Black Forest, Denver Cereal Volume 5

by Claudia Hall Christian

  Thinking he should ask her, he went into their bathroom. He passed the claw foot tub and the toilet. With the mirrors and sinks on his right, he went around the corner to the shower. Passing the French doors to the small balcony, he wondered why they never sat out there. It was a gorgeous day. Maybe when Jill was done showering, she would join him for a cup of coffee. Standing at the French doors, he looked out into the backyard.

  Delphie and the kids had already planted most of the garden. The trees were starting to bear fruit. Even the bees were beginning to wake up to the gorgeous day and… It hit him.

  They don’t sit on this balcony because it overlooked the place where Trevor was shot. Trevor, Jill’s ex-husband, was shot through the forehead last summer. He closed his eyes to count the days.

  The anniversary was a week from Saturday.

  He glanced at Jill’s naked body through the Plexiglas shower doors. Was Jill mourning Trevor? Did she miss Trevor, her battering, cheating ex-husband? His mind reviewed the crazy last year. It had been wild. And certainly this never ending crap with his ex-secretary didn’t help. And now with twin boys, Jill would need all her resources to help them survive. He wouldn’t blame her for wanting a quieter life.

  But Trevor? Did she miss Trevor?

  Jill said she was happy. Jill said she had the life she always wanted, always dreamed of. Jill said she loved him. She’d even said they belonged together.

  Why was she upset about Trevor?

  Unsure of himself, he yelled: “I’m going for a run.”

  “Have fun,” Jill yelled back. “We’ll have breakfast when you get back.”

  He changed into his running gear. Jill was just getting out of the shower when he whistled for Sarah and took the long stairwell to the side door. He glanced up to see Jill waving at him from the front windows and he took off toward City Park.

  He knew he was trying to outrun his fear that he had lost Jill. He knew he should talk to her, ask her, and listen. But right now, all he could do was put one foot in front of the other and pray that she loved him.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Wednesday morning — 10:40 A.M.

  “Charlie! Charlie!” Sissy shook Charlie awake.

  “What?” Charlie sneered at Sissy. “I’m sleeping.”

  “It’s MOM!” Sissy spun on her toe with delight. “On the phone. She wants to see us! She says she’s missed us! And… Here!”

  Sissy pushed the phone at Charlie. He looked at the phone and curled his lip.

  “She says she’s really sorry,” Sissy whispered. “She says she’s been sick and…”

  Sissy’s eyes begged Charlie to talk to their mother. Charlie closed his eyes and rolled away from her happy face.

  “What’s going on?” Sandy asked. “I thought you were napping before ballet?”

  “I was,” Sissy said. “But the phone rang and I hoped it might be Ward because he said he would call and… It’s MOM!”

  Sandy grabbed the phone from Sissy.

  “Mom?” Sandy walked toward the living room with Sissy and Charlie following close behind.

  “Yes, Sandra, it’s me,” her mother said.

  “What’s going on?” Sandy asked.

  “I’d like to see you and the children,” her mother said.

  “Which children?” Sandy asked.

  “Mitzi and Charles,” her mother said. “My children.”

  “When?” Sandy asked.

  “Really Sandy, do we have to be like this?” her mother asked. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I admit that. Do you have to be so cruel?”

  “Cruel? Me?” Sandy asked. “I thought I was dead to you.”

  “I see your feelings were hurt too,” her mother said. “We both have said a lot of things we didn’t mean.”

  Furious, Sandy looked across the room. She saw Sissy’s pleading eyes and Charlie’s feigned indifference.

  “Please!” Sissy begged.

  “What are you proposing?” Sandy asked.

  “I have some time off treatment this weekend,” her mother said. “I’d like to see you, Mitzi, and Charles. I thought we could meet with my therapists and try to figure out how to go from here.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” Sandy said.

  “In order for me to leave treatment, I need to prepare to live my life,” her mother said. “I need… We need to figure out what makes the most sense for me and all of us really.”

  “Sissy has ballet from noon to six on Saturdays,” Sandy said. “I don’t think we can make it.”

  “I’m trying to be a mother here,” her mother said. “I know it comes easily to you but I’ve had to learn how to... “

  Not wanting to give her selfish mother an inch, Sandy didn’t fill in the blanks.

  “If you can’t stand me, you can always send Mitzi and Charles,” her mother said. “I know it won’t be a financial burden for you with all that money from your father.”

  “I’ll speak with Aden,” Sandy said. “We’ll see what we think is best for Sissy and Charlie.”

  “They are my children. Isn’t that for me to decide?”

  “You gave up that right when you gave up custody,” Sandy said. “We need to go. Sissy needs to rest.”

  “She’ll be fine,” her mother said. “She’s young and…”

  “Good-bye Mother,” Sandy said. “We’ll call you this evening.”

  Sandy hung up the phone.

  “Why were you so mean?” Sissy asked at the same time Charlie said, “Same old selfish bullshit.”

  “I understand how you feel, Sissy. I want Mom to be better too. But we have to make sure she’s really better – for you both. I won’t stand for you and Charlie to be hurt by her again,” Sandy said.

  “But…” Sissy said.

  “Go rest,” Sandy said. “I’m taking you to dance and going to sit with Seth. If you don’t rest, you could get injured.”

  “But…” Sissy said.

  “I’ll talk to Aden about Mom. He wants to go somewhere this weekend. Maybe Tucson is it.”

  Sissy scowled at Sandy and Charlie collapsed into himself.

  “Back to bed,” Sandy said. “Both of you.”

  Sissy and Charlie turned to walk down the hall.

  “Wait,” Sandy said.

  They stopped walking and turned to her.

  “I love you both so much,” Sandy said. “That’s all that’s going on here. I don’t want to see you hurt again.”

  Sandy held out her arms and Sissy hugged her. Sandy grabbed Charlie’s shirt and pulled him into their hug. Letting go, she looked at both their weary faces.

  “You have to trust me,” Sandy said.

  Sissy nodded to Sandy and followed Charlie down the hall. Sandy gave one last worried glance down the hallway and went back to her bedroom.

  “What was that?” Aden asked.

  “My mother,” Sandy said. “She wants to see ‘Mitzi’ and ‘Charles’ in Tucson this weekend.”

  “For a command performance?” Aden asked. “Fat chance.”

  “The problem is she asked Sissy first,” Sandy said. “Sissy’s begging to go. Sissy wants Mom to be her Mom so badly… I…”

  “I remember that feeling,” Aden said.

  “Me too,” Sandy said. “I’ll tell you Aden. This is not going to end well. I just know it.”

  ~~~~~~~~

  Wednesday afternoon — 3:40 P.M.

  “Are you sure?” Max asked as he entered Ava’s office.

  “No,” Ava said and sat down in her desk chair. “You?”

  “No,” he said. “Bob?”

  “No,” Bob said.

  Ava looked up to see Leslie in the doorway. Ava waved her inside. Leslie waddled her pregnant girth to the couch. Nelson and Fran followed her over to the couch. Max closed Ava’s office door and took an arm chair. For a moment, no one said anything. Then they all spoke at once and laughed.

  Picking up a pad of paper and a pen, Ava got up from her desk. She took an arm chair and Bob turned
around a straight back chair to join the circle.

  “I feel like we’re at Alanon,” Fran said. “Hi my name is Fran and I’m a Codependent.”

  “Hi Fran,” the rest of the team said and laughed.

  For a moment, everything seemed normal. There was a knock on the door and reality set in. In a few minutes, they would have to decide what to do. Through the glass wall, Ava saw the lead researcher from the USDA. She shook her head and he waved. She knew he’d come to tell her that everyone was waiting for their decision, her decision.

  “Lay out the facts for me one more time,” Bob said.

  “We don’t have time to make an effective anti-toxin,” Ava said. She looked up to see if everyone agreed.

  “Well, that and we can’t reverse two hundred million years of evolution,” Max said. “Human beings evolved after wasps and their venom. Any antitoxin would have to account for millennia of evolution, not to mention human experience. I mean, how many times has Seth been stung by a wasp? I bet a lot. The antitoxin would have to take into account his body’s immune memory for the venom.”

  “There may never be an effective anti-toxin for the First Responders Toxin.” Ava wrote her statements on her pad of paper.

  “Ever,” Nelson said.

  “That’s more like it,” Fran said.

  “Facts,” Bob said. “Let’s stick with facts.”

  “The wood shards were soaked in toxin,” Fran said. “And they had fatty pockets of toxin stuck to the shards. When the wood spikes were pulled out, these packets of toxin were left behind.”

  “That’s got to be why the men keep spiking fevers,” Bob said.

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Leslie said. “The men’s immune systems would attack the outside fatty shell of these packets. When the shell dissolves, more toxin is released.”

  “The men received doses of the toxin from the wood spike. They continue to receive toxin through these…” Ava said. “We’re calling them packets?”

  “You could call them Franicles,” Nelson said.

  “Packet it is,” Ava wrote down Fran’s discovery.

  “The thing I’m stuck on is that we’re fighting the natural human response to this venom,” Bob said. “If we introduce another agent, even an effective antitoxin, the men’s immune systems are so fired up, they will attack it.”

  “That’s a good point,” Ava said. “The men are all in a high allergic state. The ER docs said their allergic response is so activated that they’re starting to have autoimmune reactions similar to lupus.”

  “Allergy medications are starting to fail,” Leslie said. “Their blood pressure keeps dropping. They’re already using dopamine to stabilize their pressure but…”

  They fell silent for a moment digesting Leslie’s news.

  “We can’t give up,” Bob said. “The men’s lives depend on what we decide.”

  “And what did we decide?” Ava asked.

  “Surgery,” Max said. “The men need surgery to clean out the wounds. The rest of the toxin must be removed. That’s got to be first.”

  “Dialysis with the Immunoglobulin filters,” Leslie said. “The ER docs are already talking about it. If they use the right filter, they can reduce the immune response.”

  “And?” Ava looked up from her writing.

  “We have to think of our response as a treatment protocol,” Bob said. “Not anti-toxin.”

  “And our treatment protocol is surgery followed by dialysis,” Ava said.

  “Meds for pain, steroids to reduce allergic response, and blood pressure stabilizing,” Bob said. “Flush their systems with saline IVs and more dialysis if necessary.”

  Her team nodded.

  “And if we kill them?” Ava asked.

  “They are dying anyway,” Leslie said. Noting the heartbreak on Ava’s face, she added, “I’m sorry Ava but it’s true. The docs say they won’t make another night.”

  “Have the families been notified?” Bob asked.

  “They have,” Nelson said. “But everyone expects that we’ll pull off some miracle. We are their last chance.”

  Ava nodded to Nelson. She reread her notes and nodded to her team.

  “Anything else?” Ava asked.

  “We’re praying for him, honey,” Fran said.

  Ava looked up to see the kind eyes of her lab techs and Max Hargreaves. She gave them a smile to keep from crying in exhaustion and despair.

  “I’ll go tell them,” Ava said. “If they agree, I’ll need your help relaying it to the docs at Denver Health.”

  “I don’t work for the UN or the Israelis or Homeland Security or the USDA,” Nelson said. “I work for you.”

  “Nelson’s right,” Leslie said. “We should relay the information to Denver Health while you and Max talk to the research teams.”

  Ava looked at Leslie and Nelson.

  “He’s right you know,” Fran added.

  “I agree,” Bob said. “I’d be happy to make the call.”

  “Let’s go ahead,” Ava said. “Let me know if the docs have anything else to add.”

  “Will do,” Leslie said.

  “You guys can go home when you’re done,” Ava said. “It’s been a long day and we were here late last night.”

  “We’re not leaving you,” Fran said.

  “Plus, Franny and I have babysitters,” Leslie said. “I want to get another meal…”

  “In an adult restaurant,” Fran said.

  “Without kids!” Leslie added.

  “We’re trying to say we’ll wait for you,” Nelson said. “And we want to go out again.”

  Ava smiled at them. Bob got up and crossed the room to use Ava’s phone. Ava stood and Max followed her. They were almost at the door when they heard Bob begin to relay their plan to the ER doctors who had been tracking Seth and the other police officers. Ava and Max shared a look and went to tell the international team about their findings.

  CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED & FIFTY-FIVE

  Dark clouds

  Seth looked up from his fishing rod and noticed dark clouds rolling in. The wind picked up on the big lake at City Park. The snow capped mountains were almost completely covered with pregnant clouds. In the distance, the rain pounded the foothills.

  “Looks like it’s going to storm,” Seth said.

  “Don’t worry,” his younger brother Silas said. “It gets like this sometimes.”

  “If you don’t like the weather in Colorado,” Seth started.

  “Wait fifteen minutes.” The boys laughed at the oft repeated saying.

  A gust of wind began to whip the tree above them. Worried, Seth glanced at the branches. The old men who’d appeared to be fishing vanished into the scenery around the boys. They were alone. His older brother began pulling in his line.

  “Don’t want to get it tangled,” Saul said. “Nothing’s worse than having to untangle a line.”

  Mimicking Saul’s actions, Seth and Silas pulled in their lines. When they were done, Saul took the fishing poles from them and leaned them against the tree trunk. He sat down.

  Before Seth’s eyes, Saul began to age. His image shifted from a bright twelve year old boy to a worn, filthy twenty year old. His US Army uniform hung on his emaciated body. Seth turned to Silas to say something about Saul when he saw Silas had grown into his thirty year old pink haired, daisy duke wearing self. The lake in front of him transformed into the modern contours of Ferril Lake.

  “I’m dying,” Seth said.

  “Not quite,” Saul said.

  “We’ll be here no matter what happens.”

  “Like you were there for us,” Saul said.

  “I wasn’t with you, Saul, when you died,” Seth said. “You died a prisoner in Laos.”

  “Weren’t you?” Saul began to hum a piece of the Concerto Seth had written when he’d left for Vietnam. “That tune ran through my mind all four hundred and twelve days I was in that camp. Just when I thought I’d go crazy to hear it again, I began to relish every note. The
music nurtured me and led me home. Only my brother Seth could love me like that.”

  “Do you remember the ragtime you wrote for me?” Silas said.

  “I played it at your funeral,” Seth said.

  “I followed those notes to Mom and Saul,” Silas said. “Remember how terrified I was of being alone? The music accompanied me until I found them; you accompanied me until I found them. I was never alone.”

  “That’s why we’re here. We’re here to keep you from getting lost.”

  “Like you kept us from getting lost,” Saul said. “No matter what.”

  Saul held his hand out to Seth and Seth took it. Silas tucked his fingers into Seth’s other hand. A lightning bolt hit the lake in front of them and rain began to pound down. The tree sheltered them from the violence of the storm but they were soon dripping wet.

  “Whatever happens, we’ll be here with you,” Saul yelled over the deluge.

  “Every time,” Silas yelled.

  “Until whatever end,” Saul yelled.

  Seth closed his eyes to say a silent prayer of thanks for his brothers. They were here. He wasn’t alone. And he wouldn’t get lost.

  No matter what.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Wednesday evening — 7:10 P.M.

  “Why is Katy going with Heather and Tanesha?” Jacob asked.

  He started Jill’s SUV and followed Mike and Valerie out of the Castle driveway. Taking an immediate left at the light, they were making their way to the 270 and the Brighton resting place of the black serpent.

  “I thought we could use this time as a chance to talk,” Jill said.

  “Talk?”

  “You’ve been avoiding me today,” Jill said.

  “I have?” Jacob asked.

  Jill laughed.

  “Why is that funny?” Jacob asked.

  “While I’m pregnant with your boys, I can read your mind,” Jill said. “It’s funny to hear you lie.”

  “You’re the one who says random mind reading is rude.” Jacob gave her an irritated look.

  “I don’t know how to control it,” Jill said. “For the record, I hate it. People’s thoughts are noisy and generally pretty stupid. School is hell. That woman I hated? Ms. Cornielle? I just feel sorry for her now. She’s really unhappy.”