Slice

SAINT FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER

“Here,” he heard a voice saying, “we're rejoining the living,” which Jack thought to be an unusually appropriate choice of words.

“How long was I out?” was the question he framed in his head, but it came out as smiling silence because he'd forgotten to open his mouth as he spoke, so he only smiled. It was amazing how much coordination is required to verbalize a thought, and the realization of this tired him. He left himself sink deeper into a sea of feathers as the doctor told him about sewing his finger back on—how could this be?—telling him how Jack should check back in a few days and something mumble-mumble nighty-night.

“—look like you're ready to go anywhere,” and a hearty laugh. And Eichord thought he must have just drifted off for a couple of seconds, and he wished people would shut up so he could doze off but these fellows had him propped up and he was on his feet or maybe he had always been on his feet and something mumble buzz, “Gets too strong call me and we'll fix you up with a shot.” He nodded at the kindness and rightness of it all.

He heard a friendly voice speaking to him but for the life of him he couldn't focus and he was sitting down again or for the first time and moving and he tried to speak but once again only a halfhearted smile reached his mouth.

The next time he woke up he was in a bedroom somewhere and Donna Eichord was sitting across the room from him and there was a lot of attention to his every need and he kept telling her to find out about the baby and she kept saying, What baby? and it confused him so badly that he was able to snap out of the druggy fog completely and he said, “Hey, darlin'."

Or so he thought he said, but it was more of Aaaaaaaay sound without consonants and he tried to bear down and concentrate and managed to say it aloud.

“Hey."

“Hey yourself."

“Hey. Hey darlin'."

“Yeah,” she said softly to him. “How ya doin?"

“Hey.” [SOMETHING MUMBLED.]

“What, honey?"

“The baby?"

“What about a baby?"

“Yeah. Howaza baby?"

“Oh. The baby that was in the car. Bill had the baby checked over while we were at the hospital with you. He's going to be fine. The little baby's okay, hon."

“Thass good."

“Yeah. You feelin’ pretty rough?"

“No. Feel ffff—fiiiiiiiine.” He grinned and she smiled with him and patted him gently.

“That's great."

“I lose my finger?"

“No, honey. The doctor will tell you all about the procedure later. It's a new technique and they think you'll regain use of it, at least partially. They said it went real well.” She smiled.

After a few minutes he could feel himself snapping out of the deepest part of the drug fuzziness but he knew he was only halfway out. He didn't want to lose that glow now. It was a good buzz and he figured when he started to lose it the pain would hammer him to his knees. He looked at the thickly bandaged hand and felt nothing.

When he felt himself coming to his senses he talked with Donna about the confrontation asking her about the killer.

“I got him, didn't I?” he asked. “I got him this time?"

“Yes,” she assured him. “You got him this time."

“No!” He started to tell her about the Man from Kowloon and he changed the subject. “Know what? That little baby is going to be in a big world of trouble. I wish we, you know, could take care of him or something."

“I know what you mean,” she said, and then she wondered if she did. “You mean like adopt him?"

“I know he had a killer for a father but that wasn't his fault. He's still a little baby."

“Sure."

“So tiny. All alone. I mean, we'd do the same thing for a cat or dog."

“I know."

“Would you be against it?"

“Adopting the little boy?"

“Yeah."

“No. I, uh, I just haven't thought about it. But no, hon, I think it's a sweet idea. If you, you know, wanted to adopt a baby. I don't know if we could do it, if they'd let us, but—"

“What do you mean?"

“I don't know if it's that easy?"

“How do you adopt a baby like that? What happens to it?"

“I don't know. I suppose the baby gets placed in a foster home eventually. I don't know exactly what the procedure would be in a case like this, though."

“Why don't we look into it?"

“Okay. Just remember, darlin', this is a serious commitment. I mean, if it's something we both really want I'd say give it all we can to make it happen, but I'm just surprised you want THIS baby, you know. Considering everything that happened."

“It breaks my heart to think he wouldn't have a good home. He had such a bad start.” Eichord thought about the little infant being taken from the slaughtered mother and he shivered as he had in the woods.

“You cold?"

“No, I feel GOOD,” he said. She kissed him softly and whispered several secrets then, so grateful that he was alive. And as tired as Jack was, it felt good to feel her touch and her nearness, whispering to him these secrets of romantic love and Romeo and Juliet and the love songs of troubadours and sonnets and bonnets and white dresses on virginal flesh, and he heard her whisper as he drifted off, “You're my dream man. There's nothing I'd like more than to be the mother of your children. You'd make a wonderful daddy.” And he tried to tell her about the baby and how he felt, but the effort of holding his heavy eyelids open was finally just too much and as he fell into a deep sleep he thought that he was every woman's dream: a monster's kid, a one-eared cat, a nine-fingered copper. He'd given her everything, that's for sure. But he went to sleep smiling anyway.