Plaguesville, USA
Page 45
As for his own role, he tried to think that, once he’d come around (regrettably late, of course, but still in time), he’d done all he could to help. He still felt bad about his past, the terrible things he’d done, especially Cornell, but he was working hard to make up for it, in any way he could find, and had no intention of going back. Maybe, with a little luck, he would rack up enough good karma to even the scales, a least a little.
Walking up the path to Teresa’s building, he heard laughter and then a kid’s shriek of pure joy. Probably little Justin. Already, the little boy was a handful; bright, inquisitive, expressive, he was into everything and afraid of nothing. Much like his parents.
Teresa was sitting at the dining room table when the Hunter walked in. Strikingly beautiful as always, she had let her hair grow out and now wore it in a thick pony tail. She’d stopped wearing her banger leathers of late and today was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a pale gray sweater that offset her dark eyes.
In the distance, down a hallway, he could hear Barb Cass happily chasing the kids, but Teresa was absorbed with something on the table. As he walked up, he saw that it was a lined pad of paper and some pencils and that she was slowly, carefully writing something. She looked up at him and smiled, a pretty decent grin for once, and put down the pencil.
“Jack!” she said. He was still getting used to being called that, but it was getting easier. Teresa looked at the bag in his hands. “That what I think it is?” she asked, arching one brow.
“You know it,” he nodded, handing it over.
Eagerly, she took the bag, opened it, and took a good sniff. Then she sat back down and started wolfing them like there was no tomorrow. Reading and writing and the niceties of etiquette and proper civilization, all things she’d been trying very hard with, all that was fine, but these were her favorite! Happily, he waited and then nodded at the pad and pencil.
“What ya got there?” he asked. “More school work?”
“Nope,” she said between healthy bites, smiling brightly. “I’m gonna write a book! All about the adventures of Dr. Kaes an’ Mr. Lampert an’ how they saved the world. You know, the whole story, like, so everybody’ll remember. So they don’ forget why they still here. So whattaya think? Sound like a good story?”
Jack Shipman smiled and nodded. “I think it sounds like a great story,” he said. “But then, who knows? Maybe it’s not over yet.”
“What you mean?” she asked, cocking her head adorably, a hint of whipped cream on her lower lip. “What ain’t over?”
“Us,” said Shipman. “You, me, Barb and Erin and Doug and the kids, the whole city. Did you know that there’s a story goin’ around of a link-up with Baron Zero? Some plan to get the old phone lines workin’? Guess that’s kinda what I meant. We ain’t done yet, you know? Humanity.”
Teresa nodded, her attention straying back to her writing, and finished off the cakes. Shipman smiled indulgently, glad at her disinterest. Maybe tomorrow or the next day, he’d tell her about the plans for the Dr. Justin Kaes Memorial or how they wanted to rename Haight Street Howard Lampert Boulevard. But there would be time enough for that. For now, he went to look for the Kid; he’d promised to take him to the movies, and Santiago Junior never, ever forgot a promise. And besides, the movie, The Wizard of Oz, was a sort of sentimental favorite.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Prologue:
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Chapter Fifty
Chapter Fifty-One
Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Three
Chapter Fifty-Four
Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Six
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Epilogue: