by Peter Ponzo
Chapter 28
The officers hadn't let us go until we had answered the W5: Who was doing the raping? Why had I phoned 911? What were we doing at Oerschott Medicals? When did I meet Mr. Boone? Where were we going?
When we got home, I admitted to Charles that I thought he had let Penny escape from my mad-scientist experiment. Charles was astonished that I would charge him with such a covert act, but I reminded him of Penny's secret sojourn in the basement. We continued to sip our coffee, in silence.
It was about 8:30 a.m. before Boone arrived. Charles lead him to the kitchen and he sat and accepted a coffee. He looked awful and I told him so.
"Cowboy, you look awful," I said. "Got a bug or something?"
"Ah feel like Ah bin ate by a coyote and shit off a cliff," he said.
"Beg pardon?" Charles said, nearly dropping the coffee pot.
"Sorry ma'am," Boone said directly to me. "Ah jest can't sleep much these days, but Ah'm pretty good now, considerin'."
"I can prescribe a medication ...," Charles began, but I waved my hand irritably and Charles stopped immediately. I could tell that Boone was eager to get to business.
"Well, ma'am," he said, "what's this about? Ah heard 'bout how y'all gave them two officers a hard time." Boone was trying not to smile, but he was obviously amused.
"Miss Penny's gone," Charles said. "Miss Fleetsmith was performing some experiments, as we had earlier discussed with you. We slept at Oerschott Medicals, in the laboratory, in order to keep watch on the girl. Last night she—she—"
"Took off," I added. "Stole my keys, let herself out, disabled the phone and took off. Charles thought she might be here, home, in the basement. She seems to have spent some time there, in the past." I looked at Charles. He avoided my stare. "But she isn't there. We thought you could help in finding her. She's probably roaming the streets somewhere."
"Ah kin put out an all-points," Boone said. "See what thet does. She ain't goin far Ah reckon. Got any money, the li’l lady?"
"Not at all, Mr. Boone," Charles said. "She has little need of money. I suspect she is making her way here, where, of course, she has no need of money."
"The 'xperiments—did y'all find any change, thet skin, thet fuzz?"
"After several days," I said, "Penny acquired a somewhat furry neck and shoulders. The white fuzz, that's all. I was quite certain there would be little change in her appearance, so, last night, we inflicted a very small wound." I emphasized the words 'very small', for Charles' benefit.
"In fact," Charles interjected, "it was Penny herself who inflicted the wound."
"Why the wound?" Boone asked.
"I'd noticed, in the past, that the membrane formed most predictably when applied over a wound—an open wound."
"So's the weed kin git into the blood," Boone said.
"Yes, that's my thought."
"Von Oerschott must've had hisself a wound."
"I guess so. He always came to work with little tags of tissue paper on his face, to cover cuts from shaving."
"And now the li’l lady, Miss Penny, is on the streets of TO, a walkin' cocoon."
"I doubt it. In fact I believe there will be no effect whatsoever," I said. "We saw no such thing happening among the Chockli."
"Them indians, in Brazil?"
"Miss Fleetsmith," Charles said, "there was evidence of the mycelium, as you will no doubt recall."
"On Penny? Yes, that's what I just said."
"Miss Fleetsmith, I am referring to our sojourn in Brazil."
"No, I don't recall. You mean while we were in the Chockli village?"
"Yes, at the feet of the statue, a ring of white fluff, much like soapy foam."
That was it. "The foam, the fuzz. It was there, in that village, right?"
"Yes, Miss Fleetsmith."
"Shit! I knew I'd seen it before! I knew it! It kept buggin me, that fuzz. I just couldn't remember where I'd seen it. But no cocoon, right?" I asked.
"Yes, Miss Fleetsmith—I mean, no Miss Fleetsmith. No cocoon."
"See, cowboy? No cocoon," I said. "So Penny is walking the streets looking much as you or I." I looked again at his lanky frame, denim jeans, leather boots, dark green shirt turned up at the collar. "Well, perhaps more like me."
"Except that she is undoubtedly attired in a night gown," Charles added.
"Thet does it," Boone said, jumping to his feet. "Better get on the wires. She ain't safe like thet. Night gown? No ma'am, she ain't safe. Not in the city."
Boone seemed to have recovered from whatever ailed him. He bounded to the door and was gone without so much as a goodbye.
After Boone left, I sat for a while in the kitchen, staring at the ceiling. Then I noticed Josey at the door.
"Come on in kid," I said. "How're you feeling?"
"Lousy. Look at me. A bloody ape." Her voice was trembling and a bit raspy. "Lordy, I wanna die."
She was dressed in jeans and blouse, bare feet, a yellow ribbon in her hair. Her face was almost black in the dim light and the dull glow of a cigarette she was visible in her mouth. Although I had made it clear that I didn't want her to smoke in the house, it seemed almost cruel to deny her that vice, now, in her current condition.
"Penny has run away," she sobbed, tossing the cigarette in the sink. "Maybe I should, too."
"What good would that do?" I asked. "We need you here. I'm going to find a way to reverse this process and you'll be the first—"
"But I ain't gettin no better! It's worse. The hair is growin on my backside, my chest ..." She stopped and slid into a chair. "Fran? Do you think I'm turning into a man?"
"No, no, I was wrong. I just thought—never mind what I thought. Josey, what I think is that you're going backward in time, changing into one of your prehistoric ancestors. But if this can go backward it can also go forward. If the backward process takes just a few weeks, so will the forward process. One of these days, I promise, you'll be your old self. Promise."
Josey said nothing. She was hunched over, her face in her hands, helpless, fragile. We sat in silence for some time. Then I went to her, embraced her, and took her to her room. I waited. She fell asleep almost immediately.
I would reverse this process. I just needed time. And I needed to find Penny. I looked at my watch. It was 10:00 a.m. and she would be wandering the streets. We had to do something, now.
By 10:30, Charles and I were driving slowly along Cantor Street, past Oerschott Medicals, searching for Penny.
PART TEN