Frantic

by Mike Dellosso

  “Then, when I was ten, William came unexpectedly. My father didn’t want any more kids, especially not a son, and especially not a crippled one. They didn’t know William had cerebral palsy right away, but the deformities were enough. My father was repulsed. He and my mom fought all the time. He stopped hanging out with me and rarely came home after his shift until we were all in bed. When William was just four months old, I came home from school and found my mom crying. She said my father had left and he wasn’t coming back.” She looked at Marny with sad eyes and shrugged. “That was it. I never saw him or heard from him again. The last words we shared were days before that, when he snapped at me for wanting to help him with something on the car. I don’t even remember what it was now. I do remember I was crushed. That wasn’t my father; it wasn’t the same man.”

  “He changed, huh? Did a complete one-eighty.”

  Again she checked the windows as if expecting Gary to come swooping out of the morning sky and land on the roof of the Buick. “Yeah. He did a real Jekyll-and-Hyde, and Mr. Hyde was never so heartbreaking. That’s a tough thing for a girl to get over.”

  “Did you resent William?”

  She shook her head. “No, never. William’s been the best brother anyone could ask for.”

  “Because of his gift, his abilities?”

  “No. Because of his heart. He knows how to truly love. That’s where his gift comes from.”

  William did seem like a good kid. A little odd, but no more than any other eleven-year-old. “So when did Gary come on the scene?”

  “Yes, Gary.” She was quiet, contemplative.

  Marny couldn’t tell what she was thinking, or if she’d even answer his question.

  After a few long seconds she sighed deeply. “Gary showed up when I was fifteen and William was five. My mom said he was her half brother. Her parents had divorced, and her father remarried. Gary was his son to his second wife. Apparently he’d strayed from the family, spent some time traveling the country finding himself or something like that, and finally returned home to get his life back in order. He settled down in Maine, and Mom moved us in with him. From the get-go he tried to be a father figure for us. Really took a liking to William. He was okay, but he wasn’t my dad, you know what I mean?”

  “Your dad had fled the scene, but no one could replace him.”

  “Exactly. A year later things started going downhill with Gary. It wasn’t anything obvious at first, just little stuff.”

  They passed a sign that said Massachusetts Welcomes You and a much smaller, handwritten sign next to it that read Potatoes Ahead Mass-Hamp Farms.

  “Little stuff?” Marny said.

  “Like I said, he really took a liking to William. Treated him as if he were his own son. For William it was great. At first.”

  “Sounds like there’s more to this story.”

  She looked at Marny. “You know it doesn’t have a happy ending.”

  “It’s not over yet.”

  Esther turned around and checked on William. He was still sleeping in the back, resting against the door. “Things slowly escalated, and Gary’s attention to William grew more and more obsessive. He wouldn’t let him out of his sight, made him stay in the house at all times. Restricted the toys he played with. Wouldn’t even let him walk up and down the stairs without a chaperone. My mom noticed it, she had to, but never said a word. I think there was a part of her that feared Gary. After she died and I turned eighteen, I thought about going out on my own, but I couldn’t leave William with him. Something about Gary just wasn’t right, and I felt I had to be there to protect my brother.”

  “Did he ever do anything to William that was, you know … ” He hoped she knew what he was getting at.

  “No. Never. His obsession with William wasn’t like that at all.”

  “How do you know?”

  “William would have told me.”

  “It’s not exactly the kind of thing a young boy likes to talk about.”

  “He would. He tells me everything. I asked him once, and he said nothing like that ever happened, never even came close to happening.”

  There was silence in the car for a few minutes. The noise of the tires and the rhythmic chunk-chunk of the seams in the road were the only sounds.

  Finally Esther spoke again. “After our mother died, that’s when things really went bad.”

  Chapter 28

  THE DAY WAS moving by quickly, traffic was light, and the road ahead was clear.

  In Massachusetts, Marny got back on Interstate 95 and headed south to Boston. He was not conservative on the gas pedal. Once it got going, the Buick had a nice engine under its hood, and Marny was just fine with letting it do its thing.

  “Did he ever hit you?” He hoped to God that she’d say no. The thought of that beast laying a hand on Esther made Marny’s knuckles go white.

  “Once.”

  The first time Karl Gunnison hit Marny it felt like he’d gone and broken his jaw. Karl was drunk from a six-pack too many of his Pabst and getting more belligerent by the minute. Marny was fifteen and about as tall as Karl, but not nearly as wide or thick.

  Janie was in the cellar doing laundry when Karl started hollering for more beer. She came up the steps and told him he’d had enough, if he drank anymore he’d drown himself.

  No one told Karl Gunnison when to stop drinking, especially when he’d had too many already. He got up in Janie’s face, sticking out his chest, jabbing his fat finger at her. His face was deep red, and veins the size of fingers bulged in his neck.

  Janie begged him not have another drink. She knew what happened when he got really loaded. Violence became his default behavior, then came the vomit and passing out. But the more Janie insisted, the angrier Karl got. At one point she stood in the doorway to the kitchen and told Karl she wasn’t moving, that he could go back to his chair and watch the rest of the game. From where Marny stood in the corner of the room he could see Karl’s fist close and muscles tense in his arm.

  “Whoa, Karl,” he said. “Let’s just settle down, okay?”

  Karl turned and looked at Marny like he wanted to rip off his head and use it as a bowling ball. “Stay outta this, Bustah. This ain’t none a’ ya business.”

  “She’s my mom, and it is my business.”

  Karl grabbed Janie by the arm, his hand so large it wrapped completely around the upper part of her bicep. “She’s my wife, she’s my business. Now beat it.” He yanked her around, and she yelped in pain like a beaten dog.

  Marny stepped closer. “Get your hand off her.” He was barely aware of what he was saying; he was acting on instinct now.

  “Or what.” Karl taunted Marny, using his mother as bait. He was in a mood to hit someone, and it didn’t matter if it was Janie or Marny.

  Through clenched teeth Marny said, “Let her go.”

  Karl leaned in so close Marny could see the veins in his bloodshot eyes and bulbous nose. “Or what, Bustah? You gonna do somethin’ ’bout it?” He squeezed Janie’s arm tighter, causing her to cry out and her knees to buckle.

  Marny could stand it no longer and rushed him. He had no plan, no smooth move to engage Karl and break his hold on Janie’s arm. With Karl as inebriated as he was, Marny’s only hope was that his reflexes would be slowed and Marny would have the advantage.

  He was wrong. Karl was quicker than anticipated, and his fist was up so fast Marny never saw it connect with his jaw.

  But he felt it. Shock waves of pain vibrated through his skull, and he reeled backward and stumbled over the coffee table. The floor rose up to meet him, and the room went dark and spun in wide circles. Somewhere in the room Karl laughed. Marny tried to move his jaw, but it didn’t work properly. Rubbing it did no good. He rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, watching it go round and round until the throbbing in his head stopped. By then Janie was kneeling over him, crying and going on about how sorry she was for upsetting Karl.

  Karl didn’t break Marny’s jaw that tim
e … but it wasn’t the last time he hit him either.

  Marny didn’t want to know the details, so he didn’t ask.

  Esther paused, as if his question had stirred a memory she had to take time to suppress lest it crawl out of the past like a toothy specter and wreak havoc on her emotions. “I wasn’t expecting it at all.”

  “You don’t have to tell me.”

  “Yes, I do. I need to tell someone. If all this turns out bad, I need to know that someone knows our story.”

  Marny didn’t say anything. He couldn’t. It was like her last will and testament, that someone know the hell she and William had lived through. How could he deny her that one request? The road ahead was straight and smooth and thinly populated with other cars. Marny kept both hands on the wheel and his foot firmly planted on the accelerator. Only occasionally did he glance in the mirrors to make sure no Ford Taurus was gaining on them.

  “Two years after my mother died I told Gary I was taking William and leaving. I was nineteen, and I could find a job on my own, an apartment, and support both of us.” She paused, looked at her hands. Her mouth tightened and jaw muscles flexed rhythmically.

  “Esther—”

  She held up a hand. “Gary went nuts, started pacing and swearing. He stood in front of the door and told me if I ever tried to take William from him, he’d find us and kill me. I knew he was serious too, we both did, but I was tired of being pushed around by him. I told him I was leaving anyway, taking William and getting out of there, that he couldn’t keep us prisoners.”

  “You were fed up.”

  “That’s the understatement of the century. When I turned my back to him, he grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked me back hard. It shocked me more than hurt, and I lost my balance and stumbled backward. Even before I hit the floor Gary was there over me. He slapped me in the face, not hard enough to really hurt, but it stung and it scared the daylights out of me. After that he installed the locks on the door and the Plexiglas in the windows. He never left the two of us alone again. He usually has me with him because he’s afraid I’ll leave. He doesn’t know I would never abandon William. And besides, I think he’s afraid of William’s gift.”

  William was still sleeping in the backseat.

  “What exactly is William’s gift?” Marny asked again. “Mind control, telepathy, telekinesis? What?” He was still sure there had to be more to it than Esther had let on.

  “Something much more powerful, Marny. Like I told you before, it’s faith.”

  Chapter 29

  YOU’RE DISAPPOINTED,” ESTHER said.

  “No, not disappointed, just, um, surprised.” He could feel her smiling at him.

  “You still thought he was some kind of superhero? That he could throw fire or leap tall buildings and catch bullets?”

  Marny glanced at William in the mirror. He was an eleven-year-old kid with a withered hand and noticeable limp. He was still probably three or four years away from shaving. Marny was suddenly embarrassed and felt his cheeks flush. “Something like that.”

  “Like I said, what he has is something more powerful than anything some superhero could do.”

  Marny didn’t understand. Faith seemed so passive, so timid, the stuff of little old church ladies and Sunday school teachers.

  “And Gary—tough guy psycho—is afraid of faith?”

  Esther looked at Marny for a long time. He could feel her eyes, yes, those haunting blue eyes, boring holes into the side of his head. She was sizing him up, figuring him out, wondering if he could really be such an idiot.

  “Marny, faith is the most powerful force anyone can possess. With it men have called down fire from heaven, walked on water, healed the sick, raised the dead.”

  “So what, William’s some kind of child faith healer?” He’d seen a documentary once about a kid down south who was a faith healer. He attracted huge crowds and had people falling all over themselves.

  “This isn’t about showmanship and being flamboyant. It’s about belief. Simple, innocent belief. And love. Real love.”

  “And with faith he can do stuff like, what, miracles?”

  “Stuff like that.”

  “Like what? Come on, Esther, spill it. I need to know the story here.”

  “He can do whatever God wills.”

  “Then why doesn’t he just use a little faith to get rid of Gary? Believe him right into the grave.” It made sense to Marny. If William was a miracle child, why couldn’t he just believe some horrible death on the man who’d held him and his sister captive for four years? What Marny called a curse he could use as a blessing.

  “It doesn’t work like that. Faith only works when it’s filtered through love. It’s not a weapon. That’s the part Gary doesn’t understand.”

  “So that’s why he wants William so bad? He thinks he’s some kind of super weapon?”

  Their conversation was getting stranger by the second, venturing into territory that was the stuff of paranormal phenomena and fringe science. Only it wasn’t science, was it? Not according to Esther anyway.

  She didn’t answer his question, so he pressed further. “And science can’t prove anything he does, give a logical explanation?”

  “Science can’t prove faith. The two operate in totally different realms.”

  “Natural and spiritual.”

  “You got it.”

  Marny was quiet for a while. He had to think, process, rationalize—somehow make sense of this miracle-working child in the backseat of Mr. Condon’s Buick Riviera. His hands started to shake for two reasons. One, if Gary knew what William was capable of and if he thought it could be used for his own purposes, then Esther was right about what she’d said before. He wouldn’t stop coming after them; his pursuit would be relentless. And two, if William was as special as Esther suggested he was, Marny had all the more reason to get out of their lives as quickly as possible. William may have been blessed, but Marny was cursed, and the fact that sooner or later those two forces would collide scared the cotton out of him.

  A sign up ahead read North Adams 12. “We’re going to be there soon,” Marny said. “You ready for this?”

  Esther shifted in her seat. “I don’t have a choice. He’s our only chance.” She looked back at her still-sleeping brother. “William never even knew him. For him, it’ll be like meeting a stranger.”

  “A stranger who walked out on you. Does William know why your father left?”

  “I’ve never told him, but I’m sure he’s figured it out. He’s a smart kid.”

  Marny had to ask her something else and wasn’t sure how to do it. He wanted to avoid implanting his foot in his mouth at all costs. “Esther, is William … you know, mentally …”

  “Challenged?”

  For the second time he felt his cheeks flush. “Yeah.”

  “IQ scores would say so. But he isn’t. His brain works differently from ours; he sees and processes things differently. He’s smarter than most people in a lot of ways. He’s insightful, like he can look right through your external facade and see your soul.”

  “I guess it’s hard to lie to him.”

  She laughed. “Impossible.”

  “No Santa Claus?”

  “Never.”

  William stirred in the backseat. Marny heard him stretch and moan.

  “Hey, sleepyhead,” Esther said. “You’re finally awake.”

  “I’m hungry, Esther. Is there any food?”

  She unwrapped the breakfast sandwich she’d kept and handed it to him along with the hash brown and his orange juice. “There you go. Might be a little cold, but it’ll fill your belly.”

  “Thank you for buying the food, Marnin.”

  “You’re welcome, William. Enjoy it even if it is cold.”

  “You guys should have something too,” he said. “This might be the last time we eat for a while.”

  With that one statement by the miracle kid, Marny suddenly felt the weight of an impending storm growing closer. Droplets of sweat wet
his forehead. He checked the rearview mirror, expecting to see dark clouds looming close or a blue Taurus on their bumper.

  Chapter 30

  HAROLD ROSE’S HOME was a modest rancher on the edge of the Monroe State Forest.

  Marny and his companions arrived there after stopping at a gas station off Route 2 for directions. Harold looked to have at least three acres of land that butted up against the forest. The house was situated on the left side of the property, and nearby, not a hundred feet away, sat a small barn. It appeared to be newly constructed with an ornate cupola topped with a copper rooster weather vane at the peak. A Jeep Grand Cherokee was parked in the driveway, and from behind the house and out of view of the road a thick tendril of smoke curled toward the sky. Marny pulled the Buick into the driveway behind the Jeep and shut off the engine. They sat there in silence staring at the house, the open yard, and the column of smoke for a few long seconds.

  It was hot outside, and with the engine off and windows rolled up, the temperature in the car quickly climbed.

  Finally Marny turned to Esther. “Well, what do you think?”

  She kept her eyes on the house as if she could see through the walls and watch the man she once called Dad. “Think about what?”

  “Quantum physics.”

  She smiled.

  “You still want to do this?”

  “He’s our only hope.”

  Marny wasn’t as certain as she was. This was the man who had walked out on his family because his son had been born with a few defects. He’d abandoned them and never looked back, never attempted to reconnect, and apparently started a new life here in Massachusetts. If he was their only hope, they were all in a bucket of trouble.

  Marny found William in the rearview mirror. The boy was leaning forward, studying the house and property. “What do you think, William? Any feeling about this place?” He was hoping William would use his gift to discern whether they were doing the right thing or not.