“Hi, Jimi,” she said, patting my shoulder then letting her hand slide off as she walked past. “I’m going to lie down,” she said to Claudia. “Let me know if the Wellplant people show up.”
“Okay, Mom,” Claudia said, feigning calm until her mom left the room.
We sat at the island where her mom had been sitting the night before. An open pizza box sat on the marble—vedgeroni and mushroom, with two pieces missing.
Claudia gestured at it. “Hungry?”
“No, thanks,” I said as we sat. “So what’s the plan?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. The Wellplant people specifically said not to move him or do anything until their doctor got here, but they also said the doctor would be here soon. And that was hours ago.”
“So what should we do?”
She shrugged and looked over her shoulder toward the family room. “I guess we keep waiting.”
She let out a deep sigh, then reached out and grabbed a piece of pizza, biting off the tip and chewing joylessly.
I did the same. I still wasn’t hungry, but with vedgeroni pizza that doesn’t always matter. We ate our pieces in silence. When we were done, she said, “Let’s go to my room.”
We slid off our stools and I followed her upstairs.
When we got to her bedroom, she turned on the holovid and flicked through the channels with the sound off while I told her about my evening with Mom, and what had happened with Sly and with Ogden earlier.
“Hey, look, it’s your uncle Howard,” she said with a feeble effort at a mischievous grin.
One of the news channels was showing Howard Wells, looking distinguished and handsome and rich while speaking at a banquet of some sort, smiling and working the crowd, getting them to laugh and applaud.
It took me a moment to get her dig—a reference to Dymphna and Wells’s long-ago romance. “Don’t even joke about that!” I said, although I was relieved to see a little levity from her. That levity faded as she turned up the volume and the crawl underneath the holo image said, NO COMMENT FROM WELLS CAMPAIGN AFTER HEALTH SCARE.
In the video, Wells paused in mid-sentence, his eyes looking unfocused as they drifted up, looking into space. It appeared at first as though he was trying to think of a word, but then it was clear that his face was absolutely blank. Just like Claudia’s dad.
“Hey, Mom!” Claudia called out. “Mom, you should see this!”
A moment later Bonnie appeared in the doorway.
On the holo, there was a moment of nervous laughter from some in Wells’s audience, as if they thought he was making a joke of some sort. Then the murmurs rose to a buzz and several members of Wells’s entourage rushed to his side, whispering into his ear and looking increasingly frantic as he failed to respond. They eased him backward, sitting him down in his chair. Then he disappeared from view as the entire entourage swarmed around him.
The voiceover said, “Wells was rushed to the hospital, and his campaign released a preliminary statement saying that he was suffering from exhaustion, but they have made no comment since.”
Claudia turned to her mom. “Do you think he’s got what Dad’s got?”
“I have no idea,” she said. “But it’s interesting that they sent Wells to the hospital while telling us to keep your father here.”
The newscaster continued. “There have been reports of other Wellplant users, or ‘Plants,’ as they’ve come to be called, experiencing similar episodes, but so far none of those reports have been confirmed.”
Bonnie picked up the phone from Claudia’s bedside table and retreated into the hallway, punching in a number as she did.
“In related news,” the newscaster droned on, “the week-long Humans for Humanity national convention has seen a number of attendees come down with some sort of viral infection. A spokesperson for the organizers confirms that eleven members of the group have come down with symptoms of the unidentified illness, including body aches, coughing and sneezing, upset stomach, and a high fever. The illness appears to be unconnected to Mr. Wells’s health scare.”
Claudia and I looked at each other as the newscaster moved on to a story about how the latest International Conference on Climate Change had ended with no new agreements on carbon limits, or climate remediation measures, despite increasingly dire projections about worsening weather patterns and accelerated sea-level rise. Things were getting better and better.
“Do you think it’s from those idiots?” I whispered. “The ones who grabbed the chicken carcass?”
“Could be,” she said. “And Ogden showed no signs of being sick?”
I shook my head. “And he said Roberta hadn’t either, or at least not by the time she’d left the next morning.”
Bonnie came back into the room and put the phone back in its cradle. “Straight to Wellplant’s damn messaging service.” She shook her head, then looked at me. “Jimi, there’s pizza if you’re hungry.”
“We had some,” Claudia said.
“Thanks,” I said.
Bonnie nodded and forced a smile. “Are you spending the night? You’re more than welcome.”
Claudia looked at me intently. “Can you?”
“Um.…Yeah, okay. I mean, if you’re sure I won’t be in the way.”
“No,” Claudia said, “that would be great.”
As Claudia got ready for bed, I called Rex and told him what was going on with Claudia’s dad.
“Wow,” he said, sounding concerned. “It sounds just like what’s going on with Howard Wells.”
“Yeah, I saw that on the news. And unconfirmed reports of similar problems with other people who have Wellplants.”
“Did you see that a bunch of other H4Hers at the convention got sick, too?”
“I sure did,” I said. “Do you think it’s from those guys…that bag…from us?”
“I can’t help thinking it might be.”
“There’s eleven of them now. If that’s what it is, it’s spreading. It’s contagious.”
“You still feel okay, though, right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Claudia, too. You’re okay?”
“Okay except for pangs of longing because my girlfriend abandoned me saying she needed to spend some time at home and then went out to her friend’s house.”
I laughed. “Rex!”
He laughed too, with his low rumbly chuckle. I could feel it in my sternum, even over the phone.
“Have you heard anything from Sly?” I asked, turning serious again.
“Just that he brought the…bag…to our friends. He hopes to hear back from them tomorrow morning and that maybe we could meet up at New Ground to talk about it in the afternoon.”
“Good. That would be great. Okay, I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Tell Claudia I’m thinking of her. Tell her everything’s going to be okay.”
“Will do.”
THIRTY
Claudia and I were both exhausted, and we fell asleep pretty early. The next morning, we were awake at seven. The sun was up, filling her room with light. I caught a faint whiff of wood smoke, like a fire in a fireplace, or more likely a candle that’s supposed to evoke that smell.