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remembered. Getting old was no fun. He didn tfeel old. He just didn t work as
well as he used to. Not tonight, Mandy.
Please, Uncle Jake? Please?
Give your Uncle Jake a break, Mandy. He was already half asleep. You ve
already talked me into coming to see you. Isn t that enough for one evening?
You know that your poor old Uncle Jake gets worn out easy. I ll run away a lot
better if I do it on a good night s sleep. Huddy gave me two days, remember. I
have plenty of time.
Okay, she said worriedly, but don t dally around in the morning.
Me, a dallier? He smiled to the empty room. I ll leave here first thing
tomorrow morning. I ll be up with the sun like usual and I ll leave. But a
good night s sleep is important.
Alright, Uncle Jake. I can t make you leave now. But you make sure you get
away before they come back to check on you.
Don t worry. Her thoughts were already fading. I will. I will....
There was only a dull, empty echo of vanished consciousness in Amanda s mind,
like the wind that sweeps under the door of a tightly closed closet. She knew
he was asleep.
Pushing away from the window she turned the wheelchair and rolled over to the
bed. Using the armrests for support she lifted her upper body onto the
mattress, then picked up her legs and pushed them under the covers. She
snuggled down into the warm bed.
Worried, she was so terribly worried for him. She d read the histories of
less than ethical medical experiments. That s surely what this man Huddy
wanted to do to her beloved Uncle Jake. Experiment on him. Benignly if
possible and otherwise if not. He d want to find out how Uncle Jake made dirt
and bottle caps slipt.
She d worry all night long, until she knew he was safely out of the little
house in California. In a way it might all be for the best, though she
couldn t look at it as lightly as her Uncle did. It would be so good to see
him again. He was such a warm, easygoing person, a second father really. They
had something in common no other two people in the world could have, something
only they could share.
No, she wouldn t stand for anybody mistreating her Uncle Jake. Everything was
going to be alright, though. All he had to do was slip away without being
seen. He could make this visit a long one, maybe. She knew that her mom and
dad loved Uncle Jake almost as much as she did. They d be overjoyed to have
him stay. There was plenty of room in the house. She wouldn t worry about him
because he wouldn t be living alone. It wasn t good for him to be by himself,
the Huddys of the world notwithstanding.
Maybe her mom and dad could even persuade him to stay with them permanently,
here in Port Lavaca. They d tried to do that before. Maybe now he d listen.
His heart wasn t getting any better. Yes, everything might turn out for the
good.
She turned on the pillow, smiling to herself now. She felt much better
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knowing that he was coming to her. As she relaxed she thought about what she
hadn t told him.
It was something she d come to worry about as a result of all her readings
and researches. She d never managed to learn what gave Uncle Jake the ability
to make things slipt or what it might mean. Of course, no one else knew about
such things either.
The worry was that although he d only made little things slipt, like bottle
caps and dirt, he might be able to make other things slipt if he was pushed
hard. She didn t worry about what might happen to Uncle Jake if those
circumstances ever arose.
She worried about what Uncle Jake might do to someone else.
The ambulance moved silently through the near-deserted neighborhood. Most of
the children were away at morning sessions. Those parents who held jobs had
been working at them for hours. Only a few housewives remained to stare
curiously at the dimly marked old ambulance as it squeaked to a halt next to
the barrier at the far end of the road. It backed up carefully and turned
around to point back toward the city.
One man, tall and clad all in white, waited patiently behind the wheel. Two
others emerged from a side door and started up the narrow trail leading to the
house at the end of the dirt path.
This was better than stealing around in the middle of the night, Huddy
thought. Much better. Leave it to Ruth to think up a solution to an awkward
problem. Her mind was as devious as her thighs.
Remember, Drew, he told his subordinate quietly, I want as little noise
and activity as possible. This man has a bad heart and he s no good to us
dead. That s ostensibly why the ambulance is taking him in. He nodded
toward the bigger man s shirt pocket. The dosage should be just right. I made
sure the doctor measured it out carefully.
Drew grinned, tapped the pocket where the loaded hypodermic waited. Old man
shouldn t give us any trouble, sir.
Huddy nodded, turning his attention back to the house they were approaching.
He didn t like Drew much. Drew was dumber than he looked: a crude, ignorant,
brutish speciman. Unfortunately, the primitive qualities of such types were
sometimes required.
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