Dark Zone

59

“Does he have many good days?” asked the doctor.

“Every so often,” said Rubens. He told himself it wasn’t a lie — though it did beg the question of what a good day actually was.

The doctor nodded grimly.

“He’s a genius of a man,” Rubens said.

“Yes, I’m sure he was.”

The past tense stung Rubens, but he couldn’t really argue with it. The doctor glanced at the General’s court-appointed attorney standing nearby and then continued the examination. The man called himself a gerontologist; it sounded like one of those baloney specialties, but apparently he was a medical doctor, since his card had “MD” after his name.

In Rubens’ opinion, the examination was perfunctory at best. The doctor listened to the General’s heart, looked at his eyes, asked him to cough, examined his ears, then read his medical chart for a second time. When he was finished, he sat down on the bed next to the General and asked how he was feeling.

Not much of a question, except that the General answered by talking about General Grant’s campaign at the end of the Civil War. Even this was disjointed; the General stopped in the middle of a sentence and asked about Corey. The doctor glanced at Rubens, but Corey was a name even Rubens had never heard before.

He might have lied, but he couldn’t come up with one quickly enough.

The doctor asked a few more questions — they ranged from details of the General’s childhood to what he had just had for dinner — but the General remained silent, staring out the window. Finally, his lawyer suggested that perhaps it was time to go.

“They’re working on new drugs, aren’t they?” said Rubens as the three men walked down the hall.

“Difficult area,” said the doctor.

“Yes. But there’s hope.”

“We have to fully understand the mechanism of the disease — and the underlying structures it affects. But someday, yes.”

Rubens knew better than to ask if someday was in the General’s lifetime.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” said Rebecca, charging down the hall toward them. “Has the doctor come?” When she belatedly realized who Rubens was talking to, her face shaded red. “Doctor, I’m Rebecca Rosenberg, the General’s daughter. I’m sorry I’m late. It couldn’t be helped.”

Rubens almost snickered when she called herself by her maiden name, instead of Stein. That was a new development — undoubtedly related to the trial.

What did she possibly hope to gain? Didn’t she have enough money? How far did greed take a person these days?

“That’s quite all right, Ms. Rosenberg,” said the gerontologist. “Your father’s lawyer and Dr. Rubens have been showing me around.”

“Actually, it’s Mr. Rubens,” said Rubens, embarrassed at being mistaken.

“Billy does have two doctorates,” said Rebecca. “Including one my father urged him to get.”

“He always encouraged me,” said Rubens, unsure why she had mentioned that.

Was this all about jealousy? Maybe it wasn’t about money or making up with her father — maybe it was about getting back at Rubens for being close to her father.

“He was really an incredible man,” Rubens told the doctor. “I owe him a great deal.”

“I’m sure.”

The attorney gave Rubens another of his forced smiles, then nudged the doctor forward down the hall, asking when his report would be ready. Rubens heard him reply that it would be ready by the morning.

“I’m not going to move him,” Rebecca told Rubens. “Not to Mount Ina.”

Rubens wasn’t sure what to say.

“Mount Ina is a better facility,” he admitted. “But the General would rather die than live where his cousin lives.”

“I agree. Here.” She reached into her pocket. “I just want you to know, that if you’re concerned. .” Her voice broke, but she continued. “We don’t get along, I know. But you and Daddy do. Always. And… you care about him. When I started this, I wasn’t sure that was true. I thought because the agency wanted to control him — I know that they do, so you don’t have to deny it. But I don’t think you do. So I just want you to know, that when we do get the decision, you can still visit. Here. No strings.”

Rubens took the paper and began to read it. It was a letter on her lawyer’s stationery, attesting that she believed Rubens was a good friend to her father and should be allowed visiting privileges similar to those he had enjoyed as custodian. It was signed and notarized.

He suspected a trick. He looked up after reading it, but Rebecca was gone.