by Glen Krisch
"I'm Maury," he said, extending his hand. He erased any reaction from his face. He couldn't let Gabe know what he thought of his appearance. Who's he to say or think anything about someone's appearance?
Gabe readily took his hand, although he looked more like he wanted to give Maury a hug. "Nice to meet you. I fell from a window. My skull broke. Do you like to swim? I just learned and all, but I like it. Dad got me lessons," Gabe rattled off quickly. Before Maury could answer, the boy jumped back into the pool.
When his new foster brother broke the surface again, Robert was on his feet. "Gabe, what did I tell you about diving? Do you want to hurt yourself?"
"Sorry, Dad." His foster brother had a guilty smirk on his face, happy to have someone looking after his well-being.
"Wanna come in? We can play Marco Polo, or tag or Johnny Quest?" Gabe asked, hopeful.
"I'll just sit on the deck. I don't really want to swim right now."
Gabe dog paddled over to Maury, and when he stopped to tread water, Maury was uncomfortable with how close he was. Gabe had no sense of personal space. The boy whispered, "So what's your deal?"
"My deal?"
"Yeah, you know, you're all fried up."
Maury wanted to get out of the pool, and go… well away, anywhere but here. He looked over his shoulder and Eliza still smiled, her white teeth as straight as headstones in a new cemetery. Robert was talking into her ear, his face buried in her black hair, making her laugh. His hand squeezed her knee, and then it crept higher on her leg, the tips of his fingers just under the hem of her white shorts. She continued to laugh at whatever he was saying, but seeing Maury, she slapped his hand away. His foster parents seemed giddy, and for that reason alone, he didn't immediately leave the pool. "Apartment fire."
"Is that what made you an award?"
"Award?"
"You know, like a prize for new families. An award."
He was about to tell him no, that his parents only gave up on him after his younger brother turned up dead, his heart mysteriously devoured by a dream cat that only Maury was witness to.
"Yeah, I'm an orphan."
"My mom smoked crack. I fell out a window, broke my head. I got patched up, but they might have to split me open again to even it out. I don't mind though. I get to shave my head."
"So how long have you lived with the Ungers?" Maury asked. He stood up and went across the deck to get a beach ball.
"Next week'll be a year. They're going to adopt me, change my name like theirs."
"Do they want kids of their own then?"
"Yeah, but Dad calls Mom a baron."
"You mean she's barren?"
"Yeah, like a prince or whatever."
Maury didn't correct him. Dale had seemed sharper than Gabe, and he had been seven when he died. He wondered if they saw Maury as a potential son. He also wondered why they would bother snatching up damaged kids to be their offspring.
"Still don't want to come in?"
"Naw. I'm bushed. All the excitement, you know."
"Later then?"
"Sure. Later." Maury threw the beach ball at Gabe, and his reactions were too slow. The ball bounced off his head and flew into the grass.
"They give you whatever you want, you know. They're nice. They said I'll get to a doctor, get fixed up. When it's fall, I'm joining a soccer team. They said I can go to any college I want, too. They'll pay for all of it." Gabe's lips were turning blue since he wasn't moving around anymore, just flapping his gums. Maury couldn't imagine Gabe ever getting into college. On the other hand, Maury would readily accept someone else paying for his own education. He had already decided he was going to go to the University of Chicago to study psychology. Since his hand hadn't responded to physical therapy, he'd set aside his dream of being a surgeon. The therapists he'd seen had only further opened his eyes. This Unger deal was sounding better and better.
"That's great, Gabe," Maury said, his mind drifting to the possibility of going to college.
Gabe talked his ear off until it was time for dinner. He left the pool, wrinkled and shivering. His lips were darn near purple, but he seemed like the happiest boy alive. Eliza greeted Gabe with a towel. Robert put his hand on Maury's shoulder as they went inside to have barbequed hamburgers and potato chips.
As Maury settled in at the Unger's house, Gabe proved to be a welcome distraction from his loneliness. It was also refreshing that Gabe wasn't always judging him, staring at him, or trying desperately to avoid eye contact with him. Most of the time, Maury missed his family so much it hurt, but when Gabe was in the room, he did the silliest things just to make Maury laugh. It made their cramped bedroom seem not so small.
"Wanna see me drink water up my nose?" Gabe asked excitedly.
"Again?" Maury was on his stomach on the lower bunk. Gabe was sitting on the floor, leaning against the dresser.
"Come on. It's my best trick."
"No."
Gabe had a defeated look on his face. "No kidding?"
"Hey, Gabe, do you remember your dreams?"
Gabe paused, a confused look on his face. His brain switched tracks and caught up to the change in subject. "Do I!"
"Anything in particular?"
"Let's see… frogs fall to the ground, like rain, then they splat. And there's this mean lady who looks all gray, gray skin, gray hair, gray everything, she's got ratty clothes, she's always out to get me, but I'm too fast for her… and… and..." Gabe said, rubbing his chin as if he would uncover a hidden memory by doing so. Maury figured the ratty-looking lady was actually Gabe's mom in disguise. From what he had heard so far, Gabe was in a much better situation living with the Ungers. "…Let me see… oh, I know! Junior!"
"Who's Junior?"
"He's me, but smaller, and with a big round head with no dent."
"Can I show you my best trick?" Maury asked, a conspiratorial tone to his voice.
"A trick, I love tricks!"
Maury hopped off the bed and poked his head outside their bedroom. He listened for the Ungers, but they must've still been outside taking an after dinner swim. He closed the door, and had a serious expression when he turned back to Gabe.
"It don't hurt, right?"
"No, Gabe. But you can't tell a soul. Not even Eliza."
His foster brother's face went through expressions like quickly flipped poker cards--sad to nervous to happy to elated--all in a matter of seconds. "Okay."
"Promise? Not a word to anyone. They might take us away from the Ungers if anyone finds out."
Gabe was quiet for the first time since Maury had met him. Maury motioned Gabe to sit on the edge of the bed. His palms were sweaty. He hadn't done this since Dale and Rocky. He didn't even know if he could still do it. He steadied his hands, not wanting to touch that sinkhole skull. As he reached out toward Gabe's forehead, his foster brother's eyes crossed as he tried to see what was happening. Maury felt a white-hot burning pour through his hand and into Gabe's skull…
Maury woke at the sound of his office door opening. Nolan Gage entered, looking as tired as Maury felt.
"Good. You're here. I have a surprise for you," Maury said.
"Good or bad?"
"Oh, definitely good. I've found our star. Our Shamuu. Our King Tut."
"Show me," Gage perked up, the fatigue gone from his face. His eyes were bloodshot but alert as he followed Maury from the museum basement. They took the elevator to the second floor. The nightmares' roost.
Maury held his arm in front of Gage, barring his path. "His name is Mr. Freakshow. Brace yourself." The two men entered the hall.
Maury didn't look into the Freak's enclosure. He kept his gaze on Gage's face, his somewhat beady eyes, his red-gray beard grown wild. Gage blinked several times, not moving, his eyes glassing over as with fever. A grunt and the sound of torn flesh came from within the enclosure, but Maury still kept his eyes trained on Gage. His boss's eyes widened. Something splattered within the enclosure. Gage's face paled. His skin seemed to sag, the invisib
le weight of gravity pulling it to the floor. Then his lips twitched at the corners. They perked up into a slight, fleeting smile. The sound of the Freak's claws rending, slashing, gouging, brought Gage's hands to his mouth. The enclosure was now silent, but Gage gave off a sick, lurching wheeze.
Gage turned his glassy eyes to Maury and then hurried from the Nightmare Wing, lucky to make it to the bathroom before his empty stomach purged nothing more than hot, acidic bile.
Maury felt vindicated. He had been holding back his hopes until he could get Gage to see Mr. Freakshow. Gage's reaction was confirmation enough to know he had found the creature that would change the world.
Gabe wanted to prove to Maury how good a diver he was. The Ungers would never allow him to dive for fear of him re-damaging his skull. Robert was off to work, and Eliza had gone inside to throw a load of clothes in the wash. They were alone.
"Watch this. A full twist," Gabe said in a hushed voice. Gabe didn't realize he gave off a mad squeal when he dove, and the splashing noise sounded like a giant falling out of a fishing trawler. Gabe leapt into the air, his head leaning to the side. He arched over the water, and came crashing down on his shoulder.
"See, what'd I tell you," Gabe said, speaking as soon as he broke the surface.
"I'm not sure, Gabe. That looked more like a quarter twist, not a full."
Gabe thought about it for a minute, then said, "Come on, Maury, I'm not that good." Gabe dog paddled across the water. Maury still hadn't ventured into the pool. He was too distracted. While his body was at the pool, his legs dangling in the water, his mind was in the second floor bedroom he shared with Gabe, focusing on the footlocker at the end of their bunk beds. He listened for a scream in case Eliza opened the locker and found what they had hidden.
"What are we going to do with Junior?" Gabe asked.
"I don't know." Maury didn't know what they were going to do with the pint-sized Gabe. At least the dream didn't talk as much as Gabe. They would without a doubt get in trouble otherwise.
"I'm gonna take Junior in for show and tell when school starts," Gabe said, climbing from the pool. He was measuring another dive, not yet sure which aerial acrobatics to perform next.
"Gabe, what did I say? Not a word to anyone. I mean it. We can get in some serious trouble. I mean, go-to-jail type trouble."
"Fine. Our secret. Can we can go and play soldiers with him like last night?" He wondered if Gabe had enough sense to keep his mouth shut. He guessed not.
"Not now. That would look suspicious to Eliza. We have to stay outside, in the pool. We can't open the locker until we're supposed to be in bed, until long after we're supposed to be asleep."
"Fine." Gabe gave him a dour look. He did a herky-jerky waving of his arms and legs, and when he hit the water, a wave splashed Maury's dry t-shirt.
Maury shook his head. Letting Gabe know about his abilities was probably a mistake. It would be impossible for him to keep quiet. Then Maury's chance at having a happy family would be over. And his hopes of going to college. They would take him away. Experiment on him. Try to figure him out so they could exploit him. The government always did things like that. Like the aliens at Roswell, or the X-Men, or any of the other things they kept from the public. Maury didn't want to be a guinea pig. He just wanted a family.
"Hey, Maury?"
"Yeah, Gabe?"
"I got a secret." Gabe climbed from the pool. Water dripped from his trunks like rain.
"Well, then keep it to yourself, like we talked about."
"Not that secret. Another one. One about Mom and Dad." Gabe stood with his toes overhanging the edge of the pool. His skin was red where it had repeatedly slapped the surface of the water.
"Can you tell me?" Maury was legitimately curious. He didn't know much about the Ungers yet, but he definitely wanted to know what he was getting himself into.
"No. It's secret. They don't even know I heard."
"Come on, Gabe. I wanna know."
Gabe lined up his next dive, swinging his arms gently at his sides, as if building momentum. "Only if you promise."
"Promise what?"
"We go see Junior after I tell you. I just want to see if he's okay. Maybe he can't breathe in that footlocker."
"Fine. What is it?"
Gabe moved his arms faster and faster, but before he jumped, he looked at Maury. "The Ungers fought some other couple for you. They wanna fix you up like they're gonna fix me up. The other couple only wanted more money from the state for taking 'nother kid. I heard Dad tell Mom he would'a done anything to get that 'crispy critter.'"
Gabe jumped high into the air, straight up, and at the high point of his dive, his head went straight down. His skull broke the surface of the water, and with his trajectory into the four feet of water, he forcefully hit the bottom of the pool. He gave off a cloud of bubbles as his lungs released their air.
Maury saw none of this. He was staring at the house, at the windows, to where his foster mom was washing his clothes. Just when he thought he might like his new family, he instantly hated them.
The bubbles of air from Gabe's lungs popped at the surface. Maury turned to see Gabe floating two feet below the surface, no movement to his limbs.
"Eliza!" Maury screamed as he jumped into the water feet first, one of his flip flops flying off wildly. He paddle-walked through the sluggish water to Gabe's prone body. "Gabe. Gabe, come on." Maury lifted his foster brother's head from the water. "Eliza!"
A wicked thought flashed through his head: What the fuck? Why does shit always happen to me?
He latched on to Gabe's shoulders, trying to pull him to the metal deck, but the boy was slim, his skin slick with water and sunscreen. Gabe slipped below the surface, and he didn't fight the water covering his face, invading his nostrils.
"Damn it, Gabe!"
Maury lifted Gabe's face above the water. When the water drained from his open eyelids, blood seeped from the corner of his left eye, a pink stain coating his iris. A wave of chlorinated water splashed across his face, cleaning his bare eyeball of the blood. Gabe still didn't move.
Adrenaline must have been pumping hard for Maury to be able to lift both Gabe and himself onto the deck. He felt like his comic hero, The Hulk--enraged, anger clouding his mind and giving him strength. He tilted the boy's head back, pushed aside his tongue and blew a lungful of air into his lungs.
"Eliza! It's Gabe. He's hurt. Hurt bad. Eliza!" Maury shouted, somehow able to count chest compressions.
Something clicked inside Maury's head. An epiphany. The next gust of breath he blew, he blew against the outside of Gabe's cheek. He started chest compressions again, keeping an eye on the house. "Mom! Please Mom, you have to help!" Maury cried. The chlorine of the pool made it easier to cry.
Eliza Unger threw open the back door and ran down the curving concrete walkway. She had grabbed a cordless phone on her way out and was yelling at a 911 dispatcher. "Hold on a sec," she shouted into the phone, mounting the metal steps. Then to Maury, "What happened? Did he dive? Move, move out the way damn it!" Eliza pushed Maury away, and he teetered on unsteady feet, almost falling into the pool.
"I don't know what happened. I went to get the beach ball… I turned when I heard the splash… he was floating, not moving… I don't know…" Maury playacted next to Eliza as she repeated the CPR steps. He paced across the metal deck, his clothes soaked, his hands fumbling through the air as if in uncontrollable frustration. Eliza didn't see the smirk on his face. She was too busy trying to save a life that was already gone.
Later on, while a paramedic climbed on top of Gabe to continue CPR, Maury snuck off to their bedroom. He opened the footlocker at the end of their bunkbeds. It was empty, just as he suspected. He grabbed a couple of towels from the bathroom before leaving the house. He draped one over his shoulders and wrapped one around Eliza as they climbed into the back of the ambulance. The siren soared through the quiet suburban afternoon. Maury put his arm around Eliza's shoulders. He cried against her shoulder,
whispering into her ear, "Mom, I don't know what happened. I never should have left him alone… never should have left… never should have…"
Chapter 12
On the wall at the top of the curving stairwell, a billboard in simple block letters spoke volumes about what waited inside the Nightmare Wing for unlearned museum patrons:
PLEASE DON'T PESTER THE DREAMS. TO AVOID POSSIBLE DANGER--DON'T LEAN ON THE GLASS ENCLOSURES.
Nolan Gage watched as some people scoffed at the ominous warnings before they entered the Nightmare Wing. From the looks on their faces, most people exiting had gained a measurable amount of respect for whomever printed the signage.
God, this place is an all-out madhouse, Gage mused as he pushed through the crowd. It was Lucidity's opening night, and the people had started lining up outside the doors of the old Carnegie Library shortly after lunchtime.
He walked down the curving steps, hearing gasps of shock and revulsion coming from the Nightmare Wing behind him. The upstairs attractions had the longest lines, but the whole museum was packed to the gills. They decided to allow full access to the media, and anyone else who wanted to bring cameras inside, at least for the night. The more free publicity they could get, the better. What better publicity than the media and word of mouth kind? He felt winded by the time he reached the ground floor and approached the concessions' area. They had six people working the counter tonight. They were moving around like chickens with their heads cut off, and all the while, taking in money hand over fist.
Gage leaned over the counter to speak to his floor manager. "Hey, Peter, how are things going?"
Peter looked up as he finished bagging a t-shirt for a young girl. He worked his way over to speak to his boss. "It's crazy busy Mr. Gage, but you hired the right people. We're doing fine. We're low on singles, and the popcorn machine can't keep up." He didn't look frazzled one bit. He actually seemed to be enjoying himself, totally in his own element, even with customers surrounding concessions' island four deep.