My Lion Pharmaceuticals’ daily routine was to first check in with Leona Jennings. Most of the errands I ran each day came from her. Anyone in the building who needed me to do something called Leona, and she’d write it up on a blue slip. By 3:30, when I got there, she’d have them prioritized and arranged in the most efficient order.
Once when I walked in for my blue slips, Leona was still on the phone talking to someone while she was writing out a blue slip. “No, Carla,” she said into the phone, “he’s not doing that.” After a pause she laughed, “Sorry. He’s got his own work to do.”
“Was that an errand for me?” I asked.
She looked at me with the trace of a smile across her face, “No, unless you want to shop for an anniversary present for Carla Prisnell’s husband.”
“I don’t mind,” I said.
From behind me I heard one of those laugh bursts that seem to startle even the person who laughed. I turned quickly to catch Dixie, Leona’s assistant, clamping her hands over her mouth, as if to keep a second burst from escaping.
I looked back at Leona. “I do mind?” I questioned.
Leona gave me a quick nod and one of those looks that said, “Thank you for allowing me to keep you from being a fool.” She was probably the most-liked person at Lion and it wouldn’t surprise me if she kept half the people there from being fools.
Even Leona couldn’t keep James Benjamin from being a fool, though.
Thankfully, James Benjamin was rarely there when I’d arrive after school to pick up my blue slips. His office door was always closed, but I could tell when he was there because there’d be a different tone in the outer office. Leona and Dixie were hard workers whether he was there or not, but if he was around it’d be much stiffer. It was odd, too, because neither Leona nor Dixie ever joked, but when Benjamin wasn’t around the atmosphere around the two of them would be happy. On the other hand, Mr. Benjamin joked all the time, but the atmosphere around him was always stifled.
I walked in to Leona’s office one Friday afternoon, and James Benjamin was in front of her desk. He was sitting on the edge and holding my blue slips. “Mr. Lilla,” he sang as I walked in. “A quick word if you don’t mind.” He pointed at his office and headed there without checking to see if I was following.
I didn’t want to follow him, but I did. Mostly I didn’t want to follow him because he annoyed me, but I especially didn’t want to follow him because he acted like there was no possible way I wouldn’t.
“Sit down,” he ordered.
“Is this going to take long?” I asked.
“It will take as long as it takes,” he said and laughed. “Are you in a hurry?”
I pointed at the blue slips in his hand. “I’ve got work to do.”
“You mean this?” he said, waving the blue slips. “I can get a monkey to do this.”
A monkey, you say. I didn’t know your mother worked here. That’s what I wish I’d said, but the truth is that I didn’t even think of it until later.
He put the blue slips down on his side of the desk and held out both hands, palms up, gesturing for me to sit.
I sat.
“I found something interesting,” he said, opening the middle drawer of his desk. He took out a cell phone and tossed it to me. “Recognize that?”
It was my phone—the phone I lost the night of my first encounter with the wolves. I knew I had dropped it in front of the building, but that was three years ago and Riley had checked the lost and found the next week, so I had assumed it was long gone.
“It’s yours, isn’t it, Mr. Lilla?”
I nodded yes. There was no reason to deny it.
Sitting back in his chair, he folded his hands across his middle and rocked. “I wonder what we should do about this?”
I just looked at him. It didn’t feel like a question I was supposed to answer.
“Do you know where we found that?”
“No.”
“It was by the David statue in the circle in front of the building. Were you there?”
“I go by there every day,” I told him. I knew I was lying. I could feel it in my stomach.
“Cute,” he said. “Do you know when we found it?”
“Yesterday,” I guessed, although I knew when he had found it. I was confused about why he was bringing it up now.
“‘Yesterday,’” he sang, “‘all your troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as if they’re here to stay. Oh I don’t believe it was yesterday.’”
When he finished he grinned at me like I was supposed to be impressed, but I was just confused.
“It’s a Beatles song,” he declared. “It’s famous.”
The door to his office opened behind me. “Were you singing ‘Yesterday’?” asked Mr. Lyons.
Mr. Benjamin scrambled clumsily to his feet.
“Well, Jasper,” Mr. Lyons said, patting me on the back. “How is it that you’re getting serenaded?”
“Just lucky, I guess,” I said.
“I’ve heard his singing,” said Mr. Lyons. “I’m not so sure I’d call that luck.”
Mr. Benjamin was the only one who laughed.
“Jim,” the King said, “talk with me a minute, will you? I’ve got a legal matter we need to discuss.” He put his hand on my shoulder and said, “You don’t mind, do you, Jasper?”
“No, sir.”
“Good man,” he said as I stood up. I started to stuff my old phone in my back pocket.
“I’ll take that,” snapped Mr. Benjamin.
I hesitated, hoping Mr. Lyons would intervene, but he was looking at a file. I handed the phone across the desk.
“We’ll pick this up where we left off,” Mr. Benjamin said in a syrupy, cheerful voice as he handed me the blue slips.
As I closed the door behind me I heard Mr. Lyons say, “It’s another personnel lawsuit.”
Thirty-Seven
My Smeller
They took me to the hospital. They thought it was a heart attack. It turns out it was just a panic attack. I was pretty out of it at the time, but I heard the nurse tell my mother, “It’s just a panic attack.” I can tell you this,it’s notjust a panic attack if you’re the one having it. I had never experienced anything like it before, nor had I ever seen my mother so worried.
It all started after I left Mr. Benjamin’s office. I didn’t even look at the blue slips. I just went straight to Wally’s lab. I was a little shaken up, and I thought being there would calm me down.
Boy, was I wrong. What I remember was walking into the lab and feeling like I couldn’t breathe. What I’ve been told is that I walked into the middle of the lab and then I swayed back and forth and did a backward header onto the floor.
The next thing I knew was some EMT guys were putting me on a gurney. It felt like my heart was going to punch its way through my chest, and I couldn’t breathe. I remember thinking, I’m too young to have a heart attack.
On the way home from the emergency room, Mom said, “I was going to tell you to quit that job of yours.”
“‘You were going to tell me to quit,’” I repeated. I wasn’t sure I had heard right.
“I was,” she said. “And I still might. I thought it was the stress of working for that vulture, but Wally thinks he knows why this happened.”
“He’s not a vulture, Mom.”
“You don’t know. You’re protected where you work, but most of the people who work there are not.”
“Wally’s okay?” I said.
“Wally has skills that are valuable to them right now, but I’m afraid that once they feel like they have him, they’ll treat him like he’s an expendable asset.”
“Does Wally think that?”
“Not yet,” she said. “And I hope he never does, but plenty of the people who’ve worked there do think that. And for good reason.”
The conversation was making me dizzy. Or maybe it was what they gave me at the ER making me dizzy. Whatever it was, I knew I was in no shape to continue this debate w
ith her. My head sort of plopped back against the headrest.
“Tired?” Mom asked with a chuckle.
“No,” I said, but more because it was still daylight than because it was true.
“That’s okay. I’m taking you home, and you can go to bed. They said you’d probably want to go to sleep after all the medicine they gave you. You’ll be fine for school tomorrow.”
Just before I went to sleep, she told me, “Wally’s going to run some tests on you tomorrow, and if it turns out like he thinks, then you can keep your job.”
* * *
The next morning when I walked into the kitchen, the whole family except Wally was there.
“How’s the head, sporto?” asked Carol. She was sitting at the table with a wedge of frittata in front of her.
“What could happen to that head?” snorted Aunt Maggie. Then she laughed and turned back to the stove.
“You slept like a log last night,” Mom announced and then said, “I checked on you several times.” Mom had been sitting at the end of the table, but she stood up as soon as I came in.
“I heard you bounced when you hit the floor,” said Carol.
“Sit,” ordered Mom. She had pulled a chair out and tugged on my elbow to direct me down.
I wasn’t all the way down before Aunt Maggie put a wedge of frittata at my place. There were also two pieces of toast with strawberry jelly already spread on them.
“Hungry?” asked Mom at the same time as Maggie said, “Eat.”
I didn’t know how hungry I was until I took the first bite, but as soon as one bite was in me, I vacuumed up the rest of it. So far I hadn’t uttered a word, but it didn’t seem like they needed me for the conversation anyway.
They left me alone for a few minutes while I ate.
“Slow down, Jasper,” said Mom.
Carol added, “You’re wolfing your food.”
When I finished, I pushed the plate away and looked up. Mom and I were alone. “You okay?”
I actually thought about it. “Yeah,” I said. And I was.
“Good,” she said. Then she stood up, stooped over me, and kissed me on the forehead. I smelled honeysuckle again.
“Mom, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course. What’s on your mind?”
“Yesterday, when we were talking about Lion Pharmaceuticals, you said I was protected. What did you mean?”
She brushed her hand over my head. “You were pretty out of it yesterday.”
“But I heard you say that. I remember it.”
She smiled. “I’m sure I said something that sounded like that, but honestly, I can’t think of what I might have said that could have sounded like that to you.”
I didn’t push it, but I heard her say it. I was sure she was referring to Leona and was protecting Leona’s identity, so I never brought it up again.
“I have to run,” she said. “Wally said to tell you when you go to work today to go directly to the small lab. He says you know where that is.”
I nodded that I did.
“Wally’s got it all arranged, so don’t worry about your normal routine. He’s got it covered.”
* * *
I still went directly to Leona’s office when I got to work.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I studied her more closely. I thought I could see that she’s my protector in her eyes, but she was way too clever for that. I tried grinning at her. I thought it would be like I was saying, “I know, and I want you to know I know,” but she looked at me like she thought I was still dingy from yesterday.
“Are you sure you’re ready to be here?” she asked, this time with her forehead all scrunched up.
“I’m okay,” I told her. “They told me not to do the blue slips today.”
She nodded. “Us, too. Dixie’s taking care of it now. I think you’re supposed to be in the little lab.”
“I am,” I said. “I’ll be back tomorrow though.”
“Don’t push it,” she said. “By the way, we moved your desk from Dr. Beery’s lab to the security office.”
“Why did you do that?” I’m sure I sounded more desperate than I intended, but I really didn’t want to be stuck in that office. Hanging out there for short periods was one thing, but being there all the time was another. Those guys still creeped me out, and they used more Axe cologne than my whole high school.
* * *
“It’s possible you’re an synesthete,” Wally told me when I asked him.
“I’ve never even been to Cincinnati,” I said.
“Good one,” he said before clearing his throat. I think he thought I was trying to be funny. I wasn’t.
“A synesthete is someone with synesthesia. That’s a condition in which your senses get crossed. Some synesthetes can taste what they see or smell what they hear. It can be pretty unbalancing. I had an experiment going in the lab the day you fainted. There were a lot of strong odors in the room.” He zoned in on me with his eyes. “I think the smells were too much for you.”
For the next half hour he ran me through a series of tests, but in the end he decided I wasn’t a synesthete at all. According to Wally, I have an extremely acute sense of smell. That means I can smell things others cannot. It also means I can get overwhelmed if there are too many smells. Wally says he’s seen it once before, but not as bad as with me.
“That’s why we moved your desk from here to the security office,” he said.
I told him, “I can’t stand all that Axe cologne.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Wally said.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean you’re the only one who thinks their cologne is excessive,” said Wally.
I was stunned. “Wait a minute. Do you mean it’s not overpowering to you?”
He nodded his head no.
That’s when I believed him.
Then he had me go to a part of the lab where they did testing. “I just want to try something,” he told me. “I want to test your olfactory range. Are you okay with that?”
“Sure, I guess.”
For the next hour he had me smelling different things. First he had me smell the inside of ten test tubes. Each one had a stopper and was labeled 1 through 10. I also smelled the contents on ten jars with screw-on lids. Each one of these was labeled A through J.
Once I had smelled everything, Wally told me to match the smells in the test tubes with the smells in the jars.
Right away I knew that test tube number 10 went with jar D. I picked them up and handed them to Wally.
His eyes got big. “That’s great,” he said, “but this isn’t a memory test. You can smell anything as much as you need.”
It took me twenty more minutes to finish, and I was pretty sure I had matched them all. It was actually pretty easy to match them. The hard part of the test was smelling the stuff in the test tubes as much as I needed. Some of the smells were pretty raunchy. The good thing was that the raunchiest smells were also the easiest to find their match.
“How’d I do?” I asked as Wally looked at his clipboard.
He put the clipboard down. “Ten for ten,” he said.
“Great. Is there a prize?”
“There should be,” he said.
I had been trying to be funny, but he was more serious than I expected.
“What is all that stuff?” I asked.
“You just matched ten diseases and poisons to their antidotes.”
“Is that good?”
“That is incredible, Jasper. Simply incredible. I did an internship in a lab in San Francisco, and they had a guy who got six out of ten of those correct. That was great. You got ten out of ten. That’s unheard of.”
“Is that a big deal?” I asked. I could tell it was a big deal to him, but to me it just meant I could tell what cologne the security guys were wearing and what flavor of lip gloss every girl at my high school wore.
“It means,” he said, looking more serious than eve
r, “that you can help me find cures for diseases.”
Thirty-Eight
Riley
We were sitting in a booth in Canyons in Blowing Rock. It’s a little far to go for a burger and a Coke, but the view is incredible, and I knew Riley would love it. It was the first place I drove us to when I first got my license. I had asked her to go there for dinner, but she said we’d need to make it lunch and she’d need to drive. I didn’t find out why until later.
“It’s like we’re sitting on top of the Continental Divide looking at Kansas.” That’s what she said when we waited for our burgers to come. I doubt we could see Kansas, but she was right about the Continental Divide thing. I know because I looked it up when I got home.
That day, she was proofreading an English paper I had written on Catcher in the Rye, and I was checking her geometry homework. As near as I could tell, her homework was fine. She didn’t need my help at all. I didn’t exactly need hers either, because Carol had already made it bleed with her red pen. Riley was unaware of that, though, because in her hand was a pre-Carol version of my paper. The last thing I wanted was for Riley to think I didn’t need her.
“I’m not surprised,” said Riley when I told her about my nose. “Look at it.”
Both my hands flew to my face to hide whatever she was referring to.
She laughed so hard that it threw her head back an inch or two. I remember thinking how perfect her teeth looked when she laughed like that. I also noticed that I didn’t care that her breath was a tiny, wee-little-bit stinky. I enjoyed it anyway.
“There’s nothing wrong with your nose,” she said when she stopped laughing. “It was fun to make you jump, though.”
I took another bite of my Drive-In Burger.
“So tell me,” she said, leaning over the table, “what happens next?”
“I don’t know,” I said, and I really didn’t know. “He just said I could help him cure diseases.”
“You can do that just by smelling things in test tubes?”
“Maybe. Wally says that since poisons and antidotes are related, diseases and their antidotes are too, sometimes. It’s not a sure thing, but if they are related, then maybe I can smell the connection faster than he could test the connection.”
Jasper Lilla and The Wolves of Banner Elk Page 12
