Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5 (54 page)

“
Construction has started
on the fields around the barn,” Jacob said. “We can’t run the risk
of involving their crew.”

“
We go tonight,” Valerie
said.

“
After dinner,” Jacob
said.

“
It’s a plan,” Delphie
said.

Valerie gave a pert wave and left the
loft.

“
I’m thinking of staying
here,” Jill said.

Concerned, Jacob reviewed her face.

“
What is it?” Jacob
asked.

“
It’s just been a lot,”
Jill said. “For me. For Katy. Serial killers. Monsters. Crazy
people. It’s just a lot. I don’t know… I guess I’m
tired.”

“
Is it the babies?” Jacob
asked.

Jill shook her head.

“
I need to shower,” Jill
said.

She smiled at him and Delphie and then left
for their bedroom. Worried, Jacob’s eyes followed her to the door.
He was trying to figure out if he should follow when Delphie
cleared her throat.

“
Did you notice it’s
summer?”

His mind still distracted by his worry for
Jill, Jacob gave Delphie a curt nod.

“
Do you remember what
happened last summer?” Delphie asked.

Puzzled, Jacob tried to figure out what
Delphie was saying. Delphie twirled back and forth making her skirt
puff out.

“
I met Jill at the
engagement party?”

Smiling, Delphie twirled and her skirt
puffed out.

“
Katy got stung by a bee?”
Jacob asked. “Honey was almost killed?”

Delphie twirled back and forth.

“
You’re not going to tell
me,” Jacob said.

“
I’m not,” Delphie said.
“You can ask her but it’s probably better if you figure it out
yourself.”

With that, Delphie turned in place and left
the loft. Sarah, his yellow Labrador, looked up at him. Confused,
he rubbed Sarah’s ears. His mind ran through the important days of
last summer. He took Jill on her first date to the zoo. Katy was
stung by a bee. They made love the first time. He was injured. Jill
and Katy moved in. They moved into this loft. He shook his head
with confusion. Hearing Jill start a shower, he turned to look
toward their room.

Thinking he should ask her, he went into
their bathroom. He passed the claw foot tub and the toilet. With
the mirrors and sinks on his right, he went around the corner to
the shower. Passing the French doors to the small balcony, he
wondered why they never sat out there. It was a gorgeous day. Maybe
when Jill was done showering, she would join him for a cup of
coffee. Standing at the French doors, he looked out into the
backyard.

Delphie and the kids had already planted
most of the garden. The trees were starting to bear fruit. Even the
bees were beginning to wake up to the gorgeous day and… It hit
him.

They don’t sit on this balcony because it
overlooked the place where Trevor was shot. Trevor, Jill’s
ex-husband, was shot through the forehead last summer. He closed
his eyes to count the days.

The anniversary was a week from
Saturday.

He glanced at Jill’s naked body through the
Plexiglas shower doors. Was Jill mourning Trevor? Did she miss
Trevor, her battering, cheating ex-husband? His mind reviewed the
crazy last year. It had been wild. And certainly this never ending
crap with his ex-secretary didn’t help. And now with twin boys,
Jill would need all her resources to help them survive. He wouldn’t
blame her for wanting a quieter life.

But Trevor? Did she miss Trevor?

Jill said she was happy. Jill said she had
the life she always wanted, always dreamed of. Jill said she loved
him. She’d even said they belonged together.

Why was she upset about Trevor?

Unsure of himself, he yelled: “I’m going for
a run.”

“
Have fun,” Jill yelled
back. “We’ll have breakfast when you get back.”

He changed into his running gear. Jill was
just getting out of the shower when he whistled for Sarah and took
the long stairwell to the side door. He glanced up to see Jill
waving at him from the front windows and he took off toward City
Park.

He knew he was trying to outrun his fear
that he had lost Jill. He knew he should talk to her, ask her, and
listen. But right now, all he could do was put one foot in front of
the other and pray that she loved him.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday morning — 10:40 A.M.

“
Charlie! Charlie!” Sissy
shook Charlie awake.

“
What?” Charlie sneered at
Sissy. “I’m sleeping.”

“
It’s MOM!” Sissy spun on
her toe with delight. “On the phone. She wants to see
us
! She says she’s
missed
us
! And…
Here!”

Sissy pushed the phone at Charlie. He looked
at the phone and curled his lip.

“
She says she’s really
sorry,” Sissy whispered. “She says she’s been sick and…”

Sissy’s eyes begged Charlie to talk to their
mother. Charlie closed his eyes and rolled away from her happy
face.

“
What’s going on?” Sandy
asked. “I thought you were napping before ballet?”

“
I was,” Sissy said. “But
the phone rang and I hoped it might be Ward because he said he
would call and… It’s MOM!”

Sandy grabbed the phone from Sissy.

“
Mom?” Sandy walked toward
the living room with Sissy and Charlie following close
behind.

“
Yes, Sandra, it’s me,”
her mother said.

“
What’s going on?” Sandy
asked.

“
I’d like to see you and
the children,” her mother said.

“
Which children?” Sandy
asked.

“
Mitzi and Charles,” her
mother said. “My children.”

“
When?” Sandy
asked.

“
Really Sandy, do we have
to be like this?” her mother asked. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I
admit that. Do you have to be so cruel?”

“
Cruel? Me?” Sandy asked.
“I thought I was dead to you.”

“
I see your feelings were
hurt too,” her mother said. “We both have said a lot of things we
didn’t mean.”

Furious, Sandy looked across the room. She
saw Sissy’s pleading eyes and Charlie’s feigned indifference.

“
Please!” Sissy
begged.

“
What are you proposing?”
Sandy asked.

“
I have some time off
treatment this weekend,” her mother said. “I’d like to see you,
Mitzi, and Charles. I thought we could meet with my therapists and
try to figure out how to go from here.”

“
I don’t know what that
means,” Sandy said.

“
In order for me to leave
treatment, I need to prepare to live my life,” her mother said. “I
need… We need to figure out what makes the most sense for me and
all of us really.”

“
Sissy has ballet from
noon to six on Saturdays,” Sandy said. “I don’t think we can make
it.”

“
I’m trying to be a mother
here,” her mother said. “I know it comes easily to you but I’ve had
to learn how to... “

Not wanting to give her selfish mother an
inch, Sandy didn’t fill in the blanks.

“
If you can’t stand me,
you can always send Mitzi and Charles,” her mother said. “I know it
won’t be a financial burden for you with all that money from your
father.”

“
I’ll speak with Aden,”
Sandy said. “We’ll see what
we
think is best for Sissy and Charlie.”

“
They are my children.
Isn’t that for me to decide?”

“
You gave up that right
when you gave up custody,” Sandy said. “We need to go. Sissy needs
to rest.”

“
She’ll be fine,” her
mother said. “She’s young and…”

“
Good-bye Mother,” Sandy
said. “We’ll call you this evening.”

Sandy hung up the phone.

“
Why were you so mean?”
Sissy asked at the same time Charlie said, “Same old selfish
bullshit.”

“
I understand how you
feel, Sissy. I want Mom to be better too. But we have to make sure
she’s really better – for you both. I won’t stand for you and
Charlie to be hurt by her again,” Sandy said.

“
But…” Sissy
said.

“
Go rest,” Sandy said.
“I’m taking you to dance and going to sit with Seth. If you don’t
rest, you could get injured.”

“
But…” Sissy
said.

“
I’ll talk to Aden about
Mom. He wants to go somewhere this weekend. Maybe Tucson is
it.”

Sissy scowled at Sandy and Charlie collapsed
into himself.

“
Back to bed,” Sandy said.
“Both of you.”

Sissy and Charlie turned to walk down the
hall.

“
Wait,” Sandy
said.

They stopped walking and turned to her.

“
I love you both so much,”
Sandy said. “That’s all that’s going on here. I don’t want to see
you hurt again.”

Sandy held out her arms and Sissy hugged
her. Sandy grabbed Charlie’s shirt and pulled him into their hug.
Letting go, she looked at both their weary faces.

“
You have to trust me,”
Sandy said.

Sissy nodded to Sandy and followed Charlie
down the hall. Sandy gave one last worried glance down the hallway
and went back to her bedroom.

“
What was that?” Aden
asked.

“
My mother,” Sandy said.
“She wants to see ‘Mitzi’ and ‘Charles’ in Tucson this
weekend.”

“
For a command
performance?” Aden asked. “Fat chance.”

“
The problem is she asked
Sissy first,” Sandy said. “Sissy’s begging to go. Sissy wants Mom
to be her Mom so badly… I…”

“
I remember that feeling,”
Aden said.

“
Me too,” Sandy said.
“I’ll tell you Aden. This is not going to end well. I just know
it.”

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday afternoon — 3:40 P.M.

“
Are you sure?” Max asked
as he entered Ava’s office.

“
No,” Ava said and sat
down in her desk chair. “You?”

“
No,” he said.
“Bob?”

“
No,” Bob said.

Ava looked up to see Leslie in the doorway.
Ava waved her inside. Leslie waddled her pregnant girth to the
couch. Nelson and Fran followed her over to the couch. Max closed
Ava’s office door and took an arm chair. For a moment, no one said
anything. Then they all spoke at once and laughed.

Picking up a pad of paper and a pen, Ava got
up from her desk. She took an arm chair and Bob turned around a
straight back chair to join the circle.

“
I feel like we’re at
Alanon,” Fran said. “Hi my name is Fran and I’m a
Codependent.”

“
Hi Fran,” the rest of the
team said and laughed.

For a moment, everything seemed normal.
There was a knock on the door and reality set in. In a few minutes,
they would have to decide what to do. Through the glass wall, Ava
saw the lead researcher from the USDA. She shook her head and he
waved. She knew he’d come to tell her that everyone was waiting for
their decision, her decision.

“
Lay out the facts for me
one more time,” Bob said.

“
We don’t have time to
make an effective anti-toxin,” Ava said. She looked up to see if
everyone agreed.

“
Well, that and we can’t
reverse two hundred million years of evolution,” Max said. “Human
beings evolved after wasps and their venom. Any antitoxin would
have to account for millennia of evolution, not to mention human
experience. I mean, how many times has Seth been stung by a wasp? I
bet a lot. The antitoxin would have to take into account his body’s
immune memory for the venom.”

“
There may never be an
effective anti-toxin for the First Responders Toxin.” Ava wrote her
statements on her pad of paper.

“
Ever,” Nelson
said.

“
That’s more like it,”
Fran said.

“
Facts,” Bob said. “Let’s
stick with facts.”

“
The wood shards were
soaked in toxin,” Fran said. “And they had fatty pockets of toxin
stuck to the shards. When the wood spikes were pulled out, these
packets of toxin were left behind.”

“
That’s got to be why the
men keep spiking fevers,” Bob said.

“
I’m sure you’re right,”
Leslie said. “The men’s immune systems would attack the outside
fatty shell of these packets. When the shell dissolves, more toxin
is released.”

“
The men received doses of
the toxin from the wood spike. They continue to receive toxin
through these…” Ava said. “We’re calling them packets?”

“
You could call them
Franicles,” Nelson said.

“
Packet it is,” Ava wrote
down Fran’s discovery.

“
The thing I’m stuck on is
that we’re fighting the natural human response to this venom,” Bob
said. “If we introduce another agent, even an effective antitoxin,
the men’s immune systems are so fired up, they will attack
it.”

“
That’s a good point,” Ava
said. “The men are all in a high allergic state. The ER docs said
their allergic response is so activated that they’re starting to
have autoimmune reactions similar to lupus.”

“
Allergy medications are
starting to fail,” Leslie said. “Their blood pressure keeps
dropping. They’re already using dopamine to stabilize their
pressure but…”