The Medium

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

The house was small but neat, wood siding painted pale blue. Dandelions grew through cracks in the concrete driveway. A few potted ivies hung around the edges of the porch. The yard had gone to crabgrass, summer-brown and carefully cut despite the weeds. It was innocent, peaceful, quiet.

The El Camino came to a stop in front of the empty lawn. Kim checked her watch.

“We’re a little early, sorry. But I guess better early than late.”

Lenny shrank back into the seat and scrubbed the back of his hand across his mouth. “Keep going,” he whispered. “Just go. I c-can’t do this.”

“What are you going to do instead?”

He shuddered.

She gave his arm a careful squeeze. “It’s okay. You’ll do fine. I’ll back you up. She’ll be just as cool about this as you remember. People’s basic personalities don’t change, no matter how long it’s been.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and rested his forehead on his clenched fists. “Unless I changed.”

There was nothing Kim could say to that. “You’re still you,” she reminded him. “Everyone changes a little bit, but you’re still you.”

Sunlight reflected off an approaching windshield and blinded them momentarily.

“There’s a car coming,” she told him. “Guess we’ll find out in just a minute.”

He dared a quick glance. It was the same old Datsun, paint faded, a few more dings and dents, but the same. He looked away before he could catch sight of the person at the wheel.

“She’s getting out,” Kim observed.

A car door slammed.

“You think you should maybe go say hello?”

He tugged on the handle mechanically and pushed the door open. The asphalt was so hot, his shoes stuck to the oozing tar, but he felt cold.

“Lenny.”

The voice pulled him out of time, back so far he could almost remember how it had felt to be safe.

“Oh my God, Len.”

It had been freezing, the last time he’d seen her, and she’d kissed him like she wanted something more, climbed into the Datsun, and disappeared into the gray West Texas pre-dawn in a cloud of exhaust and confusion.

“It’s you. I can’t believe it’s you.”

But the woman who ran to him wasn’t his Mara. She was paler, ten years tired, still young, but not as young as she had been. She was wiser, ten years more cautious. He could tell she was still teaching—sensible, cushioned shoes, pressed khakis, once-wild hair pulled back in a no-nonsense ponytail—but the same glance told him a dozen other stories as well. The day had left her exhausted. Her profession was taking its toll on her back and knees. She’d begun wearing glasses, and she’d lost a lot of weight. Even her smile had changed. It was glowing, but there were layers in the expression. It still turned up in the middle and slightly down in the corners, like he remembered. There was still that small chip out of her right top incisor. It was still one of the most genuine smiles he’d ever seen. But there was more to it, like at least some small part of that grin was for some—any—change in the routine.

Still, the rest of it was for him.

He stood still and did his best not to flinch as she threw her arms around him. “Missed you, babe,” he tried to say, but he stuttered himself into silence.

She had changed. Her gait, her hair, her scent, her posture had all changed. Even her shape had changed, and yet, somehow, she still fit him, matched him, made him feel like the shattered pieces of his life were coming back together.

After a moment, he felt himself relax. His arm went around her waist, and his head found her shoulder. He didn’t even know he was crying until Kim cleared her throat.

“Sorry, but can we go inside? We’re going to have a lot of talking to do, and we probably better get started.”

Mara pulled back, swiping at her eyes with her forearms. “Yeah.” She coughed, cleared her throat, and nodded. “That’s a good idea, yeah. It’s hot as blazes out here.”

She led the way to the door. Lenny hung back in the heat, but Kim nudged him inside, and he passed over the threshold without difficulty. She’d already secured an implicit invitation for him in the form of Mara’s agreement.

-Can we go inside?

-Yeah.

He experienced a surge of gratitude for the wizard.

The door clicked behind them, but not before two strange creatures had followed them inside. They were both short, pudgy, with enormous black hair and big brown eyes. The marginally taller of the two wore wire-rimmed glasses and a Power Rangers t-shirt. She frowned at Lenny and dropped her backpack on the floor.

“You better not try to kiss my mom,” she warned him. “Hugging is okay, but she thinks boys are assholes, and that means the place where you poop. So you better not kiss her, or she’ll beat you up.”

The shorter one nodded in agreement and followed the aggressor down the short hallway and out of sight.

Mara’s palm met her forehead with a soft thwack. “Oh, God. I am so sorry.”

Kim giggled until she snorted and choked. Lenny gnawed nervously at his thumbnail.

“Your kids?” he managed.

She bit her lip and nodded. Her neck and ears had gone bright red. “Gemma’s six, and Monica’s five. They’re, well… I don’t often have men in the house. Like that makes it all better.”

“No father?” he asked a split second before his lagging brain identified that as stupid observation to make.

Her expression closed off like a slammed door, and he got the impression that, if he’d been anyone else, she would have glared.

“We can get all caught up later,” she said flatly. “Come on.”

She led the way to a living room somewhere between cozy and cramped. Lenny took one end of the familiar green plaid sofa, and Kim sat close beside him. She put a steadying hand on his forearm. Mara took the unfamiliar papasan chair on the other side of the unfamiliar coffee table. She kicked off her sneakers and crisscrossed her legs. After a few moments of silence, she began to thaw. Her shoulders relaxed.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” she said again. “This is just so surreal. How are you even here? They said there was like, a zero-point-something chance…”

Lenny shut his eyes and winced as he bit his thumbnail down to the quick.

“It’s not exactly a normal situation,” Kim supplied. She gave Lenny’s hand a squeeze. “The usual sets of statistics wouldn’t apply.”

Mara’s eyes went wide. “Oh, God. What are we talking about, here? Not… Not human trafficking, or something?”

Lenny felt sick.

Kim made a face. “No. No, there was no money involved. I just… Look, I’m going to be frank, here. I know you’re probably assuming I’m with the police, but I’m not. More like private eye, at least for the past year and a bit. I found Lenny because I was after this guy… turned out to be the guy that took him. This is actually something it would be good if the police didn’t hear about…”

Mara started to get up. Kim put up a hand.

“And Lenny thinks you’ll agree once you’ve heard us out. Okay? For an old friend?”

Lenny squeezed his eyes shut tighter and worked miserably at his thumbnail until he tasted blood.

Mara slid back into the papasan chair. She yanked the band out of her ponytail, shook out her hair, and tied it up again, even tighter than before.

“We’ll start with the bare bones,” Kim said. “Build up from there. You ask questions. We can prove the big stuff, so if something seems insane, just wait.” She turned to Lenny. “You wanna take it from here, honey?”

A deep breath rattled in his throat, the first he’d taken in some time. With effort, he opened his eyes.

Mara stared expectantly. He looked away.

“The… The g-g-guy,” he muttered, “who… the g-guy who t-t-took me.” He moved his hand away from his mouth and closed his mangled thumbnail in a tight fist.

“He’s not… not… He’s…” The words betrayed him. He tried again, and only a soft clicking sound came out. He pressed his lips together.

“Honey? Do you want me to?”

He didn’t. Something so personal should come from him. He vividly remembered planning for this, selecting each word with agonizing care. He had the words, exactly the right words. They just wouldn’t come out.

He nodded.

Kim leaned forward. “His name is Duran. I don’t know exactly what a ‘standard’ kidnapping looks like, but this wasn’t one. That’s because—being really frank, here—Duran’s a vampire.”

Mara’s eyes narrowed.

Kim plowed on. “They’re real. I’m working for a bunch of them that are sort of in charge of Texas and wanted this guy out of the way. I’m a wizard.”

Mara’s jaw tightened.

“I’m not sure how it went down, exactly, but it wasn’t good. He was pretty bad, even for a vampire. So, basically, this guy kept Lenny in a basement for ten years. Or, more like a cellar.” She felt Lenny flinch and put her arm around him. “Sorry, honey.”

Mara’s neck stiffened, tendons standing taut.

“So, yeah. Messed with his head a lot. Bled him out completely. What you have to understand is that this guy is a power nut. His goal is typically to destroy people. And he did his best.” She paused, thought, and nodded. “Oh, and Lenny is a vampire, too. Just, y’know, not a totally evil one.”

Mara sat very, very still and spoke very, very quietly. “Get out. You just get out.”

Kim and Lenny exchanged a glance.

Mara looked up slowly, brown eyes somehow dead and flashing at the same time. There were dark red spots of fury in the hollows of her cheeks. “Get out,” she repeated, “before I just shoot you. And no way you are taking him. You just get up, you leave, and I give you sixty seconds before I call the cops. I don’t know what kind of scam you’re running, but that is my best friend, and you picked the wrong goddamn schoolteacher, because I will blow you to hell before I let you use him like this.”

“You don’t want to see any proof?”

“You mean the proof you’ve undoubtedly been setting up all day while I was at work? What kind of rube do you think I am? Get out.”

Lenny squirmed. “Mara.”

She swung around to face him, not able to turn off the glare she’d put on for Kim. Lenny flinched.

“Mara, it’s b-been t-t-t-ten years.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it has. Lenny, I am so sorry…”

“You knew me for five b-before that.”

“I came and looked for you, Len. I went to the hotel and asked people, and…”

“I haven’t aged in fifteen years.”

Mara pulled up short. She stood slowly. “You’re not asking me to believe this, Len. You can’t ask me to believe this.”

She kept saying his name, kept saying his name. Lenny wondered whether it was because it had been so long since she’d had a chance to. Looking back, he realized he’d been saying hers too, every chance he got.

He stood as well. He held out a hand, and Mara took it. He shook his head and slid it back out of her grasp. “Mara, no. Look.”

She watched as he splayed his fingers and tensed his hand, revealing gleaming black claws. Frowning, she reached out to touch one. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m asking you to b-believe it. I’m d-different, but that’s still the same, and I never hurt you, or a st-student, and I still won’t. Wouldn’t. P-probably c-c-c-couldn’t, even if I wanted to. D-don’t need you any less than I d-did then. Please.”

She took his hand and inspected it, no doubt looking for seams. He relaxed, and the claws retreated into blunt fingertips and the ragged ends of chewed nails. He guided her hand to the inside of his wrist, then to the side of his throat. Failing to find a pulse, she inspected his scars instead.

“I remember you being colder. You said it was bad circulation.”

“No circulation. B-been outside. It’s hot outside.”

“No,” she said, but it lacked conviction, and Kim and Lenny had no difficulty in getting her to sit down and listen.