“I didn’t think so at first,” Ellen said. “But I think Jenny can …”
The click-click of the door, silenced Ellen and Jenny’s slipped out, puling the door closed.
“Whew.” Jenny fixed a strand of her hair. “This is going to be tough. I don’t know how we’re gonna make it through tonight with her. Maybe corner off a section of the woman’s locker room.”
Joe didn’t understand ‘Is she violent?”
“No,” Jenny asked. “She is strange around people. When she is approached she freaks.”
“Freaks?” Joe asked. “Explain freaks. Thrashes. What?”
“Screams.” Jenny said.
Joe nodded once. “Screams.”
“Loud. Shrill.” Jenny held her hears. “Horrible. She didn’t scream with me. But with Richie ...”
“And Gemma,” Ellen added “Gemma is in my office upset.”
Jenny whispered “She thought it was her Zing-Zings. But it wasn’t.”
Frank asked. “What’s a zing-zing?”
Jenny replied, perky. “Oh! They’re Gamma’s new creation.”
“I heard about those,” Henry said. “I can’t believe she gave them to the child first. Then again. I heard she is special.”
“What exactly is a zing-zing?” Frank asked. “Cake. Cookie.”
Disgusted Joe turned to him. “Why do you care?”
“Dad, I like treats. If it’s a new one I want one.”
“They’re tasty little cream filled chocolate cakes with white icing. Yummy.” Jenny smiled. “Julie loves them. She must have been starving, she was just scoffing them right up.”
Creed cleared his throat. “She ate before I brought her here.”
“Oh.” Jenny blinked. Looked at the door. “Oh.” She brought her finger to her mouth. “Anyway, I did give her a dress it doesn’t took right. Gemma said she’ll fix it, but Julie wont’ let her in. She screams that horrible scream.”
Dean smirked. “It can’t be that bad. She’s a child.”
Ellen and Jenny looked at him.
Henry raised his hand. “May I Joe? I’m very good with kids.”
Dean laughed. “No, you aren’t.”
“Shut up Dean.”
Joe held out his hand. “Be my guest.”
Henry opened the door. Just slightly.
Scream.
It was all of what Jenny said and more. Glass shattering, almost demonic.
Henry shut the door.
The scream stopped.
“Oh my God.” Dean couldn’t stop laughing.
Creed looked at Dean. “It’s disturbing. We resorted to putting her in the last car of the train.”
“Fuck,” Frank wisped out, grabbed the door, and opened it.
Scream.
Slam.
Silence.
“Fuck.”
Henry tried to door. Opened it, the scream emerged. He shut it. “That’s sort of amazing.” He opened the door again.
“Stop it.” Joe halted Henry when he tried the last time. “This is ridiculous.” Joe grabbed the door. No sooner did it open, and Joe stepped inside. The girl screamed again. “Knock it off!” Joe blasted.
She did.
Zing-Zing cakes were not easy to make, and they were deemed the newest Beginnings delicacy. Gemma herself declared a personal war against Bowman, stating that Beginnings could out do anything they did.
Hence the Zing-Zing cakes.
Gemma was being generous, bringing over a dozen of the cakes, thinking for a child it would last a bit.
Gemma was wrong.
Julie withheld screaming. She tightly closed her mouth, causing folded of her puffy cheeks around the corners of her lips. Her face smeared with Zing-Zing chocolate as an empty plate perched in front of her.
She widened her eyes, shifting them from person to person in that dining room. Joe wasn’t in there very long, enough time to realize she wasn’t speaking to him. He pointed to each and every person and instructed Julie to not scream at any of them.
Then Joe left the dining room, leaving the task of getting through to Julie to those who wanted to try.
In the meantime he cleared out the spectators, informing them that they’d just have to wait.
“Meeting in the skills room, fifteen minutes,” Joe informed Frank, Creed, Ellen and Jenny. “And get Richie.”
“What about my people?” Ellen asked. “It’s puzzle time.”
“Tell them to have puzzle time in the men’s quarters,” Joe said. “I’ll get Robbie to hang in there with them.”
“Okay, we never had a meeting regarding a survivor before, why now?” Ellen asked.
“Ellen,” Joe said annoyed. “Just do as I say, please.”
“Ouch. Who said Hitler died decades ago” Shaking her head, Ellen walked to the skills room.
“Did she just call me Hitler?” Joe pointed wit is thumb.
Frank shook his head. “No, she was talking about him dying.”
Joe’s head cocked and turned to the sound of the containment residents screaming. “What in Christ’s name?”
Soon the boom of the door rang out as it slammed in a violent opening, and a rush of containment resident raced down the hall and into the men’s room.
Ellen stood at the other end of the hall “All clear.”
Joe walked down the hall. “What the hell did you tell them?” he asked Ellen.
“When I said you were coming, they grew frightened, but when I mentioned Frank was with you and was coming in to teach unless they hurried to the men’s quarters, they ran.”
Joe nodded impressed, “We’ll have to remember that technique,” And then went inside.
Hal paced, looking at his watch. “What in God’s name is taking Dean so long? He’s been in there fifteen minutes? I have to head back to Bowman, finish some things and get back to town tonight for Confessions.” He noticed Frank immediately looked at him. “No. Don’t. No comments about me being a priest.”
“You’re not.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you hearing confessions? Frank asked.
“Because I’m celibate like a priest.”
“Oh,” Frank nodded. “Makes sense.”
Hal’s mouth parted slightly. “No it does not.”
“Hal,” Joe looked up from his folders “Have a little patience. Why don’t you go? We’ll fill you in.”
Ellen spoke as she looked at Frank’s publicity photos. “I don’t understand why we’re having a meeting about Julie anyhow.”
Henry leaned over Ellen’s shoulder. “Neither do I.” He pointed to a picture. “This is my favorite.”
“Mine too.” Ellen held it up. “Can I have this autographed Frank?”
“Absolutely.” Frank winked.
“Thank you. I’ll hang it on my office wall. You look so handsome in this picture.”
Hal gasped. “My God, what is wrong with you people? It’s the same pose.”
“No it’s not,” Ellen said. “Look at his eyebrow in this one.”
Hal tossed out his hands. “I give up. I can’t wait on Dean. Can you fill me in? Especially on why we’re having the meeting about a child survivor.”
Joe nodded. “I’ll fill you in as I figure out why. Something isn’t sitting right with me and I can’t figure it out. Maybe once Dean gets back and we all talk about this.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see all of you later.” Hal said and walked to the door.
Ellen waved. “I’ll be first row at your show, Hal. Dean’s confessing his undying love for me.”
Hal stopped at the door. “Dean’s doing what?”
“Confessing on your show.” Ellen said. “I think it’s about his love for me.”
Hal laughed ‘No, it isn’t. It can’t be that. Danny said it’s good. Really good.”
Frank spoke up. “I know what it is.”
“You do?” Ellen asked.
“Yeah, Dean’s confessing his undying love for me.” Frank smiled
Hal shook his head. “I’m out of here.”
No sooner had Hal’s boot clicked away, and the buzz of his departure was heard, that Dean and Creed returned to the skills room.
“Where is she now?” Joe asked.
Dean looked at Creed then answered. “She’s having a snack.”
“Christ almighty,” Joe snapped. “She just ate a plate of cakes. Dean, I’m not a doctor, but should we be feeding her this much?”
Dean lifted his hand. “We had to give her something, she was lifting the covering to the table and ingesting it.”
Joe blinked several times, quickly. “She was eating the table?”
Dean nodded and took a seat in the circle.
Creed spoke as he, too, took his seat. “We had her for a day, and she ate … quite a bit. We stopped feeding her. As a physician myself, she doesn’t need that much food. But she got out of control when we stopped.”
“Violent?” Joe asked.
“No, just trying to eat everything. Her body rejected it quickly if it made it to her stomach, it quickly came out.”
Joe winced.
Ellen asked. “Physically, how was the examination, Dean?”
“Fine,” Dean answered. “She doesn’t speak.”
“Traumatized, perhaps?” Ellen questioned.
Dean shrugged. “Haven’t a clue.”
Creed interjected. “She was remarkably clean when we found her. She was standing on the tracks. Just … standing there. We searched the entire area for three hours, hence the delay. But couldn’t find her parents or adults that cared for her.”
Frank mumbled. “Maybe she ate them.”
“Frank.” Joe cringed.
“What? It’s viable.”
Dean bobbed his head. “It is a viable thought.”
“Dean!” Joe snapped. “I don’t think the girl ate her parents.”
“Joe,” Henry gasped out. “What if she eats the containment residents?”
Ellen’s eyes widened. “Joe, I need my residents.”
Joe waved out his hand. “I don’t think the girl is going to eat the residents. But …. Just as a precaution, let’s move her to holding. We’ll put a guard in there with her, and see what happens when she’s hungry.” He saw everyone staring at him. “What? Dean said it was a possibility. Anyhow, I knew there was a reason I needed the meeting about her. Something struck me as strange about the child. She had to be only what? Three when the plague hit. Something is amiss. A child just doesn’t look like that in this world.”
“And …” Dean added. “I saw something on examination. She has a tattoo.”
“Fuck,” Frank whispered “She hasn’t even been here a day and the mutilator got … Ow.” Frank turned to Joe. “Why did you flick me?”
“Because you’re an asshole, sometime.” Joe said. “A tattoo Dean. What is the tattoo of?”
“Well …” Dean opened his notebook. “It’s weird, Joe. It’s says, ‘SC859406.”
Frank bolted, “A ha!” frightening everyone. “See?”
“What?” Joe asked.
“SC. Sweet Cheeks. Hit by the mutilator.”
“It’s a coincidence,” Joe said. “Dean?”
Dean scratched his head. “I actually thought of that. But, it looks like an ID of some sort. Maybe she was an orphan. Who knows? It’s alien to me.”
Joe knew it. He didn’t have to be psychic to predict what would happen next. In fact, Joe winced before Frank even said it, because he knew his hard headed son well enough to know what was going to come out of his mouth.
Seriously, Frank looked at Dean. “You think she’s an alien?”
“Um …” Dean scratched his head. “It’s a possibility.”
“Fuck,” Frank wisped out.
“Son of a bitch,” Joe slapped his hand on his leg. “Do you need to encourage him?”
“Joe …” Dean lifted his hand. “I’m clueless.”
“She’s not an alien!” Joe said. “I know that much.”
“Then,” Frank defended. “Explain why she eats a ton, doesn’t speak and is marked with a number.”
“She’s fat Frank, that alone ought to tell you she has an over eating problem,” Joe said. “I don’t know about the number. But she obviously talks, Creed got her name.”
“Um …” Creed cringed. “That’s’ not true. She hasn’t spoken.”
“How did you get her name?” Joe asked.
“The tattoo.” Creed replied, the saw the puzzled look. “When we found her. We examined her. I saw the tattoo. Roger, one of my aids was … was …” he cleared his throat. “A karaoke junkie and DJ. He … said the number was a karaoke disk Number.”
“What? No way.” Joe said. “Do we have that number, Henry?”
“No, Joe we went computerized Karaoke, gives much betters election of songs and we don’t have to carry the disks everywhere.”
“Are you sure?” Joe asked Creed. “Coincidence?”
“Could be.” Creed said. “He remembered the disk well, SC is Sound Choice, and the number because it was his favorite song to sing. Easy Come, Easy Go, by Bobby Sherman. One of my aids hadn’t a clue who Bobby Sherman was, and Roger started singing Bobby Sherman songs.”
Frank’s head bobbed as he sung out in a mumble. “Julie, Julie, Julie, do you love me.”
Creed nodded. “That’s why we call her Julie.”
“I’m still standing firm that it’s a coincidence. SC doesn’t mean Sound Choice or Sweet Cheeks. But on the outside chance that some parent tattoo a message on their kid cause they were a Karaoke geek, let’s look up that song and get me the words. Who knows?”
“Maybe her father is Bobby Sherman?” Frank asked.
Joe looked, closed his notebook, stood up, hit Frank and walked from the room.
Frank ribbed his head. “Thought I’d ask,”
Henry said. “It was a good question, Frank.”
“Actually …” Dean said. “Anything we toss out about her is good. Because we don’t know.” He turned looked down the hall as if expecting Julie to be there. “We just don’t know.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Danny had to rely on his own invention to locate his prime player. He heard the single beep over the phone and Frank told him where to find Dean.
“I wasn’t hiding, Danny.” Dean said. “Trust me. I just want to finish up.”
“Okay, fine. And you know what you’re gonna say?”
“Yes.”
“Hal has no clue, so don’t tell him.”
“Oh, I won’t.” Dean said. “I’ll be there.”
“Dean, be on time, Okay. I’d like to get you into Makeup and hair. You’re the second half of the show and you’re gonna wham them.”
“Danny, I don’t need make up.”
“Suit yourself, Dean, if you want to look pale.”
Problem one solved, he moved on to problem two. He thought he was going to have three problems, but having Frank stand behind the confession door and be the recipient of Dean’s confession got an instant agreement.
Danny was banking on Dean’s segment to secure the interest of the Beginnings people.
It was an hour and a half to show time, the connection to the area televisions all were working, but where was Hal? He was in town, Danny knew that. Unfortunately, Hal didn’t have the tracking bui8lt into him. And Danny found him by mistake.
He stopped in the social hall and there he was.
“It figures,” Danny said as he walked up to Hal. “All Slagels have this unnatural attraction to alcohol.”
“Just getting one to relax,” Hal lifted his glass.
“Well, you should have been in make up by now.” Danny complained.
“Make up. Danny, I am not wearing makeup.”
“You’ll look pale.”
“What?” Hal laughed.
Overhearing, Dan leaned forward. “All the lights, yo
u’ll look sickly.”
“See.” Danny pointed to Dan. “Take it from an expert. He knows. And Hal, can you get down there. Please. I want everything to go smoothly. I need to go over a few things with you.”
Hal raised his glass. “I’ll leave here in five minutes, I swear.”
“Thank you.” Danny turned to leave
Dan from security called out. “I’ll see ya there too, I got tickets.”
“Well, you better get moving. Even with a reserved seat, the line is out of control. See you there.” Danny walked out.
Curiously, Hal looked at Dan. “He can’t be serious. How many does DBS studios seat?”
“Two hundred.”
“Two hundred? It can’t be full.”
Dan whistled. “Hal, this is big. I hear Danny is showing it on the side of a building just so people can be close.”
“Good God.”
“Beginnings, Bowman, everyone fought for those tickets. They were first come first serve and were gone in an hour.”
“All this for a show called confessions. Surely, most people in this town know all the secrets.”
“Apparently not,” Dan said. “I mean, we’re all really curious to find out Dean’s.”
“Me as well.”
“Some of us security guys have bets that it’s his undying love for Frank.”
“Where did you get that from?”
“Frank.”
Hal finished his drink. “Well, I better go. See you there.” He gave a swat to Dan’s back.
“Good luck Hal. Break a leg.”
Hal smiled. “Thanks.” And after a chuckle about his pending endeavor, he left the social hall.
***
After a peek through the curtain, Danny, in a rushed, excited yet, stressed manner, turned to Hal. He lifted the clipboard. “You know the script.”
“Danny, there’s not much to it,” It’s going to be fine.”
“You’re familiar with the set?”
Hal turned around, the stage was set like a living room with a front door. “Easy enough.”
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