“He gets a certain kind of idea in his head, and wild elephants can’t stop him from seeing it through. Sometimes it only lasts a few minutes, but sometimes hours, or even days. We used to try to force him to rest, or eat, or use the bathroom when it happened, but that only worked against us. He once snapped at a nurse trying to make him eat and smashed a plate over her head, knocking the poor thing unconscious. Another time he went catatonic on us for a week. So now, we just let him go until his engine runs out.”
“How does it end?”
“Sometimes good. Sometimes not so good.”
“Like yesterday?”
“Exactly like yesterday. Only worse.”
Skylar glanced at the door, desperately curious to know what was going on behind it.
“You can go in if you want.”
Skylar looked surprised. “You sure?”
“Knock first. If he doesn’t want you to come in, he’ll tell you. But more than likely, he won’t respond at all, because the boy is just gone. Trust me.”
Skylar approached the door to room 237 with caution. She looked down at her feet, surprised that Eddie wasn’t already talking to her as he had done the other times she approached his door. She knocked ever so quietly, certain there would be a response.
But there was none.
“Told you.” Nurse Gloria returned to her magazine.
Skylar spoke softly to the door. “Eddie, I would like to come in. Would that be all right?” Again, there was no answer, so she let herself in. She entered the room cautiously.
Sitting at his desk, Eddie had his back to her. He was typing on his laptop and didn’t look up or acknowledge her in any way. His hands were moving so quickly around the computer’s keyboard that they were a blur. She sat down on the bed next to him, watching him with wonder. “You sure can type fast.”
He gave no response.
“Eddie, can you hear me?”
He nodded almost imperceptibly, but it was hard to tell if he was responding to her or to something else. His lips moved ever so slightly.
She leaned in closer, trying to hear what he was saying.
“Dr. Fenton!” He screamed the doctor’s name so loudly it hurt Skylar’s ears. She winced as he snapped the laptop closed. He picked it up, along with the echo box, and raced out the door.
Skylar went after him. Nurse Gloria followed close behind. “What the hell did you do to him?”
“Nothing. All I did was sit down next to him. You said I could go in.”
“I didn’t say to upset him, now did I?” They both followed him down the hallway, where he made a beeline toward Dr. Fenton’s office.
“Dr. Fenton, I did it! Dr. Fenton!”
The first time Dr. Fenton’s secretary, Stephen Millard, had experienced Eddie bursting into the foyer of Dr. Fenton’s office was seven years ago. Stephen was, naturally, alarmed, and proceeded to physically block Eddie’s path while tersely explaining that patients were not allowed to enter the office without an appointment. Eddie had started screaming the moment Stephen touched him. When Eddie started slapping himself, he dropped the echo box, which crashed to the floor. The resulting damage cost upward of $67,000 to repair.
From that point on, Stephen was instructed not to intervene when Eddie rushed into the foyer, like he did now. Stephen managed to remain pleasant and nonconfrontational. “Hello, Eddie.”
“Dr. Fenton, I did it! Dr. Fenton!” Eddie didn’t even acknowledge Stephen as he continued into Fenton’s office, where the doctor was on the phone.
“I’ll have to call you back.” Fenton hung up the phone and acted pleased to see Eddie. “Well, this is certainly wonderful news.”
“I know it’s going to work! I know it!” He closed the door behind him because it would facilitate acoustic mapping. At least, it was supposed to. He placed the echo box on Fenton’s coffee table and connected the laptop to it.
“My boy, I never had any doubt.”
Eddie made his BUZZER sound without looking up as he continued typing instructions into his computer. “Not true. Definitely not.”
Fenton smiled. “Well, almost never.”
Eddie held his index finger above the “Return” key on the keyboard as he counted down like he’d heard mission-control officers on TV do before launching a space shuttle. “Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one.” He pressed the key, activating the device. The sides of the echo box sprang open, revealing the eight spherical microphones. The microsatellites began to move in coordinated fashion, mapping the room.
Dr. Fenton joined his prized patient as he watched the computer screen. A three-dimensional image of the physical space began to slowly appear on the screen. A progress bar appeared below the image. It read: Six percent complete, then, seven. This was good, thought Dr. Fenton. Very good. The first tangible progress in months. His eyes widened with expectation.
Eddie moved back and forth between watching the movement of the microsatellites and watching the image on the screen. “Come on, come on, come on, come on.”
Nine percent complete. Ten percent. Their eyes were glued to the counter. Eleven percent. Twelve. But thirteen came slower. And fourteen slower than that.
“No . . . no . . . no . . .” Panic rose in Eddie’s voice. The fuse was lit inside him. The dynamite in his head was about to go off.
Fenton moved right next to Eddie and spoke reassuringly. “Just give it some time, Eddie. It’s working.”
“No it’s not!” He pointed to the counter, which remained stuck at fourteen. The rendering of the three-dimensional image had stopped.
The bloodcurdling scream then let out by Eddie shook Skylar to her bones. It sounded like a dying animal. The tone was guttural. Deep. And terrifying.
Stephen looked on smugly from his desk as Nurse Gloria and Skylar burst through the door to Fenton’s office.
Fenton hovered over the echo box, using his body to shield it from Eddie’s tantrum. The doctor was not about to risk any damage to the device, which was clearly his priority. Eddie spun around in circles, flailing wickedly at himself. These weren’t just slaps. He was hitting himself as hard as he could. Punching. Gouging. Trying to draw blood. Even tear his own flesh.
It took both Skylar and Gloria to hold him down. They crashed atop him as he fell to the floor. The veteran nurse shouted instructions to the young doctor as her head and other body parts got in the way of Eddie hitting himself. “Grab his arm!”
“I’m trying!”
With the majority of her body weight lying on Eddie’s chest, Gloria used her girth to still his left arm, and then helped Skylar hold his right.
Eddie finally stopped fighting and slowly caught his breath. The nurse climbed off him, noticing that Skylar’s fists were turning white from clenching around his arm. “You can let go now. Once the fight leaves him, it don’t come back.”
Skylar released Eddie’s arm. Just as Nurse Gloria had predicted, he remained calm. Skylar looked deeply into his helpless eyes and caressed his forehead, saying, “It’s okay, Eddie. I’m here.”
Nurse Gloria was just about ready to take issue, thinking, What the hell do you mean, you’re here? Who the hell are you? But she decided to bite her tongue after watching Eddie’s reaction. He was looking into the young doctor’s eyes. Edward Parks didn’t look anyone in the eyes, but here he was, looking into the eyes of this new princess doctor. What the hell did she know? What spell had she cast?
The veteran nurse did not know, but she was certainly going to find out, both out of personal curiosity and because she was secretly being paid handsomely to do so.
CHAPTER 21
Eddie’s Room, Harmony House, May 23, 8:42 a.m.
As Skylar and Nurse Gloria escorted him back to his room, all Eddie kept repeating was, “I’m tired.”
“We’ll get you to bed.” Skylar’s voice continued to have its soothing effect on him. They saw his face relax.
“I’m tired.”
Nurse Gloria tried her best to reassure him, too. “You let me know if you want something to help you sleep.”
His face was once again tense. “I’m tired.”
They helped him into his Scooby-Doo pajamas, then tucked him between his Batman sheets. Gloria pulled the blinds as Skylar sat next to him. “Would you like me to stay with you for a few minutes?”