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“I don’t know, David. But, one time at school he hit a guy for being mean to
me... he got in trouble for that.”
“Huh.... So, what time do you go to school? You take a bus?”
“No. Jay gets us and Frank in the morning, and...”
Oliver told David everything from what color the carpet was in his room to
the kind of chicken he ate at Frank’s house on Saturday nights when he we
nt over for dinner. And there was a lot to tell. Like, how Frank’s family
got a new house, and how Mr. Seaberg came to visit a lot and always invite
d him to go out with their family. He talked about how he didn’t like not
waking up in the same room as David, and how sometimes he got lonely even
in good company, and that Rudy had drawn a picture of him and David toget
her, which he kept hung up next to his bed. He talked until he realized th
at David wasn’t doing any of the talking.
“Are you mad at me, David?” Oliver wasn’t sure where the question came from
, just that he needed to ask it. David didn’t look too surprised, either.
“Why would I be?”
“I don’t know,” Oliver said, shrugging uncomfortably. “Sometimes I think...
maybe if I was better, or different, you wouldn’t be in here.”
David’s eyes drifted, his lungs releasing a slow breath. “You’re not the reas
on they won’t let me go, Oliver.”
“Then I think... maybe you’re mad at me about the way things were before,”
Oliver said quietly.
“That wasn’t your fault, either. You can’t help what you are. None of us can
.”
“But I remember things, David... things I didn’t before. It’s like I’m having
dreams, but they’re not dreams. I don’t tell no one. Not even Frank.”
David raised an eyebrow. “Why not?” he asked, and then Oliver fell exceptio
nally silent. “If Frank’s such a good friend, why don’t you tell him the tr
uth?” David pressed.
“Because,” Oliver whispered. “You’re my brother, David... and Frank think
s Dad killed Ms. Grover.”
Apart from blinking, David didn’t have much of a reaction to this news.
“What do you say when Frank says that?” David asked.
“Nothing, David,” Oliver whispered. “I don’t say nothing.”
David smiled. “That’s good, Oliver.”
“It’s not lying, David? It feels like lying.”
“It’s not lying,” David insisted. “It’s Dad’s fault she’s dead... and it’s in t
he past, right? What does it matter now?”
Oliver sighed, frowning. “I don’t like thinking about Dad anymore, David...
I don’t like thinking... I don’t like...” He paused, taking a deep breath
to calm himself. “I want you to come home, David. I don’t want you to be sa
d anymore. You’re sad here, David.”
David’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, and then he laughed. “You don’t
gotta worry about me, Oliver. I’m gonna make sure you and me are together
again, and it’s not so bad around here. People cookin’ and making sure yo
u eat three times a day. You getta watch TV when you want, and go outside
in the morning, and where else can you wear pajamas all day long without s
omeone hollerin’ for you to get your ass dressed, huh?” David waved roughl
y at himself, his chin turned down as he looked over the matching blue one
-size-fits-all pocketless pants and shirt that consisted of such thin mate
rial he was convinced that the nurses got more than a glimpse of his ass w
hen the light hit him the right way. “These are actually kinda comfortable
. Don’t gotta put a lot of thought into what you’re gonna wear every morni
ng. You should try ‘em.”
“I sleep in shorts, David.”
David grinned. “Who said anything about sleeping?” he asked, a sly grin ai
med at his brother. “Oliver, when we talked last time... do you remember,
when I asked you to do something important for me?”
..................................................
“Dr. Devling, you have a patient waiting in your office, and Adam wants you
to go over his meds with him again... the color of one of his pills has ch
anged and he wants to make sure no one’s trying to poison him.”
Devling graced the short woman peeking into the front offices with a wry smi
le. “No alien transmitters this time?”
“You’ve obviously brought Adam a long way,” she replied, and then with a n
od, left him.
But. Dr. Devling didn’t wander off in search of Adam like he normally would
have done, or send someone by his office to tell his appointment that he’d b
e delayed. Instead, he continued to stare at the small, wilting desk plant t
hat one of the employees had brought in months ago, and he thought about the
one patient he saw on a daily basis that he didn’t seem to be helping at al
l.
The boy was one of the most impersonal people he’d ever come across, and ov
er the past few months, he hadn’t been able to make the slightest breakthro
ugh with David Martin. If Devling was certain of anything, it was that Davi [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]