Chapter 30

Pastor Robbins sat down in the backseat of Lindsey’s Explorer next to Max. “Thanks for your help,” Lindsey said. “The next time the church is holding a fundraiser, you can put Max and I down for a big donation.”

“If this helps get our star pianist back, I’m more than willing to help,” Pastor Robbins said and then patted Max’s knee. “What you’re doing isn’t illegal, is it?”

“Not really, no,” Lindsey said. Max said nothing, letting her do all the talking. He didn’t have any idea about the specifics of the plan. After spending the night in Lindsey’s mind, Max had to wait a full day before she came back with a temporary order for his release. He didn’t know how the pastor had gotten involved with all this. He didn’t like the idea of getting a clergyman in trouble with the authorities if anything went wrong.

“Where are we going?” Max asked.

“We have to drop the pastor off at the church, then we’ll go to the hospital,” Lindsey said.

“Oh.” He turned his head in the pastor’s direction. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, my son.”

“If you try to help someone and instead you wind up hurting her, does God punish you?”

“Since He created us, He knows we’re not perfect. What’s in our hearts is more important than the success of our actions. As long as you truly want to help your friend, He will understand and embrace you for trying.”

“Oh. That makes sense. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” The Explorer came to a stop and the pastor opened the door. “I expect to see you here tomorrow, Max. Then you can tell me all about this undercover business.”

After the door closed, the SUV began moving again and Max leaned forward. “How are we going to get inside the hospital? As soon as security sees me, they’ll throw me out.”

“I’m not sure about that, but we’ll think of something when we get there.”

“Why did Director Burante agree to let me out? No one is supposed to leave the isolation room early.”

“Pastor Robbins was very persuasive,” Lindsey said. “It helps that he plays in the same foursome as the director.”

“Foursome?”

“They play golf together. That’s part of the reason you got the job there in the first place.”

“Oh.”

As they headed towards the hospital, Max considered a way to get inside. He could fake an injury, but that wouldn’t put him close enough to Sarah. Maybe they could make him some kind of disguise, but even if they got him as far as the room, someone was watching the door. “Do you still have that mobile phone?” he asked.

“You want to call someone?”

“Henrietta, at the hospital. She’s Sarah’s nurse. She’ll help us.” He didn’t know this for certain after everything that had happened. He’d lied to her about being a friend of Sarah’s and by now she no doubt knew he was a mental patient. She might have police waiting to take him away when he showed up.

“If you’re wrong, we might not get in at all.”

“I know, but there doesn’t seem like any other way.” Lindsey dialed the number and asked for Henrietta before giving the telephone to Max. When he heard her come on the line, he said, “Henrietta, it’s Max. I need your help.”

“Max, I’m not supposed to talk to you,” she whispered.

“I know, but this is important. I have to see Sarah.”

“There’s no way. They have a guard watching the door all the time, plus since they busted you, they’re patrolling the grounds too. You’d have a better chance robbing a bank.”

“I have to see her. I think I can help her.”

“Max, please, don’t start talking crazy.”

“I’m not. Ask Dr. Perry, she’ll tell you I’m not lying. I can help her out of the coma. I can wake her up.”

“Even if I believe you, what do you want me to do? Overpower the guards and barricade the room while you perform some kind of séance? I’ll lose my job.”

“All you have to do is help me get inside the room. Dr. Perry and I will do the rest.”

“Well, I suppose I could open the window and maybe you could climb in.”

“Good idea.”

“But if you do, I don’t know you’re there, all right? I don’t know anything about it.”

“I understand.”

“And afterwards, you owe me.”

“Thanks.” Max handed the phone back to Lindsey.

“Did she go for it?”

“She said she’ll leave the window open. We can climb in, so long as we don’t get caught by anyone outside.”

“Great, a blind man and a fat woman trying to break in through a window. Nothing can possibly go wrong there.”

Lindsey’s sarcasm turned out to be unwarranted. They managed to pick their way between the hedge and wall of the hospital until they found Sarah’s room. As promised, Henrietta had left the window open. Lindsey went first, grunting and huffing until she made it through. Then she grabbed Max’s hand to help him find the window.

The breaking in was so anticlimactic, Max thought it must be some kind of trick. When no one sprung a trap for a full minute, Max took his seat next to Sarah’s chair. “Does she look all right?” he whispered to Lindsey.

“She looks the same as usual,” Lindsey said. “I guess I’ll just stand here and let you do your thing. Good luck.”

Max nodded and then let Sarah’s mind draw him in. He didn’t know whether the world he’d created would still be intact or not. As he descended through an evening sky, he found everything running almost as if he’d never left.

***

Sarah patted Koo’s snout and then tossed the whale a fish. Max had been gone for a week now. No one knew where he’d disappeared to, not even his parents. The police had taken a report and the media had put up Max’s picture, but no one came forward with any information. It was as if he’d vanished.

She didn’t understand why he’d taken off after saying he loved her. “That’s what men do,” Alicia said during one of their walks. “They use you and then throw you away like a piece of trash.”

Perhaps, but Max hadn’t seemed like any other man she’d ever known. He was so sweet and shy, as innocent as a schoolboy. He wasn’t like the guys in the bars who only wanted to get laid, the kind of man she’d been interested in for too long. Max loved her. He didn’t just say the words; she heard it in his voice, saw it in his eyes, and felt it in his touch. If he’d been lying, then he was the most convincing liar she’d ever known.

She kept waiting for him to show up again as suddenly as he’d entered her life. Every time the phone rang at home or her office, she waited to hear his voice and hung up on the verge of tears. All day while she worked, she listened for the sound of his footsteps. She’d given the security guards and receptionist pictures of Max in case they did see him, but every day she asked and they reported nothing.

“He’ll come back,” she said to Koo. The whale only shot a burst of spray from her blowhole before disappearing beneath the water’s surface. Sarah was alone again.

“Sarah?” When she heard Max’s voice, she assumed it was her mind playing tricks on her. She heard him call her name again and then he appeared on the roof.

She thought of running into his arms like a wife whose husband has been away at war for years, but then she stopped herself, remembering Max hadn’t gone to war. He’d ditched her in the middle of the night after they’d fucked. She crossed her arms and said, “Where have you been?”

“I had to go away for a while,” he said. He stood next to the door leading up to the roof, as if afraid to come any closer.

“What does that mean?”

“I want to explain it to you, but I can’t.”

“Do you expect me to take you back when you won’t even say where you’ve been? Not even your parents knew. They’re worried sick about you. You just disappeared—” She couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. He ran forward to take her in his arms. At first she tried to fight out of his grasp, but then gave in. “Promise you won’t ever do that again.”

“I’m sorry, Sarah, but I can’t stay. I have to leave tonight. I’m not coming back, ever.”

“What? Why? Max, you’re not making any sense!”

“I know, but just trust me. It’s all for the best. For you.” Before she could say anything else, he kissed her in a way that eased the pain of his disappearance and cryptic remarks about leaving again. None of it mattered; she only cared that he was here right now.

“I don’t want you to go,” she said after he pulled his lips away. “Maybe I could come with you. This aquarium job is too much for me anyway.”

“I wish I could take you with me, but I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Then I guess we better make tonight count.” She worked her lips into a smile, though inside she wanted to sob like a little child. “Let’s go back to my place.”

“No, I have somewhere else in mind.” He took her downstairs to his car, saying nothing the entire way. Instead of Gullcrest Heights, he drove into Fishtown, stopping in front of a dilapidated white house that seemed familiar.

“Why are we going here?” she asked.

He said nothing, holding her hand as they went up the stairs and then carried her across the threshold like a newlywed couple.

“What a dump. Couldn’t we get a motel at least?” she said after he put her down. He remained silent, but she saw a look of pain on his face.

He took her back to the bedroom, where she found only a queen-sized mattress and springs on the floor. The walls were gray and chipped; she imagined coming away with splinters if she touched any of the boards. “I’m sorry about all this,” he said. “I wish I could do more for you.”

“Max, let’s go back to my house and talk about this. I’m sure we can work something out.”

“I can’t. I’m not sure how much time I have left.”

“Are you dying? Is that why you left?”

“You could say that.”

“Oh God, Max, why didn’t you say something? I want to be with you, right until the end.” She ran her hands over his chest, unbuttoning his shirt.

“Let’s just get through tonight first,” he said as he slid off her skirt. They undressed each other slowly, savoring the moment.

The first time they had made love, she remembered the same look of peaceful concentration on his face he wore as he played the piano. This time his face tightened into a grim mask. Finally, tears came to his eyes. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I don’t want this to end,” he said.

“Maybe it doesn’t have to. We can find a way—” He cut her off with a kiss and she decided to say nothing more on the subject. Enjoy tonight, she told herself. Enjoy it like it’s the last. They both took their time, going slow to make the experience last.

After she could no longer hold back her orgasm, she wrapped her arms as tight around his body as she could. I’m not letting you go, she thought. She would stay awake all night if she had to in order to make sure he didn’t go away without saying goodbye. “I love you,” she said.

“I love you too. I always will, no matter what happens.” He stroked her hair and stared at her with teary eyes.

She didn’t remember falling asleep, but sometime in the night she woke up and realized Max was gone. “Oh no,” she said into the darkness. When she got up to look for him, she smelled the smoke.

Smoke filled the hallway. “Max?” she called out. “Max, where are you?”

She put a hand to her mouth as she made her way down the hallway. The smoke brought tears to her eyes until she got down on her knees to crawl. “Max?” she called again through gasps for air.

The hallway led to a kitchen on one side and a dining room on the other, both engulfed in fire. She looked around for a way out, but saw nothing. Her only choice was to go through the fiery dining room and out the way she’d come with Max.

As she started to run through the dining room, a chunk of the ceiling gave way, landing only inches from her feet. “Max!” she screamed and then began coughing. A plume of fire came from inside the wall; she hit the floor a second before it would have hit her in the face. For a moment she lay on the smoldering floor of the dining room, trying in vain to catch her breath. Why would Max abandon her now? She tried to call his name again, but couldn’t get out more than a wheeze.

She crawled as fast as she could across the floor, the heat burning her palms and knees, but she ignored the pain. Ahead, she saw the front door through the living room. The doorway represented freedom from the hellish inferno all around her; she doubled her pace, making it into the living room just before another piece of ceiling crashed down to seal off the rest of the house.

Only a little farther, she told herself. The carpet was not quite as hot as the dining room floor, but the smoke was more intense. Her breath came out in gasps punctuated by coughs that racked her entire body. Still she kept crawling towards the front door. Then, outside the door, she saw Max.

Clad in a white jumpsuit, he looked like an angel against the morning light. She held out a hand, beckoning to him, but he didn’t move. “Max,” she croaked his name and then slid a few more inches towards him. “Help me.”

When he turned away, her last bit of strength gave way. She rolled over to look up at the ceiling. She couldn’t will herself to move as the ceiling cracked. There was a sound like ice breaking a moment before the ceiling collapsed. Her eyes turned back to the doorway before she passed out, but Max no longer stood there. He was gone.

Sarah’s eyes opened to a bright set of blurs that gradually came into focus. She managed to turn her head enough to see the machines at her bedside. Her throat felt so dry. She needed water. She tried to speak, but could only make a gurgling sound. “She’s awake,” a man’s voice said.

She turned her head to the other side of the bed and saw a tall man sitting there. He seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place where she’d seen him before. “She’s awake?” a woman’s voice echoed. A fat redhead appeared next to the man; she seemed familiar too. Had they met before? The fat woman left Sarah’s vision.

“It’s all right, Sarah. You’re going to be fine,” the man said. He squeezed her hand, which she only now realized he was holding. Why was this creep holding her hand? Was he a doctor?

The fat woman reappeared with a cup of water. She dribbled a few drops into Sarah’s mouth. “Not too much now. Don’t worry, Sarah, you’re safe now, understand? You’re in a hospital. A doctor is going to be here real soon to help you.”

“Who…are…you?” Sarah managed to get out. The man at her side jerked as if she’d slapped him. He let her hand drop.

The fat woman grabbed the tall man’s shoulder. “It’s time to go,” she said.

“Wait,” Sarah rasped. Who were these people? Why were they here? How long had she been in the hospital? The last thing she could remember was passing out in the living room after drinking a bottle of cheap vodka.

“I’m sorry,” the man said. She saw tears in his eyes before he turned away. The fat woman helped him out the window before crawling out herself. Sarah stared at the open window, waiting for them to come back until deciding they must have been a dream.