Repairman Jack [05]-Hosts (21 page)

He glanced at Kate now and sensed that her nerves could do with a little easing. She wore a sleeveless cotton jumper and the humidity had made her honey blond hair curlier than usual, but she didn't look well tonight. Tired and worn. And jumpy. Something was eating her.

Jeanette on the other hand was cool and serene. She leaned against the kitchen side of the counter, physically three feet away, mentally somewhere at sea off Bora Bora. Seemed to be watching him open the wine, but her gaze was unfocused.

Jack rated his small-talk skills with those of the average geranium, and usually counted on others to carry the conversation load. But Jeanette was barely here. Had he bored her into a trance?

He glanced longingly at the couch. He'd much rather be over there where he could try and censor whatever Kate was telling Gia…

***

Kate said, "Our folks worried about him sometimes."

"Imagine that," Gia said with a wry smile. She wore a long summer dress that brought out the intense blue of her eyes.

Kate had taken an instant liking to Gia. She'd sensed that here was someone not only very pretty and very bright, but also very much her own person.

"He was something of a loner."

Gia sipped her wine. "He's still not much of a team player."

"He was on the track team but he ran cross-country. Not a lot of friends, either. But it was the movies that most concerned our folks. He couldn't get enough of those junky old horror and sci-fi movies."

"That hasn't changed."

"It would be a sunny Saturday afternoon and Jackie would—"

Gia grinned. '
''Jackie
? Oh, I love it!"

"That's what our mother called him and we all sort of picked it up. Anyway, on a beautiful Saturday he would say he was going to the park but if you drove by the local theater you'd see his bike chained to a post nearby. Every Saturday the Lenape would show two old horror-sci-fi movies in a double feature and he'd rather sit there alone in the dark than play with the other kids."

"That child was definitely father to that man." Gia said, pointing to Jack.

Jack and movies… Kate remembered when he was nine she heard Jack's alarm go off at two in the morning, then heard him pad down-stairs in the dark. When ten minutes passed and he hadn't returned, she went down to see what he was up to. She found him wrapped in his bedspread cross-legged on the floor before the TV with the sound very low, entranced by some cheap black-and-white movie. She told him to get back up to bed but he pleaded with her, saying he'd been trying to catch
Invasion of the Saucer Men
forever but it never played in the movies or on TV or anywhere anymore until tonight. He
had
to see it. He might never get another chance. Pleeeeease?

So she'd sat next to him under the spread, her arm protectively around his shoulders, and watched with him. She soon knew why no one showed it any more:
Invasion of the Saucer Men
was awful. But to Jack it was some sort of grail he'd finally found and he loved it. Looking back now it was a special shared moment, a closeness fated for extinction with the advent of the VCR.

Kate glanced over to where Jack stood with Jeanette. Would that life were still so sweet and simple.

And then she remembered: "The dip. I forgot to heat the dip."

***

The extended silence was getting awkward. Jack noticed that Jeanette's tank top revealed lean, muscular arms. Good deltoids, the kind that come only with weight training.

That looked like a conversation opener.

"You work out, Jeanette?"

"Hmmm?" She blinked and returned to North America.

Jack cocked his arm in a bodybuilder's pose. "Do you work out?"

She smiled. "I used to, back when I thought that sort of thing was important." A shrug. "Now it seems kind of silly. So many things seem silly now."

Jack could see how being told you were going to die long before your time could change your perspective on just about everything. Especially working out. Not much point to a well-toned body if the next stop was a casket.

"You were at the house last night," she said, staring at him. "Why?"

Pretty damn direct question. How much could he say and not contradict anything Kate might have told her?

"I was just tagging along. Kate was worried about you and doesn't know the city, so I ferried her around."

"Everything's fine now," Jeanette said with a smile. "And getting better every day."

"Great," he said, holding up the open wine bottle. "Can I pour you some?"

Jeanette shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't need that anymore."

Good, he thought. That leaves more for me. And I
do
need it.

"Do I take it that means you've found a replacement?"

Another smile. "In a way."

Jack hoped this might provide a segue into this cult of hers, but his sister bustled into the kitchen before he could move on it.

"The dip," Kate said, pulling open the refrigerator door. "Hot avocado. Forgot all about it. And yes, Jack, I'll have another glass of that. So will Gia, I'm sure." She shoved a covered dish into the microwave and began jabbing buttons. "Just let me nuke this on reheat for a few minutes to warm it up. There. Now, where's that—?"

"Kate!" Jeanette wailed, her voice a terror-laden plea. "Oh God, Kate, why haven't you done anything?"

Her cry was so abrupt, so heartrending, that Jack nearly dropped the wine bottle. He stared at her agonized features and saw that her earlier remoteness was gone. The woman on the far side of the counter now was reaching out with her eyes, with her hands and arms, panic radiating from every pore.

"Jeanette!" Kate cried, turning Jeanette to face her. "What is it? What's happening!"

"I'm losing, Kate! I can't hold out much longer. Pretty soon there'll be nothing left of me! You've got to help me, Kate!" Her voice rose to a scream. "
For God's sake help meV

And then her knees buckled. As she fell against Kate, Jack started around the counter to help but Gia was already there.

"Get her over to the couch!" Gia said.

The three of them helped the barely conscious Jeanette across the room where they stretched her out. Kate placed Jeanette's ankles on the arm rest, positioning them above the level of her head, then took her pulse. Gia ran back to the kitchen and started running water over a dish towel. Jack stood back and watched, a little shaken.

"This is what happened yesterday morning," Kate said. "Jeanette, are you—?"

"What's going on?" Jeanette said, shuddering and starting to sit up.

Kate tried to hold her down. "You had another one of those spells. Just rest for a moment."

"No." She struggled to a sitting position. "That can't be. How did I get over here?"

Jeanette was back to the remote woman Jack had met when he'd arrived; she seemed concerned but not as much as Jack thought she should be.

"We helped you," Gia said. Her face was pale, she looked shaken. "You almost passed out."

"This is the second time now, Jeanette," Kate said. "You can't go on like this. You've got to let Dr. Fielding check you over."

"He's an idiot."

"Then let's see someone else."

"What for? I'm fine." She shook off Kate's hand and rose to her feet. "Everybody just give me some space."

Kate and Gia stepped back.

"Jeanette—"

"Please, Kate, would you ask Jack and Gia to go. I'd like to be alone."

Kate blinked. "Do… do you want me to leave too?"

"No, of course not. This is your home too." She turned to Jack. "I'm sorry. It was nice meeting you both. I know we'll meet again soon."

She turned and headed for a doorway at the far end of the room.

"I don't know what to say," Kate said when the door closed behind Jeanette. "She did this yesterday morning, and now again…"

"For a few moments there," Gia said, "she seemed like another person."

"A terrified one," Jack added.

Kate nodded. "I know. A true multiple personality disorder is so rare it's almost nonexistent… but I don't know how else to explain this."

"And why does she refuse to see a doctor?" Jack said. "If I'd just become another person for a few minutes and didn't remember it, I'd be on the phone demanding an appointment yesterday."

"Look," Kate said. "Why don't you two go on. I'm really sorry about this but—"

"Not your fault, Kate. Why don't you come out and catch a bite with us?"

"No. I should stay here in case she needs me. You two go ahead." She hugged Gia and kissed her cheek. "It was wonderful meeting you." Then she turned to Jack and hugged him.

He wrapped his arms around his sister and held her close. Had he ever done this? He couldn't remember. If not, he shouldn't have waited this long. It felt good, and would have felt better if not for a nagging fear for her.

"You're sure you don't want to come along?"

She stepped back and nodded. "I'll be fine. Call me tomorrow."

Jack didn't feel right about leaving her but didn't see any options. He opened the door.

"Okay. I will. First thing. And you have my home phone number. If you need me, you call, no matter what the hour."

In the kitchen the microwave oven dinged. The avocado dip was ready.

9

Jack and Gia took the stairs down.

"Did you see how Jeanette changed?" Gia said. "Isn't that the strangest thing you've ever seen?"

He knew they'd both seen stranger things, but…

"Yeah. Pretty damn strange. Creepy."

"I'll say," she said as they reached street level. She laid a hand on his arm. "And by the way, how come you never told me your sister was gay?"

"
What
?" He was stunned. His big sister, the pediatrician mother of two, a lesbian? Was Gia nuts? "How can you even
think
that?"

"Well, there may not be Melissa Etheridge posters on the wall, but there's a whole collection of Cris Williamson CDs in the rack, and if she and Jeanette aren't a couple, I'll remarry Richard when he returns."

They both knew her ex was gone for good—as in dead and digested. But Gia was way off here.

As they pushed through the front door into the night air Jack said, "Kate's not—"

And then it all came together. Of course she was. Kate was a giving person, but Jack suddenly realized she'd never take a leave from her practice and her kids to nursemaid some old sorority sister. When she'd said she was seeing someone special but foresaw no wedding bells, it wasn't a married man, it was a woman.

Jack turned and stared through the glass doors into the vestibule of the apartment building. "I didn't see it. How could I miss it?"

"With any other pair of women I'm sure you would have, right off. But your brain wasn't offering you options for your big sister's sexual orientation. So unless Kate showed up on a motorcycle with a shaved head and 'Bitch On Wheels' tattooed on her arm, you weren't going to see it. Her being a lipstick lesbian just made it harder."

"No wonder she seems to be walking on eggs when I'm around. Kate… I can't get over it."

"Does it bother you?" Gia said. "Come on, Jack, talk. You keep things in and stew about them. Don't do that here. Talk to me."

"Okay. Am I bothered? No. Anything Kate wants to be is fine with me. But am I shocked? Yes. Because I never saw it coming. I grew up with her, Gia. Never a sign, never a hint."

"At least not that you saw."

"Granted. I was a kid and I wasn't looking. But she always had boyfriends and… Gia, it's like the direction I always thought was north has suddenly become south. Should I go back and talk to her? Tell her I know and it's all right? Maybe that way she can relax around me."

Jack was used to knowing what to do in most situations, but here he was foundering.

"Since you asked," Gia said, "yes. Otherwise the two of you will go on dodging each other: she'll be hiding who she is and you'll be hiding that you know what she's hiding. But it's not my decision. And whatever you do, save it for tomorrow. Kate's got enough on her plate tonight, don't you think?"

Jack slipped his hand around the back of Gia's neck and kissed her lips. What would he do without her?

"Thanks."

She brushed her fingers against his hair. "Not a good day for Repairman Jack, hmmm?"

"Lousy."

"Well, Vicky's sitter is good till midnight. We could go back to your place and maybe, just maybe, if we think real hard, we might come up with a way to help you forget your troubles."

It had been a whole week. Jack felt more than ready.

"I think that's a perfectly wonderful—"