The Rising(15)

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked him.

“I told you my head hurts.”

“I thought you were lying. We’ll pick this up later.”

“No, you’re here,” he groused. “Let’s just get it done.”

He’d slept fitfully the night before, his first ever spent in a hospital. His parents had stayed until he began to nod off but once they left, the hospital sounds and a dull light flickering in the hallway kept him from ever really fading out. And each time he managed to slip off, his sleep was marred by strange dreams that were more like movies unspooling in his mind. Visions of being chased by something that remained at the edge of his consciousness. And once when he woke up, with a jolt that rattled his spine and brought fresh pain back to his skull, a shape stood in the doorway.

It was the tall man, looming so big that the top of his head stretched beyond the frame, his sallow face bathed in inky black splotches from the hallway’s irregular lighting.

Alex had closed his eyes and then opened them again.

Nothing but hallway loomed beyond. The tall man dressed all in black was gone.

At his bedside now, Sam was still flipping the textbook’s pages in search of the right chapter. He found himself viewing her differently again, seeing more than just the glasses and perpetually overstuffed backpack. Samantha looked kind of like an athlete, even though she had given up gymnastics years ago. Shapely, with enormous hazel eyes and a head full of unruly brown hair she let wander every which way it wanted. Never wore makeup but looked great in the jeans she had on today, though her big-framed, tortoiseshell glasses kind of hid her warm, friendly eyes.

“Why don’t you get contacts?” Alex asked her suddenly.

“Stigmatism. And I tried. Couldn’t get used to them. Don’t you remember I told you that?”

“When?”

“The last time you asked.”

“Hey, you gotta cut me a break.” He tapped the side of his head. “Got my bell rung, remember? Who knows what damage has been done.”

“Just wait for the CT scan results.”

“I had a CT scan?” Alex posed playfully. “I must’ve forgotten.”





13

DR. PAYNE

“WHAT TIME ARE YOU supposed to be up at Ames?”

“How do you know I’m due there at all?”

“Because it’s Saturday. You always work there on Saturdays. I don’t want to keep you from your job.”

“It’s only a job if they pay you.”

“Like tutoring me?”

“I’m underpaid, believe me.”

“You could always quit.”

“Not until I get you through the state championship,” Sam followed.

“Cara offered to tutor me, you know. She said it would be a good opportunity to spend more time together.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“That I wanted to pass my classes.” Alex narrowed his gaze. “What is it you’re not telling me?”

“Nothing.”

“Then stop looking away. You always look away when there’s something you don’t want to tell me.”

Sam swallowed hard. “Like you do when we get to a subject you don’t like?”

Alex propped himself up further, wincing from the sudden burst of pain in his head. “Test me. Go ahead, I dare you.… Wait, tell you what. You ask me a question. I answer it right, and we call it a day. Deal?”

“Deal.” Sam leaned in closer to him. “What causes a spark?”

“Ha-ha! When a negative charge plows into a positive charge. Boom! Nailed it!”

Sam closed the physics book. “Yes, you did.”

“Hey, don’t sound so happy about me getting an answer right. Tell you what. I’m supposed to get out of here in a couple hours. Come over tonight and we’ll pick up then,” Alex told her. “Like around eight. Deal?”

“Deal.”

And that’s when the gray-haired doctor entered the room, looking grim and dour. Sam read his name tag: LOUIS PAYNE, MD.

A doctor named “Payne”? Really? thought Sam.

“We need to talk, Alex,” Dr. Payne said. And then, with a sidelong glance cast toward Sam, “Alone.”





14

HOME SWEET HOME

“ALEX IS ANGRY WITH us,” An Chin said, facing Li across the kitchen table.

“We should have discussed prep school with him before,” her husband said, sighing.

“We decided to wait until after football season, remember?”

Li shrugged. “A mistake now. Clearly.”

“Prep school is not a mistake.”

“But him finding those brochures—what would you call that?”

“We were only exploring options.”

“It’s Alex’s life.”

“And he’s our son. Is it so wrong,” An demanded, “to want what’s best for him?”

“Only if he embraces it, only if we make the decision together, with him instead of for him.” Li Chin reached out and took An’s hand in his. “And that’s not the only thing we haven’t told him.”

An Chin looked away.

“We need to tell him,” Li Chin said, cradling his wife’s hand in both of his.