Chapter Thirty-Two

The next few days could easily have been equated with mental torture. Zac trailed Dan around the house all day and woke up screaming every night. The stitches in Taylor�s hand became infected and the cold that he�d had before he went to Aunt Miranda�s had been aggravated so much that he developed pneumonia again. Isaac�s condition would stabilize for awhile, then decline rapidly. It was nearly a week before things settled down.

�After your exam tomorrow,� Dan propositioned, �why not drive up and spend the weekend with us? You have Monday and Tuesday off, don�t you? I�ll pay you.�

Tim Hayes, his seventeen year old half brother, scratched the bottom of his bare foot and scanned his pencil down a list of chemistry formulas. �Sure, I�d love to. You don�t have to pay me.�

�But I need a babysitter,� Dan gritted his teeth. �If you babysit, you have to get paid. Otherwise you can�t come.�

�Just buy me food,� Tim suggested. �Get that cereal with the little cookies in it.�

�I just told Taylor today that I wouldn�t buy that cereal,� Dan protested.

�You�re mean,� Tim observed. �Mom�s in Virginia and Dad�s flying down to see her. I can use his car. My exam ends at 10:30, so I�ll be there by two. Sound good?�

�You�re a lifesaver.� Dan shook his head, grinning.

Taylor, sitting on the kitchen counter, raised his eyebrows in shock. �A cherry one?� he asked.

�A cherry one,� Dan told Tim. �How�s New York?�

�Dad�s repainting the bathroom,� Tim said, as if the state of the bathroom was an accurate response to the question that had been asked. �He�s painting it this mustard yellow color. It looks pretty crappy. I think Mom will be mad.�

Dan smiled. �You don�t remember the orange, brown and yellow shag carpeting, do you?�

�Is that what�s on the floor in all those old pictures?� Tim cocked an eyebrow. �I thought somebody puked on the floor!�

�No.� Dan shook his head. �I came home from school for Christmas break and the entire apartment. . . wall to wall. . . brown, yellow and orange shag carpeting.�

�What did you say?� Tim chuckled.

Dan sighed. �I thought it was witty, at the time.�

�What did you say?� Tim pressed. �You know you remember.�

�Um. . .� Dan swallowed. �Um. . .� He lifted Taylor off the counter, set him down on the floor and told him to run and play. �I walked in there, looked around and said �Damn, what kind of porn have you guys been filming in here?��

�They didn�t get it, I bet,� Tim speculated.

�Nah,� Dan agreed. �I feel bad, though. I probably hurt their feelings.�

�They have no sense of decorating, though,� Tim pointed out.

Dan nodded. �You�re right.�

Nora asked Isaac how he was feeling, but wasn�t expecting much of an answer. Usually, he just said �fine,� even when he obviously wasn�t. Now, though, he met her eyes and sighed.

�This is really boring.�

�Boring?� Nora�s heart jumped. �You�re bored?� Ever since his temperature had gone down and he�d started getting better, she�d been worried by Isaac�s lack of interest in anything. Tell him bombs were dropping outside and the world had erupted in chaos, he�d answer with �oh.�

Isaac nodded. �Yeah. I mean, kinda. I mean. . . there�s not really. . . like, a lot to do here, you know? Except stare at the ceiling. And not much is happening up there. And I think maybe I hate TV.�

Nora grinned. �That�s actually probably a good thing.�

Isaac rolled his eyes. �All that�s on is soap operas. And I watch this one that comes on while you�re at work. And the people are so stupid.�

�What do they do?� Nora asked.

�Well, it�s about Hortense. . . and she�s a princess, but nobody knows except for her, because she disappeared and now she�s pretending to be a regular lady, except she�s not really normal �cause she�s got all this money and stuff.� Isaac reiterated. �And this one guy knows, and he kidnaps her daughter and takes her to an underground city. Nobody knew the underground city was there, and the daughter isn�t really Hortense�s either. . . she belongs to Penelope. Hortense hit Penelope on the head, and Penelope got lost in a fog by the ocean and Hortense thought she fell off the cliff. Only, Penelope didn�t die when she fell off the cliff... she fell into the ocean and a guy on a boat took her to Europe.� Isaac paused, regaining his bearings. �And while she was over there, her amnestisia-�

�Amnesia?� Nora asked.

�Right, that,� Isaac agreed. �It wore off. And she remembered she had a daughter and went back to find her, but Hortense was raising her because she felt guilty that she thought she�d killed Penelope. And she dyed the daughter�s hair and was raising her as a little boy. But Penelope watched through the window and recognized that she was a girl. And the guy kidnapped the daughter away from Hortense and took her to the underground city. And Penelope has been showing up and trying to scare Hortense. But Hortense thinks that she�s seeing Penelope�s ghost, and the ghost wants her to find the daughter. So she got Richard. . . her old boyfriend or somebody. . . to take her to the underground city.�

�How many episodes of this have you seen?� Nora asked, amazed that he knew so much.

�Only four. But the first day I felt really bad and had no idea what was going on anyway. And then yesterday a nurse came in and told me everything that had happened in the past few months.� Isaac sighed. �And then Hortense was like� -he switched to a British accent- � �Oh my! An underground city!� and Richard goes� -Isaac switched to a deeper voice for Richard- ��built, my dear, by the members of the lost colony in 1572.� And then I think I fell asleep for awhile because Mandy and Jordan. . . two of the other people. . . were kissing in this dining room. But she didn�t think it was him. . . she thought it was her husband Robin, so when she saw that it was Jordan, she got mad and threw a turkey at him.� Isaac grinned. �That was my favorite part.�

Nora smiled. �They�re going to send someone in to help you with schoolwork in a day or so.�

Isaac sighed. �I�ll never be that bored.�

�It won�t be so bad,� Nora assured him. �Not as long as real school.�

�I hope not.� Isaac looked worried. �Nora, did you ever hate school?�

Nora grinned. �Oh my gosh, Ike, I hated school so much it wasn�t even funny. When I first came to the United States, anyway.�

�What happened?� Isaac asked, interested. �Why would you hate school? You were probably really good in school.�

�Well, I didn�t speak English,� Nora began, �for one thing.�

�What language did you speak?�

�Spanish,� Nora told him. She grinned. �In the Dominican Republic, that�s what they speak.�

�Like Sesame Street,� Isaac agreed. �They always speak Spanish on Sesame Street.�

Nora smiled. �Like Sesame Street,� she agreed. �Anyway, that was all I knew how to speak. The first English word I learned was �bathroom.��

�Did you run around saying it?� Isaac asked. �I mean, did you run up to people on the street and go �bathroom� just because it was the only word you knew in English?�

Nora giggled. �No. . . I didn�t think of it. And I had a really heavy accent, because I pronounced letters the way they are pronounced when you�re speaking Spanish.�

�Like how?� Isaac asked.

Nora smiled, but her eyes darkened with memory. �Pretty much everything I said was pronounced with an accent,� she said, �so the kids in school would repeat all of it and laugh. �Who ees your teesher? What grade are you een?� And, in the Dominican Republic is called �la Republica Dominicana,� in Spanish, so I was surprised when I would hear someone say I was from the Dominican Republic. I even said that to the teacher once. . . �The Domeenica Repapa?� because that was what I thought they were saying. So then I had everybody saying I was so stupid I didn�t even know what country I was from. . . and I didn�t even understand what they were calling me, but I kind of knew. I hated school.�

�That was really mean.� Isaac frowned. �What�d you do?�

�Well. . .� Nora smiled. �At first I did really badly in school, because I didn�t understand what they were learning. But I was really good at math. . . and the better I got at English, the better grades I got, until I got better grades than everybody who picked on me.� She smiled. �They might say awful things to me, but I was smarter than they were. Or so I told myself at the time.�

Isaac swallowed. �You must have been like Taylor.�

�Some people find that they really like school,� Nora answered, �but other people are better at other things. Everybody�s good at something.�

�I�m not,� Isaac didn�t sound sorry for himself. He stated this much as you would state any other inconsequential fact. �It�s raining out.� �The sun shines.� �I�m not good at anything.�

�Where�d you get that idea?� Nora asked, concerned.

�I�m just not.� Isaac shrugged, smiling. �I�m probably the only person who isn�t good at anything.�

�Ike,� Nora said, �that�s not true at all. You were good at taking care of Taylor and Zac. . . which is something most kids your age wouldn�t be good at at all. You�re good at-�

Isaac interupted her before she could finish. �If I was any good at that, I�d still be doing it.�

�Isaac, you can�t control what your mother does,� Nora told him. �You probably know that better than I do.�

He nodded. �But I still wasn�t any good at that.�

�You were,� Nora assured him. �Even if you don�t believe me. I�d never tell you a lie. And you�re good at lots of other things, too. I still have that drawing you did. On the wall. In a frame. I look at it every day.�

Isaac grinned. �You actually did that?�

�I actually did,� Nora grinned back.

�Why?� Isaac asked.

�Because you drew it,� Nora told him. �And because I love that picture.�

�Mrs. Schafly hated it,� Isaac remarked, mildly.

�Mrs. Schafly was a. . .� Nora began, but stopped herself.

�A what?� Isaac asked, his eyes brightening. �A what?�

�Never mind,� Nora told him, biting her lip.

�A bitch?� he supplied innocently, pleased that Nora�s mouth dropped open.

�Isaac!� Nora screeched, but she was more amused than mad.

�She was, though.� Isaac sensed that he hadn�t perturbed Nora much. �I mean, you have to admit that.�

�Isaac, don�t call anybody that,� Nora instructed him. �Even if they are.�

Chapter Thirty-Three?

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