The Meridians(77)

"I'm serious," she insisted. "It was one thing when it was someone after us. A whole other thing when the guy turns out to be some kind of homicidal ghost. But now that this is something that is involving - coming from - Kevin, I've got the willies."

Scott stopped walking, looking at her in amazement. "Lady," he said, "I've been scared pretty much non-stop for the last eight years of my life. But you...just now you're getting scared? Because this is something that's somehow coming from Kevin?" He shook his head. "You are one tough gal."

She looked away from him and started walking, not speaking a word.

He hurried after her. "Sorry if I embarrassed you," he said. "I didn't mean -"

She turned on her heel and kissed him. He was too shocked to respond at first, but then felt his hands go around her, felt his body mold to hers. "Don't you dare take back a single nice thing you've said about me," she said when they broke the kiss.

"No, ma'am," he said. It was all he could think to say in that instant, but Lynette laughed. Then she gasped and put her hands to her mouth, and looked beside her.

Scott could guess what she was thinking, because he was having the same thoughts. How was Kevin going to react to this? What would someone who relied on consistency in so many things do when confronted by something new like this?

They both looked at the boy at the same moment. And Scott felt relief wash over him when he realized that Kevin was smiling. He was not looking at either of them, it was true, but he was smiling, his gaze fixed firmly to the right of the two of them, a large, lopsidedly goofy grin on his face.

"Does my smile look like that right now?" asked Scott somewhat dreamily. "I bet I do."

Lynette smiled. "I'm guessing he approves."

They held hands the rest of the way to the school.

Scott thankfully had not lost his keys during his altercation with Mr. Gray in the strange alley, so he was able to take Lynette and Kevin through the school gates, past the auditorium and the pool, beyond the baseball diamond and football field, and out to the small building that held his and several other offices. They entered and put Kevin to bed in the cot that Scott had in the office, Scott watching while Lynette went what must be their a ritual to put Kevin to bed when he was upset.

She pulled back the covers - just a tattered bedspread and some linen sheets so threadbare you could see the mattress through them - and Kevin lay down. But he was rigid, his hands clenched into tight balls, his jaw clenching and unclenching as he waited.

Lynette inspected one of his feet. It was filthy, but remarkably unblemished given the trek they had had to take. "Do you have any paper towels?" she asked.

"Wet or dry?" he asked.

"Wet would be better if it's not too much trouble."

So Scott quickly went to the bathroom that was next to his office, unlocked it, and got out some paper towels, wetting them and returning them to the other room and Lynette and Kevin. Neither of them had moved, Lynette still holding Kevin's feet, Kevin still a rigid statue masquerading as a boy in pajamas.

Lynette took the towels from him and slowly, tenderly, wiped Kevin's right foot. "Kevin's foot is clean," she murmured.

"Kevin's foot is clean," repeated Kevin.

She then wiped down his left foot. "Kevin's other foot is clean," she said.

"Kevin's other foot is clean."

She checked his hands, carefully unclenching them to do so. "Kevin's hands are clean."

"Kevin's hands are clean," he repeated, and his hands stayed unclenched after she was done.

Finally, she looked at his face. Kevin closed his eyes, clearly unable to deal with the possibility of having to look at another human being in the face, but he had a smile on his lips.

Lynette smiled. "Kevin's feet are clean, his hands are clean. His body is well and Kevin is a-okay."

"A-okay," Kevin repeated. And a moment later, he had fallen asleep, snoring lightly, the soft snores of a little boy who was somehow so much more than other little boys. Then, and only then, did Lynette kiss Kevin's little cheek. He remained asleep, but Scott thought that he spotted the boy smile in his sleep, if only for a fraction of a second.

Scott watched the whole thing with a lump in his throat. Even though his son's routine had been nothing like this one, he still remembered it suddenly. Only this memory was not the crystal-clear, overly perfect conjurations of his melancholy, they were the real memories of a real person. Chad, screaming and hollering as he was forced to go to sleep one night before he was "ready" to go. Chad, hiding in his room so long and so well that Amy and Scott had nearly called the police, convinced that someone had somehow taken him - had spirited him away to a place of darkness and fear from which he could never escape.

This last brought to mind their current predicament.

"What now?" he asked, as much to himself as anything. Then, answering his own question, he said, "We've got to figure out what's going on."

"No kidding there, Sherlock," said Lynette with a smile. Then, before he could say anything else, she rose from her son's bed and crossed to him, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him once again. This time Scott responded faster than he had the first time, returning the kiss with something more than the surprised enjoyment with which had experienced the kiss the last time.