Weekend (20 page)

Lena was disgusted. "That's absolutely the grossest thing I've ever heard in my life!"

Park was mad. "That was totally uncalled for!"

Sol agreed with them both. "Yeah!"

Michael grinned at their suddenly hostile faces. They provided him with endless amusement, it seemed.

"It's your own fault," he said. "Didn't any of you read that big sign when we drove across the border? It said:DON'T DRINK THE WATER !"

EPILOGUE

The Stanford University Medical Centre was not the towering thirty-storey-plus structure Shani had expected. It was, rather, only a couple of storeys tall, although the place covered almost an entire city block, and was surrounded by beautiful manicured lawns and a maze of cement walkways overrun with white-clad medical personnel and slow-moving patients. She was glad to see it. They had made the drive from Santa Barbara in one fell swoop. Park had borrowed Robin's Porsche, and the high numbers at the end of the speedometer had seemed to fascinate him. A speeding ticket one hundred miles ago hadn't dented his fascination. What had really started her worrying was the organ donor card he had had her fill out when she had got in the car.

"It's big," Shani said. The day sparkled and the sun was dazzling. A cool, salty breeze from the not-too-distant San Francisco Bay poured through the car's open windows.

"A very astute observation," Park said.

"How will we find Robin in all of this?"

"She sent me a map."

"Where is it?"

"On the back of a letter she wrote me."

"And that's at home, right?"

"It was a personal letter. But never fear, I memorized the directions." Without signalling, he made a sharp right. They rolled down a shadowed alley towards the parking lot. They had to take a ticket, and would have to pay, but who could complain when they were cruising in a car worth forty grand? While searching for a vacant spot, Park asked, "Do you feel any different?"

"I feela lot different."

"So do I."

She let a minute go by before asking. "What do we feel different about?"

"Graduating, of course. For three weeks now we have ceased to be immature, irresponsible adolescents."

"Doing ninety on the way up here wasn't irresponsible?"

"It showed I am a man of consequence."

Shani took away his rearview mirror and began to brush her hair for the twentieth time, worrying that she had on too much make-up. Maybe Michael preferred the natural look. She hadn't worn lipstick down in Mexico and he had liked her there. And this yellow dress she and her mother had bought yesterday was way too formal for a hospital visit.

"All I remember from graduation night was being sick," she said.

"You drank too much Insecticide Lite."

"I didn't drink a thing. And you should talk. When was the last time the valedictorian had to excuse himself three times in the middle of his speech?"

"I was being given important updates," he said. For some unfathomable reason, he passed an empty parking spot. "Are you feeling better?"

"Finally. How about you?"

"I still get occasional updates."

"That's one good thing that came out of that weekend. Never again can you bother me about having messed my pants in kindergarten."

"I will never mention it to the end of my days." Park swung in between a Cadillac and a Ferrari. He had been waiting for equal status in his adjoining parking spots.

Shani got out and stretched. Butterflies were climbing out of their cocoons in her stomach. She had not seen Michael since their wild weekend at the Carlton Castle. Maybe he had found a cute nurse. Maybe he had forgotten her name. Why hadn't he written? She popped a Rolaids.

"I told you that Sol's here?" Park said, locking the doors. They started towards the hospital.

"Yes. Did he drive up in his new van?"

"Lena sent him a plane ticket. They must really have relaxed the quarantine regulations to let him in to see Robin."

"I'm glad she can have visitors now. I talked to about ten people who wanted to come up next weekend.

The doctors say she's doing great."

Park nodded enthusiastically. "They say she'll be as good as new."

Shani hesitated before speaking next. She still had a warm feeling for the old man. "I wonder if the shaman came to visit."

"I can't see that."

"Maybe he visited in spirit."

"I can't see that either."

Shani resented his conceit. "I still feel that everything that happened that weekend happened because of him."

They hopped onto a sidewalk, passing an elderly couple who were yelling into each other's earphones.

"He was just an ordinary man, Shani. Don't be that simple. There was nothing special about him."

She was suddenly mad. "What about his story?"

"Broad-based metaphors, easy to interpret a dozen different ways. He knew that Robin had been poisoned and that she could sing. Other than that—"

"You'rebeing simplistic," she interrupted. "His characters obviously mirrored the people in our group.

Robin was Dove, Lena was Raven, and Michael was Eagle."

"Who was Snake - Kerry?"

"Snake was a more symbolic character. He or she represented the selfish motives in all of us."

"Oh, brother. So what does any of this prove?"

"The story explained how Eagle was Dove's brother, and how he reappeared at a critical moment to give her a life and death decision. And that's what happened in real life."

"Because Michael had heard the story! Don't you remember, that's where he got the idea from?"

"That's where he got the idea to be Robin's brother?"

"No! Look, your parallel breaks down in a dozen different places. In the story, Dove had to decide whether Raven was her friend or enemy. Robin never had to decide that about Lena."

"Who said Lena was Raven?"

"You just did."

"Oh. What I meant was that all of us were debating in our minds whether Lena was to be trusted or not.

She fulfilled Raven's character, but in a broad way. Don't laugh at me!"

"You're too much, Shani. If he could see the future, why didn't he have Eagle donate a kidney to Dove at the end of the story?"

"How could an eagle give a dove a compatible kidney?" She knew the question wasn't going to help her argument. But Park didn't jump all over her. They were approaching the entrance, and apparently he had decided that their argument had better conclude before they got inside.

"Okay, maybe he was an oracle and could turn himself into a bird and all kinds of weird stuff like that.

But I would be a lot more convinced of his powers if he had predicted therest of that night. Remember, the real fun didn't start until after we found out who Michael was."

Shani had to agree there. After Michael's bad-taste joke about the water, while Lena started Robin's dialysis with the replaced filter, the men had gone after the snakes with Mr. Carlton's rifle collection.

Though they weren't poisonous, the rattlers hadn't forgotten how to bite. Sol almost blew his toes off, and ended up with four neat holes in his calf. Yet that damage was insignificant compared to what Bert did with his gun. He murdered a perfectly harmless TV, refrigerator, toaster and bathtub. But true to form, he compensated fully with a Big Bert Masterpiece later in the night when they were all sitting peacefully in the living room thinking that all the snakes were dead. As luck or fate would have it, there was still one alive, hiding in the chair where Kerry was sitting. At first, it must have been asleep, for it didn't stir until she kicked the chair back into the reclining position. Then the old serpent came alive with a vengeance and bit into Kerry's shoulder. And everyone had thought that Kerry couldn't dance. While she spun in a hysterical fit, the rest of them screaming for her to stand still, the entire room a blur of motion, Bert calmly picked up his rifle and, without blinking an eye, shot the snake into two equal halves. Kerry had fainted.

About an hour after that, a helicopter carrying Mr. Carlton and Nurse Porter landed on the beach. Their weary group had gone to bed, but the rotor blades woke them promptly. The instant Mr. Carlton saw Michael he turned an angry red, but Robin came up quickly and shouted the good news. Mr. Carlton was pleased, to say the least. It made explaining the missing garage so much easier. Being the hero of the hour, Michael's theory of an underground cavity of natural gas impressed Mr. Carlton. The shrewd tycoon even went so far as to say he would sink a well on the property. With his gold thumb, chances were he would strike oil. He promised Sol a new van, which Sol received inside a week. On the other hand, even Park's smooth words could not explain the shot TV, refrigerator, toaster and bathtub. Mr.

Carlton told them that he wanted no more parties at his house.

Shani winced at the odour as they entered the Medical Centre. Hospitals always smelled like sickness to her — as she supposed they should — like a blend of blood, medicine and high bills. Maybe she would become a psychologist instead of a psychiatrist. Getting through medical school without spending time in a hospital would be too difficult.

"So you're definitely not going to Harvard this fall?" she asked. A whiff of paint from the warm orange walls gave the relatively deserted reception area a brand new tone. Park led them confidently past an information desk. She had to assume he knew where he was going.

"I've already written them a letter declining my acceptance."

"Are your parents mad?"

"Not at all. They haven't said a word to me about it."

"Have you told them?"

"No."

"Don't you think you'll miss being the Ivy League hotshot?"

"I look at it this way: if I stay here with Robin, then we'll probably end up getting married, and I'll have a hold of millions. Then I canbuy Harvard."

"That's what I like about you, Park; you'll sacrifice anything for love. Hey!" she pointed. "There's Lena."

Their red-haired tigress was sitting in a chair by the elevators browsing through aPlaygirl magazine.

"I recognize the chest. Hey, lovely Lena!"

Lena closed the magazine, tossing it a couple of seats over for some innocent young girl to find and be corrupted by. She wore a white sweater, and long black trousers that hid her scars. Next month, a plastic surgeon was going to fix those blemishes.

"You made good time," she said. "How did the car run?"

"Very, very fast," Shani said. "How's Robin?"

"She has her appetite back. During the past seven days, she hasn't stopped eating. You're going to have to talk to her, Park. You don't want a pig for a girlfriend."

"Where's Sol?" Park asked.

"Here I am," Sol said, strolling up slowly. He had lost considerable weight in the last month.

"Were you at the bathroom?" Park asked with undisguised pleasure.

Sol scratched his head. "I thought I was over it, but those damn bugs came back as soon as I ran out of medicine. I tried to buy some of the pills here, but they told me I had to see a doctor. As if I had the dough to pay for one of these white coats walking around here."

"Daddy gave you insurance," Lena said. "You don't have to pay anything."

Mr. Carlton had hired Sol out of his Hollywood office as an all-purpose errand boy. He paid him peanuts and left him little time to see Lena. But one day at the Carlton residence, Shani had overheard the old capitalist remark that he saw in Sol the ruthlessness necessary to run his company. She could see it now: five years down the road Sol and Park would be in the family and would be fighting each other for control of the Carlton empire.

"The insurance doesn't take effect until I've worked for six months," Sol said. "I'll be an amoeba by then."

Lena pulled a jar of pink pills from her purse. "Take my medicine, I'm already cured. How's the rest of the gang?"

"Bert didn't get sick at all," Shani said. "He lives a charmed life. Angie said she's practically one hundred per cent. Oh! I have to tell you! I didn't even tell Park this!"

"What?" Park asked, excited.

"Naah, it's nothing. Never mind."

"What?" Park demanded.

"Bert and Angie have got together," she said.

Sol and Lena laughed. Park didn't. "Define 'have got together'," he said.

Lena reached for herPlaygirl magazine. "There's a picture in here that defines it perfectly."

"Come on," Park said, impatient, his ego bruised.

"I'd check out Lena's picture if you really want to—" Shani began.

"This is ridiculous!" Park interrupted."What would Angie be doing with Bert?"

"The same things she did with you," Sol said.

"Shut up."

"I've found the picture," Lena said, spreading open a page. "See, Park, this is what Angie and Bert—"

"Shut up!"

"Who are you telling to shut up?" Lena asked.

"Yeah!" Sol said.

"Both of you!" Park pointed an angry finger at her. "You're making this up!"

"Why are you so upset?" Shani asked. "You're the one who dumped Angie, remember?"

"I didn't dump her in Bert's lap!"

"She was bound to get another boyfriend," Lena said.

"But it's only been four weeks! Whatever happened to a period of mourning?"

"Youdumped her, you didn'tdie ," Shani explained patiently.

"You've got a point there," Park admitted. "And I've got Robin. There's no reason for me to be jealous."

He sighed. "But Bert - I'm not going to surf with that jerk any more."

"How's Kerry?" Sol asked, glancing at Lena.

"I'm not saying anything," Lena said, holding her magazine at various angles.

"Kerry's sick," Shani said seriously. "She's lost a lot of weight. None of the drugs are working on her.

She may have to be hospitalized. Her parents are really worried."

"Mine know the feeling," Lena muttered.

Shani snatched away her magazine. "I want you to do something for me, Lena."

"What?"

"Call Kerry. She's sick because she can't stop worrying. Call her and promise her you'll never reveal her evil deed. Please?"

"They would just fight," Sol said.

"Kerry would just hang up," Park said.

"No," Lena said quietly. "We didn't fight, and she didn't hang up. I called her this morning."

"Did Robin make you?" Sol asked suspiciously.

"Robin doesn'tmake me do anything. It was my idea. We had a long talk, don't ask me about what. I think she'll start feeling better soon."

Shani was impressed. "I'm proud of you."

"Bert's kissing Angie and Lena's calling Kerry," Park told the ceiling. "What's this world coming to?"