Read The Strangers of Kindness Online

Authors: Terry Hickman

The Strangers of Kindness (7 page)

 
“But I couldn’t, not ever, now. I couldn’t understand why you seemed so . . .”

 
“What? Servile?”

 
That was the word but she hated it.

 
“Not much I wouldn’t do to avoid that trip. I’m no hero. And just think, my little bomb’s loaded with hundreds of them.”
 

 
He fixed his weary gaze on her face. “I’ve got an idea. Why don’t you take the kids to town for a movie, leave your unit with me.”

 
Her eyes got huge as his meaning sank in. “Theo! God! You couldn’t—?”

 
“Just one last instant of pain, you know? It’d be easy, right now.”

 
Winnie knocked at the door, carrying Sissy, who was still hiccuping sobs. Her childish voice was almost inaudible. “I’m sorry—hic! I didn’t mean to—hic! hurt you.” Her face crumpled and the tears started again. Boom-Bear showed damp patches.

 
Theo sat up. “Come here, Sis. Come on, honey, I’m not mad at you.” He pulled her up on his lap and hugged her. “It wasn’t your fault, Sissy. Hear me? It wasn’t. We should have been thinking. It’s an interesting-looking watch, isn’t it?”

 
“No!”

 
“Well, not now that you know, but when you first saw it, it was. We should have put it away. It’s. Not. Your. Fault. I’m not mad at you. You didn’t do anything wrong, sweetie. And I’m okay again. So it’s all right. Okay? Don’t feel bad any more. That’s an order, kid.” She looked up at him uncertainly.

 
“Hug?” he asked. She collapsed, squeezing Boom-Bear between them. Her baby-fine hair tickled his nose. His eyes raised to Jennifer’s. “Forget the movie.”

 
She smiled, relieved.

 
Surgeon poked his head in the door. “How’s the patient?”

 
Theo’s face went hard. “I’ll have that operation, Doc.” But he looked at Jennifer. “If that’s what you want, too.”

Jennifer had spent the time waiting for him to wake up, thinking in circles. Even if she could find someone to buy him who’d be good to him, there was no predicting what would happen later. He would live his life at other peoples’ mercy, waiting for the next “admonishment”. The word felt foul in her head.
 

There’d be nothing she could do, she wouldn’t even be able to keep track of him, and couldn’t help him anyway.

So when he asked, she said, “I’m game if you are.”

They took all the curtains, rugs and linens out of Theo’s bedroom, washed down the walls and surfaces, closed the window and taped its sash to seal out dust.

Jennifer had some medical supplies on hand, really veterinarian supplies for the livestock. She had rubbing alcohol, sutures and curved needles, several scalpels in sterile wrappers, bandaging materials.

By the next morning the room and equipment were ready. Surgeon kept a running conversation with Theo, telling him exactly what would be involved.

“You can back out any time up to the cut,” he said for the hundredth time. “It’ll hurt like a sonofabitch, we don’t have any anesthetic.” They’d concurred that getting him passed-out drunk would be a bad idea. If he vomited in the hangover it could rip out the stitches and maybe tear the jugular vein.

“It’s really a pretty simple, superficial operation,” he said again. “There’s not much between me and the tether. Skin, a little connective tissue, and the platysma muscle. That’s really thin, too. What makes it tricky is the location on the vein, of course. And I don’t know how they’ve got it secured. If there’s some kind of complicated net that’s had connective tissue grow up into it, we might have problems.”

He palpated Theo’s throat with gentle fingers. “See, it’s only about as thick as a pencil, and an inch and a quarter long. They didn’t need this bloody great gash to put it in, the butchers. My cut’ll just be half an inch, then I’ll have to make a little cut across the platysma, that’s maybe two, three stitches. With my extensions I can work in really little incisions.

“It’ll hurt, Theo, can you get your mind into somewhere else and leave your body relax? We’ll have to tie you down—if you flail around, you’re dead for sure. And fix your head so you can’t move it . . . but even just tensing up could blow it.”

“Got it covered, Surge. A long time ago I tried to memorize
Fahrenheit 451
. I’ll try to remember it.”

He sat in a chair next to the bed. A tray covered with a boiled towel held their instruments and suture-loaded needles. He’d washed his hands for thirty minutes, until they glowed red. He plugged in the extensions, and exercised them absently while he gathered the focus.

Theo’s head was fixed to the left, and Jenny sat where he could see her and she held his hand, bound to the bedpost. They’d tied a belt around his head and jaw to keep him from opening his mouth.

“Okay, Theo, you ready? You’re looking great, very calm, I can see your respiration’s slow and steady. Concentrate on keeping it that way when it hurts, and that’ll help you stay relaxed.

“Winnie, got your towels ready? Don’t blot till I tell you. You might have to get right into the incision if the blood pools.

“Jennifer, just keep him looking at you. If you get woozy, lay down on the floor for a bit. Don’t put it off; we don’t want you falling. Winnie’s helped me dig a bullet out of a guy, she’s a rock.” He grinned at Winnie and she tied a boiled bandanna over his nose and mouth. Now everybody except Theo had one.

“Buncha bandits,” he muttered through his teeth.

Ten painful minutes passed. Winnie daubed blood, but there was surprisingly little. Surge knew his vascular anatomy.
 

“There’s the little bastard,” he murmured. “Lovely. Okay, what’s holding it in place? Ah—very nice. We’re in luck, Theo. They’ve got one—two—three—looks like six little wires wrapped around the vein. This’ll be a cinch. You okay?”

Jenny, watching Theo’s face, said, “He’s fine.”

Surge’s extensions moved delicately. “Gonna fish around back here a little, Theo, it might hurt. There. And There. Oh, this is easy. These extensions are great. And five—and six, and there it is.”

Surge held up his prize for the girls. Jennifer controlled her expression with difficulty. The smooth gray plastic cylinder with its six wires now spread out, glistening with blood and serous fluid, resembled a large, nauseating insect. Surge plunked it down on the tray scornfully.

“Okay, sew-up time. Hang in there, Theo, this’ll hurt but we’re in the home stretch. You really have to stay calm and still here. I’m stitching the platysma now and it’s right against the vein. Okay, there’s the muscle back together. Jenny, help him out there, huh?”

Theo’s eyes streamed tears. She wiped them with a towel and took his hand again. “He’s almost done. It’s out! Just a few more stitches and you’re done. Free!”

When he was all closed up they put cold packs on the stitches to reduce the pain and swelling, and loaded him up with aspirin. Jennifer sat by the bed and he finally slept.

It was dawn when he woke.

“I’m starving.”

Jennifer shot upright, startled out of deep sleep. “Theo! You’re awake! What did you say?”

“I’m hungry. Got anything to eat?”

She got him oatmeal and milk and applesauce. He vacuumed it in and sheepishly held up the tray for more. She brought back soft eggs, and cinnamon toast soaked in milk, and orange juice, and that disappeared, too. She took the tray away and returned.

“So how’s the neck?”

“Sore as hell. But it’s getting better fast. That kid’s really something, isn’t he?”

“He deserves a lot better than he’s getting. They all do. Theo, I’ve had an idea . . .” She suddenly looked shy.

“And?”

“It depends on what you’re going to do now that you’re free. Do you know?”

“Nevada, I guess. Try for it anyway.”

“Have you thought . . . I mean, do you want . . . are you going alone?”

He took pity on her obvious discomfort. “You’re thinking the same thing I am. Maybe all of us try for Nevada? Take the kids? Heck, why not? I was wondering how I could stand to just dump ‘em back in the city. But they may not want to go.”

Her smile was guilty. “I, um, kind of approached them about it already. We’ve been getting ready. Curt’s studying my dad’s old atlas. It doesn’t show rail lines but he’s scoping out distances and landmarks. Surge is pretty familiar with the main yards down by the river. As soon as you’re stronger we can go.”

She looked around the room and her eyes misted. “I’ll miss this place, you know? I grew up here. But the country’s changed too much. I couldn’t keep it even if I stayed. Glen’s told me he’d build me a big house overlooking the golf course, as if that’d impress me. So I’m losing the homestead anyway.” She searched his face, grieving. “Tell me there’ll be something good to come, even if you don’t believe it, Theo.”

“But I do believe it. You think God gave Surge talent like that just to be wasted in a peanut field? And you . . .”

Surge opened the door. “Someone’s coming up the drive!”

The other kids and all their stuff were already in the basement behind the furnace, a plan they’d devised after Theo’s operation.

Surge fled down the basement steps and Jenny went out onto the porch, strapping on the tether control. As she’d expected, it was Glen.

“Morning, Jenn. How’re you this beautiful fall day?”

“What do you want, Glen?”

“Is that any way to talk to your betrothed?” He mounted the steps, invading her space. She stood her ground. “Heard about your troubles, Jenn. Wish I could say I was sorry but I know you’re going to be a whole lot better off with me. Where is the dirt-bag, anyway? You get rid of him already?” He tried to peer in through the screen door.

Before she could manufacture an answer, Theo came out the door. He’d pulled on his pants but otherwise all he wore was the bandage on his throat. Glen glared at him.

“Still here, huh? I’m surprised you’re not in prison already, you pervert.”

“I’m going to sell him and spend the money on myself,” Jennifer said aggressively. “I can do that right up until my 25th birthday, you—”

“Say, what’s with the bandage?” He stared at the wound dressing, Theo’s pallor and the dark rings under his eyes. Then he giggled, a greasy sound. “You give him a shot of that tether, honey? Hoo-ee, you’re a spunky little thing. What’d he do, try to rip it out? I heard they do that sometimes, it hurts so bad. Well, you run along and do something useful, dirt-bag, I’m talking to my girl.”

“I’m not your girl,” Jennifer growled. “And you better be careful. I’ve still got this control and he’ll do anything I say.” She glanced at Theo and was relieved to see he was picking up on her charade, advancing toward Glen with murder in his eye.
 

“Especially after yesterday. I do believe he’d kill you if I told him to, just to keep from getting another jolt.”

Glen’s face went from bully to coward in a blink. He eyed Theo uneasily. Theo looked fifty pounds lighter but had muscle, and Glen clearly figured that the fear of another tether-dose would make him deadly.

“You might want to work on your manners, Jenn,” he said, backing down the steps. “I’m coming back with the sheriff to cart that creep away.” From the far side of his car he added, “And you’ll be coming with me.”

“Just try it!” Jennifer called after him. “Pig.” They waited until he was out of sight before Theo leaned on her shoulder, and she helped him back to his room.

“Thanks for backing me up,” she told him, “Great acting.”

“Who was acting?” he muttered, but she’d already left to call the kids up from the basement. Everyone crowded into the bedroom.

“Well?” he said, “Tonight then?”

“Only if you stay in bed until then,” Surgeon said in his doctor’s voice. “We ought to wait another day, but if Jennifer keeps getting these visitors . . .”

“He’ll be back,” Jennifer agreed. “A world-class pest. Into bed, buster. We’ll finish packing.”

* * *

Fourteen hours later Surgeon’s suturing skill met the ultimate test. While Theo slept, Jennifer had obliterated the identification numbers on the tether and control unit with nail polish remover, put them in a little box, and taken them into town to mail them to an address in Vermont that she’d made up.
Let them track us there.

After dark they heaped extra feed in the barn for the hog and in the chicken house for the hens, and left the faucets dripping for the animals’ water. Theo picked up a loose coil of rope, “Just in case.” Then they drove into Omaha, ditched the truck behind the warehouse where they’d found the kids, and hiked to the rail yards.

Theo and Surge carried blankets in tight rolls. Jennifer and Winnie bore the back-packs stuffed with food. Curt and Joseph had canteens full of water. They all wore two shirts and a jacket. Surgeon carried an additional pack with an extra change of underwear for everybody.

Jenny had sewn the Come’N’Pick cash into the hems of the blankets and distributed the excess into everyone’s jacket pockets. She didn’t know if they could buy anything without attracting attention but, if nothing else, they might use it to get campfires started, or for bribes.

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