Husbandry (9 page)

“Hello?” my mother answered in a cheery tone. She had to know
it was me from the ID, although maybe she thought Chuck could be calling.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Fila, how are you? You must have gotten my message.”

“I just listened to it this afternoon.” No need to tell her
why I’d taken so long to get to it. She knew how bad I was about checking
things like that.

“I was so excited to finally see those pictures. You know
Chuck always sounds so nice on the phone, but I didn’t have a face to go with
the voice. Isn’t he handsome? The two of you look perfect together. You in your
lovely wedding dress and him in his suit.”

“Chuck is gorgeous,” I agreed. I swallowed the lump that
formed in my throat and hoped she didn’t hear it. “I’m sorry I didn’t send the
pictures to you properly the first time. I just zapped them over to you again,
this time with Chad and Charles in frame.”

“Chad and Charles?” My mother’s voice held a tiny note of
strain. “Really, Fila. I wish your husband would make up his mind what he’d
like to go by.”

“Mom.”

“Chuck, Chad, Charles—how will I know what to call him?”

“Mom, you don’t—”

“I suppose I should be glad he doesn’t want to be called
Chip. Or Chaz. I never cared for that nickname.”

She was driving me crazy. If I didn’t get this out soon, I’d
lose my nerve.

“Mom, each of my husbands only goes by one name. There are
three of them: Chuck, Charles, and Chad. You’ve spoken to them on the phone.”

Dead silence greeted me from the other end of the line.

“You still there? Mom? Listen, I know this is a shock, but
you’ll love the three of them. They’re all wonderful and have their own
personalities, though they’ve all got the same DNA.”

I picked up speed, telling her all about Genetic Harmony
when she remained unresponsive. When she still didn’t answer, I was worried
we’d been disconnected.

The sound of her voice made me jump, though she wasn’t loud.
“Your father and I will be there this weekend.”

“What? Wait. This isn’t the best time for—”

“Make up the guest room for us. We’ll arrive Friday
evening.” She barreled over me like I hadn’t even spoken.

I sighed. “Don’t you want to talk about this?”

“Friday.” Her word was final. She punctuated it by hanging
up.

I wasn’t sure whether that had gone better or worse than I’d
anticipated. It certainly couldn’t be good. Setting the phone back in its
charger, I closed my eyes for a moment to compose myself.

I jumped when the phone immediately rang again and hurried
to pick it up.

“You called back,” I said in relief. “I’m glad. If we just
talk about this—”

“Fila?” The masculine voice was one I hadn’t expected to
hear speaking to me again so soon.

“Chad.” My tongue was suddenly tied, reducing me to single
syllables. “Hi.”

His voice was clipped and—I realized belatedly—worried.
“I’ve been trying to reach you, but the phone has been busy. Why don’t you
check your damn messages?”

“I did! I checked the home messages from work. There was
nothing new.”

“Your work messages,” he retorted. “I tried to catch you at
the office. I’m at the hospital. Chuck had an accident. They called me when
they couldn’t reach you or Charles.”

My stomach felt like it plummeted to my feet. “What kind of
accident? Is he all right?”

“He was repairing the flashing on the roof. On the way down
the ladder, his foot slipped on the rung and he fell. One of the neighbors saw
it happen and called an ambulance. No broken bones, but he’s bruised pretty
badly, and he has a concussion.”

Images of my husband lying broken in the yard had my breath
clogging in my throat. He could have been killed. One slip and I could have
lost him. I would still have had Chad and Charles, but my life would never have
been the same. A piece would have always been missing. Like a slap in the face,
it came to me that I’d feel the same if something happened to any one of them.

“Which hospital?” I asked, overcoming my paralysis. “Where
are you?”

He gave me his location and Chuck’s room number.

“Okay. I’m on my way. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” I
hung up and ran for the door.

Then I cursed when I remembered I didn’t have the car. I
needed to call a cab.

The hospital had multiple entrances, and I wasn’t sure which
one was closest to where I needed to go. I had the cab driver drop me off at
the central door and paid him quickly before I rushed inside. A blast of cold
air washed over me, tainted with a chemical smell.

“Fila.” A woman walking toward me called my name.

I was so focused on getting to Chuck that I almost didn’t
recognize my neighbor, Ginger Hutchinson. She worked as a nurse here, though
only part-time now that she was getting older.

The small, auburn-haired woman clasped my hands and spoke to
me with her usual calm, authoritative tone. “Chuck is going to make a full
recovery. Nothing life threatening. I was just up on his floor to check his
status.”

Although Chad had already relayed this prognosis, I felt
like I could breathe for the first time since I’d heard Chuck was hurt. Ginger
wasn’t the type to sugarcoat things. If he’d been in serious danger, she would
have told me. Then I noticed she wasn’t wearing her nurse’s uniform—something
I’d always seen her leave and come home in when she was working.

My brain finally came back online. “You’re the neighbor who
found him. You saw him fall.”

She nodded. “He took quite a tumble off the ladder. I called
an ambulance to be safe, though he made a fuss about it once he realized what
was happening.”

“Thank you.” I pulled her into a quick hug, unable to
express how grateful I was. “I’m so glad you were the one who was there. You
knew exactly what to do.”

“Go on.” Ginger looked a bit embarrassed by the praise. “I
know you’re anxious to see him. Go to the third floor and take a left. The room
numbers are marked. Chuck already has company up there. His…brother?”

Her hesitation was clear, as was the gleam of curiosity in
her eyes. I was already so worried about Chuck that I didn’t have much room for
dread. My coworker, Liz, now knew the truth, so why not come clean to my
neighbor? As a nurse, Ginger had probably seen it all.

“His genetic likeness,” I corrected her. “My other husband,
Chad. I’m not sure if you’ve met all three of them yet. There are Chuck, Chad,
and Charles.”

She stared at me, unblinking. “You have three husbands?”

“Yes.”

A tense moment passed before she blew out a loud breath.
“Oh, thank goodness. I thought I was losing my mind.”

“I’m sorry?” I was sure I must have missed something because
she sounded happy.

“Well, I don’t mean to sound like I’m spying on you, but I
like to people watch. On my days off, I see all the comings and goings on the
block while I sit at my front window or work in the garden. So I notice things.
Like your husband having facial hair, and then shaving it, and then having it
reappear again. His hair length changes too. He leaves in a suit, and five
minutes later I see him working in the yard in jeans. I was starting to worry I
was going senile.”

“Sounds to me like you’re still as sharp as they come.” I’d
had no idea she’d been paying such close attention. It was easy to see how
she’d be confused.

“I can’t tell you how relieved I am.” She appeared to
conduct some sort of internal dialogue before she returned a decisive nod. “It
all makes sense now. Go on. You’d best go see to your husbands. Please give me
a call later and let me know how Chuck is doing. You know I’m right next door
if you need any help.”

“You’re an angel.” I couldn’t believe my good fortune in
having someone like her for a neighbor.

She waved away the praise before she headed toward the exit.

Despite her reassurances, I was nervous when I arrived at
Chuck’s hospital room. I braced myself for the sight of him looking pale and
miserable in bed, tubes running in and out of his arm and white gauze wrapped
around his head. Instead, he sat on the edge of the narrow bed without a
bandage in sight, and he wasn’t even wearing a hospital gown. He had his jeans
on, and his shirt, socks, and shoes rested beside him. Chad stood nearby,
filling out something on a clipboard.

“Are you all right?” I walked straight to Chuck and took his
face between my hands.

He looked tired and vaguely irritated, but otherwise
unharmed.

“I’m fine.” His movements were stiff as he pulled me into a
hug. “Sorry to worry you. The ambulance and emergency room were overkill. I
could have just gone to my regular doctor and had him check me for broken bones.
You’d think I was dying the way everyone overreacted.”

“I already told him I’d give him my kidney,” Chad said.

“Your kidney?” I yanked back to stare at Chuck again. “He
said you were only bruised! You’ve got internal damages?”

“Of course not.” He shot his spitting image a glare. “Chad
is just trying to make me laugh again, which hurts, by the way. Besides, they
could clone me a new organ if I needed one. I wouldn’t have to accept a used
one.”

“Now who’s the comedian?” Chad returned a small grin, though
I could see the lines of strain on his face.

“How bad is he really?” In my hurry to get up here, I hadn’t
asked Ginger for details, and Chad had only given me a quick rundown over the
phone.

“I’m sitting right here,” Chuck protested.

We both ignored him.

Chad finished the paperwork and tossed the clipboard on the
foot of the hospital bed. “He has contusions on his arms and back from where he
scrabbled at the rungs and flopped on the ground. Based on the sore spot on the
side of his head, he probably clocked himself on the ladder before he touched
down. The fact that he didn’t fall from the very top and that he landed on soft
grass probably saved him from a broken bone or spinal injury. He was very
lucky.”

“That’s what Ginger Hutchinson told me. I saw her on my way
in.”

“She was great,” Chad announced. “She said he never lost
consciousness, though he wasn’t really alert when she asked him questions.”

“That’s because I’d just had my brain rattled,” Chuck
grumbled. “I would have been fine if she’d given me a minute.”

“Are you in a lot of pain?” I could tell he was irritable,
which wasn’t like him. “Does your head hurt?”

“It aches, but my body is worse. I feel like I got tackled
by a linebacker twice my size.”

Afraid to touch him somewhere sore, I stroked one of his
curls. “You never played football, honey.”

When your creator was Genetic Harmony Inc., you missed out
on a lot of things in life. He and my other two husbands had joined the world
shortly after I’d finished the last personality test. They’d been aged like
fine wine to my life stage—maybe a year or two younger—and had been loaded with
all the knowledge and emotional development they needed, but no firsthand
experience. They’d skipped the awkward and sometimes painful trials of high
school, which meant they hadn’t enjoyed sports or dances or any of the great
stuff, either.

“I could have made the team if I’d had the chance.” Chuck
picked up his T-shirt and pulled it over his head with a groan. “I would have
played better than that joke they call our home team.”

Ignoring this remark, I fixed my entire attention on his
movements. “What are you doing? You should be lying down. Why are you getting
dressed?”

It was Chad who answered me. “They’re sending him home.”

“Already?”

He knelt down to help Chuck pull on his socks and shoes.
“It’s not like he just got here. The ambulance brought him in hours ago.”

Although his tone remained neutral, I sensed the reprimand.
They’d needed me, and I hadn’t been there. The first call from the hospital
must have come into my office while I was away from my desk or busy checking my
home messages, and then I’d been on the phone with my mom once I got home.

“Big waste of time.” Chuck made the announcement before I
could decide whether or not to defend myself. “I only saw the doctor for ten
minutes. The rest of the time, we sat around waiting. There was some nasty
highway accident, so they had bigger problems. I told them I could see my
regular doctor.”

“Are you sure he shouldn’t stay overnight?” Since I knew
Chuck’s answer, I addressed my other husband. “We should at least get him some
painkillers.”

I noted every wince, added to the fact that Chuck allowed
Chad to help him dress.

My uninjured hubby didn’t appear worried, though. “The
doctor gave me instructions. Once we get him home, we’ll give him an ice pack
for his head and cold compresses on the bruises. That’s about the best we can
do for the pain. No anti-inflammatory drugs or aspirin products—they’ll only
screw up his healing and put him in danger if he has any internal bleeding.
He’s supposed to get lots of rest. If he falls asleep, we’ll wake him every
hour and make sure he can answer questions. We’ll watch him closely and race
back here if he has any change in symptoms.”

“He can hear you, you know.” Now dressed, Chuck got to his
feet. He didn’t wobble, but I’d never seen him so stiff. “Let’s go home.”

Chad and I flanked him in case he needed help. Just then a
nurse came through the door with Charles right on her heels. I wasn’t surprised
my executive husband had checked his messages at work, but I was shocked he’d
taken off early to come here.

Charles stopped and studied the patient. “Well, Chuck, you
couldn’t have done too much damage if you’re already on your feet. Chad tells
me you tried to fly.”

“I managed to levitate,” Chuck retorted. “Then gravity
kicked in. Look, I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re all fine. Can we please go now?”

Charles shot me a questioning look, so I gave him a quick
summary of the diagnosis. He hid it well, but I could see his relief.