aren't considering the feelings of the ones-they-leave-behind and how they might not wish to view the newly departed with only half a face intact. Not one of those pictures that we are accustomed to seeing. There, that is the best we can do. I dare Vurumagen to say that this is not the finest modeling job he's ever seen."
Valgaav leaned over, scrutinizing his cousin's reconstruction work. "Nice wax nose. You got a steadier hand than I do inserting those eyelashes."
"You're not just saying that because you hate removing the nose hair? Thanks, but you know I got a lot of practice that time I shaved off half that guy's moustache and I had to replace it one hair at a time."
Valgaav replaced the sheet and rolled the cadaver back into cold storage. "That was one helluva long night." He turned to Xel and said, "I can't help thinking of Zelgadiss and tomorrow."
"He must be terrified."
"And alone," Valgaav reminded him.
"But you warned him."
"Yeah, I called and told him 'bout his hair, what I saw and what you read on his charts after Lina and Amelia left." Valgaav shook his head. "It was what I would want a friend to do for me."
Xel sighed, "Sun's nearly up. Want to grab something to eat then just head over to the hospital?"
"Yeah, home to shower first."
"No kidding!" Xel agreed.
They were greeted at the door to their home by the large tomcat and the smaller gray cat.
"Hungry? Yeah, yeah..." Valgaav grumbled at them on the way to the kitchen to feed his charges. "Where's your tabby bud, hm?"
"Val-ly!" Xel hurried in from his own bedroom. "My room, hurry!"
Valgaav followed dutifully, and then chuckled, "Shit, Xel... You know it's gonna be a bad day when your cat abandons the nice box you prepared for her and has her kittens in your dresser drawer!"
Xel leaned on the wall; arms folded over his chest a look of disgust on his face. "That was my underwear in there. Why MY underwear? The socks were nearly new."
"Better yours than mine," Valgaav said with a smirk. "You don't wear underwear."
"You really shouldn't know that about me, cousin. Besides, I do wear socks! What am I going to do now?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to have my shower."
End Graveyard Shift, Chapter 5