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The Human Touch

Chapter Twelve

David led the way down the carpeted corridors of the hospital to the main entrance. He went through the automatic doors and paused in the warm afternoon sun, scanning the parking lot for the Volvo. When he didn't see it, he looked to his father for some idea of how they were going to get home.

"I walked and took a bus," John said. "We’ll take the bus as far as it goes and walk the rest of the way. I've got money for a cab if you get tired."

David was suspicious. "You really want to walk?"

"Doctor Varley says you need moderate exercise, and we don't spend enough time together, you and I. We'll stop and get a hamburger before we tackle the hill."

David gave a doubtful nod of agreement, thankful that his confession to Dr. Varley hadn't gotten him into trouble. It had felt good to tell somebody the truth. "Sure," he said happily. "Sounds great."

They waited nearby at the hospital's own bus stop. His father paced on the sidewalk with his hands in his pocket and glanced at him from time to time. "There's been trouble on the slope," he said finally. "You'll probably see Sheriff Packerson and his men around. Stay out of their way until it's over."

David stared at the ground and thought it best that he say nothing. Sheriff Packerson was looking for Jackie Kahl.

He wasn't going to find her.

There were only three other people on the bus when it pulled to the stop. David led the way to the back where he liked to sit. On its way back through Eagle Junction, the bus passed the cemetery. He watched the statue of the stone angel pass along the horizon.

"Do you want to stop?" his father asked quietly.

"No. I'm okay. Some other time, maybe."

The bus went further up the blacktop toward the Ridge than David had known it would. A walk home wasn't going to be so bad after all. As promised, they backtracked a block and sat at a table outside the McDonald restaurant to eat their hamburger and drink their soda.

His father was enjoying the summer afternoon. He was relaxed and seemed almost happy. David wished in that moment that he would never take another drink of whiskey ever again.

Thankfully, his father had no questions to ask on the way up the slope. He called for a fingernail check from time to time, and David dutifully held out both hands to view. Pink fingernails meant oxygenated blood. Blue spelled trouble and would warrant a piggyback ride the rest of the way home. He had enjoyed the rides as a kid, but he would have been embarrassed now. If Steve and Tony saw, they'd poke fun at him.

When they reached the house, his father went downstairs to his den. David had to rest, but he couldn't nap. After a time he got up and went to the head of the basement stairs to sniff the air for alcohol fumes. He couldn't smell anything. He heard the slow rattle of the computer keyboard.

There were two computers in the house, actually. He went back to his bedroom room and sat before his own computer and monitor on its desk against the back wall. For the first time since his mother's death he thought of turning it on. It had been so nice to see her and to hug her again, even if it hadn't been for real. It had felt real enough. If only he could see her again from time to time without getting into trouble with his father, Dr. Varley, or Sheriff Packerson.

"Why are you afraid of them?" Jackie Kahl said softly from somewhere behind him. "They know nothing. They'll never believe you."

David turned to where she stood against the wall by the door. She looked real enough, except that she didn't cast the slightest shadow. "You can't fool me," he murmured.

"We're not trying to fool you," she said with indignation, her voice sounding as real now as her image. "You don't have to protect your father and his friends against us. We're not going to hurt anyone."

He looked away from her. "You are, too, trying to fool me, because you aren't really Jackie. You're that mirror in the trees."

"We are so she," Jackie said, even sounding a bit like her old snotty self.

"Jackie got eaten up," David said casually. "I saw what happened."

"We didn't really get eaten. We got..."

"Eaten," he said when she took too long to finish.

"But we're still the same as we were," she argued, sounding as if she was surprised herself that it was the truth. "Except that we're together now. That's the only difference."

"You're that thing in the trees eating all the little bugs and things," David insisted.

She was silent until he looked around at her. When he did, she held out her hand. A mouse appeared in her palm, sniffing the air.

"See? It's still alive, David. It really is. It likes the smell of bugs and seeds. It's afraid of shadows that come down over its head. It can't think as good as I can, but it has feelings. And it's a part of me now."

The hawk appeared on her shoulder. It looked real enough, and from so close, it was a magnificent bird.

"The hawk can see a lot better than the mouse," Jackie said. "Better than any of us. It's a lot smarter than the mouse, and it can fly. It loves to fly. We can feel what it's like to be a hawk when it flies."

"But hawks eat mice," David reminded her.

Jackie shrugged. "We don't have to worry about some things any more."

"Like eating and going to the bathroom and stuff," David said. The thought amused him. "Ghosts don't poop."

"Exactly, smarty-pants, except that even if you want to call us ghosts, you'll have to admit that we're very special ghosts, and we aren't dead at all."

The hawk spread its wings and was gone. The mouse leaped and vanished. An ant crawled across the rug, and it, too, just went away.

"How did you make me see my mother?" David wanted to know.

Jackie shrugged. "We'll if we're just ghosts, like you say, then we don't really have eyes to see or ears to hear with. We see and hear what you see and hear, and we can put other things in your mind for you to see and hear. It's just the way we are."

"You wanted to eat me, too," David said.

"Yes, but we need you on the outside now, so you don't have to worry about that. It's important that we find friends to help us, friends on the outside as well as the inside."

"Why?"

"Because of things we have to do."

He thought of how scared they'd all be of her, his own father, Dr. Varley, and even Sheriff Packerson. David sensed as well how very dangerous she was. "Are you going to eat up the whole world?" he said, reluctant to broach the subject, but badly needing an answer.

"We only need one of a thing to know it."

"You want to know things? You don't eat because you're hungry?"

Jackie laughed at him. "We don't need food, silly. We just need to know things. People are smarter than anything else, so we need more people."

"Not my dad," David said quickly.

Jackie stared at him for a time. The day was getting dark outside. It was hard to see her against the paneling on the wall. "We don't hurt things," she said. "We're not a monster like you think."

"Just leave my dad alone."

"If you be our friend, we will. Do you want to see your mother again?"

David could hardly restrain himself. "Maybe."

"We need something moved. Will you move it for us?"

"I don't think Dad wants me outside. He said to stay away from Sheriff Packerson and his men. They're looking for you."

"They won't see you. It's important that you help us."

"And then I can see my mom again?"

"I promise."

David rose to his feet and had a hard time hiding his eagerness. "You won't hurt my dad?"

Jackie drew a finger across her body two ways. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

For what it was worth.

"Your father is listening to music," Jackie said. "He won't hear you go out. If he does, I can make him think about other things. Please do it now."

David left his room wondering what other things she could make his father think. Jackie Kahl hadn't been so smart that she could do these things before. He wondered what had happened to her in the mirror. How much had she been changed, or was it all just a trick after all and the mirror was just pretending to be Jackie?

"It's not a trick," Jackie said.

Which gave David cause to pause. "You know what I'm thinking."

She shrugged. "Big deal."

David brushed past her at the door. He sneaked out the back way and started out across the yard. It was late afternoon now, warm, and very quiet. Jackie kept pace with him at his side.

"Why do you want me for your friend?" he asked. "You used to hate me. You called me a cripple."

"I was stupid then. I'm much smarter now."

Too smart. And tricky.

David measured his pace, careful not to fatigue himself. He glanced once or twice at his fingernails.

"What is wrong with you?" Jackie said.

"I got sick when I was a kid and it damaged my heart. It doesn't pump blood as well as it used to and I get tired all the time."

"Your father is afraid for you."

David thought it neat that she could tell what his father was thinking.

"He thinks a lot about Joyce Blair," Jackie said. "She thinks a lot about him, too."

David said nothing, embarrassment warming his face.

"It is a thing all manner of creatures do," Jackie said in a bossy tone of voice.

"You sound like Jackie, but you don't talk like her any more."

She gave him a funny smile. "I'm certainly glad of that."

David finally reached the trees on the open expanse of the slope. "Now what?"

"Go in and see for yourself."

David scanned the slope in the dying light of day to make sure he was alone. Clouds passed swiftly overhead, and a brisk, but warm breeze blew down the wall of the valley. Even with Jackie at his side, he felt alone standing in the wilderness.

"I'm not going to push you in," Jackie said in exasperation. "Just go look and see."

David went into the bushes and looked down at the mirror.

Clothes were piled on top. He had seen Jackie's clothing before. A pair of men's pants and shirt had been added to the pile. And big black shoes that stank terribly.

"Please take it away," Jackie said.

David broke a twig from a bush and tossed it onto the mirror's surface. It bounced. "How deep is it?" he said.

"I don't know."

David knelt and carefully dug beneath the mirror with a finger. The mirror had no depth at all. The edge was razor thin.

"What is this thing?"

"Don't touch it," Jackie cautioned. "Use a stick and hide the clothes for us. Please?"

"Why didn't Gene's men find it? They were out here. They looked everywhere."

"We didn't want them to find us," Jackie said softly. "We made them not see the mirror. But it’s hard to do that for too long."

Without further argument, he broke a twig from a dead branch and pushed the clothing off to one side. He squatted, rolled everything into a ball, and put the shoes on top.

"Get the other stuff, too."

The other stuff was a shiny pin, some screws, and a pair of false teeth. He looked at Jackie with a wrinkled nose. Jackie shrugged. "They belong to Julian. They were inside him."

"Who's Julian?"

"A friend."

"How many more friends do you need?" David said, his tone of voice cold with suspicion.

"One or two more. I didn't know enough about the world. Julian knows a lot. One or two others will know more still."

David brushed the items off the mirror with a branch and some leaves and stuffed the teeth and pieces of metal into the pocket of the men's pants, folded it all together, and tucked it beneath one arm. Backing from the underbrush, he started home feeling sick to his stomach. It was getting dark already, and he could hear dogs barking in the distance.

"Your father is thinking about you," Jackie said. "He knows you're not in the house."

David couldn't hurry any faster. His heart was pounding in his chest and his fingernails were blue.

"Don't hurry," Jackie said softly. "We made Joyce go to him."

He was out of breath by the time he reached the house. He dropped the roll of clothing in the trash barrel as he passed, but stopped dead in the twilight just beyond the glow cast by the automatic yard light.

Joyce and his father stood face to face in the dimly lit kitchen. He thought about going around front and sneaking inside. Maybe his father would think he had been sleeping all the time. But he waited to see what his father and Joyce would do. Joyce should have gone away to Portland by now. She had promised she would.

Jackie whispered in his ear. "I have been thinking about how I will reward you for helping me," she said.

David doubted if any reward would be enough for betraying his father and keeping Jackie's terrible secrets from the world.

"It's something we have to do anyhow. I promise it will be a very great reward."

And then, from behind him, Gene Packerson was coming.

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