by Anson Barber
I woke up to bright light in my face. I squinted and blinked and then I felt the ache in my heart all over again.
I got dressed and went down to peek in Corey’s room first and then Emery’s. They were both still out.
I’d skipped at least two meals, so I went to the kitchen, starving. I started up some coffee and began making breakfast.
Adam came out while I was finishing the eggs and sausage. He poured some coffee and put bread in the toaster.
“Good morning.”
“Great morning,” he corrected, his face full of hope.
When the toast popped, I threw it on a plate before it burned my fingers. Adam was getting the ketchup out of the fridge.
I had to grab a third table setting when Trevor came out to join us.
“Something smells good.” Trevor tried to help out, though he mostly got in the way.
We were a silent bunch as we ate, each taking a different part of the paper. Adam took the business section and Trevor the sports. I took the comics. What can I say? I needed a laugh, or at least a chuckle. When the world almost ends, it’s comforting to know there’s still an orange cat out there who loves lasagna and hates Mondays.
Once finished and we’d cleaned up, I went to check on Em and Corey.
Emery was still out, but stable. Still, better than yesterday. Corey on the other hand was doing much better. His vitals on the monitor were close to those of a normal person. Pulse, blood pressure, temperature. It was all good.
“Hey, buddy! Can you hear me? You’re looking better. You feel warm. When you wake up, I’ll buy you a cheeseburger and French fries.”
At that second, his eyelids began to flutter. He made a little moan.
“Adam! Trevor!” I yelled and turned back to the boy. “Corey? Can you hear me? Corey?”
He opened his eyes. His eyes were blue, with white around the centers.
I laughed uncontrollably as Adam and Trevor walked in. “Your eyes are blue!”
“They are? Weird, I was born with brown eyes.”
Adam frowned. “You were?” I was afraid something had gone wrong.
Corey smiled weakly. “Just messin’ with ya.”
“You little jerk,” I said, smirking. “Are you hungry?”
He nodded groggily.
“For what?”
He looked around. The sun was streaming in through the glass. He got up and opened the window so it wasn’t coming through the UV filter.
“The sun.” He pointed and looked down at his exposed arms. Clear tears welled up in his eyes. “And I’ve got an uncontrollable hunger for…a Twinkie!”
I laughed. “I’ll go get you one!”
Adam began to look the boy over. Trevor was right behind him. The two threw around some fancy words and nodded, confirming whatever conclusions they had come to.
“She’s done it,” Trevor told Mr. Mitchell.
“What about Emery?” I asked.
“We’ve started a second transfusion,” Trevor said. “That should flush the remainder of the inert fluid out and allow her body to fully take over. It shouldn’t be long after that.”
I gave Corey a hug. Corey was okay. Emery would be okay. This was going to work. Everyone was going to be okay.
I drove down the road to the little store and bought ten Twinkies. The clerk seemed confused when I paid with a big smile plastered on my face.
“They’re just Twinkies,” he said.
I didn’t care. I was happy. Or at least I would be until Emery opened her eyes and saw Trevor with the big ring. How could I compete with that?
For a moment I contemplated buying her an even bigger ring, but even if I could afford it, that wasn’t the problem. She and Trevor had everything in common, and despite my jealousy I could see he was a decent guy. He was the right choice. He made sense. Emery and I didn’t.
I returned to the house with the Twinkies for Corey. He wasn’t in his room.
“Where is he?” I asked Trevor. He was back in the thinking room adding new ideas to the whiteboard.
Trevor smiled. “Where would you be in his shoes? He’s out on the deck enjoying the sun.”
I started down the hall to go out on the deck but stopped in Em’s room first. She looked like the sleeping princess again, waiting for the prince to break the spell. It was then that I realized I had a painful decision to make, and had already made it. I leaned down and kissed her lips.
“I’m sorry I’m not a prince, Em. I’m sorry I won’t be here to see you wake up. I hope you’ll understand. Good-bye. I love you.”
I left the room knowing I wouldn’t go back to see her again. My heart throbbed as I walked out on the deck.
“It’s hot out here,” Corey complained as I came out. Adam was there keeping an eye on him. “I’m sweating.” He smiled and wiped his brow theatrically.
“Poor you,” I teased him. “Is he a hundred percent yet, Adam?”
“He’s testing normal on all functions.”
“So when would he be ready to leave?” I asked, not making eye contact with either of them, though I could feel both sets of eyes on me.
“He could leave at any time, but—”
“Great. Get your stuff together, Corey. We’re going to be heading out soon.”
“Soon?” he asked.
“Yeah. You’re better. They know it works. That’s why I brought you here. They can take it from here.” I smiled, trying to make it sound like a good thing.
“Um…okay.” He tried to read my face, but couldn’t. He shrugged and left.
“If we’re going to announce this cure, we really should have the boy with us to demonstrate that it works,” said Adam.
“You have Emery,” I said. “And your research. I’m sure you recorded the whole thing on your security cameras, am I right?”
Adam nodded. “But still—”
“The media will be all over Corey, try to make him into some overnight celebrity, even though Emery tested it first. The kid just became normal again, he deserves a normal life, don’t you think?”
“I suppose.” Adam watched me. I think he knew there was more to it than that and waited for me to explain. I couldn’t. Instead I turned and followed after Corey.
Once we were in my room he said, “We’re really leaving now? Don’t you want to wait for your girlfriend to wake up first?” He looked baffled as he watched me pack.
“She’s not my girlfriend and we’ve got a long trip ahead of us. I need to find a place to live and then—where did I put my razor?” I looked around.
“Are you sure she’s not your girlfriend? I mean, you said—”
“We’re leaving,” I said, unable to discuss it further than that.
Corey stopped arguing and helped me bring my things down and load them in the van. The sooner the better. We were ready to roll in no time at all.
“I’ll just be a minute,” I told him while I ran back inside.
I found Adam in the lab finishing a phone call.
“Corey and I are going to get going.”
“She’s going to wake up soon. I’m sure of it.” He pointed down the hall toward her room.
“We have a long drive. I’m going to have to find some work since I’m effectively out of a job.” I smiled. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“You’re not even going to say good-bye? I’m sure she would want to thank you again for everything you did for her.”
I shrugged. “Can you tell her I said congratulations?”
“Why don’t you stay and tell her yourself?”
How could I get out of this? I couldn’t tell him that seeing that pink diamond on her hand would destroy me.
“Corey and I really need to go before you’re swamped with media or government agents or whatever. She will be busy enough as it is when s
he wakes up. She and Trevor will have a lot to do.” I looked away.
“I’ll make sure she calls you when she can.” He handed me a small tote bag.
“What’s this?”
“Your last installment. I told you I’d pay you another fifty thousand if she was successful.”
I shook my head. “Keep it and charge a little less for the cure.”
He all but forced the bag in my hands. “Don’t be foolish. This cure will be pro-bono—at least as far as the public is concerned. You helped give me my daughter back. We had an agreement. Take this.”
With a sigh, I took the bag and held out my hand to shake his.
“It was a pleasure. Take care of her, if she lets you.” I chuckled.
I gave him a final wave and walked out of the lab. When I passed through the living room to leave, Trevor was waiting by the front door.
“You’re going?” He looked a bit more relieved than disappointed.
“Yes. Corey and I have a long drive,” I said vaguely. Trevor nodded in understanding.
“Soon everything will be back to normal. Everyone will be able to go on with their lives. You’re a big part of that, you know. I don’t think you should forget that.” He held out his hand for me.
I shook it. “Just don’t hurt her again,” I said and opened the front door.
“I won’t,” he promised.
I paused on the front step. “Did she ever show you the commercial she was in when she was a little girl?”
His brows creased in confusion. “She was in a commercial? For what?”
I gave him a strained smile. “You should ask her to show it to you sometime.”
Corey was sitting in the passenger seat with his head out the window, feeling the sun on his face.
“Buckle up,” I insisted. “You don’t heal like you used to.”
“I’m okay with that,” he said as I pulled down the driveway.
We were on the road for a while before he finally spoke again.
“So now what?” he asked quietly. “Foster care?”
“No. I’m you’re legal guardian, remember?” I smiled as he looked up, studying my face.
“You mean it? I can stay with you?” His blue eyes were huge with excitement.
“Do you want to live with a grease monkey?” I didn’t really know the first thing about raising a kid, let alone a teenager.
“Hell, yeah!”
“Watch your language.” Maybe it would come to me, like an instinct. Maybe it already had.
“Sorry.”
“Are you going to give me any trouble?” I asked him the same question I’d asked when we first met.
Corey chuckled. “Well, I’m not going to say I won’t be any trouble. But I’ll try my best to be the least amount of trouble possible.”
“Fair enough. What do you think about settling down in Texas? Near Houston?” I asked.
“Texas is fine, but…”
“What?”
“I still don’t know why we had to leave so soon. I thought you liked that girl.”
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s complicated, or you made it complicated?”
“Trevor made it complicated. He’s going to ask her to marry him.”
“Isn’t he the guy who left her at the Outer Banks?” Corey asked.
“Yeah.”
“Aren’t you the guy who got her out?”
“It’s not that simple,” I said. “He’s a decent guy. They have a history.”
“You didn’t even give it a shot, Dillon. She may have picked you.”
“She wouldn’t have,” I said.
He looked out the window again. “You’ll never know.”
“Are we going to be talking about this the whole way?”
“No. I guess not. It’s just I wanted you to get the girl, ya know? Have the happy ending.”
“She’s going to be okay, you’re okay. That’s my happy ending.” I almost convinced myself about that.
“So what are we doing in Houston?”
“I’m going to buy a small house with a big garage. Then I’m going to teach you how to fix cars.”
“Cool.”
“You have to earn your keep somehow,” I kidded him.
He smiled and his fresh blue eyes sparkled as we got on the highway. Just when he thought he was safe, I dropped the bomb. “And you’re going back to school.”
“Aww. Come on!”
“Don’t aww me.” I pointed at him with my index finger. “Someday you won’t want to lose the girl to the smart scientist.”
“I don’t need to be smart, Dillon. Unlike you, I’ve got good looks on my side.” He winked at me and laughed. I rolled my eyes. I had a feeling I would be rolling my eyes a lot.
Chapter Nineteen
I bought a place in Aldine, close to where I grew up. I found it on the Internet, cheap.
Houston itself was still rebuilding. It was almost easy to forget what happened until you had to go into the city. Then the evidence was there, staring you in the face.
“The same thing happened after Katrina,” Corey said one day as we left the city. “Everyone else in the world was able to go back to normal, but I lived in New Orleans. Things didn’t go back to normal for a long time.”
I enrolled Corey in a local school as Corey McAllister. Taking my last name was his idea. He didn’t want to be reminded of his old life. I couldn’t say that I blamed him.
But before he could get in he had to be interviewed a couple of times. For now we didn’t mention that he had been a Haunt—the cure wasn’t public knowledge yet.
Before we’d left, the plan had been for Emery, her father and Trevor to take their findings to OBX’s research team and run some more trials in secret. After the riots, everyone would be wary of announcing something like this prematurely. They’d also want to have production of the cure well underway before it was announced, to prevent new riots trying to get at it.
So for now, Corey was just an ordinary kid, rather than the first Haunt in the world to wake up human again.
After the second interview with the school Corey told me I’d been asked to see the guidance counselor, Miss Smithson, for a private session. He waited in the van while I went back in and found her office. I knocked twice at her open door. She looked up and smiled with a flash of perfect white teeth.
“Come in, Mr. McAllister. Please have a seat.”
“Thanks.” I sat down and looked at her. She was still smiling at me.
“What can I do for you?”
“Excuse me?”
“Corey said you wanted to speak to me,” she explained.
I was confused. “Corey told me you wanted to speak to me. I assumed this was about the admission process?”
“Oh, no. We’ve accepted him. Though he still hasn’t selected his elective classes yet. I suppose I could give you the sheet for that.” She rummaged through her desk and brought out some papers.
“So you didn’t call me here?”
“No.”
“That little brat.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Nothing. I think he’s messing with me. Thank you.” I took the papers and stood to leave. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again. Corey has a tendency to get into trouble.” I joked.
She studied me a moment. “I can see the family resemblance. Same hair, same eyes, same dry sense of humor.” She gave me a smile. “You’re a good influence on him. He seems like a good kid.”
“He ain’t that good.”
I left and went to the van where Corey was waiting with a knowing smile.
“Not funny,” I said. After the first interview he’d slipped one of the teachers my phone number.
“Oh, come on! Miss Smithson is really hot, and I can tell sh
e likes you. She was eyeing you the whole time. I thought you’d like a chance to say hi in private.”
“She’s very attractive. But I’m not interested.”
“How could you not be interested? Her ass is perfect. I was looking forward to her spending the night and walking around in the morning in one of your shirts.” He laughed.
I raised my eyebrows at him. “You know, I’m starting to think you don’t care about what I want at all.”
“Of course I do. I mean, at least until I’m old enough to steal her away from you.” He punched my arm.
“Still not interested.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll give you more time to get over Emery.”
It had been two weeks, but the sound of her name still made me tense up. Corey noticed, but didn’t say anything. I pulled into the parking lot at the nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch. He pursed his lips and got out of the van.
Since he’d been cured buffets had become his favorite place to eat—trying out as many different dishes as possible. He spent the whole time with food in his mouth or going up to get more. I began to worry the owners might come out and ask us to leave after his sixth trip.
“Are you full already?” he asked me.
There were still two egg rolls on my plate. “Yes. I’m old.”
“Twenty-eight is not old.”
“I’m almost twenty-nine,” I pointed out.
“Right. Next week. So, what do you want for your birthday?” He rubbed his palms together.
“I’d like you to stop trying to fix me up with your teachers or guidance counselors.”
“Okay. But that only leaves the secretaries and janitors.”
I rolled my eyes and gave up.
He didn’t talk the whole way home. That was very odd for Corey. He rarely shut up for long. Something was on his mind, but I wasn’t going to force it out of him. I would wait until he felt like talking.
It only took a few minutes. “Dillon?” We weren’t even to the end of the road.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for being here for me.”
“Sure. No problem. Congratulations on getting back into school,” I encouraged like you’re supposed to do.
