His Favorite Girl (15 page)

─
Packing─

FLORA CRIED when I told her the news.

"Promise you'll come back?" she said, hugging me.  She was shaking like a leaf.

"I promise, Flora.  You really think I'd leave you here?"

She pulled away, sniffling.  "I can't blame you if you do.  This plac
e is so awful."  After a moment, "I wish we could go with you."

Frog sat with her meaty legs dangling off the bed.  She had a blank expression on her face, as though she didn't understand our conversation.

I stepped around Flora and approached her, leaning forward to be at eye level.

"I have to go away for a few days," I told her, speaking slowly.  "While I'm gone, I need you to protect Flora."

"Okay."

"If
anyone tries to hurt her, you're the only one who can stop them.  You understand? 
Anyone
."

"Okay," Frog repeated.
  "I'll puddect her."

"Good, thank you."

I reached out and touched her face, feeling the scar tissue where they'd cut into her cheek to widen her mouth.  She smiled but looked down at her feet, at once grateful and ashamed.

I asked Flora to come to the closet and help me pack, but I really just wanted to speak to her privately.  It's not that I didn't trust Frog Girl.  I just wasn't sure of her capacity to keep secrets.  The more time I spent around her, the more I grew certain the Frog Girls were raised
with environmental retardation as the end goal.

I explained to Flora that she would have to take care of Judy, bring her food and any other supplies she needed.  That she would have to do so without Liu catching her, if Patton failed in getting Liu moved to another room.

"I can have Frog block the door," she said.

"Good idea."

She helped me put together some outfits, even thinking of things that didn't occur to me.

"What if he takes you out to a fancy restaurant?" she asked.  "You'll need a bikini in case you go to the beach."

It was pathetic that these scenarios occurred to Flora and not me.  She'd never been out of this building.  For her, fancy restaurants and beaches were the stuff of legends.

"You have stuff to sleep in?" she asked.  "Pajama pants?"

"Yep."

"Deodorant, perfume?"

"Yep."

"You should take a pillow so you can sleep in the car."

"My goodness, Flora."

She turned to look at me with concern, afraid she'd offended me somehow, but I was laughing.  "I'm glad I asked you to help," I said.  "Otherwise I'd be pissed off this entire trip."

She returned the smile and went back to rummaging through the wardrobe.

"I doubt we'll have time to have much fun," I speculated.

"Oh, I don't know about that."

Reaching into the hanging clothes, Flora pulled something out quickly and spun around to face me, holding
the article against her own body.

It was one of Kate's white see-through baby doll tops.

"Flora!"

She shrugged and knelt to stuff it in the suitcase.  "You'll look beautiful in it," she said.
  The most charming man in the world couldn't make me believe that more.

"Thanks, Flora."

"You're welcome," she said.  Suddenly her eyes widened.  "Oh, did you get your toothbrush?"

"No I didn't."

"I'll be right back."

"Flora, I can get it myse--"

She was already out the door and jumping across the bed, so I let her go.

Taking one last look around the closet, I decided I had enough clothes and zipped up the suitcase.
  I carried it out of the closet and set it at the foot of the bed.

Frog was watching cartoons again.

I went to the kitchen and popped open a bottle of wine.  Might as well have some fun with the girls before my big vacation.  As I poured three glasses, I realized Flora was taking a while.  I stood there taking sips from my glass, deducing that she probably had to pee, so I waited a little longer.

She emerged from the corridor with Liu directly behind her, fully dressed but visibly flustered.  Flora brought her over to the table, where Liu took one of the glasses and started drinking without permission.

"I can't believe you did that to me."

"You looked like you enjoyed yourself."

"I don't want to enjoy
myself
," she said.  "Why did you leave?"

"I just wanted to stop you from trying to hurt yourself."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want you to get hurt."

"Yeah I bet.  You just don't want to have to deal with it."

I sighed deliberately, swirled the wine around in my glass.  "Just go on assuming the worst from everybody, Liu."

"The worst is what I always get," she said.

I turned to her and raised my glass.  "Looks like we have something in common."

To my surprise, Liu actually stayed calm.  She even sat down at the table with Flora and me, and when Flora called Frog over, Liu didn't offer up any insults.

I grabbed a deck of cards and we started playing spades.  Flora volunteered to be Frog's partner so she could explain the game to her as we went along.  I poured Frog a glass of wine
, which she accepted timidly.  This was her first time drinking alcohol.

We went through the first bottle quickly, then another.

Soon we were all drunk and laughing.  Even Liu, despite her swollen face.  The Libido Drug was still very much in her system.  I could tell by her demeanor--and from previous experience.  She kept rubbing her breasts, seemingly unaware of it, and any time she made eye contact with me she tried to hold it for as long as possible.  This night was sure to end in scandal.

At some point I remembered that I needed to check in with Judy.  We had given up on spades and were now dealing hands of Texas Hold 'Em.  I excused myself from the table under the pretext of needing to use the bathroom.  To buy myself more time, I even suffered the humility of saying, "I'll be a few minutes.  It's Number Two."

That put the three of them in an uproar.

I crawled drunkenly through the air duct
, making no effort to keep my knees to the sides, to be quiet.  The next thing I knew I was at the bottom of the staircase, apologizing to Judy for not bringing her dinner.  We'd forgotten to order any.

"I have granola bars and a banana," she said.  "I'll be fine."

"You're not going to
believe
what I found on Level A," I said.  Later I would feel horrible for my neglect.  Right now all I cared about was finding out what news she had to offer.

That and getting the fuck out of this building.

"I didn't see anything," she said.  "The whole floor was empty."

"That sucks."

"I'll try again tomorrow."

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Leaving?"

"Yep."  I slapped my hands together at an angle.  "Hitting the road."

"What are you talking about, Melissa?"

"They're replacing you, remember?  Patton's driving out to
California to interview some professor, and I'm going with him."

She looked alarmed.  "But . . . what about me?"

"I'm coming back," I said.

"I mean while you're gone.  How will I eat?"

"Flora's going to take care of you."

"Oh."  She cast her eyes to the floor.  "Okay."

"So you didn't see anything," I said, reeling a little and turning my face up to the ceiling.  "That's disappointing.  Now I'm leaving, and whatever Brian's up to, there's nothing I can do to stop it."

"Sorry," she said dryly.

I looked at her.  "It's not your fault.  If nothing's going on, then nothing's going on.  Guess we'll just have to let it happen.  Whatever the fuck he's doing."

I st
arted to crawl up the staircase, saying, "I gotta get back.  Told the girls I was taking a shit."  I turned.  "Speaking of which, got anything for me?"

"No."

"Awesome."

I crawled back through the vents.

In the kitchen, the girls were still being amiable.  They'd abandoned the game and now sat around the table talking about sex.  Liu, at least.  As always, she was doing most of the talking.  Flora engaged her enough to keep her going, and Frog sat there completely fascinated, her only sexual experience that of humping a boy's face to the point of cracking his skull.

"You only gag the first couple of times," Liu explained.  "It looks like it hurts but it doesn't.  Guys
love
it."

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, standing at the head of the table.

"Deep-throating," Liu said.

They all laughed.

"Oh, sorry," I said.  "I didn't mean to interrupt an intellectual discussion."

"Hey now, there's a lot that goes into a good mouth fuck," Liu said, evoking hysterics in all of us.

"Like what?  You lie on your back, open wide, and hope you don't puke on his balls."

"
That's not all there is to it!" she assured us over the cries of laughter.

I walked over to the phone, saying, "You know what?  I think we need a demonstration."

"Okay, bring it on," Liu said.

Silence ensued as it rang.  Flora had stopped laughing and Frog had followed suit.  I glanced at them and was relieved to find embarrassment and intrigue on their faces, not disgust.  In my inebriated state, I wasn't sure if I'd overstepped my bounds.

James sounded irritated to be called so late.  I told him to bring party food: pizzas, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, and a vegetable platter, and to make it quick.

A few minutes later there was a knock at the door.  I jumped when I opened it.

Instead of James, Sean stood there looking irritated.

"We'll give her Judy's room for now," he said, snapping his fingers twice.  "Let's go.  I've got shit to do."

I turned back to the table where they were all laughing and, for once, enjoying each other's company, and Sean stepped past me, so close his body brushed up against mine.

"Liu, let's go," he said loud enough to disrupt the chatter.

"Um . . .can I wait till tomorrow?" Liu asked.

Sean shot me a cold glance just before he stormed over to the table, snatched Liu up by the arm, and dragged her out of the room.  She was crying by the time he slammed the door shut.

No one said anything for almost a full minute.  Then James knocked and I blurted out, "Well, that's one problem solved."

I opened the door and James immediately wheeled in the cart and walked away without looking at me.

─Looking Back─

PATTON KNOCKED lightly and I jumped up from the table where I'd sat waiting in the dark.  Pulling the door open the width of my face, I asked him to wait just a moment and went to the bed to wake Flora.

"I'm leaving now," I whispered, putti
ng my hand on her forehead.

I leaned over and gave her
a kiss, and when I tried to pull away she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me down for a hug.

"I'll miss you," she said.  "Be careful, okay?  Don't let Patton drive fast."

I teared up a little and laughed.  "I'll miss you too, Flora."

I suppose the idea lingered somewhere in my mind that I might not ever see her again--that if and when the opportunity presented itself, far away from Your Favor
ite Girl, Inc., I would run away and never look back.

"I love you, Melissa," Flora said, her voice cracking.

"I love you too."  I pulled away and stared into her big blue eyes.  "I'll see you in six days, okay?"

"Okay."
  But I don't think she believed me.

"Go back to sleep."

"Will you call me?"

Could I?  The phone didn't dial out of the building, and for the sake of keeping this place a fortress, it probably didn't accept incoming calls either.  I would have to ask Patton.

"If I can," I told her.

Then I waved awkwardly and walked away.

Carrying my suitcase out into the quiet, empty hall, I started to feel excited on a whole new level, despite the sadness I was carrying with me.

"Let me carry that," Patton said, taking the suitcase.  "Get much sleep?"

"Hell no.  It was like Christmas Eve times a thousand."

"
I bet you're ready to get out of here."

"That's the understatement of the year."

He chuckled politely.

"Ever been to
California?"

"No.  I've never been anywhere."

"Well it's going to be a lot of driving, but I'm sure we'll have fun."

We walked side by side out into
the lobby, just me and Patton under the dimmed lights--if nothing else noteworthy, at least this company practiced energy conservation.  I'd never been allowed out of my room this early in the morning.  It felt different.  Like going to your high school at night for a play.  So quiet you can hear the air blowing out of the vents.

I was exhausted and still a little drunk.  Flora had told me to wear pajama pants so I'd be more comfortable and could sleep through the morning drive, and though no one was around
, I felt strangely insecure.  Like I was being watched.

Still, leaving the building felt like a dream.  It took a scary turn when we got off the elevator on Level B and had to walk past Brian's lit-up shelves of jarred fetuses
and the dark pit where the pendulum swung silently, but when we got to Level A and walked past my office and then Bob's, I was so excited I thought I was going to cry.

We took the elevator to Your Favorite Gem, stepping out into the manager's pitch-black office.  I waited, afraid, while Patton turned on the
light and opened the door.  As we crossed through the empty store I held onto his arm, suddenly convinced this was all a ruse, a cruel prank, that I would never actually step out of this building, that Sean was waiting behind one of the rotating displays, knife in hand.

At the front,
Patton pulled the glass door open.

My heart felt like it was trying to climb up in my throat.

"Forget something?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said.  "
Flora."

He smiled and reached out to take my hand.  I obliged and let him lead me out onto the street, where a chilly breeze beat against the thin fabric of my pajama pants.

It felt amazing.

"She's going to be fine," Patton said
, the wind carrying his voice away and making him sound distant.  "We'll be back before you know it."

"That sounds fucking great."

"Argues for enjoying the trip, no?"

He stepped down to the curb hitting the unlock button on a set of keys.  Across the street, the lights flashed on a
solid black Cadillac with heavily tinted windows.

"I figured you drove a Jaguar or something."

"I like to travel in comfort," he said, leading me over to the passenger side door and opening it for me.  The feel of the soft, cool leather seats made me instantly sleepy.  Patton threw my suitcase in the trunk and climbed in the driver's seat.  "We'll stop for breakfast when we get out of town."

"How about when we get out of the state?"

He snickered.  "Whatever you say, boss."

I passed out before we hit the interstate and awoke a little while later to th
e click of the turning signal.

Patton was taking an exit.

"Hungry now, sleepyhead?"

I sat up rubbing my eyes.  It was much brighter outside now.

We stopped at the first diner we came to on this stretch of gas stations, restaurants, and retail businesses.  I ordered hash browns with cheese and jalapeños, two strips of bacon, and an order of biscuits and gravy.

Patton ordered a bacon cheeseburger.

While we waited for our food, Patton read a newspaper he'd bought outside and I sat slumped in my seat, staring at him with really knowing it.  I could go back to sleep right now.  I could use my hash browns as a pillow.

Patton's eyes had mesmerized the waitress.  She was a heavyset girl with a stud in her tongue and purple streaks in her dirty blonde hair.  Flat-out giddy over him, but she didn't so much as look at me.  I was too tired to take offense, and it was easily forgivable anyway.  His eyes made him look not human.  Of unknown origin.

That was something still foreign to me.  I'd heard bits and pieces of his past, how the family business had progressed from real estate and illegal prostitution to a corporation now in the process of spreading its tentacles all over the world.

Taking control of the world.

It sounded absurd, the very wording of it, but it made so much sense.

First step, subdue and control the masses with the Libido Drug.

Second step, build an army of support with the brainwashing capacities of the Love Drug.

Third step, placate the elite with the Longevity Drug's inherent promise of life.

Suddenly I felt an incredible desire to hear the company history, the family history.  All this time I'd been so focused on wanting to escape, wanting Your Favorite Girl to not exist, and now, a few hours free of it, I wanted to know everything.

"Patton?"

He looked up from his paper, smiling.

"What was your childhood like?"

"Uh-oh.  We must be getting serious.  I can't take you to meet the parents.  Unfortunately, they're dead."

"
Patton, shut the fuck up."

He laughed.  "I'm just messing with you. 
My childhood.  Well, let's see.  It was . . . weird, I suppose.  How do you compare your childhood to others' when yours is the only one you know?"

I sighed. 
"I don't know.  Just forget about it."

He cocked his head.  "You really want to know about my childhood?"

"I want to know everything," I said.  "About you, about your brothers, the company, the whole story."

"That might take a while."

"Thirty hour drive, you said."

"
Yeah, that's true.  I just thought you might want to take your mind off these things.  Take advantage of the trip."

I sat up straight.  "Are you serious?  That's impossible.  It's not like we're some normal couple going on vacation here
, trying to take our minds off our boring jobs."

"So we
are
a couple," he said playfully.

I wasn't in the mood to play.

"I don't know what the fuck we are, Patton, because I don't know
who
the fuck
you
are."

He folded his paper and set it to the side, nodding.
  "You do have a point, I must admit."

"So tell me."

The waitress came with our food, asked Patton if he needed anything else, and walked away, her giddiness restored.  Again, she didn't look at me.

Patton took a bite of his cheeseburger and, with a mouthful, said, "Where would you like me to begin?"

"How should I know?  It's your life.  If you were going to write a book about yourself, where would you start?"

"Hmm."  He nodded eag
erly while he swallowed, holding up a finger over his cheeseburger.  "That's easy," he said.  "The day my father took Brian and me into his office to give us 'the talk.'"

A quick laugh escaped my lips.  "The talk?  Really?"

"Not that kind of talk," he said, and suddenly his demeanor turned gloomy.  Even his eyes seemed to dull, like two tiny patches of blue sky amidst dark clouds.

"I was ten," he said.
  "Brian was seven and already doing better than me in our lessons.  We were all homeschooled--I don't know if I told you that.  My father used to scoff at people for allowing strangers to influence their children.  He was a different kind of man.  Some of my earliest memories are of him ranting to my mother about taking over the world.  She thought he was crazy, so naturally I did too.  Brian and I used to argue about it.  Being the youngest, we had to share a bedroom.  Clifton slept on a cot in the laundry room, and Sean had a room to himself.  They were both older, in high school, chasing girls, sneaking liquor from Dad's office, so Brian and I kind of stuck together, despite our differences."

"What differences?"

"Brian was the favorite, and he knew it.  When Mom died, I guess Dad put all his stock in Brian, being the last of us.  The golden child, destined to be the super-genius in a family of geniuses--well, except for Clifton.  Sean and I never lived up to Dad's expectations.  Sean because he didn't give a damn.  Me because I wasn't cold and heartless like the rest of them.  And not smart enough, I suppose.  I'm the only one out of the bunch who took after our mother.  I didn't know her long, but from what I remember she was a kind woman.  She put on a smile every day, no matter what Dad put her through."

He stopped for a moment, shaking his head.

I waited.

"You don't want to hear this stuff," he said.

"Yes I do."

"It gets pretty ugly."

"Patton, all things considered, I think that goes without saying."

He nodded slowly, pursing his lips.

Then he sighed and continued: "I walked in on them one night.  I was four.  The memory is cloudy now, but I know it was my mother's screaming that drew me to the bedroom.  He had her tied to the bed and he was standing at the foot holding out a broom like a sword.  Fucking her with it from a distance."

"Good God, Patton."

"And when he saw me standing there, he chased me down the hall with it, screaming at me to stop.  So I stopped and turned around and he swung at me.  Hit me in the neck.  I don't remember the pain, but I do remember . . ."

The wetness.

I waited for him to say it, and I was glad when he moved on instead.

"Anyway, long story short, my Dad was a sadomasochistic, abusive alcoholic with an ego the size of
Alaska.  World domination, like I said.  When he brought Brian and me to his office that day, that's one of the things he talked about.  It was the first day of summer break.  Dad went along with the county's public school schedule.  He said kids needed time away from their studies to explore and develop independence.  Sometimes on a whim he would kick Brian and me out of the house and not let us back in for three days.  We had to find ways to feed ourselves, find places to sleep.  Sometimes we stayed in the woods a few miles down the road from our neighborhood.  Sometimes we'd stay at a friend's house, but that always meant taking a beating when we got home.  Begging was the way of bums, he'd say.  I guess he expected us to forage from trashcans.  I don't know.  I keep getting off track."

"Keep going," I said.  "Just keep talking."

He took a bite of his cheeseburger and looked up at the ceiling while he chewed.  I took the opportunity to scarf down some of my hash browns.

"You asked where I'd begin my autobiography, and I said the day Dad took us into his office.  Ten and seven, mind you, and the first thing he did was pour us each a glass of bourbon and told us to sit down and drink.  I could barely stomach it.  Just the one glass had us both hammered.  And then we just sat there in those big leather chairs and listened while he talked.  He told us we would be coming to work for him when we graduated college.  That Brian would pursue an education in chemistry.  Medicine for me.  He wa
s interested in pharmaceuticals, psychology, mind control.  This was four years before World War II broke out.  Also four years before Freud died.  Dad used to say something like, 'They're going to invent all kinds of new diseases with psychology, and then they'll invent drugs to treat those diseases.  The profit potential is endless.'  That's what he wanted to get into, and he was putting all his faith in Brian to grow up and make the next big medicinal discovery.  Like insulin and penicillin."