by Arlene Webb
“Why would I want eggs? My body no longer needs to be maintained like yours does.” His focus on the screen, Malcolm left his voice pitched so the boys could hear. “Jade, don’t wake Aaron and come join me. This finding obsesses me, despite how difficult to make it right.”
“Should I dress?” Her soft words reached his ears only.
“Stupid question. Of course. Cover as much of that horrid mass as possible.”
As usual the males, himself excluded, lost heart rhythm when Jade entered the room. That long hair floated, curling to cover her hips. She’d redressed in the same clothes. He’d arrange for more attire shortly.
Jade stared at the screen over Malcolm’s shoulder, and he felt her worry escalating. The news clip terrified her, and Evan the annoying confused her with his whispers to David. The fool kept forgetting they could hear him.
“Your dad gets all the luck. God, I’m jealous. I’d give anything to, you know.”
“Do you think my dad and her? What if—”
“Evan, you told your mother you’d be home today,” Malcolm said.
“You need my help,” Evan the adolescent whined. “It’s 6:30 AM. She’ll think something’s wrong if she learns I’m up this early.” Evan turned back to David. “What about your mom? She know you guys are here? They divorced?”
“She had cancer. I don’t want to talk about it.”
The use of past tense aside, David’s flat tone confirmed Malcolm’s suspicions. The death of a mother would explain the heightened anxiety over the father’s well-being.
Evan the sweet filled the silence. “Sorry. If you ever do want to talk, I’m here for you. You know what? We’ve some serious spying to do. Help me network our laptop to the main computer.”
“You want me to go this hospital, don’t you?” Jade shivered into Malcolm’s back.
Idiot. She understood exactly what he asked of her. “Yes.” Was he a total bastard to maneuver her into this? He tells Jade to lean on him, that he’d keep her safe, and now he manipulates her to travel so far from his side. “Morrison will survive without the cognitive skills to make life worth living or, if he’s lucky, he’ll be allowed to die. The child will have pain the rest of her life without her natural feet. It’s illogical, but I feel Jane Doe’s actions are our responsibility.”
“Jane did that?” Evan the naïve, shocked and still uncorrupted from his exposure to the color of evil. “Jesus. The kid’s only six years old. I can’t believe she’s so ruthless.”
“Sweetheart, the destruction in Arizona stopped five hours, thirty-two minutes ago,” Malcolm said. “If only our missing don’t imitate yellow, I’ve hope for resolution. You and I can’t handle her and survive. The authorities search for her corpse. I mustn’t leave Jane Doe unguarded to accompany you.”
“I’ll go with you, Jade.” Evan the eager burst with his desire to be included.
Malcolm should stop ignoring Evan, and wait for David to state the obvious. The child would gain confidence, if allowed to offer without being asked. Malcolm twisted to glower at the youth. “No. It’ll require finesse.” He turned from Evan the dejected and faced the hesitant steps closing the distance.
“I’m…um…familiar with hospitals.” A deep breath, gaze dropped, and David continued. “So is my dad. We could take you, Jade. Malcolm? Are there many like you—I mean, every color?”
“Not sure yet. Including me should have been seven of us. There’s no evidence that any non-visible portions of the spectrum were trapped.” Malcolm hid his amusement. The clever boy offered help, and then slipped in his request for information. How this child feared him. Yet another simple question David barely had the courage to articulate.
Another minute, and he’d have to slap the child and force his lungs to function. “It’d be a tremendous help,” he said, “if you’d escort Jade. My sympathies. I assume your mother’s the reason you dealt with hospitals.”
“Doyouknowwheresheis?” David blurted. His chest heaved.
Oh my—six mumbled words, and Malcolm finally understood.
Desperate anticipation radiated from the child blinking back tears, and Malcolm repressed his urge to shudder. David’s fear had a tragic foundation, much stronger than Malcolm’s prior brutality had inspired. He was David’s hope, his key to enlightenment concerning the dilemma of mortality. This terrified child assumed his impossible dream of being reunited with the one he loved would be crushed. Frozen in the indifference of an entity obsessed with trying to escape this world to return to wherever the hell or heaven he came from.
Malcolm beckoned David closer. The child obliged. David would move into any monster’s personal space to get his answer. Malcolm made sure his voice softened, so patient. “No. I don’t comprehend God, any religion, or the concept of an actual heaven. I don’t care to understand now. I do care that you miss her, and you’re willing to help us regardless.”
Malcolm’s stroke along David’s cheek forced calm, and David started breathing again. “Child, I give my word. When I have time, if I survive, I’ll help you research. But odds dictate there’s no evidence available to find her if she still exists on a physical level. I conclude she does survive within you. I don’t mean genetics. Share her with us, when you’re willing to talk of her. It’d comfort me, to learn of such love from you.”
One more caress, then a final third, numbed the flood of emotion. Malcolm flinched back. Perhaps being treated as an adult would give this grieving youngster courage. “I fear the hourglass,” he told David. “I sent a fax to the coroner’s office before I took Jane Doe, which they’ll eventually trace to this locale. Idiotic, but uncorrectable now. If you’re willing to go to this hospital, wake your father. See if he’ll accompany you.”
David smiled, wiped his face, and nodded. He childishly twisted his fingers in his shirt. Okay, in fairness, Malcolm assumed an adult wouldn’t use clothing to clean contaminated hands.
“No finesse, what does that mean?” Evan the incorrigible grumbled as David ran down the hall.
Distracted by Evan, Malcolm couldn’t move fast enough to avoid her. Jade struck and knocked him from the chair. Wretched monster. Jade sat down, in his seat, and scanned the hospital layout. Malcolm gave her a frozen glare before turning to…Evan the downcast.
The youth would be an easier fix than consoling a child with a dead parent, except the egocentric solution was the ultimate in stupidity. Malcolm the imbecile.
“Go home,” he told Evan. “Take your endless questions with you. Yet, this is most selfish. You’d leave me to deal with the ruthless one who needs ice. But your survival outweighs my bigotry. Bye.”
“How about I threaten you with hugs, if you don’t let me stay?”
Evan the ecstatic wouldn’t dare invade personal space, would he? Malcolm groaned, as if the man was the most exasperating thing in existence, and stepped away. “Shut up and cook more of those wretched eggs. Unless you managed to eat all of them. Find Aaron something, would you please?”
Evan the happy would end this label head-game Malcolm played. I can control obsessive thought behavior, oh yes, I can. He hovered over Jade, and snapped, “I’m faster. Move it.”
“Go away.”
Why expend energy contemplating smacking her? He glanced at Evan the stop it, getting more eggs from the refrigerator. “Your hand still hurts?” Right on cue, Jade stood.
“No, I’m fine. Why…” Evan grinned as Jade stepped toward him, and Malcolm sat in the vacated chair.
“You cold, miserable liar. I’ll throw you in with her.”
“Hey, Jade, none of that,” Evan said. “Use my laptop. You’ll make him cry if you force him from that computer. Um, Malcolm? You think Jane would be nicer if you didn’t name her after an unclaimed corpse?”
“What would you have me call her?” Interesting. A name did “color” one’s perception of the bearer. Could it be possible she’d be classified as a non-identity with the toe tag label? No. The bitch certainly had a well-defined personal
ity.
“I don’t know.” Evan slid the laptop in front of Jade. “Sunny? Janey?”
“The wretched light sustaining life on this planet doesn’t deserve our yellow to compare. Pick either APD or Narcissus, if a name change pleases you. I don’t care.”
“You should,” Evan said. “This is important. The names Jade and Jane are similar and that’s not fair to Jade. It also sounds weird when you keep adding Doe to Jane’s name. APD?”
Evan never failed to surprise Malcolm. Did he dare hope they wouldn’t be here long enough for Evan to understand an incurable mental disease? Anti Personality Disorder labeled yellow well, along with Narcissistic. He might as well maintain the sweet innocence named Evan. “APD, acronym for…a pretty daffodil.”
“Cool. Narcissus are those daffy yellow bulbs my mom plants. I like Narci.” Evan grinned and inched closer to Jade. “That okay with you? Narci doesn’t sound like Jade at all, and your name’s too perfect to change.”
“How will a different name make her nicer?” Jade whispered. “I don’t like how Malcolm says any name he calls…Narci.”
“Sweetheart,” Malcolm said, “forget our newly christened sociopath for now. Your ridiculous hair—could you remove it?”
“Nooo.” Evan’s mouth fell open. “Why don’t you braid it? I could figure it out. If I screw up, we’ll find a hat. It’s too beautiful to cut.”
Aaron entered from the hallway, the weary drag gone from his stride. Bleary-eyed, hair tousled, the tall man wore only boxers. David halted a polite distance from Malcolm.
“What are we not cutting?” Aaron yawned into the kitchen. “Malcolm, could I borrow some clothes, use your shaver?” Aaron shoved eggs into his mouth with the spatula directly from the pan.
“Take whatever possessions you desire,” Malcolm said. “They belonged to a dead man. Jade can’t remain so conspicuous. Go over her head with that shaver.”
Not the best of solutions, to use this father while another lay in a forced coma fighting for his life. Malcolm must trust Jade to the care of the competent humans who’d found her. And he’d wring her fearful neck if any harm came to this particular father and child. An intuitive deduction on his part, but surely Aaron wouldn’t sacrifice himself for sexual experimentation, at least not yet. Upon return, Malcolm would educate Jade.
In this present moment, he’d flip from the fiery side of the spectrum, and widen his search for paths that had yet to leave a trace of a news clip for him to find. The weight of four on his shoulders crushed him. He needed 445 and 400 nanometer, two days ago.
Indigo. Violet. Where, oh where, are you?
* * *
Aaron sighed. Malcolm had glued himself to the keyboard again, obsessed with finding the others. After what this Jane had done, Aaron vehemently wished he had the skills to help.
“I don’t understand why you’ll kill your hair.” Jade shivered and averted her gaze from the eggs. “It’s beautiful, so safe. I should do this shave also?”
She clutched Aaron’s arm, her other hand twisted in the black curls on his chest. He smiled at her. Even more terror would fill those eyes, if fingers wandered any further south. One last mouthful scraped from the pan, and he gave up on food. Evan stared with envy, David with concern. He’d give the boys something to do. Jade’s hand safely controlled in his, and David visibly relaxed.
“You’re much too pretty to need hair removed,” Aaron told Jade. “I’m only going to shave my face.” He turned to the lust-struck teen. “You know where there’s an open store? Try and find a black scarf or a hair tie thing. Get more bottled water, something for David to snack on. Need money?”
“Got some left,” Evan said. “But before I go, you guys think we should give Jane Doe a real name? Malcolm mentioned yellow flowers. Not Daffy for daffodils. That’s a duck’s name. But Narci for Narcissus.”
“Narci is a nice name,” David said.
Aaron doubted Malcolm had a spring bulb in mind. “Sure, Greek myths aside, maybe after we find these others and revive Narci we can ask her preference.”
Malcolm glanced at Aaron. “The syllables, Narcissus, don’t fall from my lips with a gush of nausea. A reminder not to underestimate the personality of our pretty flower is, as my liability would say, cool. Speaking of whom, Evan, why are you still here?”
“You want anything?” Evan asked.
“Only what I’ve desired since the second day of this wretched existence. Drop the bag outside. Don’t come in.”
Evan grinned. A wave goodbye and he tore out the door.
Minutes later, Aaron wore a pair of black dress pants, a pastel green dress shirt and no tie. Jade hadn’t nodded at any of the blue and grey selection. Jazzed, energized with the wonder of color, who needed more than a few hours sleep? Road trip, ready set go. He smiled. Jade’s long hair looked professionally braided. His young son, who sat too close to her on the couch, had many career options.
“My cell’s charge is low,” he said to Malcolm. “I forgot a car-cord. The plane would be faster, but paperwork and security are dicey.”
“Jade should drive.” Malcolm clicked the screen to another news site. “That vehicle in the garage will go over a hundred and sixty-five miles per hour and has radar. You’ll need to fuel.”
Aaron’s jaw twitched. “A hundred and sixty-five miles per hour? I drive, and we don’t get back until tonight, is that a problem?”
“Not fast, I know. If I adjusted the engine, I could increase capability, but the chaos in Arizona occupies me. On the other hand, if Richard Morrison’s condition worsens he’ll be taken off life support. And no, I don’t think Jade can raise the dead.” Malcolm glanced from the screen, and his smile lit those wonderful eyes. “When you’re back, we’ll experiment on Evan. So, car not plane?”
“Yep. But I’ll take the rental. Maybe you’ll succeed where no human has before and a teen listens, leaving you without a truck.”
“You could bring Evan, while David assists me.” Malcolm gestured Aaron closer.
“Nice try, but no.” Aaron tossed a grin to his blushing son. He peered over Malcolm’s shoulder at the message typed in blue font: Once connected with corpse removal, I may have to leave suddenly. 90% certain, authorities will destroy color in self-preservation or retaliation. If red/orange/indigo/purple are violent, human death count will be catastrophic. Unable to avoid capture, Narcissus-Jane Doe and Malcolm James should murder-suicide. Your thoughts?
Malcolm shifted his hands, freeing up the keyboard.
Aaron typed: What should I do if they try and take Jade?
“Evan just closed his truck door,” Malcolm said. “So much for toss the bag and go home.” Protecting David is your priority, but don’t let them touch her. Where’s your handgun?
Either Malcolm wanted the weapon to kill Narci then himself, or he wanted Aaron to shoot Jade as needed. Aaron typed: How can I leave the gun if you’d use it to escape this world? We’ll figure out your return. Keep Narci stunned until it’s safe.
“Want me to leave my revolver here?” he asked.
“Great idea,” Evan said, entering through the kitchen door. “Narci opens those eyes, I volunteer to use it. Got any silver-nitrate ammo?”
Aaron read: Take your revolver. To avoid Jade’s capture, empty the chamber in the heart and head. I don’t require a weapon. I’m sorry to place this responsibility
At the laptop, Evan drew a sharp breath, and Malcolm erased the messages.
“Get the taser and revolver, Evan,” Malcolm snapped. “I’ll lock you in with Narci. Hopefully, neither of you will come out.”
Malcolm’s frigid glare made Aaron yearn to grab the teen and run, and Evan wasn’t totally oblivious. He chose Aaron’s face to get into.
“What about metal detectors? Got a permit to carry a concealed weapon in New York? They’re pricks in that state, you know. You shouldn’t be going if the risk is that high.”
“Evan, calm down,” Aaron said. “This mission will succeed with—flying
colors.” He took the phone cord and adaptor Malcolm handed him. Aaron hadn’t been able to pull the trigger at Malcolm. How could the blue guy think he’d ever shoot Jade? “The revolver’s in the master bedroom, top dresser drawer. Be warned, Malcolm. Full spectrum socks protect it. Don’t strangle Evan. Have faith. You get help to beat reason into Narci, and we’ll save the day in Rochester.”
David tugged Jade up. The kid stood ready, their healer another story. Aaron crossed the room, and his smile morphed into a slobbering grin. He seized Jade, lifted, and blew a raspberry on her stomach—what a sweet giggle. Aaron tossed her to fall to her feet. “No worries from you either.”
Everyone smiled at the dreamy curve tugging at Jade’s lips. Aaron threw his arm round her. My angel—you boys go get your own.
“You’re one lucky guy,” Evan told Aaron. “She’s gotta be more my age.” He handed Jade a black scarf and brown barrette. Fascination flooded his gaze. “How old are you, anyway? Are you immortal, I mean, do you even age?”
“Evan, kiss her goodbye.” Malcolm abandoned the computer. “No lips. She’d electrocute you. Which isn’t, necessarily, a bad thing, aside from the stench of charred brain.” He handed David some printouts.
Aaron smiled. He assumed the schematics, printed in shades of blue, were of the hospital.
“Electrocute me?” Evan took Jade’s hand, kissed it and gulped. “It’d be so worth it.” He slapped David on the shoulder. “Keep tabs on the old man. Make sure his hair never stands straight up.”
“We’ve much to research when you return,” Malcolm told David. “And yes, pay attention. With already defective neurons, a father further scrambled isn’t the plan.”
Aaron snorted.
As David moved in to hug, Malcolm sidestepped. The look of alarm flashing across Malcolm’s face widened grins all around.
“If something happens, we’ll find you,” Aaron said. “You’ve a haven in San Diego.”
“Thank you,” Malcolm said. “Distressing, how I’ve come to rely on you. To think I yelled at Jade for doing that.” He turned to Jade. “Return safely.”
