Dreamcatcher(172)

'Eeeyer,' Duddits said. He had never taken his eyes off Henry. It was as if he could still not entirely believe that Henry was here. 'Eeeyer ent ooo cee. Or eye Issmuss ass-eek.'

Although his mind-reading ability was fading rapidly as his body beat back the byrus, Owen understood this easily enough; Beaver sent to me, Duddits said. For my Christmas last week. Down's sufferers had difficulty expressing concepts of time past and time to come, and Owen suspected that to Duddits the past was always last week, the future always next week. It seemed to Owen that if everyone thought that way, there would be a lot less grief and rancor in the world.

Henry looked at the little string dreamcatcher a moment longer, then returned it to the brown bag just as Roberta bustled back in. Duddits broke into a huge grin when he saw what she'd gone for. 'Oooby-Doo!' he cried. 'Ooby-Doo unnox!' He took it and gave her a kiss on each cheek.

'Owen,' Henry said. His eyes were bright. 'I have some extremely good news.'

'Tell me.'

'The bastards just hit a detour  -  jackknifed tractor  -  trailer just shy of Exit 28. It's going to cost them ten, maybe twenty minutes.'

'Thank Christ. Let's use them.' He glanced at the coat-tree in the corner. Hanging from it was a huge blue duffel coat with RED SOX WINTER BALL printed on the back in bright scarlet. 'That yours, Duddits?'

'Ine!' Duddits said, smiling and nodding. 'I-acket.' And, as Owen reached for it: 'Ooo saw us ine Osie.' He got that one, too, and it sent a chill up his back. You saw us find Josie.

So he had . . . and Duddits had seen him. Only last night, or had Duddits seen him on that day, nineteen years ago? Did Duddits's gift also involve a kind of time travel?

This wasn't the time to ask such questions, and Owen was almost glad.

'I said I wouldn't pack his lunchbox, but of course I did. In the end, I did.'

Roberta looked at it  -  at Duddits holding it, shifting it from hand to hand as he struggled into the enormous parka, which had also been a gift from the Boston Red Sox. His face was unbelievably pale against the bright blue and even brighter yellow of the lunchbox. 'I knew he was going. And that I wasn't.' Her eyes searched Henry's face. 'Please may I not go, Henry?'

'If you do, you could die in front of him,' Henry said  -  hating the cruelty of it, also hating how well his life's work had prepared him to push the right buttons. 'Would you want him to see that, Roberta?'

'No, of course not.' And, as an afterthought, hurting him all the way to the center of his heart: 'Damn you.'

She went to Duddits, pushed Owen aside, and quickly ran up her son's zip per. Then she took him by the shoulders, pulled him down, and fixed him with her eyes. Tiny, fierce little bird of a woman. Tall, pale son, floating inside his parka. Roberta had stopped crying.

'You be good, Duddie.'

'I eee ood, Umma.'

'You mind Henry.'

'I-ill, Umma. I ine Ennie.'

'Stay bundled up.'

'I-ill.'

Still obedient, but a little impatient now, wanting to be off, and how all this took Henry back: trips to get ice cream, trips to play minigolf (Duddits had been weirdly good at the game, only Pete had been able to beat him with any consistency), trips to the movies; always you mind Henry or you mind Jonesy or you mind your friends; always you be good, Duddie and I ee oood, Umma.

She looked him up and down.

'I love you, Douglas. You have always been a good son to me, and I love you so very much. Give me a kiss, now.'

He kissed her; her hand stole out and caressed his beard-sandy cheek. Henry could hardly bear to look, but he did look, was as helpless as any fly caught in any spiderweb. Every dreamcatcher was also a trap.

Duddits gave her another perfunctory kiss, but his brilliant green eyes shifted between Henry and the door. Duddits was anxious to be off. Because he knew the people after Henry and his friend were close? Because it was an adventure, like all the adventures the five of them had had in the old days? Both? Yes, probably both. Roberta let him go, her hands leaving her son for the last time.

'Roberta,' Henry said. 'Why didn't you tell any of us this was happening? Why didn't you call?'

'Why didn't you ever come?'

Henry might have asked another of his own  -  Why didn't Duddits call?  -  but the very question would have been a lie. Duddits had called repeatedly since March, when Jonesy had had his accident. He thought of Pete, sitting in the snow beside the overturned Scout, drinking beer and writing DUDDITS over and over again in the snow. Duddits, marooned in Never-Never Land and dying there, Duddits sending his messages and receiving back only silence. Finally one of them had come, but only to take him away with nothing but a bag of pills and his old yellow lunchbox. There was no kindness in the dreamcatcher. They had meant only good for Duddits, even on that first day; they had loved him honestly. Still, it came down to this.

'Take care of him, Henry.' Her gaze shifted to Owen. 'You too. Take care of my son.'

Henry said, 'We'll try.'

15

There was no place to turn around on Dearborn Street; every driveway had been plowed under. In the strengthening morning light, the sleeping neighborhood looked like a town deep in the Alaskan tundra. Owen threw the Hummer in reverse and went flying backward down the street, the bulky vehicle's rear end wagging clumsily from side to side. Its high steel bumper smacked some snow-shrouded vehicle parked at the curb, there was a tinkle of breaking glass, and then they again burst through the frozen roadblock of snow at the intersection, swerving wildly back into Kansas Street, pointing toward the turnpike. During all this Duddits sat in the back seat, perfectly complacent, his lunchbox on his lap.