Perfect Copy

by Judith Gaines

  The first thing she saw was a hand, blue-veined and pale, lying palm up with fingers curled inward as though clutching some invisible object. The arm attached to it led her eyes to Edward’s face. His eyes were open but not focused on anything in particular. He turned his head, but she could tell he wasn’t seeing her. The second thing about the scene that registered was Roman.

  He was on the floor, elbows propped by Edward’s head, feet splayed out behind him. His face was curious, but not alarmed. Roman took a finger and poked Edward on the forehead, and then he looked up at Brina.

  “Roman, stop that.” She shook off the shock and knelt by Edward, taking his head between her hands. Roman sat up, watching.

  “Go find Russ,” she said to him. Roman scrambled out the door and she heard his feet gallop down the staircase.

  “Edward, what happened?” His eyes darted frantically at her voice, and a small whistle of breath pursed his lips. She looked around the room. The window was cracked, the computer was still running on the desk, and his bed was roughly made. He didn’t look good.

  “Edward, can you understand me?” He gave a strangled moan, motioning with his hand to his chest.

  “Oh my God, you have pills somewhere, don’t you?” She stood in a rush, feeling the blood drain from her head and pool in her feet. She reached a hand for the bedpost. Where would he keep heart pills?

  She ran into his tiny bath and dumped the contents of his shaving kit onto the counter. A can of shaving foam rolled out and banged into the sink, followed by scissors and a cartridge of razor blades. A small brown pill bottle landed at her feet.

  Brina popped the top as she dropped to the floor beside Edward.

  “I don’t know what to do with these.”

  “Put one under his tongue.” Russ appeared on the floor beside her. “Let me see those. These are nitroglycerin, and they go under his tongue.” He handed her one, and she slipped it into Edward’s mouth, careful not to let him swallow and choke on it.

  Brina looked at Roman, sitting on the foot of Edward’s bed. He picked his nose and rubbed the excavated mucus on the bedspread. She looked back at Russ.

  “What should we do?”

  He shook his head. “Put him in bed.”

  “I think he had a heart attack. He could die. We have to do something.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Russ shot back. “We can’t get out of here, the phone is dead, and we don’t know if anyone is coming back. If you have a better plan, speak up.”

  “I don’t have a better plan. I just don’t want to watch him die.”

  “Then I suggest we get him off the floor and try and find out how bad this is.”

  Brina scoped Roman off the bed and into an armchair out of the way. He sat, taking in the scene as though it were a normal occurrence. Brina supposed he was just happy he wasn’t the one being fed pills and being put to bed for a change.

  Russ grabbed Edward under the armpits and slid him toward the bed. “You’re gonna have to help,” he said.

  She grabbed Edward’s feet, jacking them up with his middle still sagging toward the floor. “This isn’t working.” Edward’s eyes had closed, but his breathing was less labored. “I’ll take one arm and you take the other.”

  Double-teaming, they pulled him up. Brina removed his shoes and socks while Russ opened his shirt.

  “How do his feet look? Is there any blueness?”

  “No, but they’re cold.” She pulled the quilt up to his waist. “What now?”

  Russ straightened, letting Brina finish covering Edward. His face had sunken into hollows below his cheekbones, and dark circles shadowed his eyes. Russ picked up his hand. “He’s cold.”

  “Cold,” echoed Roman from his chair.

  “Roman found him,” she said.

  “What?”

  “When I found Roman, he was in here on the floor with Edward. If I hadn’t been looking for Roman, Edward could have lain here until he died.”

  Russ went quiet. He glanced at Roman. “You think he brought us up here on purpose? It wasn’t hide and seek?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” She looked at Edward, picturing Roman poised by his head, looking on with curiosity. Roman turned in his chair and stared out the window. A freezing draft tossed in drops of melted snow. He ran his hand over the sill and then studied the dirty streaks left in the dust. His legs were bare—his clothes still drying across the hall—and the bottoms of his socks were black from running around the house. Brina crossed the room and pushed the window down. She gathered Roman up and sat with him on her lap. His legs were nearly frozen.

  “Throw me one of those blankets.”

  Russ, who had watched the interaction without comment, tossed her a wrap from the bed. Edward was sinking into sleep.

  “We need to monitor what’s going on with him,” he said, tilting his head toward the bed.

  Brina knew his meaning right away. “You want Roman’s equipment. Some is up here. The rest is still in the lab, and that’s locked.”

  “I know.”

  “Do you know how to open it?”

  “No.”

  Brina snuggled her face into Roman’s hair, the blanket warming both of them. “Then we have to figure it out.”

  “Where was Roman when you found him?”

  “There,” she pointed. “Edward was on the floor, and Roman was lying next to him.”

  “Did he touch him?”

  “Yes, but what difference does that make?”

  “None, I suppose.” He gave her a sympathetic look. “I know you think he’s just like other kids, but he’s not.”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “Nothing.” Russ leaned against the bedpost and stared down at his scuffed loafers. Brina watched whatever he was thinking work its way out. “Shit. I’m wondering if Roman wanted to hurt Edward. You saw the pictures in the box. Why would the other experiments be a secret if they weren’t dangerous after they matured?”

  Brina pulled Roman closer. “I know he didn’t hurt him. I know that.”

  “Keep an eye on him, okay?”

  She nodded. Roman was getting restless in her lap. “How did Edward look to you when you saw him this morning?”

  “Like he always did.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “You were the last to see him.”

  “So we’re back to that.”

  Brina shifted uncomfortably, letting Roman hop down and drag the blanket through the door and into his own room across the hall.

  “Let’s focus on Edward and getting out of here,” she said.

  “I agree. I think there are laws against letting someone die.”

  “Yeah, I’d hate to break another law.”

  Russ let the comment go. “I’m going to examine Edward. Then we need to figure out how to get back into the lab.”

  “Fine. You know where to find me.” Brina let the door fall shut behind her.

  Chapter 19

  The door closed with a quiet swish of the carpet, and the sound of footsteps dissipated. The air was cloying. Sunlight traced tiny red blood vessels in his eyelids. Edward focused, sliding between the need to let go and the fear of letting it happen. His eyes snapped open.

  “So, you’re still with us.” Russ sat beside the bed. Brina and Romans were gone. Russ had a stethoscope around his neck and a digital temperature strip. He placed the latter behind Edward’s ear, the same spot he’d placed it on Roman too many times to count. Edward turned his head. Everyone else was gone. No Mathew. Russ rolled up his sleeves and put the stethoscope to his chest.

  “Amazing. You actually have a heart.”

  “Funny,” Edward said, his voice raspy.

  “Any numbness?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then you’re lucky, because otherwise you’d be on your way to dead.”

  “How bad?”

  Russ stared down. Gravity pulled the skin around his eyes into dual folds. “I wo
n’t know until I can get in the lab, run a few tests, and bring up a heart monitor. I need to know how to get in.”

  “No lab.” Edward’s hands clutched at the sheet as a spike of alarm set his temples pounding.

  The pain coiled in on itself and raced along his spine, halting his breathing while his heart heaved like an enraged pit bull against his chest. “No.”

  Russ’s hands held him still against the mattress, his breath hot on Edward’s cheek. “Settle down.”

  Edward closed his eyes, and Russ’s grip slackened. He felt two fingers on his neck and willed his breathing to slow.

  “So much for answers. Listen, I don’t care if you live or die at this point. I know you’ve been lying to me.” Edward felt the bed shake as Russ stood up. A tapping sound came from his right: Russ’s nervous habit at work again.

  “I want to know what you’re hiding.”

  Edward kept his eyes closed, waiting. Finally, after more tapping and pacing, the door opened and closed. The room was silent. He opened his eyes. He was alone. He tried to sit up but felt an acidic surge flood his throat.

  “Damn it!” He let his body slam back against the bed and smacked his fist into the covers.

  He supposed he still had feet, but he could barely move them. Everything else on his body hurt. Clammy perspiration coated his skin.

  Mathew.

  His arm still ached from the needle. Mathew had surprised him, and now all he could do was wait for the demon to finish him off. Russ wouldn’t be able to help him because Mathew would always be one step behind. If he told Russ the truth, he might intervene, but then again he might just let him die. He dragged a cold hand over his face and felt tears.

  There had to be something left. He had to come up with an out. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to let them finish me off now.”

  Russ wouldn’t be able to get into the lab without the code. A flash of Mathew Roman’s body perched on the frozen crates superimposed itself across his vision. But maybe he could get Russ to go into the garage.

  Edward smiled as a plan mapped itself in his mind.

  Chapter 20

  Brina heard Russ talking to himself as he went downstairs. Roman needed clothes, so she decided to let Russ deal with his own issues. Even if she asked him, she doubted he would tell her the truth. Everyone seemed so ready to shelter her, but—ding, ding, ding—the horse was out of the barn. Clones and dead whatevers had stripped away any pretense she had of staying out of trouble.

  Roman held her shoulders with a light touch as she slipped pants over each foot and pulled them up. He pulled the zipper and worked the button through the hole.

  “Roman, I don’t know what to think of you,” she said, looking at him. He looked back. It was that simple, he seemed to say. She ran a hand over his cheek and brushed the hair out of his face. “You amaze me every day, little one”—her pet name for Josh.

  Roman settled on the bed and began pulling on his shoes, one at a time.

  “Brina?”

  “Yes?”

  “Will I get sick like Edward?” he asked.

  “What?” Brina’s mouth went dry, her tongue prickling like a thousand stabbing needles. No one else was there to hear him.

  “Will I get sick?” he repeated.

  She tried to think of an answer but ended up simply saying, “No, honey. You can’t get sick like Edward.” She sat on the puffed-out comforter beside Roman and put her arm around his shoulders. “You have a young, strong heart. Edward’s heart is not well.” Explaining it on a child’s level was one thing, but what level was Roman now?

  “But I get shots.”

  “Your shots are for different things. They help make you healthy and stronger. You have nothing to be afraid of.”

  Roman surprised her by giving her a hug and a quick sign for thanks. “Brina, I don’t want you to get sick.”

  “I won’t, I promise.” She felt something hit her shirt and looked down. She was crying. “Roman, you’re talking. How is that possible?”

  He patted his head. “I hear words, and then I just know them.” His voice had a solid quality that she didn’t expect.

  He slid from the bed and her grasp. The afternoon sun painted a square of light on the floor. He crossed the room and crawled into the armchair, letting his feet dangle as he leaned over to peer out the window. “Man,” he pointed.

  Brina walked over and looked past his shoulder. For a split second, she thought she saw someone walking at the edge of the trees. She squinted and looked again, straining to decipher the lines of tree trunks, bushes, and shadows.

  “I don’t see anyone but Hank. Is that who you mean?”

  Roman shook his head and pointed again. Still, she couldn’t see anything other than the spongy mounds of snowdrift and barren woods. Even the driveway disappeared under the abstract of tree limbs.

  “It’s just us here, and Hank.” She rubbed his back reassuringly as she spoke. His profile was the same as yesterday, perhaps his expression a bit more aware. She studied his hands and the sure way they gripped the chair’s arm. They were not the picture of frailty she was accustomed to seeing, either.

  “Roman.” Brina turned him around to face her. “What was Edward doing when you found him?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “What was he doing?”

  Roman gave an exaggerated sigh and hinged his shoulders up. “I saw him, and he was talking, and then he went to sleep.”

  Brina took a quick blink. “Talking? To who?”

  He shrugged again.

  “Was it Russ?”

  He shook his head no.

  “Was he talking to himself?”

  Roman stood up and pulled her hand toward the nightstand. She followed and took the stack of photos he handed her.

  “He was talking to someone in here?” She held up a photo. “Who?”

  Roman raised his eyebrows and looked off at the window.

  “Roman?”

  He picked up his crayons and walked out of the room. She’d lost him.

  Brina took one last look out the window. The sky was taking on the deep steel look of more snow. The yard below was turned over with their tracks and snow clumps that had fallen from the roof.

  He talks now. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was part wonderful and somehow very scary.

  She pulled her sleeves down to cover her knuckles and crossed her arms, feeling a draft sweep her neck.

  “You need to get a grip, you know,” she said to her reflection. “He’s just a little boy.” Maybe not “just,” but not far from it, she rationalized. “He would never hurt Edward, or anyone else, no matter what Russ thinks.”

  She looked down at the top photo as she laid the stack on the bed. It was of Mathew sitting in the study.

  Chapter 21

  Russ was on his hands and knees, crawling along the baseboards, fingering every joint and crevice. Roman had already joined the search, mimicking Russ and tapping on the wood planks. Brina started to ditch them both and head into the kitchen, but her conscience wouldn’t let her. Instead, she dragged a chair through the swinging door and had a seat. The lattice back pushed her into an unnaturally straight posture. She slouched and leaned back, resting her legs in front of her.

  “That’s all you’re going to do?” Russ looked up from his disadvantaged position. Roman looked, too.

  She turned her hands up. “I’m done. I give up.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we’re leaving tomorrow like we talked about. You can stay and look after Edward. I’ll send help once I hit town.”

  Russ sat back on his heels and wiped his hands on his already dirty pants, which were a shade less dirty than his shirt. “I don’t like that plan.”

  She held her hands up again. “Tough. I’ve had enough, and Roman is in danger whether the ranger comes back or not.”

  Russ stood and opened the front door. Cold air flooded the hallway. “Be my guest.” Outside,
dusk glazed the snow in silver and flattened the scenery into a rest-stop postcard.

  “Close the door.”

  He slammed it, took five steps across the hall and placed his hands on the back of the chair, on each side of her shoulders. “I don’t have time for your bullshit. You think you have the answers, but there’s a lot more to it than getting into a car and leaving.”

  A shudder rippled the length of her body, as though he had slapped her. “I don’t know what the hell is going on with the park ranger, Mathew and Edward, the thing in the jar—or you, for that matter. But, I do know what’s going on out there, and it looks a lot saner than what’s in here.”

  “You’re scared. I get that. But you’re not leaving without me.”

  “And Edward?” she asked.

  “That’s negotiable.” Slowly, the tension drained between them. Russ straightened and stepped back.

  “It’s getting to me, too,” he said.

  “Edward’s negotiable?” she asked.

  Russ shrugged, “I’ll do what I can for him, but I can’t let you go off alone with Roman. You have to remember, he’s a little Mathew, and we both know what he was like.” He looked around, studying anything but her or Roman.

  Brina stepped closer to him, quietly running her hand over his shoulder, but stopped, unsure. Gradually his hands reached around her back in return. She had missed being hugged. It had been so long.

  He pulled her away. “You sure you want to do that?” His smile was awkward.

  “I don’t know why I thought coming to the middle of nowhere would help me start over. I’ve just moved my worries to a more scenic location.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first person to show up at this house with excess baggage.”

  Roman crawled between their legs in a figure eight. Brina was at a loss to process the past five minutes. Her old self wanted to move on, and the Brina she woke up with this morning was looking for hidden meaning. She glanced at Russ’s face, lingering on the lines running in concentric circles under bloodshot eyes that looked back at her with equal intensity.