Chapter 67

 

Jared

 

 

On Wednesday morning, Jared drove Patterson to work and was greeted at the Institute by Weston and Ott, with militant expressions, standing at the door beside three big stacked boxes. A note printed in a very large and black font was taped to the top box. It stated that inasmuch as Patterson's sister was the mother of two small impressionable children, she found herself unable to allow so foul a pervert within her house any longer, and the boxes contained all of his possessions and would he please remove himself permanently from her life. Thank you.

"She believed that garbage?" exclaimed Jared, finding his faith in the basic intelligence of his species much shaken.

But this had mobilized Ott and Weston. Sandra said they had an extra bed in the family room and Patterson was welcome to stay there as long as he liked, years, even, whatever it took. And Weston, patting Patterson's shoulder, assured him that the couch in his apartment living room was almost long enough to sleep on, and he could stay there the rest of his life if he wished. He also said he himself hadn't spoken to his brother for five years, and had no plans to resume in the future. Sandra said that it was good that he had found out what shallow, stupid creatures his sister and his not-yet-ex-wife were.

Patterson was nearly touched enough by this loyalty to cry. But he was not in need of a place to stay; he was quite contented where he was, and he had formalized his status as boarder with Phyllis and Lillian the night before, making a payment for six-months board and officially padlocking his bicycle, with alarms attached, to the railing of the back steps, where Terry and Gina used to lock their bikes. Phyllis said it was a little different than boarding students, probably easier, as long as no one showed up waving power tools, and Lillian and Al assured her they would handle that situation, if it arose.

So the research team loaded the boxes into the back of Jared's car, pushing a little to get them to fit, and Jared ran them home at once, before anyone came along and sawed his car in half. Al helped him get them upstairs to Patterson's room, and Jared paused long enough to share the story of Patterson's ex-sister with Cara before going back to the Institute. She enjoyed it very much.

On Wednesday afternoon, Lillian got her shoulder cast off and was fitted with a knee brace and spent a few hours in rehab to learn how to use the brace and to prepare for the knee replacement. When Jared drove Patterson home, he had to stop at the Hardesty house to watch Lillian triumphantly climbing and descending the stairs, with Willis at the top cheering.

It put Jared in a good mood; things were working out. He pulled his car into the carport, which was empty, somewhat lowering his spirits, but Issio was at the picnic table, alone, sprawled at his ease with a bottle of Zamuaon beer in his hand, and one on the table waiting.

"You will drink your usual half bottle," he greeted Jared, "and I will drink my usual bottle and a half, and we will both be happy. Our women have abandoned us."

"Why?" Jared asked, tossing his briefcase down on the grass and opening the beer bottle.

"Our Ann," said Issio, "noticed that your wife had not purchased a special dress for Saturday night. Making it much more serious, your wife said something about wearing a dress she already possessed. This is, as our Ann pointed out, a dress you have already seen, which makes it unacceptable, although I do not know why."

"I think that has to do with a wedding," said Jared, "not a reception, but I don't suppose anyone could convince our Ann."

"Indeed not," said Issio. "It upset her greatly, and none of us want her upset again. She would have taken Cara shopping instantly, but she is very busy. She must oversee Al, who plans the wedding cake. This cake must be out of the oven no later than two in the afternoon on Friday, and it must be baked in correct pans and correct shapes. And he was gone, having taken Lillian to the doctor for her brace. Also there was something about a shipment of candles."

"That has an ominous sound," said Jared. "Did she say if they play music?"

"No," said Issio. "But I do not have a good feeling about the candles." He lifted his beer bottle. "However, since this dress must be purchased at once, my wife offered to go with your wife and assist; also Sofi wished to buy a dress of her own for this occasion, having grown too big for what dresses she already has." This was a point of pride; Jared smiled at him.

"This is good," he said. "I trust Sofi's taste entirely."

"And, Willis being present for this discussion, he said that he and Terry would wear the suits they had worn at the funeral, although with other shirts." Issio shrugged over this. "He said, however, that Gina must have a new dress, in a better color, and he gave her a chip from McIntosh's account, where he says there are still credits for such things, and he sent her with Sofi and Cara shopping also."

"Are there enough credits?" Jared suspected the credits were running low; they would have to do some juggling, he thought, to work around Willis.

Issio shrugged. "There will be need for school clothes, for Gina and for Terry also. I told Sofi to take care of the chip for Gina; it can be used to access this account, for addition as well as subtraction. Dural wishes to do something, as do we; this is an opportunity. We need not mention this to Willis." Jared nodded, satisfied.

"So Sofi and Cara and Gina went shopping for dresses," he said.

"With Maud also," said Issio. "She was with Cara. She said that the mother of the bride had responsibilities, and that she would see that the young women made appropriate selections. Your wife," he added, "laughed very much."

"Good god," said Jared, trying to envision this quartet at the mall; it was an amazing picture.

"Indeed," agreed Issio, and they clicked beer bottles and drank.

"And when did they leave on this shopping trip?"

"At about three this afternoon. They have been gone for some time." Issio drank and put down his bottle. "I have a suggestion," he said. "As our women have been busy with important matters this afternoon, we should take them out for dinner. We will call them to arrange a meeting place. If Cara has bought her dress, she may keep it in its box or bag so that you do not violate custom by seeing it."

"And if she hasn't," said Jared, "they can go back to shopping after dinner. That's a great idea, Issio. You want to call Sofi?"

Issio dug out his phone. "Put away your briefcase," he said, "and I will talk to our ladies. Do we invite Maud? Do her people eat dinner?"

They looked at each other. "Good question," said Jared. "She used to. And she's planning to eat lunch with the Drs. Wood Saturday. Ask her. As the mother of the bride."

"Very good," said Issio, scrolling for the number, and Jared went on into his house, which seemed empty without Cara, and tossed the briefcase down on the breakfast bar and went on into the bedroom, with some thought of changing shirts; he had put on a buttoned-down shirt this morning, more formal wear than was usual this summer, thinking with the Patterson war ongoing he might find himself faced with a policeman or an attorney or a veterinarian or, heaven forbid, a dog psychiatrist before the day was over. The bedroom windows had been darkened for some reason, but he wasn't going to be in there long; he unbuttoned the shirt and peeled it off and opened the closet door to find his black T-shirt.

He heard the movement behind him, a slithering sound among the blankets and sheets on the bed, and he turned, startled, to confront Mimi sitting up in his bed, entirely naked.

"So you finally got home, whore-boy," she said, and shoved the sheet away and rose to her knees, giving him a better view.

Mimi was a small, active woman who had retained her wiry figure; in the dim light of the darkened windows, she looked much as she must have in her youth. What was scary was her face, Jared thought, not because it was ugly – in its own way, it was beautiful – but because it was so unlike Mimi. Mimi was full of animation, life; he had never seen her almond-shaped eyes when they were not sparkling. Now those eyes were flat, expressionless, and her face had the still porcelain perfection of the classic geisha, which he had seen in ancient Japanese paintings. She looked barely Earthian.

"What are you doing here?" said Jared.

"I was waiting for you," she said, and stepped out of his bed and moved toward him. "I finally got a body I can use; let's see what you've got, lover boy."

She reached for him, and he stepped away from her; he would rather, he thought, be touched by a large spider. "I don't think so," he said, and she came after him.

"You're good enough for that little whore you married," she said. "Let's see if you're good enough for me."

Jared moved around the end of the bed toward the bedroom door, closer to the living room windows, which were open with the repellers on. "Issio?" he said, raising his voice. "We have a problem!"

"Think you need some help to take care of me?" she said, moving after him. "Sure, call your tomcat friend. He might be good for something himself. Who knows? Maybe we could try a threesome, how about that?"

Issio stopped short in the bedroom door, staring.

"I've heard about Zamuaons," she said. "Heard they're pretty good, got some different moves. How about it, big boy? Want to try?"

"Thank you," said Issio, "no." He edged toward the head of the bed and Jared, taking his cue, moved toward Cara's dresser beyond the foot of the bed, putting space between them, spreading her attention between one side of the room and the other. At least she wasn't armed; that was a good thing.

"So who exactly are you?" said Jared, trying to keep her attention on him as Issio eased himself behind her. "Are you still Dr. Lindstrom? Is there anything of Mimi left?"

"Oh, way down there," she said. "Screaming like a goddamned virgin." She gave him an unpleasant smirk. Issio, watching her warily, was reaching for the top blanket. "So how about it, man whore? You want to try? Think you can satisfy me? Maybe you can. You're an old pro, aren't you? But there's a line of men from here to old Earth who couldn't handle me."

Issio pulled the blanket off the bed; she heard something and started to turn her head. "You lie," said Jared at once, and she snapped her attention back to him. "You never had a man in your life, Margo. Isn't that right?"

She let out a shriek and sprang toward him with fingernails crooked like claws, and he grabbed her wrists just as Issio threw the blanket over her. She struggled, but Mimi's body, now much weakened, wasn't a match for him; he got her arms under control and pulled the blanket tightly over her upper body as Issio tried to corral her kicking feet. He finally looped the end of the blanket over her ankles and made a clumsy knot.

"Where's Clyde?" Jared asked Mimi. 'Where's the Bahtan sister who was with you?"

"Gone to hell! Where you're going, asshole!" She spat at him; he ducked out of her way and wrestled her around with her back to him, holding her crossed arms as Issio lifted the immobilized feet.

"We'd better get her next door," said Jared, and Issio led the way, backing out into the living room, and the woman they held between them began to buck and lunge and scream at the top of her lungs.

"Help! Rape! Rape!" she yelled as Issio backed out the front door, gripping her ankles, and Jared followed, holding her upper body in a tight embrace that kept her arms under control. Al was running down the street already, with Ann behind him and Lillian limping across the porch; Patterson appeared in their front door, bracing Willis and his crutches. "Rape! They attacked me!" screamed the woman.

Phyllis and Ollie burst out of the Bahtan front gate. "Go see about your sister!" Jared shouted at Ollie, and she took one quick look at the woman in the blanket and charged off down the street, cutting across the lawns and slamming through the front door of Clyde's house.

"Rape!" screamed the woman as Phyllis and Al reached her, and Al gave her a distracted look and headed without a pause after Ollie; Phyllis grabbed the woman's knees and Ann got her around the waist. Ollie appeared on Clyde's porch. "Clena!" she yelled toward her house, and vanished inside again, and Clena scrambled out of the tangled Bahtan garden and raced down the street, reaching Clyde's house well before the blanketed woman and her struggling escort.

"It doesn't even sound like Mimi," said Ann, and Jared got Mimi's back braced against him and tried to keep her arms still, letting Phyllis and Ann take more of her weight. There wasn't that much weight to take.

Al appeared on the front porch supporting Clyde, who, with a dazed look, held a blood-stained kitchen towel to his head. "Evvie's breathing," Al reported. "Someone split Clyde's head open. We still don't have a sealer."

Patterson arrived by Jared's elbow, and Jared, who had got a pretty good grip by now, nodded down to Issio at Mimi's feet. "Take the ankles," he said, and Patterson moved down to take Issio's place.

"I will get my car," said Issio, "also call Dr. Frank. We will take Clyde to his office, if he is still there. Perhaps he has gone home."

"I'll call Cara," said Jared, "in a minute. Did you reach Sofi?"

"We were talking when you called me. They know something is wrong." Issio ran off toward his carport, and Patterson and Phyllis and Ann and Jared got the plunging body of Mimi up the steps and across the porch and in the front door, past Al and Clyde.

Inside the bedroom Ollie was adjusting an infuser, and Clena was settling Evvie into the armchair. Evvie lolled, snoring slightly. "She was drugged," said Ollie. "I do not know how someone could have got the infuser, especially when someone was medicated and asleep. But Evvie was drugged." Mimi's screams rose in volume, but among the four of them they could hold her pretty still now. Ollie pulled down the blanket over her shoulder and triggered the infuser; Mimi struggled briefly and then sagged, unconscious.

They laid her on the bed, the blanket sagging open to reveal her state of undress. Asleep, those dead eyes closed, she looked like Mimi again, and Jared pulled the blanket over her with a real feeling of pity. Somewhere inside screaming protest; he could well imagine Mimi doing that, and biting and kicking, literally or figuratively.

He pushed Patterson out of the room as the women began looking for a nightgown, and got out his phone and scrolled for Cara's number as he walked through the living room. Issio was pulling his car up to the door, phone hooked in his ear. He opened the passenger side door and gestured to Al and Clyde; Al guided Clyde as far as the steps, where his knees buckled, and Patterson ran out the door to grab Clyde's other arm and hold him up.

"What's happened?" demanded Cara in Jared's ear.

He summed it up quickly. "Mimi got loose. She hit Clyde and apparently infused Evvie with sedatives, but they're both all right. Issio and I are taking Clyde to Dr. Frank's office. Ollie gave Mimi another infusion and she and Clena are with her and Evvie."

"And Phyllis and Ann," said Patterson, "and I'll stay there if you think – and here comes Willis, too." Sure enough, Willis was swinging down the street with a great deal of determination on his crutches; Jared nudged Patterson's shoulder, sending him off to meet Willis, and joined Al and Issio in Issio's car.

"Good god, how did Mimi –" exclaimed Cara in his ear.

"I'll tell you more later," said Jared. "The important thing is that everyone's all right. You four pick a place for dinner and we'll meet you there; I'll call you from the doctor's office."

"Dinner!" she protested.

"It's going to be okay, sweetheart," said Jared. "Tell the others. I'll call you." He clicked off the phone and helped Al steer Clyde into the front passenger seat. His face was blank and bewildered and the pupils of his eyes were so large that they looked black.

"Dr. Frank was leaving the office," said Issio. "He said that he would wait for us. We must get a wound sealer for the sisters; this would save much time and energy, having such a thing in the neighborhood."

It might be a proper expenditure to charge to Maud's foundation, Jared thought, a sealer and a scanner too. He could discuss it with Maud herself, as a matter of fact, over dinner tonight.

Al and Jared were helping Clyde out of the car at Dr. Frank's office when Cara's car pulled up to the curb and Sofi and Cara and Gina scrambled out and ran to join the men. Maud wasn't among them; she was waiting inside the door with Dr. Frank, and politely held the door open as they helped Clyde inside.

"She just popped in," said Dr. Frank cheerfully, ushering Clyde into the nearest examination room. "I'm getting used to it. Luckily Lana already left." He flipped on the lights. "I suppose he fell down the stairs again," he said and, feeling that Clyde was in good hands, Jared herded the rest of them back to the empty waiting room.

"It doesn't sound remotely like Mimi," said Cara.

"Of course it isn't Mimi," said Maud.

"But Mimi is still in there," said Gina. "How can we get rid of this fly, or whoever she is, and get Mimi back in charge?"

"If I knew, child, I would do it," said Maud grimly. "We're working on it," she said, with a defensive look at Jared.

"I hope so," he said, feeling disinclined to be sympathetic. This was not an incident he ever wanted repeated. And how could they be sure Mimi wouldn't do it again, or much worse?

"What ought we to do Saturday?" asked Sofi, on a practical note. "Dr. Frank said he knew someone who could sit with Mimi for a few hours, so that the sisters may all attend, but now –"

"If she could escape from Evvie," said Issio, "she could escape from anyone. I do not see that it matters who stays with her, as long as they are alert and all weapons and drugs are hidden."

"You may have to think of restraints," said Dr. Frank, leading Clyde out into the waiting room; he was looking rather pale but a little less confused, and the wound was sealed neatly. Dr. Frank had shaved a small patch on the top of his head, which gave him an odd elderly look, like an Earthian back in the days when men experienced male pattern baldness.

"I don't want to tie her up," said Clyde wearily.

"You don't want her running around loose, either," said Dr. Frank. "Next time she might try attacking the people down the street. And they won't be understanding, like your neighbors are. You got any idea," he asked Maud, "what those creatures of yours want?"

"They are not my creatures," said Maud, "And no, we don't know."

Which was not at all satisfactory, but there wasn't anything to do about it. No one felt much like a carefree dinner out, but they had to eat, after all. Issio and Gina drove Al and Clyde home; Jared went with Cara and Maud and Sofi in Cara's car, filled with bags and boxes in the back. Sofi reported that Gina had a dress and shoes and she too had found a dress, although no accessories, but they were still not decided upon the proper attire for the bride. There were at least three dresses under discussion, none of them quite right, although Maud felt the one in the shop on 38^th was acceptable, if they could do the alterations in time, and Sofi liked the one in the store in the 61^st Street Mall, although the sleeves were wrong. Cara laughed and refused to express an opinion.

"So all these packages –" said Jared, trying to figure how two dresses and a pair of shoes could take up so many bags and boxes.

"Men," said Maud, dismissing him in his ignorance.

Mothers of brides, it seemed, also required proper attire, and that too was under discussion. Maud had found wonderful shoes in the same place Gina bought her shoes, but the dress eluded them. They agreed that while the mother of the bride ought not to eclipse the bride, she certainly ought to coordinate with her. Sofi said the ecru lace trim was not at all a good choice. Cara said the blue looked frumpy. Maud said yellow had never been her color, even that very pale yellow.

So the shopping was by no means over, they explained to Jared and to Issio when he and Gina joined them at the restaurant, and that might be good; it gave them all something to think about besides Mimi. The Bahtan sisters, Issio reported, were talking about a change in medication which might be helpful for a time. But it wasn't a permanent solution, and they all knew it.