by Ted Hill
Thirty
Scout
All the bugs flew off into the setting sun at the creepy dude’s arrival. He looked like a stick figure with his jeans stopping at his calves and his shirt hanging just above his belly button. If the guy started trouble, Scout would have to take him out.
“What’s he doing?” Molly asked.
“He’s just walking down the middle of the street.” Scout turned back.
Molly rocked little James in her arms and Ginger slept on the floor beneath a bed sheet. Scout couldn’t shake the image of Ginger’s skin stripped from her body. He also couldn’t explain how Molly was able to heal her. A lot of stuff was happening and Scout was slowly catching up. He looked back to the street again right as Billy came around the corner and slid to his butt in front of the creepy dude.
Scout stepped through the busted window frame. Billy might have been bad mouthing him all over town for who knew how long, but that didn’t mean Scout was going to let something bad happen to the kid. This new guy oozed badness like an infected wound.
He moved into the street as Catherine and Mark ran up behind Billy. Scout was too far away to hear the exchange, but whatever was being said, Catherine appeared to have a lot on her mind. She helped Billy to his feet and Mark stood protectively with his aluminum bat ready to tee off on the creepy dude’s skull.
Scout hurried, but was too late.
The tall kid moved so fast he shimmered, and he sliced open Mark’s throat. A spray of blood pumped out everywhere. Mark fell to his knees and stared into the distance like something better was over that way.
Billy screamed, “You son of a bitch, I’ll kill you!” He charged underneath the first swipe and wrapped his arms around the creepy dude’s knees. Billy squeezed and lifted. The tall kid crashed over like a skinny tree and Billy scrambled on top, swinging his little fists with no regard for his own life.
Catherine stripped off her shirt and pressed it against Mark’s throat. Mark slid backwards with Catherine guiding him down. The unused bat rolled over the cobbles.
Scout ran towards the bat. Two forms of light popped out of the shattered window of Brittany’s In the falling dusk, the glow appeared to be giant lightning bugs that didn’t blink. Scout’s eyes adjusted.
Samuel and Dylan streaked past to help Billy in the scuffle. The creepy dude shoved Billy off and regained his feet before the lights arrived. Billy stumbled headfirst into Catherine, knocking her away from Mark.
Scout sped up.
Dylan came in low as Samuel flew into the startled dude’s chest. They hit the ground in a big pile of light and dark. Punches were exchanged on both sides. Samuel concentrated on the creepy dude’s face, while Dylan was kicked off and flew backwards. The guy rolled over on top of Samuel, raking down with his nails. Sparks flickered from the light, leaving Samuel protected.
Dylan jumped to his feet and shot into the tall kid like a laser beam, knocking him off Samuel, and they tumbled. When the motion stopped, everybody was separated.
Scout dropped beside Mark and reapplied pressure on his torn throat. Mark gripped Scout’s wrist with panic reaching his eyes. His mouth gaped open like a fish out of water. Catherine lay unconscious as Billy groaned and pushed himself off of her.
Back on the street, the fight had resumed after a brief pause. Scout couldn’t watch that now. He had to find help for Mark. Catherine wasn’t able to help anyone at the moment.
“How is he?”
Scout looked up, startled to find Billy addressing him. “He’s bleeding badly.”
Billy looked back to the fight and then gently rolled Catherine over. “She’s hit her head twice today. I hope she’s okay.”
“What happed the first time?” Scout asked, finding the change in Billy curious.
“Billy threw her into a wall,” Billy said.
“Uh, you mean you… right?”
Billy frowned, brushed a stray strand away from Catherine’s eyes, and nodded. “Yeah I guess I do mean me.” He looked back at the fight briefly. “Where’s Luis?”
Mark’s grip had lessened. The shirt underneath Scout’s hand was drenched. “He was in Brittany’s when the bug cloud hit.”
Billy jumped to his feet, eyes wide with fear. “He left Ginger alone!”
“He was getting them dinner. Molly’s with Ginger and the baby now. They’re all safe.”
“Molly! She can heal Mark!” Billy took off running. He poked his head into the window at Brittany’s. A second later Luis stepped out the door and followed Billy to the clinic.
“Wait!” Scout yelled. “We need Luis over here!”
Luis turned and started for Scout, but Billy grabbed the young doctor’s arm and dragged him to the clinic. Scout didn’t want to believe it.
“Catherine! Catherine, wake up! Mark needs you!”
Catherine lay silent on the cobbles. Scout saw the purple bruise on her forehead even in the growing darkness.
Mark coughed and kicked, his life sputtering out beneath Scout’s useless hands. And then Mark’s struggles ceased, his eyes open to the night sky. Scout couldn’t look down, but refused to release the man that loved his sister.
Dylan had been knocked around pretty good by the tall kid. He lay on the ground dazed. The light covering him dimmed.
Samuel glowed like a bonfire, pressing the tall kid hard with shots to the body and face. Scout never realized Samuel was this good in a fight. Samuel the clown was wailing on the tall kid, hammering his head, knocking him sideways. Then he followed with an uppercut and the kid landed on his back. Samuel dropped, driving both knees into the creepy dude’s ribs.
No one could keep struggling after that, but the creepy dude was made from some type of durable steel. He swiped Samuel in the side of the face, flipping him headfirst into the pavement. Samuel’s light flickered and died.
Dylan lay quietly. The loss of light left Scout blind. He hoped the creepy dude wasn’t making the rounds, finishing everybody off. Scout wanted to help his friends, but he still believed that pressing the bloody shirt over Mark’s motionless throat was saving his life.
Scout heard dragging as someone moved away, one slow step at a time. The noise had receded when Scout’s eyes adjusted. Samuel and Dylan still lay where they had fallen. Samuel rolled over and sat up, shaking his head.
“Are you okay?” Scout asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I can’t believe that dude wouldn’t go down.”
“Where did you get the light from?”
“Molly. She’s been holding out on us.”
“What?”
“Never mind, we’ll deal with that later.” Samuel hobbled over to Dylan and checked his pulse. “Dylan’s alive. Is that Mark?”
Scout’s sorrow burst wide open. He wept as hard as the day his mother and father died. The pain tore through his body and soul. Nothing in this world would ever heal him. No magic or little girl wielding it.
Samuel dropped next to Mark and placed a hand on Scout’s shoulder. “You can let go. You don’t have to do that anymore. He’s gone.”
Scout refused for a moment before his resolve faded into the pain. He swayed in a circle and blubbered nonsensical things.
Samuel removed the shirt and exposed a horrible gash, darkened by a final spurt of blood. He tossed the soaking mess aside and removed his own shirt. Wrapping it around Mark’s lifeless throat, Samuel tied off a half-hitch that resembled a bowtie.
For some screwed up reason, Scout laughed. More tears streamed to the forefront of his sanity. He crossed his arms and rocked, closing his eyes against further stimulation that would make him laugh or scream.
A hand gently touched his head. “What’s wrong, brother?” Molly asked.
Instant clarity fired and he knew. He knew that everything would be all right. He had forgotten in his pain and struggle what he should never forget. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but He’s always working, and Scout had forgotten to pray and ask for His help.
Scout looked up through
tears at Molly’s smiling face. She showed no concern over her twin brother’s death. He blinked away the rest of his sorrow and pain. “What do we do?”
“We do His will, always.” Molly knelt beside him.
She laid her hands on her brother. One on his forehead and the other over the knot. “Guys, I need your help. Please lend me your strength by laying your hands on Mark.”
Scout and Samuel did as required and Molly bowed her head and prayed aloud. “Dear Heavenly Father, please return Mark’s spirit to us. Amen.”
A bright pink light flowed from her hands, encompassing Mark’s body like a pulsing field of vibrant energy, crackling with new life. The light tingled up Scout and Samuel’s arms. Mark bucked and his chest began to rise. The light pulsed and Scout knew underneath the bowtie the gash across Mark’s throat was healing, and his soul was returning. Miracles happened every day, and Scout thanked the Lord for every one He blessed them with.
The light flowed from their arms and Mark’s body into Molly. Darkness came again and then she released the light through her eyes with a solid burst. One by one, Scout, Samuel and Molly fell on the bloodstained cobbles beside Mark’s breathing form.
Thirty-One
Jimmy
After Molly left, Jimmy went about the business of seeing to his family. Luis had their medical needs covered, so Jimmy righted the bed and swept all the broken glass and dead bugs away from Ginger and his son. James nestled in Ginger’s arms, latched onto his favorite spot. Jimmy did his best to focus on the work.
With the windows broken, Jimmy worried the baby might catch cold, but the August night clung to the leftover afternoon heat. Luis restarted the generator. He found light bulbs in a cabinet to replace the busted ones. Luis stored trash bins in the back. Jimmy quickly filled the first and was halfway on the second when the baby started crying.
“Billy,” Luis said.
Jimmy kept sweeping up the last bit of debris.
“Billy!”
Jimmy turned to find Luis staring at him. It took him a second to realize he was being called. He set the broom in the corner and hustled over.
“Can you hold the baby for a minute? I need to run some tests on Ginger.”
Jimmy shrugged like it was no big deal. Inside, his emotions performed back flips. It was all he could do to keep himself from cart wheeling around the clinic. He reached out with shaky hands.
Luis mistook Jimmy’s excitement. “You don’t have to be nervous. Just make sure you support the baby’s head. The muscles in his neck aren’t strong enough.”
Jimmy crooked his arms and received the handoff. There was life, warm sweet smelling life. Little James looked up at his father and cooed.
“Oh,” Ginger said from her clean sheeted hospital bed. “I haven’t heard him make that sound. He must really like you, Billy.”
Fresh tears swam into Jimmy’s eyes. His son liked him.
He wanted to tell Ginger who and what he was to her and little baby James. But he didn’t know exactly who or what he was yet, or how long his current arrangement would remain. The last thing he wanted was to cause her more distress. He would have to straighten this out with Catherine first.
Jimmy knew he should go out and see what was happening and who needed help, but right at that moment everything that was important to him was in his arms, and as long as this moment could be extended, Jimmy wanted it to continue forever.
James rolled his head, closed his eyes, and farted.
Jimmy cradled his little angel and hummed a lullaby from memory.
Luis asked Ginger all kinds of questions concerning pain and discomfort, moving around her bed and checking her temperature, pulse and blood pressure.
“I feel perfectly fine.”
“So I’m noticing. Everything checks normal.”
“I am kind of hungry.”
Luis pulled the blood pressure cuff off Ginger’s arm. “I know. I’ll go over in a bit and see if Brittany has some food for us. The inside of their building was worse than this one.”
“Was anybody hurt?”
“No. Thankfully Scout showed up. Everybody was just standing around gawking. He made us move to the back of the place and use the tables as a protective barrier. That right there saved us when the glass broke and the bugs came pouring in.”
“What’s wrong?” Luis asked.
Jimmy glanced up from his inspection of James’s face. Ginger’s face was pinched in what looked like anguish.
“Are you in pain?” Luis placed his hand on her forehead.
She brushed his concern away. “No, I didn’t have a table when the bugs broke in. Scout barely had time to save James. I didn’t make it.”
“But you look fine,” Luis said.
“Yes, thanks to Molly.”
“What?”
“Molly healed me just like Catherine. That, and the way she helped with James’s delivery. She’s not the same Molly.”
“She’s not mean again, is she?” Luis asked.
Jimmy smiled. No, Molly hadn’t reverted back to being the self absorbed person she was a year ago. Thank goodness. Jimmy barely survived the old Molly.
The thought of surviving seemed very odd now. He lived inside another kid’s body, but living was probably not the best description. Haunting spirit might be more accurate.
Jimmy felt a rumble underneath his son’s bottom. James squirmed in obvious discomfort.
“I think James just pooped. Where are the diapers?”
Luis’s unhinged expression crossed the gap between horror and shock. Ginger’s smile lit the room brighter than sunshine.
“Would you like to change his diaper, Billy?” she asked.
“Yes, please.”
Luis pointed to the changing table with a confused look. Ginger giggled.
Jimmy laid his son on the changing mat and unfastened the disposable diaper, noting how everything fit together so he could put the puzzle back correctly. “What do I use to clean his bottom?”
Luis fanned his nose. “Use the wipes in that plastic container next to the clean diapers and drop everything in that blue bin. Make sure the lid goes back on quickly.”
Jimmy held his son still with one hand. James watched his father with large round eyes, earning the little guy a smile. Jimmy made quick work of the mess and dropped the soiled diaper in the blue bin, grateful that he didn’t have trash duty tomorrow. Jimmy didn’t know what Billy did around Independents. Maybe he was still in school. Another dose of Vanessa lecturing about compound fractions was worrisome. Maybe he could graduate early if he revealed his true identity to her. And maybe she’d think he was crazy and have Mark lock him up.
“You’re really good at that,” Ginger said, leaning on a metal walker. Even hunched over, his girlfriend was taller than him now. Jimmy still thought of Ginger as his girlfriend, even if she didn’t know he was back. “I might need your help until I’m on my feet again.”
“I would love that.” Jimmy smiled. “You’re on your feet now, you know?”
“I meant more on my feet. Luis wants me to get my circulation flowing. I don’t really need this.” She picked up the walker and shook it. “He feels better if he thinks I’m safe.”
“You’re recovering fast,” Jimmy said, and finished putting James’s clean diaper back together. He wrapped the baby in his blanket and cradled his son close to his chest once again. “Should you be messing around like that?”
Ginger smirked at him and he wondered if she’d been hanging around his little brother too much. “I believe I have Molly to thank for that. It seems her intervention took care of all my aches and pains.”
“That’s enough walking, Ginger,” Luis said. “Get back in bed.”
“Is that the doctor’s orders?” she asked.
“What?”
Jimmy laughed as Ginger hobbled back like an old woman. James fell asleep in his arms. Each little breath puffed in and out. Jimmy would have held his son forever, but Ginger beckoned for her baby to be retu
rned. Grudgingly, Jimmy complied.
Ginger brought James in close for a kiss then she laid back. “Can you raise the head of the bed for me, Billy? This lying down is driving me crazy.”
“Sure,” Jimmy said and turned the wheel, slowly raising Ginger into a sitting position. “I hated lying in this bed.”
“Oh, what happened?”
Jimmy looked up and remembered that he was about to mention the time his ribs were kicked in by that monster, Patrick. That was before he died and became somebody else. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to come up with something good, but found himself against the blank wall of his imagination. “I got a splinter once.”
Ginger nodded slowly. “I hope Luis didn’t make you stay overnight for that.”
Luis returned from tinkering around his desk. “I’m going to see if there’s any food and check on the others. Will you stay with Ginger?”
“Not a problem. You better check on Mark and Catherine first. And be careful. There’s some crazy kid wandering around out there. Hopefully Samuel took care of him. We’re going to have to wait until morning to figure this mess out. I don’t like the way those bugs went after the fields. I don’t want to speculate, but it can’t be good.”
Luis stared at Jimmy funny.
“What?”
“You seem different.”
“I’m noticing that too,” Ginger said.
Jimmy didn’t know how to reply. The kid they knew as Billy was different. So he just shrugged instead.
Luis left, moving into the still night air. Jimmy guessed it to be around nine o’clock but he didn’t know for sure. The sun had lowered out of sight about an hour ago and everything turned quiet on Main Street. He grabbed a chair and scooted close to the bed next to Ginger and little James. He turned the chair around and sat, leaning his arms up on the back. It was an uncomfortable stretch because his new body didn’t quite fit.
Ginger wouldn’t stop staring.
“What?”
“You remind me of someone.”
“Who’s that?” Jimmy said, guessing at the answer and feeling nervous about it.