Deadly Expectations (36 page)

I shrugged.
 
“It’s no fun without an audience and I promised Paul I’d stop taking his knife without asking …”

Ray laughed.
 
“For the better then.”

“Thanks for sitting with him,” I gave Denis the radio.
 
“I’m sorry for what I put everyone through.
 
I know you asked last night where I was but the truth is I don’t really know.”

Denis stepped over and squeezed me.
 
“I can’t say it wasn’t tough, but he never gave up on you.”

Yes he did, I thought, or I wouldn’t be here now.

“Do they think he’s drunk again?” I whispered to Ray in the hall.

He nodded.
 
“We decided to let them think that.
 
They’ve seen it before and it’s easier for them to accept than the truth or anything else we could come up with.”

“They must think I’m horrible,” I sighed.

“Nobody held a bottle to his mouth Anna.
 
Come on.”

There were two seats at the table for us.
 
The conversation quieted this time when I came in but I ignored them and Ray sent me to sit and brought me a plate.
 
Rice was there so I kept my thoughts to myself.

I’d planned to try and recognize Pilot in Ray.
 
Pilot had kissed my cheek, hopefully close enough for me to be able to remember his smell.
 
I leaned a little closer to Ray for a moment and took a small breath in through my nose and mouth.
 
I wasn’t going to kiss Ray at the table.
 

At first all I could smell and taste was dinner so I finished my mouthful and washed it down with a bit of water then I tried to compare again with the little space just under my nose trying not to think about smell and taste at all.
 
My eyes closed for a minute before I felt them roll up in my head and I laughed as they opened back up.
 

Ray gave me a little elbow.

“Almost identical … whatever it is.
 
I don’t know what to call it.”

“Identical what?” he whispered back.

“Exactly …” I whispered back.
 
“You remind me very much of the man I found.”

He blinked a couple of times and got an expression on his face I couldn’t read and went back to his dinner.
 
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.

I let my new sense wander lightly around and found a couple more that were similar.
 
Then I leaned close to Ray to whisper again.

“There are a couple at the table that are very similar to you … are they yours or your father’s?”
 

Ray looked at me then gave me a funny shy smile before he turned away.

“I’m sorry.
 
Did I say something awkward?” I whispered again.

He shook his head and wouldn’t look at me.
 
“We don’t think of them like that when they’re grown up.”

“Sorry,” I said again.
 
I still had a lot to learn about this family.
 
Instead of letting it go however I kept looking and picked up a few that were similar to Paul.

I couldn’t help whispering to him again.
 
“The ones similar to Paul … are they mine too?”

This time Ray started to turn pink as he leaned toward me and whispered back right into my ear.
 
“You’ll have to ask him … I’m not having this talk with my sister.”

I continued to poke around the table.
 
Almost half of the ones I could pick up weren’t like Paul or Ray at all, or each other, the rest had nothing I could read.
 
Like Rice.
 
I hadn’t picked up anything from him and dinner was almost over so I let my thoughts wander down to his end of the table and stay there.
 
He was talking to Jones, laughing.
 
Very different from the glassy stare I had seen at lunch.
 
Eventually the laughter settled as he looked at the table.
 
I felt his mind start to wander and I pulled back.

Rice continued to wool gather, his gaze becoming more and more distant as the men started to leave the table.
 
Rice seemed aware enough to keep turning into a self absorbed statue from attracting attention but to me his mind was very obviously elsewhere.

Then I noticed it; very subtle.
 
At first I thought that someone had left something on the stove but when I looked over at it all the lights were off.
 
It was a sweet scorched smell that seemed to come up around me growing stronger.
 
My nose wrinkled.
 
It was hot and seemed to burn the little hairs inside as I inhaled so I breathed through my mouth.
 
Rice smiled beneath his thousand-yard stare.

BUTTON!

The brutal quick deaths hit me.
 
Not as strong as at lunch but after the gradual invasion of the smell it still took me by surprise.
 
Ray looked over at me.
 
I tried to ignore him and focused on not being connected to Rice but the smell had also doubled.
 
I gagged so I picked up my napkin and held it over my mouth.

Ray’s hand was on my elbow as I coughed.
 
My eyes stung and I closed them.
 
I could still hear people leaving the table.
 
Why couldn’t anyone else smell it?
 
I forced my watering eyes open.

Rice was on his feet now, same expression on his face.
 
He bumped into Jones and mumbled something appropriate.
 
Jones nodded and kept going, Rice wandering along behind.

Ray reached his arm around behind me as I continued to struggle.

“Anna, can you talk?” he asked.

Maybe he thought I had some food stuck somewhere it shouldn’t be.
 
I nodded and tried to answer but I couldn’t.
 
As I closed my eyes I looked down and saw what the smell was.

BUTTON!

It had hit my legs.
 
What was left of them was scorched and black.
 
Chunks of deep red and pink between the crisp charred patches.
 
A shattered piece of bone stuck out from the end of the shorter thigh.
 
There was blackened blood all over the chair.

“Oh God Ray … my legs,” I managed as quietly as I could.

“What’s wrong with your legs?” he asked.

“Blown off,” I wheezed.
 
My stomach was trying to heave now.
 
“I’m going to be sick.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your legs,” he whispered.
 
“Don’t look.
 
On your feet.”

He was right.
 
When he helped me up they worked just fine.
 
Ray guided me down to the half bathroom by the laundry and took me in.
 
Fortunately nobody was in there.
 
I knelt on the floor and Ray closed the door behind us as I lost my dinner.
 
I still had my napkin in my hand and when I was done I leaned back against the wall and wiped my mouth.
 
I kept my eyes closed as the smell faded.
 
Even though I could feel the cold floor under my legs I didn’t want to look.

“Anna?” he asked.

“Okay now I think,” I told him.
 
When I took the napkin off my face the smell was gone.
 
“I’m going to pass on breakfast tomorrow.
 
Are you sure my legs are okay?”

“Yes,” he said.
 
“They always were.”

“They didn’t look that way to me,” I opened my eyes and looked down.
 
They were fine so I put my hand on my left thigh about two thirds of the way up.
 
“The bone was sticking out of the shorter one here.
 
All the flesh was burnt and chewed.
 
The smell made me gag until I got sick but it’s gone now.”

I sighed.
 
“I guess Denis should come down now.
 
Can you help me up?”

Ray kept his arm around me as we went upstairs so Denis could get some dinner.
 
Ross was just coming in from watch and Ray told him to come up when he was finished briefing his relief.

“Bring your plate up Denis,” Ray told him.
 
“Ross will be up in a few minutes.”

Denis disappeared down the hall.
 
Ray had me fill them in on what happened at dinner when they came back.

“The strange part was the look on his face,” I told them.
 
“The little smile as if he was thinking about something he really liked.”
 

I shook my head.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Maybe he was remembering something nice and I was picking up someone else.”

Ross started.
 
“I put a call in—.”

I interrupted him.
 
“Ross … I don’t want to know, please?
 
I’ll come down for the next meal he’s not going to be there for and see if it happens again but otherwise I’d prefer to avoid him for now.
 
If nobody’s downstairs you could go down there or find somewhere else.
 
I’m fine up here until Denis is back in a few hours.”

After they left I sat back down and waited, brooding about what I had seen at lunch and dinner.
 
Eventually Paul rolled over again and I had to go over and untangle his IV line before it either came out of his arm or off the wall.
 
Shortly after that Ray came up and replaced the bag on it and slowed the drip.
 
He also brought me up something to eat.
 
I wasn’t hungry but I ate some.
 
Rice had killed my appetite.
 
Ray took my plate and I was alone again.

Paul sat up suddenly.

“Paul?” I asked but his eyes weren’t looking at anything in particular.
 
He put his feet on the floor so I ran over and got his IV bag off the wall before he could go anywhere and followed him to the bathroom then back to bed.
 
I guessed all the fluids Ray had given him were doing what they were supposed to.
 
I covered him back up and turned off the lamp by his head and turned the other one on instead.
 
The clock said half past eleven so I didn’t have much longer to wait.
 

“Rolled over again?” Ray asked when he and Denis came in.

“No, he got up to pee.
 
If he sits up you have a couple of seconds to grab the IV bag and follow him to the bathroom.
 
He won’t take it with him,” I told them.

“Got it,” Denis said.
 
“Get some sleep Anna; you’ve been watching him all day.”

“Thanks for helping out guys,” I told them.
 
“Thank Ross too please in case I sleep through.
 
Hopefully he’ll be up tomorrow.”

I put my gun on my table and kicked off my boots.
 
Then I took one of the spare blankets I had tossed off the night before and lay down on the covers underneath it facing Paul.
 
I started to think about seeing who Denis might be related to but fell asleep before I could finish the thought.

Chapter 32

“…
the
only time she left you was for dinner.
 
It didn’t go so well for her.
 
I don’t think I’ll be able to talk her into it again,” Ray’s voice said.
 
My mind was awake but my body was still asleep.
 
I wanted to turn over to see Paul but I couldn’t move.