Mavis peered up at me. I didn’t want to disappoint her, so I said, “Okay.”
“And your name is?”
“I’m Jenny.”
“Thanks for helping, Jenny. We’re reading The Once and Future King, and we’re on book one, The Sword in the Stone.” Dr. Kate picked up a book from the desk, opened it at the bookmark, and handed it to me.
“I love this story!”
“So does my brother. Who is supposed to be here.”
Mavis said to me, “He’s the giant!”
“He probably had a giant emergency then. Maybe the shoelaces on his giant shoes broke and he needed to find a long rope to replace them,” I said, and the kids laughed, which made me feel pretty swell. I’ve never thought of myself as funny, but maybe I’ve always had the wrong audience.
I opened the book, and the kids looked interested, except for a sullen older boy at the back, who was about thirteen. He had dull brown skin, no muscle tone, and no hair or eyebrows. I wondered how sick he was. I smiled when our eyes met, but he looked away.
I began reading, and the kids became so engrossed that I added a little more drama and gestures that I’d learned in my LARP class. I think I did an OMG! amazing Merlin, and my young Arthur was pretty good, too. Even the older boy started paying attention.
I got lost in the story and kept turning the pages. My throat became dry, and I reached for a bottle of water on the table and took a big swig. That’s when I noticed that things had changed in the room. Big things, i.e., Ellis Tesla, who was standing at the back of the room beside Dr. Kate and watching me.
I spit out the water.
The kids burst into laughter and my face went hot. I swiped at the water dribbling down my shirt.
Kate came forward, saying, “Thank you so much, Jenny, for that wonderful reading! Kids, wasn’t Jenny terrific?”
When the children clapped and cheered, I got that warm fuzzy feeling, which was muddled with my embarrassment. I realized that Mr. Biggie was Mr. Big E. Duh.
“Well, kids, that’s our story time this week,” Dr. Kate said. “Next week, I hope that Mr. Big E will be on time, because we’re doing our art project.” She shot a look at Ellis, and he smiled apologetically. He was wearing a navy-blue wool sweater under a brown corduroy jacket and jeans, which was totally sexy in a lumberjack professor way.
“We want Jenny, too!” a little girl chirped. “We like Jenny.”
“Maybe Jenny can come back, and she and Mr. Big E can read together,” Kate said.
Ellis’s expression froze, and Kate grinned at him and said, “Yes, that would be best, for both of them to read and help us with our art project together. Right, kids?”
The children cheered again, and then the adults began taking them out of the community room. I went back to Mavis in her wheelchair.
She beamed at me. “You read real good, Jenny. Do you want to meet my friends?”
As Mavis introduced me to other children, I peeked and saw Ellis holding a toddler in his arms while talking to the older boy. Another child leaned happily against Ellis’s legs.
Mavis sighed, and I saw her head drooping. “Time for you to get some rest, Mavis,” I said.
Mrs. Bertoli came through the crowd and said, “I’ll take her back, Ms. Walters. Thanks for spending so much time with her.”
“Jenny, please. It was my pleasure.”
“You promise to come to next story time, right, Jenny?” Mavis said.
“I’m absolutely positively going to try, but I have a lot of work to do.”
“But it’s our art project. We’re making things from the story. Try, okay?”
I nodded and bent to kiss her cheek.
Before I could leave, Kate touched my arm. “You read wonderfully, Jenny, with so much excitement. You should meet my brother. Ellis! E, come here.”
Ellis looked huge in the room with its child-size furniture, giving me some perspective on what She-Hulk would look like to these kids. He put his hand on the older boy’s shoulder and said something to him—probably “Hide me!”—before coming forward and lifting his hand as a greeting.
I tried to smile, but my facial muscles seemed to spasm.
Kate said. “Ellis, this is Jenny. Thank her for saving your ass today with the kids.”
“I had an emergency,” he said.
“A flat tire is not an emergency,” she said so sharply that he stood a little straighter. “Cardiac arrest is an emergency. Septic poisoning is an emergency. You haven’t thanked Jenny or said hello.”
“It’s not necessary…” I began.
Ellis glanced at Kate and said, “We’ve met before. Jennifer is Dad’s new hire at QUIRC. She’s on the ReplaceMax suit.”
“That’s why I was here with Mavis,” I told Kate. “I’m Jennifer Walters.”
Ellis and I were quiet for only a second as his sister looked at us, and then an expression came on her face like that of someone figuring out a missing word in a crossword puzzle. “You’re the new hire that Dad’s been bragging about? The one who’ll be working with Amber and… and you have such amazing green eyes.”
Then she gave Ellis a satisfied look before saying to me, “How very very nice to meet you. Well, I’ve got rounds. Ellis, you still haven’t thanked Jenny for anything. At least buy her a cup of coffee at the corner cafe, where it’s better.”
“Oh, I have to get back to the office,” I said.
Kate glared at her brother. “See, you make terrible impressions on women. That’s why they hate you.”
“I don’t hate him!” I said quickly.
“Kate is teasing, aren’t you, sis?” Ellis said.
“Sure, why not? Little bro, I expect you to be on time next week. Jenny, the kids would love it if you came back.” Kate’s phone beeped, and she looked at it and said, “Really nice to meet you, Jenny!” and then she wove her way through the wheelchairs and out of the room.
I tried to leave, but there was a traffic jam at the doorway, and Ellis and I got stuck behind the kids and parents. Then we were alone in the room.
He glanced at me, and I tried not to stare at his face, his mouth, his wide shoulders, the line of his throat. He finally said, “You read the story very well.”
“Do you mean, for a groupie who sells out for filthy lucre?” I snapped before I could stop myself. “Because your sister obviously knows who I am.”
“I didn’t tell her anything.” He gave me a brief nod of the noggin and left the room.
I said, “Jackass,” under my breath, and he paused, so I guess he heard me, and I was so turmoiled up that I didn’t care, even though I never act that way.
I was fuming when I went to the elevator—where Ellis was standing. I tried to think of a reason for turning around and leaving, but the elevator binged and the doors slid open. A couple of staffers in scrubs got out, and Ellis stood aside to let me step in first. He got in and moved to the far side from me.
I always advise my clients, “If you’re in a difficult dispute that has become personal, take a breath, regroup, and come back with a fresh attitude so that you can think clearly.”
I said, “Ellis, pursuant to our discussion at the Valentine’s Day party, I would like to propose that we dispense with the past and treat each other civilly.”
He turned his dark eyes on me and asked, “That’s what you want?”
“I think that would be best, unless you have any objections.”
“We’re not in court,” he said. “Fine, if that’s what you want.”
“I didn’t say it’s what I wanted. Tell me what you want.” This was the wrong move, because he got a strange look in his eye, opened his mouth… and then closed it again and nodded.
Another floor pinged down and he stared ahead and said, “If you are going back to QUIRC, I can give you a lift.”
“It isn’t necessary.”
“I’m going there to have lunch with my father.”
I’d already lost too much time from work. “If you’re
going there anyway.”
His car was parked in the basement garage. I sighed as I gazed at the Chevy Chevelle, painted in gleaming green with white racing stripes, and chrome so flawless that I could have used it as a mirror. “A sixty-six Super Sport?” I whispered.
“Yes, not only green on the outside, but I modified it so she runs clean and green, too. Hell, she practically flies. You know your rides.”
“I like muscle cars.” So did Shulky, and we always felt exhilarated getting behind the wheel of a Detroit beast and putting pedal to the metal. I walked around the car, opening and clenching my hands. The front fenders angled ahead as if the car was about to leap forward. “She’s a beaut.”
It was only when Ellis opened the passenger door for me that I realized I was standing expectantly on the driver’s side. “You’re shotgun,” he said.
He got in and started the car, and the Clash blasted out of the sound system. I wondered if he was looking for trouble by offering the ride, or if I wanted it by accepting. Ellis switched off the music, and now I could hear the rumble of the engine.
I said, “I thought the car ran green.”
“It does. I kept the rumble. I like a car that can roar,” he said, with a glance at me.
I thought there might be subtext to his comments, but I couldn’t figure out what it might be, so I just said, “Me, too” as he drove out onto the street.
“Um, who was that boy you were talking to?” I asked, sliding my hand along the side of the black bucket seat and wishing I was at the wheel. “The big kid.”
“Jordy,” Ellis said. “He hates being in the children’s ward, but he’s only fifteen, so pediatric medicine is the best place for him. Children’s bodies are different than adult bodies and need specialty care.”
“He seemed angry.”
“He is angry.” Ellis glanced me. “He’s spent the last six years in and out of hospitals. He hasn’t had a childhood and he’s afraid he’s not going to have an adulthood.”
“What’s wrong with him?… If it’s not confidential.”
“It’s not. He has invasive cancer. His entire body is compromised, and his organs are on the verge of shutting down. Kate tells me that hope helps.” Ellis negotiated a chaotic intersection. “Hope will keep him going while medicine looks for answers.”
“He seemed to like the story. What else can be done to raise his mood?”
“I know one thing.” Ellis didn’t speak until we were stopped at a light. “He really wants to meet She-Hulk.”
I kept my eyes straight ahead. “He told you that?”
“He saw a video of me with Shulky at Club Nice, and now he thinks I’m tight with her. I keep telling him that I don’t even know how to contact her,” he said. “She’s a friend of yours, isn’t she?”
Was he just using Jordy as an excuse to get to Shulky? “We’re colleagues. You can leave a message at the Avengers Mansion.”
“I suppose I can try. She probably gets thousands of messages a week.”
“She does, but she has staff to sort through them, and you can mention that I referred you,” I said. “Do you like her, She-Hulk?”
Ellis turned into the entrance of the office garage. “Jenny or Jennifer, what do you want me to call you? Inside every man is a teenage boy, and we’re all crazy in love with Shulky.”
This close, I could smell his aftershave again, or maybe it was his piney woods-scented sweat. Whatever it was smelled delicious, and I remembered it from long ago. I could see his strong wrists and large hands. I could make out the spot on his jaw that he’d missed shaving, which made me feel unexpectedly tender toward him, and see the variations of color in his thick hair.
I reminded myself that he’d never called me, but I couldn’t help saying, “Ellis, I can understand your loyalty to Max Kirsch, but why are you singling me out as the villain in the scenario, when your father and Amber also support the case against ReplaceMax?”
He parked, shut off the powerful engine, and turned to me. “Amber brought Sven Morigi to QUIRC, and my father trusts her business acumen. She is a consummate pro and I admire that about her.” His rough voice dropped, and he looked into my eyes and said, “But I thought you’d understand that sometimes you have to follow your instincts and swing from the rafters.”
I had an intense desire for him to lurch over, mash me to the seat, and kiss me so hard that he bruised my lips. I wanted us to bang our elbows and our knees as we tried to maneuver to the backseat of a car that was a much bigger turn-on than a candlelit table at an elegant restaurant.
Could men tell when women were thinking the smexy thoughts about them? I didn’t want to take a chance, so I opened the door, practically jumped out, and hurried to the elevator.
As we were riding up to QUIRC, I said, “You can call me Jen. Most people do.”
“Jen, that’s better than Jennifer. Jennifer seems like another person,” Ellis said. “I’m sorry I got your name wrong… before. I feel pretty stupid. I called you Gin all weekend, didn’t I?”
Then I met his eyes, and he sure didn’t look sorry, but I said, “I thought that was just your way of pronouncing Jen. It was noisy when I told you.”
The corner of his mouth rose, and he said, “I like noise. All kinds of noise.”
If I’d had a court reporter with me, I could have asked that his last statement be read back to me and then asked for clarification. The words and implications jumbled in my brain, and I could feel my temperature rise.
We arrived at our floor and got out. “Thank you for the lift, Ellis.”
“Next week at reading time we’re making wizard hats and magic wands.” He put his hand out as if he was going to touch me, drew it back, and said, “Kate’s warned me that there may be glitter.”
I nodded, and we both said, “Bye,” at the same time, just as Amber, impeccable in a midnight-blue suit, came down the hall.
“Ellis, what are you doing here?”
“Hey, babe. I’m having lunch with my father.”
“Please no endearments at the office. I heard he was out all day. Was he expecting you?” she said.
“I was nearby,” he said.
“Doing what?” Amber didn’t wait for his answer before giving me an up-and-down look. “It’s not Casual Friday, Jennifer, and our Casual Fridays are restricted to administrative and support staff. It’s in the HR manual.”
“I was visiting a client,” I said.
Her Botox was good enough to allow her to lift her eyebrows just enough to show contempt. I glanced at Ellis, who’d shoved his hands in his pockets and was looking somewhere over Amber’s head.
“Excuse me,” I said, and as I was leaving, I heard Ellis say to Amber, “Who made you hallway monitor, pumkin?” It was enough to make me grin.
3:50 P.M.
Am trying to focus on cloning factoids, but I keep replaying everything Ellis said and did. Called D and told her about my Close Encounter of the Ellis Kind.
ME: So what do you think?
D: I think you should ask if those songs are about you. Of course, they are.
ME: If you’re so sure, why do I have to ask?
D: Because you won’t believe it until he tells you.
ME: What do you think he meant about swinging from the rafters? I think he meant that he wanted me to ignore evidence against ReplaceMax.
D: Probably, but I think he also meant that he wants to see you upside-down and naked on a trapeze.
ME: Right. I think he’s just messing with my mind, because he knows that I was waiting desperately for his call for days and weeks and months.
D: You were a beautiful disaster then. You had a sort of Eastern European look, all luminous eyes and existential grief.
ME: That’s nice, but you’re not helping me suss out the E-situation. He’s engaged, and even if he wasn’t, I wouldn’t be interested.
D: You’ve only told me about a kazillion times. You have insufficient data on the E-sit. You need to establish his statements and
behavior in a wider range of situations. Go to the wand-making thingamajig.
ME: Maybe. After all, there could be glitter. I like glitter.
COURT OF ORIGINAL JURISDICTION
APRIL 2
My docs for the ReplaceMax suit were ready yesterday, but I didn’t want anyone to think that the case was an April Fool’s prank, so I held off the announcement. As I always tell my clients, “Be sure to check the calendar for national holidays and festivities that may conflict with scheduled events.” I should have added, “And be sure not to schedule any kind of meeting with a party girl the day after her birthday because of the likelihood that she’ll hurl on your beautiful new shoes.”
Text to Holden: Dear Holden, I just remembered that I was never reimbursed for the shoes your granddaughter ruined. Please remind accounts payable. Thank you.
Text from Holden: Will request payment as soon as Im in receipt of payment for She-Hulk stomping on my prize double tulips prior to annual brunch.
Text to Holden: She did save the world a lot the value of which is priceless.
Text from Holden: Not priceless. My accounting staff can precisely calculate value of world.
Text to Holden: You win.
Text from Holden: Always do. Beer on me next time! Don’t you have to go to court?
Text to Holden: Yes! Beer will be my treat on $1/night.
Amber Hammerhead and I went to court to file Sven Morigi, PhD, plaintiff v. Maxwell L. Kirsch, ReplaceMax Corp. et al. with the court clerk. Quinty accompanied us, wearing that damn monocle. I keep expecting him to wear a top hat and spats, too, like Mr. Peanut. Then I made my plea for an expedited court date.
Even though the day was drizzling, several reporters and camera crews showed up, alerted by QUIRC’s PR rep. I’d rehearsed my talking points until I could say them smoothly and confidently. Sven joined us so that people could see that the case was about people, not money. He wore a camel-hair coat over a navy suit. His black hair gleamed in the crystalline morning light, and he looked somber, yet seemed intelligent and compassionate.
The She-Hulk Diaries Page 20