Knack (Benjamin Brown Book 1)

by Tom Twitchel

  A small bonus out of the whole mess was that Mike had reinjured my left eye. Dr. Yosh had worked with another surgeon who specialized in reconstructive surgery, so when the swelling finally subsided I would no longer have a droopy eyelid. I guess that was my silver lining.

  When I had been filled in on my health and medical history, Dr. Yosh gave me a careful hug and excused herself.

  “You gave us all quite a scare,” Mr. G said.

  “Yeah? I was scared too.”

  “I’m sure.” He looked tired but pleased. There was an abundant sense of relief that radiated from him and I could tell how concerned he had been for me.

  “Is this the part where you’re going to give me a lecture on performing in the parks and being out too late?” I said it as more of a statement than a question.

  He smiled ruefully. “Not today, if at all. There will never be a shortage of people like the man who hurt you. They don’t always hide in the dark. Sometimes, they’re standing right where we can see them and it doesn’t make us any safer. Whether you decide to modify your…ah…schedule, that is up to you. But I’ll worry less if you do.”

  A thought struck me. “I’m grateful for what you did here Mr. Goodturn. They probably would have contacted CPS if you hadn’t volunteered to be my grandfather. And the money…I can’t thank you enough. I know I’m late on rent.…”

  He held up a hand. “Don’t worry about that. It’s the least a friend can do. Let me make that a gift to you. Please.”

  I felt a good-sized lump developing in my throat. This man had rescued me as much as my unknown savior. As bad as things had turned out, I had people who were looking out for me. I looked around the room trying to get my emotions under control. I didn’t want to cry in front of Mr. Goodturn. The area close to my bed was cluttered with floral arrangements and cards. That made me think of the other people in my life.

  “Did anyone else come to visit me while I was in dreamland?” I was almost afraid to hear the answer, but I really wanted to know.

  “Visitors? Oh, yes. Breno, poor soul, he was here twice. Very concerned about you. And your friend Samuel Baffle. He was here with his parents at least once that I recall.” There was something in his voice. Had Baffle said something to him?

  An ache in my chest promoted another question. “Anyone else?”

  He nodded and grinned. “Madison, of course. That young lady cares for you very much. I can’t even begin to count the number of times she came to sit next to you; it seemed like every other day. Her uncle seems like a fine young man, very patient. He must have driven her here dozens of times.”

  Tears threatened to spill over onto my cheeks. My chest hurt and I couldn’t decide if that was a happy or sad thing, maybe both. She had been so mad at me the last time we had seen each other. And the texts…

  “Where’s my phone?”

  “I think they have it with your personal items, but it probably is not charged. You’ve been here for many weeks Benjamin. And that reminds me, I took the liberty of having your clothes cleaned and replacing your shirt.… It was…too…soiled to salvage.”

  Too bloody, I thought. “I can’t thank you enough for everything Mr. Goodturn.”

  Waving his hand in a dismissive gesture, he stood up. “I’m going to check in at the nurse’s station and see about having you released.”

  All of the tubes and most of the bandages had been removed, but I felt very weak. Sitting up, I gingerly swung my legs over the edge of the bed. I slid slowly until my feet reached the floor. Hanging onto the side of the bed for support, I stood. Shaky didn’t properly describe my balance or strength. Shaky would have been an upgrade. I looked around the room for my stuff and my eyes were drawn to a closet door. Using any available objects for handholds, I wobbled over to the closet and found my clothes, backpack and shoes.

  I could describe the hilarity of my multiple failures at getting my clothes on, but I think I’ll just keep that to myself. I still have some pride. My phone was dead and I would have to wait until I got home to charge it.

  Mr. G came back and tisked-tisked my having dressed myself, but I did not apologize for sparing him the sight of my pale skinny butt getting into my jeans. Gary, the nurse, and Dr. Yosh came to say goodbye and force me into a wheelchair. I guess that’s policy and although my pride was a little wounded, I was actually very grateful for it. I’m not sure I would have made the trip to the car without it.

  The ride home, courtesy of Mr. G, was quiet. I was wiped out and Mr. Goodturn was navigating our return trip while he hunched over the steering wheel, his glasses barely peeping over the top of it. A thick cushion that looked like it was custom made propped him up the three or four inches he needed to reach the wheel and the pedals. Under different circumstances, I would have found it amusing or worrisome. The residual fog of the drugs I had been weaned from left me unconcerned and content to just watch the buildings slide by.

  As we pulled up to the apartment, it dawned on me that there was a four-story climb waiting for me. I needn’t have worried. Breno was waiting in the tiny lobby and he half-carried, half-supported me the whole way up. He nattered away about several unrelated topics but was obviously happy to see me.

  When we got to my door, Mr. Goodturn and Breno hung back while I fumbled in my pocket for my key. I was surprised when the door opened on its own. Maddy stood there smiling with tears in her sparkling green eyes.

  “Welcome home, Benny!” She wrapped me in a hug and held me for what seemed like forever.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Taking a month-long nap can create some problems. In addition to my finances falling behind, there had been a lot going on while I had been out of commission.

  The search for Mike’s murderer hadn’t produced a suspect; the news services had theorized that because Mike had been forensically linked to my assault the police hadn’t looked very hard. Why punish someone who had done the city a favor?

  Maddy had tried to call me the Sunday after I had been hurt. When she couldn’t get ahold of me, she had first gotten angry and then worried. A trip to my apartment had made it obvious to her that I hadn’t been there in days so she went to Goodturn’s. He had filled her in and she had called Baffle. Baffle hadn’t understood the need for secrecy of course and Maddy had a tough time convincing him that being famous for almost being murdered wasn’t something to advertise.

  He had still taken it upon himself to text several people at school. Faculty, staff and students who I didn’t even know had sent cards and donations and tried to visit at the hospital, but no visitors had been allowed. Privately, I wondered if Justine had tried to see me. Maddy didn’t mention it and I sure as heck wasn’t going to ask. Breno and Maddy had cleaned up my apartment together. Maddy had straightened up, done laundry and cleaned up the kitchen. For his part, Breno had scrubbed the floors and cleaned the bathroom, changed a few lightbulbs and took out whatever garbage Maddy had for him. Walking in that first moment was almost like seeing the apartment for the first time. It even smelled clean.

  Miss Hoch had not turned up, but a man from CPS had. Apparently, Miss Hoch had left CPS and another social worker had picked up her case files. He had tracked down Mr. Goodturn and peppered him with questions. First, about general stuff and then about some details that Miss Hoch had written down in her casebook. She had noticed a boy’s jacket hung on a barstool in my apartment, and it had raised her suspicions. Also included in her notes was the fact that there had been no adult present at the apartment and that a juvenile female claiming to live there had also seemed suspicious. Miss Hoch had filed a report stating that the missing parent might know the whereabouts of a runaway she had opened a file on two years prior. According to Maddy, Mr. Goodturn thought the man had been irritated with having to wrap up details in an investigation that he clearly considered a waste of time.

  Maddy also told me that Breno had to repair the locks and access card reader at the entrance to the building. Someone had trashed them. Nothing had been stol
en or damaged inside the building as far as anyone could tell. Breno had begun leaving the lights in the lobby on all night and the vandalism hadn’t reoccurred.

  My hospital vacation had eaten most of my summer and Maddy had gone out and bought me some school supplies. I was humbled by how much my friends had done for me.

  Maddy reluctantly went home close to sunset. Mr. G assured her that he would look in on me. If he did, he must have been very quiet. I slept like the proverbial log.

  Overcast skies kept the apartment dark the next morning and I slept in. Loud, obnoxious knocking brought me abruptly awake around one o’clock. Painfully getting up out of bed, I threw on a robe and shuffled to the door. Maddy’s smile was the only thing I could see in the peephole.

  “Why didn’t you just use your key?” I asked as I opened the door.

  Winking at me, she said, “Who knows what I might walk in on? You could be traipsing around in your undies.”

  She breezed in with a big bag of groceries that she happily started to unpack. Her smirking grin as she looked at what I was wearing sent me scurrying back to my bedroom to change. Pulling on some jeans, a sweatshirt and a baseball cap, I shakily made my way back to the living room and flopped onto the couch. When she finished stocking my fridge, she stood there, a satisfied smile on her face. My sense of independence was battling the little boy in me that was enjoying all the attention.

  Giggling, she pulled me up off the couch. “Come on Mr. Mister. Let’s go downstairs and pick up the mail.”

  I was not deceived. I knew that it was Maddy’s way of forcing me to exercise and get my minimal muscle tone back. “Mr. Goodturn just picked it up yesterday. There won’t be anything in there.”

  “You want some cheese with that wine?” She laughed.

  I hadn’t ever had wine, and I liked cheese. Groaning and complaining, I let her drag me out the door anyway.

  Grabbing the handrail for support, I carefully followed her down the stairs. Watching her hair bounce in rhythm with her graceful stride, I wondered why we weren’t talking about her reaction to Justine’s note in my yearbook. It was like a bad tooth that I kept probing to see if it still hurt.

  “Don’t even think about bringing it up,” Maddy said without turning around.

  That was creepy. “Bring what up?” I asked between breaths. Two months in a bed had really done a number on me, not to mention the surgery. My back felt sore and the stitches over my eye itched.

  “You know what. We’re not going there. I was a bitch and that’s all we’re going to say about it.”

  “You’re not…a…bi…” Dang, I felt as weak as a kitten.

  “Would this be us not talking about it?” She glanced at me over her shoulder.

  I laughed. “Umm no. So how about this weather, huh? Overcast in Seattle. Who would’ve thunk it.”

  “That’s better.” She giggled. It was impossible to be around Maddy and not be in a good mood. Giggling and laughing were like breathing to her.

  Finally arriving at the ground floor, I was winded and light-headed. A quick look into my mailbox produced nothing important or interesting, just a few ad mailers all addressed to my non-existent mother. I sat down on the first step of the staircase to catch my breath and get ready for the trip back upstairs. Maddy sat down next to me and carefully put her arm through mine.

  “You don’t have to treat me like I’m made out of glass. Dr. Yosh says I’m going to be better than new,” I said.

  Looking at my repaired eye, she reached up and tucked a lock of my hair up under my hat. “She said there will hardly be a scar.” Her voice hitched. “I thought I had lost you. I was so worried about you.” She snuggled closer and leaned her head on my shoulder. Warmth spread through my chest.

  “Maddy, thanks for everything. My apartment, the groceries, the school supplies—everything. Mr. G told me you came to the hospital like every other day.”

  Nodding her head, she said, “My uncle was so awesome. He didn’t complain once about taking me to see you. The nurses, especially Gary, were really nice about letting me hang out. A couple of times, he let me stay after visiting hours. I talked to you while you were sleeping.”

  “I think I knew that. I mean, I don’t remember details, but I felt…cared for.”

  She rubbed her face with her sleeve and I realized my sweatshirt was damp where she had been laying her head. “Are you crying Maddy? I’m going to be fine. Don’t worry.”

  She jumped up and started up the stairs. “I’m not crying. There must be dust in this old building; just got something in my eye is all you big goof.”

  Smiling, I pulled myself up and started to climb after her.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Practice sessions at Mr. Goodturn’s were put on hold while I rebuilt my strength. When I went back to the hospital to get the stitches over my eye removed, Dr. Yosh did it herself. The sutures in my back were self-absorbing so there was no need to pull out any thread, just clipping the knots and dangling ends. She said I was healing fine and that she didn’t anticipate any complications. I put her in the same category as Seth, sweeping through my life for only a minute but being there when I desperately needed someone to lift me up.

  Getting exercise wasn’t a problem because Maddy had appointed herself my personal trainer. I lost count how many times we went up and down the stairs. She never seemed to get bored with it and even seemed to look forward to pushing our pace. Me? Not so much.

  The financial hole I was in was stressing me out and the money worries wouldn’t go away. Eventually, after numerous arguments concerning my safety, I convinced Maddy to come with me to Canal Park for a weekend performance. Thinking that we could start early on a Saturday morning, hit the park and wrap up well before sunset, I could probably make about half of what I needed to cover rent and food for a month. She argued against the park, saying the sidewalk out in front would be a good first step. The problem with that argument was that I needed money now, and the best I had ever pulled in by performing in front of the apartment building was seventy-five dollars. What could she say to that? There was nothing else I could do that would generate as much cash as working my gig in a park. It wasn’t as if I could advertise.

  So, backpack packed and prepared for a trip to the park, I waited for her downstairs. I decided to check the mail while I was waiting. When I closed the tiny door on my empty box, I turned around to see Breno standing by the stairs.

  “Hi, Breno.”

  “Hi, Benny,” he replied. His characteristic smile was not present. There was a sense of worry and anticipation pulsing under the surface of his blank stare.

  “You okay, Breno?” I asked.

  Nodding vigorously, he said, “I’m okay.” He shifted nervously from one foot to the other. Something was obviously bothering him, but he just stood there swaying and staring at me.

  “Oookaayy.… Do you need something?”

  “No.” Left foot, right foot, left.

  Shaking my head and smiling at him, I asked, “Are you waiting for something?”

  He hesitantly nodded. “I’m waiting.”

  Unbelievable. Breno was typically a chatterbox with hundreds of things to say on dozens of topics that had nothing to do with one another. His short answers were equivalent to him being tongue-tied.

  I shrugged and walked over to sit down on the stairs. Still offering no running commentary on what was running through his stream of consciousness, Breno’s gaze followed me and then he just stared. His affection for me had always been sweet, in an awkward kind of way, but what he was doing at the moment was creeping me out.

  “Breno! What? Why are you looking at me?”

  In response, he swung his head toward the front door.

  “I’m not looking at you, now,” he mumbled.

  Seriously? What the heck? “Breno, what are you waiting for? Tell me.” How could I be more direct than that?

  He stood there, his head turned away, but his body facing me. Slowly, his head swung back in
my direction. He didn’t look me in the eye. A shy smile flickered over his face.

  “I’m waiting for someone,” he said.

  His sphinx impersonation made me want to scream.

  “Okay, Breno. You just wait here with me, but I’m leaving soon.”

  “I know.”

  I blew out an exaggeratedly loud breath. Is this what parents of small children dealt with?

  We stayed there, me sitting, him standing, for several minutes. His silence was a tiny miracle, or an omen. I couldn’t decide which.

  From my vantage point, I could see out the front windows and I saw Maddy walk up before she got to the door. I stood up and went to meet her. Breno followed me.

  Looking up at him, I said, “Breno, I’m leaving. You can’t come with me.”

  Nodding his head, he continued to follow me.

  I opened the door. Maddy flounced in and gave me a hug. She pulled back and looked at me and then Breno. She didn’t seem confused by his presence. That should have been my first clue. Me, the detective.

  “You ready boys?” she said.

  Boys? “What are you talking about?” I looked from her to Breno, who had found his big goofy grin and was now proudly wearing it.

  Smiling mischievously at me, she said, “Breno is going to accompany us to the park. He’s our muscle.” She patted him affectionately on the arm. Breno’s grin cranked up a notch and his chin lifted slightly. He was clearly pleased with this new designation.

  “Maddy, was this your idea?” Captain Obvious strikes again.

  A patented girly-smirk spread over her face. She giggled. “Mine…and Mr. Goodturn’s. This is our condition. No compromise. No discussion.”

  “No dis… I think I have some input here,” I said, my pride and independence running my mouth while my brain was disengaged.

  “Ummm, no. Not today anyway. If you don’t agree, all I have to do is call Mr. Goodturn and he’ll help me prevent you from going.”