Bitter Waters (37 page)

“You might want to keep him in there.” Ukiah clung to the side of the boat, panting, and scanned the water for Socket and the other baby.

“Ukiah!” Sam shouted from the bridge. “This thing has fishing radar!”

“So?”

“It's picking up a damn big fish, over there.” She pointed out a featureless section of river. “About ten feet down and sinking.”

Ukiah dove back into the water. The big engines of the tugboat still throbbed near at hand, pulsing through the river water, masking all other input. Ukiah bumped something, caught it, and knew he had hold of the child. By the time he brought it to the surface, he knew it was alive.

“Sam!”

Immediately, Sam had the boat beside him. As he climbed up to hand over the baby, Ukiah noticed that they were drifting toward the dam, slowly, inevitably. They were already past the warning signs anchored in the river and nearly to the Highland Park Bridge, which was deep in the restricted area deemed too dangerous to trouble.

He saw Socket then, floating like the dead in the water as the current took her downriver. “Sam, over there!”

Sam deftly maneuvered the big boat up beside Socket and
Ukiah pulled her out of the river. She had been shot in the back, high on her shoulder, and was unconscious from a blow to the head, but alive. Ukiah wrapped her in a blanket as Sam steered the boat away from the dam. Kittanning was still locked in the cage, whimpering for Ukiah.

“I have my hands full with the other two,” Max explained guiltily. “But we need Kittanning as a baby, now. Before the police show up. We're not going to be able to produce him out of thin air later, without explanation.”

“I'll work on it.” Ukiah carried the cage into the cabin, shut the cabin door, and let Kittanning out of the cage. Kittanning tumbled into his arms, a squirming bundle of wet fur. “Come on, Kitt! You've got to go back to being human.”

Kittanning resisted wordlessly, a flood of memories of being helpless, immobile, tied down even by the most loving of hands, dependent on those who didn't have time for him, left him behind for days and days. With spite disproportional to his body, Kittanning projected the weeks of utter loneliness, forever to an infant, while Ukiah was gone.

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry,” Ukiah crooned. “But remember, we were together. We were happy.” And he pulled from his own memory standing in Kittanning's bedroom while the aurora borealis danced in the window. “You can go back to this and only remember what you want to remember.”

Kittanning countered with the knowledge that they were together now, on his terms.

Ukiah brought up the memory of his mothers' kitchen, all together as a family. But there was contention there. Mom Lara distracted by the return to work and a resentful Cally. Kittanning had picked up on the subtle tensions. Ukiah scrambled forward. “And there's Max.”

Kittanning had inherited Ukiah's love of Max, and then built on it as Max showered his new godson with affection. Max, though, had gone away and left him, just like Ukiah had.

“Please, Kittanning,” Ukiah whispered, searching forward and found the moment of pure contentment. “Give us a chance for this.”

In that moment, Kittanning lay in Indigo's arms while
Ukiah held them both close. It had felt so right, a family, father, mother, and son.

Mommy!
Kittanning wailed, the chord striking deep resonance, deep to a once shared pining for the mother lost and unknown, for Kicking Deer. Ukiah now had memories of a true mother, but Kittanning didn't. Indigo was the mother of his heart, despite all of Mom Lara's care, and it cried now for her.
Mommy!

Go back to being a baby, and we'll be a family.

Mommy!
And the canine whine slowly turned into a human baby cry.

Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Saturday, September 18, 2004

Mercy Hospital was built overlooking downtown Pittsburgh in 1847 by seven Sisters of Mercy nuns from Scotland. Ironically, Rennie had been six at the time, and still a human, and Magic Boy, living Ukiah's first childhood, was well into his fifties but stuck at the age of twelve. A hundred and fifty-three years later, Rennie looked like he was nearing his thirties, and Ukiah could finally call himself a man. The ancient nun sitting at the information desk, however, looked like she had been there since the hospital was built.

“I'm looking for Max Bennett.” Ukiah spelled out “Bennett” for her. “He was admitted to emergency last night with a gunshot wound.”

She eyed Rennie in his biking leathers carrying sleeping Kittanning in his car seat carrier. “I'm sorry, but . . .” She pointed a trembling, arthritic finger at Rennie. Ukiah flinched, knowing that they looked wrong together; he seemed too young to be a father, and Rennie too rough to own the well-cared-for child. Kittanning, though, had been refusing to let Ukiah out of his senses since last night, and Ukiah had complied, not wanting to give his son any reason to go back to being a puppy. Ukiah steeled himself for a series of difficult questions, perhaps even a demand to see some proof that Kittanning was his.

She finished, though, with, “Children under fourteen aren't allowed beyond the lobby. He'll have to stay here.”

Ukiah blinked, and behind him Rennie snorted at his surprise.

“He's still sleeping. Go on up. I'll let you know when he wakes.”

“That's okay, my dad will stay with my son.”

She shook her head, and turned to the computer terminal murmuring, “God have patience with children of today.” She tapped at the keyboard with infinite slowness, and it was a full two minutes later that she found Max's room number and told it to him.

Ukiah thanked her, nodded to Rennie, and went in search of Max.

 

The river rescue teams had chosen Max and Socket, as the most seriously wounded, to be flown via the Lifeflight helicopter to Mercy Hospital. Max groused about it since it meant that neither Ukiah nor Sam could come with him, nor follow directly behind in the Hummer. Between the lack of ambulances to go around, and Sam's prodding, Max had finally given in.

Ukiah had missed the full discussion and Max's departure because he'd been busy keeping custody of Kittanning. They had packed a complete supply of baby stuff in with the guns and rescue gear. While the other babies had been dried, diapered, and wrapped in blankets, they were still so traumatized that they were whisked off to Children's Hospital. Luckily, after guzzling down two cans of formula, Kittanning was extremely healthy-looking by the time the paramedics arrived. He proved that his lungs were none the worse for his dunking when the EMT tried to examine him, and quieted instantly for Indigo as she entered the fray.

In the end, they released Kittanning on Ukiah's promise to take his son to Mercy Hospital for a thorough examination. By then, Sam had returned the
Endeavor
to its regular boat slip and made arrangements for the final paperwork to be delivered to the offices, making sure that they had a receipt of the hundred and fifty thousand paid out in cash. Indigo sent
them on their way before someone of higher authority could arrive to outvote her.

Max's room was on the fourth floor, with a view of the Monongahela River valley, the top of Mount Washington, and the hills rolling away for miles. Max had the bed levered up to a sitting position and was gazing out the window. An IV dripped fluid down a clear line into his arm.

Ukiah tapped on the door and walked in. “Hi.”

“Hey, kid.” Max lifted his hand in greeting, and Ukiah clasped it tight.

“You look horrible.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“What did they say about your leg?”

“The bullet didn't hit an artery, which we knew, or the femur. They called me damn stupid for getting shot and rolling around in the mud so much afterward. Considering how much pain I was in at the time, they're lucky you kept my Desert Eagle.”

“And?”

“I'll be here a couple of days, and then they'll let me out with a cane, and orders to stay off my feet for six weeks.”

“It should have been me that got shot.”

Max made a raspberry at that. “Oh, you would have hurt for a shorter period of time, but you wouldn't have hurt less than me. Oh, stop with the puppy eyes, you're too old for that.”

“How are Kittanning and the other two kids?”

“Children's Hospital released the others this morning. Jonah's mother is out on probation and has regained custody of him, and Shiralle's foster parents have decided to adopt her.”

“Ah, good.”

“Kittanning's downstairs with Rennie.” Ukiah explained why, adding, “The hospital wouldn't let me bring him up, so I'll have to go when he wakes up. We had brunch with Indigo's family and they all fussed over him. We're doing dinner with Mom Jo's family at the farm tonight.”

“Cally isn't going to take that well.”

“Actually, she seems to have gotten over the worst of her
jealousy, although I suspect that she would have preferred the puppy.”

Max laughed. “I'm sure she would have. He made a cute puppy, but I'm glad he's back to being a baby.”

“I brought some stuff.” Ukiah unloaded the computer bag onto the bedside table. “
Playboy,
for the articles, the new U.S. Cavalry catalog, the
Wall Street Journal,
and your laptop.”

“Great. Thanks. All my vices.” He waved a hand toward the window. “Isn't it a great view they've given me?”

“Very nice,” Ukiah agreed.

They lapsed into awkward silence.

“Sam didn't come with you?” Max asked.

“She wanted to drive in on her own. She didn't want to depend on me.”

“What's wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, don't give that to me. We've been partners too long. Is it Sam? Is it not going to work out? I thought we worked well together as a team, the three of us.”

“No, no, it's not Sam. Hell, it can wait. This isn't the time to talk about it.”

“Kid!”

“I don't know where to start, and frankly I'm scared to even open my mouth, and maybe screw everything up.”

“What about?”

“Us being partners.”

Confusion warred with concern on Max's face.

“Nothing's wrong with you; it's all just me. I'm not who I was a few months ago. I'm not even who I was before we went to Oregon. I've changed a lot.”

“Yes, and no. At the core, you're still the kid I took on six years ago.”

“You really feel that way?”

“Yeah.”

“I guess there was part of me that was afraid you wouldn't like the new me.”

“Kid, you grew up. It was going to happen sooner or later, and it happens to everyone. Sure, you did it differently than
most, but I expected it to happen. Hell, I would have been disappointed if it didn't happen.”

“Considering my history with Magic Boy and all, you kind of lucked out, then.”

Max gave a surprised laugh. “I hadn't thought of that. Is that it?”

“No,” he chided himself for being scared. This was Max after all. “Things need to change because I changed. I'm not happy with the way things are in my life, and I'm trying to figure out how to get to where I want to be, and things can't work.”

Max had nodded as he talked, and when he stopped, he raised an eyebrow. “I'm not following you.”

“I need to move out of my moms'.”

Max startled visibly. “You asked Indigo to marry you?”

“No, no, things are still . . . status quo with us. She loves me and Kittanning, but she's not sure if love is enough. Everything has been too frantic to take it beyond that. Moving out isn't about Indigo. It's just about me.

“I need a car. Not a new motorcycle, though I hate to give it up entirely, but with Kittanning I need a car. I need a place of my own, not a bedroom in someone else's home. I'm not fitting into the little boy's space anymore.”

“Yeah. One gets that way.”

“But that's where it gets tricky. I'm going to need help figuring out how to pay for everything, but I want a house somewhere close to my moms' and at least a part-time nanny for when Mom Lara is working and a car.”

Max shrugged. “Between what you pull down as a salary and your savings, that's all doable. You don't have any expensive habits. We could even work in a bike, since insurance is probably going to total your old one. The car will probably be used, and the house a starter. If you're talking houses, kid, maybe you should just rent until you and Indigo come to some decision. Together, you'll get a different house than what you would get separately.”

There remained one big hurdle, and he wasn't sure how Max would take it. Everything so far didn't affect Max personally, so it was easy for him to nod and agree.

“But the big thing is, none of this works with the offices in Shadyside.”

Max didn't say anything, though his mouth pressed into a tight line.

“I'll go insane trying to juggle Kittanning if there's thirty miles between me and work, through rush-hour traffic. It's nearly an hour, one way, which is two hours out of my life, my life with Kittanning, just driving. I can't put him in a day care here in town; next to other kids, his leaps in development would stick out. God forbid he decided to change shapes again. Cally is in kindergarten, and next year will be going full time, and my moms really need Mom Lara to go back to work. I could pay her to baby-sit, but that doesn't come with health care on the level Pitt offers, not to mention self-esteem and doing what she loves.”

Max's mouth relaxed as Ukiah talked, which was encouraging.

“You've said before that the mansion intimidates people; they don't want to intrude on a private residence. After all this, I'm not crazy about the fact that we mix home and work so closely, so that any trouble we stir up knows where we sleep. And if things go well with you and Sam, I would think you might want some privacy.”

Max laughed. “Oh, that's low.” Ukiah waited and Max eventually nodded. “You have valid points.”

“The closer we move to Evans City, the better for me, but probably not for the agency. A compromise of the North Side, or the North Hills.”

“Cranberry is booming lately, and they just finished up the connector last year.”

“Well, I'm not sure I want to get too far north,” Ukiah said. “There's Indigo's commute to consider, if things work out there.”

Max laughed. “So you're okay with Sam?”

“We actually work very well together.”

“Funny”—Sam leaned against the door frame—“I was just thinking the same thing.”

“We were just talking about making some changes to the offices.”

“Because of me?” Sam frowned slightly.

“Because of me, and Kittanning,” Ukiah said. “I want to move out of my moms' house, but to do so means changes, like moving the offices out of Shadyside.”

She nodded. “If I'm staying, I want a place of my own, no offense, Max, but I want to feel like I'm not being rushed, and moving in with you, even to the guest bedroom, would feel too rushed.”

“Actually, I might move too,” Max said.

Ukiah and Sam looked at him in surprise.

“I grew up in this city and always loved the view from Mount Washington. I wanted one of those condos with the balconies that look out over the edge and see for miles. It was one of those unrealistic goals in life that you never thought you'd hit: a million dollars in the bank, a trip around the world, and a luxury condo on Mount Washington. After I sold my company and deposited several millions into the bank, my wife and I drove up, went to the park, ate lunch at Christopher's, and then toured some houses and a couple of condos. Aileen got quieter and quieter, and finally she started to cry; she'd never told me, all those years of talking about the condo, but she was afraid of heights. She hated it. We settled on the house in Shadyside as a compromise.”

It was the most Ukiah had ever heard Max talk about his wife sober; but then, perhaps, there were drugs involved now.

Sam took Max's hand, and he held it tight.

“We're going to make some real estate agent happy.”

 

Rennie called him then, telling him that Kittanning was waking. Ukiah excused himself, saying, “I want to keep close to Kittanning until I know that he wouldn't slip back to being a puppy.”

He started down the hall, but was checked five doors down by a set of familiar voices.

“I know no words of apologies could ever set things right with us,” Socket was saying inside the room with an armed guard at the door. Apparently she had also been brought to Mercy for her minor gunshot wound. “I've betrayed you at a level of infidelity that can't be humanly forgiven. I've taken
too much from you to ask you to even pretend that forgiveness is possible. But I want you to know that I'm deeply, profoundly sorry.”