Weekend (18 page)

"Go to hell," Lena said.

"Is this true?" Shani asked. Michael may have been insane, but he did have an uncanny ability to expose the facts. But Lena refused to answer.

"She had a small metal box behind where she was handcuffed," Michael went on. "It was covered with buttons."

"I saw that this afternoon!" Shani exclaimed.

"As we were running out," Michael continued, "I touched one of the buttons and the lid to the snake container began to lower." He aimed his rifle. The wild light in his eyes said he wasn't bluffing. "Pull off your shorts, Lena, and throw them over here. I want to see if by chance you have a handcuff key in your pocket."

Lena was wise enough to know when she was cornered. Reaching in her back pocket, she pulled out a small silver key and threw it at Michael's feet. No one spoke, until Robin asked, "Why?"

"To get the truth of that night," Lena said, touching her bloody leg, perhaps re-evaluating the cost she had paid.

"Oh, Lena, Lena," Robin moaned. "What have you done to yourself?"

"I did it for you!" Lena cried, her own cold wall cracking at the seams. "And it was a good plan! If Bert hadn't come back when he did, it would have worked. And as far as I'm concerned, it did work."

"What did you do?" Sol asked.

"Everything," Lena said, but she would talk only to her sister, as though Robin were the only one she was accountable to. "You know it was I who talked you into this weekend, and that I was the one who sent out the invitations. But there's a lot you didn't know, a lot I couldn't tell you because you would have tried to stop me. Late Thursday night, I called everyone and told them you weren't feeling well, and that they shouldn't come. I called everyone except those here. I didn't expect Flynn — or whatever his name is — to come, but you can't have everything. In case any of the other kids in the class called to see how you were."

"I cut the phones this morning. All this was just the set up. Tonight at dinner I laced the food with barbiturates. When everyone was unconscious, I dragged them down to the recording studio and handcuffed them to the walls. Last month when I was down in San Maritz, I bought a bunch of rattlers whose venom sacs had been removed. I was going to use these snakes to scare the truth out of everyone. I even had prerecorded messages to steer the interrogation. And it was working, better than that sham the police called an investigation. Even I started to remember things I had forgotten. But then Bert showed up. I had planned for so long, I was so pissed off, so I just let the snakes go." She winced at the sight of her injury, probably realizing her leg would be seriously scarred. She added quietly, "I did it for you."

Michael was heartless. "So what's Robin to you?"

His words cut deeper than the fangs she had so bravely suffered. And this same question had been whispered again and again behind her back this entire last school year. Apparently, unknown to any of them, its hurt had been accumulating, and had reached an intolerable level. Her reserve collapsed. Pretty, powerful Lena - it was soul-wrenching to watch. Bent with sobs, she tried to speak. "She's everything to me. I would do anything for her. If she were my sister, my real blood sister, I would give her both my kidneys." She fought for control.

Robin tried to comfort her, forcing a laugh. "Silly, you didn't have to do all this for me."

"How much did the snakes cost, Lena?" Bert asked.

Flynn reset his chair. But he did not sit down. He approached Kerry, who knelt on the floor, allowing the tip of his gun to touch her forehead. "Are you sick, Kerry?" he asked gently.

"Yes," she whispered, her eyes dilating with each light brush of the black barrel.

"Do you need to throw up?"

"Yes."

"Do you have cramps?"

"Yes."

"You're sick because I poisoned you, right?"

She nodded.

"Right?"

"Yes."

"Why is Robin sick?"

"Because she got poisoned."

"Right." Michael smiled. He was happy. "Now tell me, who poisoned her? Not last November, but this weekend. Tell me."

"You."

Michael was not happy. "You're wrong. I poisoned everyonebut Robin. You must have noticed how I brought her all her food and drinks. That was to be sure she didn't swallow anything bad." He smiled again. "So how is she sick?"

"Her kidneys are bad."

"But they've been bad since November, haven't they?"

"Yes. Please don't kill—"

"Then why is she suddenly so ill?" he interrupted.

"I don't know."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"Be absolutely positive. If I find out later that you've lied to me on this point, I might become angry.

Have you ever seen me angry, Kerry?"

"No."

"I lose my mind. I lose all control." A snake rattled outside their door. Michael was pleased. "You don't like snakes, do you, Kerry?"

"No."

"I bet you don't." He returned to his chair, sat down, crossing his legs casually. He rechecked the cassette player. "We have plenty of tape left. You can take your time, Kerry."

"What? I don't understand!"

"Sure you do. Tell me how and why you put the insecticide in Robin's glass."

"Oh, no," she began to weep. "I didn't, no."

Michael sighed. "Kerry, I'm afraid you're beginning to anger me. Did you hear my question?"

She nodded.

"Answer me."

Even had Kerry wanted to confess, she probably couldn't. Her mouth wouldn't work. Michael raised his gun, pointed it at her head.

"Don't!" Shani cried. "I did it! It was me!"

"Nice try, Shani," Michael smiled. He pulled the trigger. The stucco wall behind Kerry's head exploded in an irregular crater, sharp chips riddling the room. A clock fell off the opposite wall and landed upright on the floor. It was exactly one o'clock. Michael reset his aim an inch to the right. "I doubt a blob of red and grey would go with this room's bright yellow, don't you, Kerry?"

She shook her head, her eyes bursting. It was a miracle, Shani thought, that none of them had fainted. A demon had possessed Michael.

"Your throat's dry, I understand," he said. "Park, would you please get Kerry a glass of water from the bathroom? That's a good man."

Kerry accepted the water gratefully, swallowing it in big gulps. Finished, she put the glass down carefully, staring at Michael, a muscle twitching in her neck. But it was Robin who asked the question.

"Did you do it, Kerry?"

Kerry nodded weakly. "I did, yes."

Tears swelled in Robin's eyes. "Do you hate me, too?"

Kerry's voice was hoarse, barely audible. "No, I love you, Robin. But I hate your sister. I hate her more than I can say." She began to cough, the spasm lasting a full minute. They waited and, finally, Kerry answered the mystery.

"My car wouldn't start. It really wouldn't. I wanted Sol to give me a ride home. He said he would. I wanted to talk to him. But Lena wouldn't let him. He even told her to shut up, but she still got her way.

She always gets her way. So I just sat down. I didn't know what to do. Sometimes when I get mad like that, I can't think."

"I had to go to the bathroom, and when Bert was done, I went to go. But Lena got there when I did, and she said she would only be a minute. You see, it happened again. She was always going first."

"I followed Bert into the kitchen. We didn't really talk, and then he left, and I was alone. I was just standing there, doing nothing in particular. I was angry, sure, but I wasn't thinking of doing anything bad.

Then I noticed a bottle inside the cupboard beneath the sink with the wordpoison on it. I picked it up and, it was weird, all of a sudden I didn't feel mad any more. I felt kind of excited. The lid came off. The smell was awful. There was an empty beer mug on the counter, and I just sort of kind of poured some of the bottle in it. For a second, I guess I did think about Lena. But I wasn't hating her at that moment. I wasn't thinking of hurting her. I wasn't really thinking at all. I set the bottle down behind the beer keg.

Then Sol walked in."

Kerry closed her eyes. When she spoke next, her voice was firm, clearer than it had been in a long time.

"I had the glass with the poison in it in my hand. He'd caught me. But he was drunk, and couldn't see straight. But I still had to be quick because the stuff smelled so strong. The keg was right there, so I filled the glass full of beer. I just wanted to get rid of the smell. Sol didn't notice. He picked up some chips and searched around for dip. While he was doing that, I put the insecticide bottle in the ice box. I had to put it somewhere. I wiped it off and hid it behind a milk carton. I guess I must have left the poisoned beer on the counter. When I looked back, Sol had picked it up."

"Lena came into the kitchen. Sol started stumbling all over the place. She took the beer and helped him into the living room. I didn't know what to do! I couldn't say, 'Hey, I put poison in that glass. You shouldn't drink it.' I couldn't, that would have been the end of me at school. As it was, I was barely hanging on. All I could do was follow them. I followed the glass closely. Lena had it, and when Sol sat beside Robin, she gave it back to him. And he gave it to Robin. And… she drank it."

Kerry wasn't crying, but Lena and Robin were. Kerry opened her eyes, staring down at her hands, probably wondering how they could have done such a thing. "I was never sick that night," she said. "I made up the cramp routine to get Shani worried about Robin. And that's all of it. I did it, but I didn't mean to. It was… an accident."

Beyond the shattered window, the wind had quietened and the rain had stopped. Except for the snake outside the door, all was silent. Michael took his box of shells and reloaded his two spent bullets. From his pocket he drew a switchblade - Sol's eyes widening - and pressed a tiny button, bringing a deadly point into readiness. He turned to Robin and waited.

"You watched me drink it?" Robin asked finally, lost in waves of emotion she had never felt before, never knew existed, in herself or in her friends.

"Yes."

Robin shuddered. "But how? How could you have just sat there and watched me swallow that terrible stuff?"

"I was afraid." There was no life left in Kerry. She was forsaken, she knew. She was dead.

"But I drank all of it, every drop of it," Robin shook her head, clenching her fingers. "And you just sat there… and didn't stop me." She screamed at Michael. "Why did you make me know this? I didn't want to know!"

"I did," he said, setting aside his rifle, to where Sol and Park could have grabbed it if they were quick.

Yet neither moved. Michael ran a finger up the switchblade, pausing at the tip. Sighing, he got up and knelt beside Kerry on the floor. He was no longer crazy. He looked completely sane, very sad. He asked, "Did you tamper with the dialysis machine?"

Kerry nodded. "I took out the cellophane membrane. It's in my closet."

"Did you want to make Lena look bad, look like she was hurting her sister?"

"Yes. I was going to put it back tonight. I really was."

"You know, I believed you when you said the poisoning was an accident. But this… this purposely hurting Robin, I can't understand that."

"I hate Lena," Kerry whispered.

Michael nodded. "And you can't say how much. I haven't forgotten."

"She took Sol away. He was mine and she just took him. Whatever she wants, she takes. She doesn't care."

Michael put the knife to Kerry's throat, and scratched her slightly. Kerry flinched only slightly. He looked at Robin. "Well?"

"Are you going to kill her?" Robin asked.

"If you want me to."

"Do it!" Lena said.

"It's Robin's decision," Michael said.

Robin was unrecognisable. Malice in Lena or Kerry was natural. In Robin, it was horrifying.

"No, Robin," Park said. "Tell him no."

Robin exploded. "But she deserves death! She ruined my life! What have I left? Nothing!"

"You have me, if you want me," Park pleaded. "That's what I was going to tell you."

"But what am I?" she cried. "I'm half human! I need a machine to keep me alive. Every day for the rest of my life, I have to sit with needles and tubes in me to clean my dirty blood. And I hurt all the time. I'm in constant pain. I can't run. I can't dance. I can't swim. I can't eat what I want. I can't do anything! And I'm dying." She began to cry. "I don't want to die."

"Neither do I," Kerry whispered.

Michael had handled a knife before. His hand waited, motionless, narrowing the night to the blade's razor edge. With a word, Robin could pull them all - for a vengeful decision would leave none unscarred

-into the nightmare her life had become. Michael was subtle and crafty, yet he had not known Robin long, and could not know that this was not the real Robin being given an opportunity to decide. In the confusion, in the plots within plots, he had lost her, and she'd become a frightened child who'd forgotten who she was. Shani recalled the old man, the calm, even perspective she had felt in his presence. Robin knew him well. Surely he had touched her a similar way.

Robin bowed her head. "I don't know what to do."

All was quiet. Even the snake had gone away.

"Sing," Shani said.

Robin raised her head. "What did you say?"

Shani sat beside her on the bed. Even as Robin took her hand, she knew the nightmare was over. "I want to hear you sing."

"I wouldn't mind some music," Bert said.

Robin began to dry her eyes, her once bright green eyes, now dimmed because of her illness. Looking into them, Shani had a second sensation of deja vu. And at last, she began to understand, seeing Michael in his true light. He lowered his knife, smiled back. His eyes were identical to Robin's.

"You read my story," Robin said.

Shani nodded. "I liked the ending. Can we have the same one?"

"Sure." Robin hugged her. The room breathed again. Park and Sol shook hands. Bert clapped. Robin laughed. "But my throat's too sore to sing," she said. "Michael, put away that knife and give me the cassette player. You're so mean and smart, but you've recorded nothing. You forgot to remove the PAUSE button. It's just as well. I recorded a song on that tape that I wanted to play at this party."