Counting by 7s(49)

The next morning, Pattie asked Willow to talk her through the information.

Her eyes glazed over when Willow spoke about new drug-resistant bacteria, but she got the gist of the whole thing.

That afternoon, new, more powerful disinfectant was purchased for the basins and foot spas.

Willow insisted that it never be watered down, as they had done in the past to make the chemicals go further.

Pattie had all of the manicurists stay an hour late that night, and Willow gave them a presentation (in Vietnamese, which was impressive for that reason alone).

The following Monday, once the changes were all in place, Pattie let Willow post the ten most important health rules that every nail salon should follow.

Pattie put Willow’s manifesto on the front window, and she adopted the girl’s proposed new slogan: SETTING THE STANDARD IN CALIFORNIA

FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY IN NAIL CARE

But Pattie was still surprised when new customers began appearing.

Willow had said that it would happen.



Dell no longer ate meat loaf.

He wished his mother were still alive, because he wanted to tell her. He was certain that she went to her grave worried about his addiction to compilation meat dishes.

Hadn’t he discovered a list in her address book written just weeks before she died?

It read:

1. Find a pair of high heels that don’t hurt my feet.

2. Cancel life insurance.

3. Get Dell to stop eating so much crummy meat.

It had taken a decade since he first saw her spidery handwritten list, but now it was a fact.

The meat obsession was behind him.

He didn’t cook his meals anymore, so he wasn’t sure that he could take any credit for the change.

But still.

There had been other life improvements.

He had a new computer.

Technically it was an old computer, or at least a machine made from salvaged parts, but it was faster and more efficient than any other piece of equipment he’d ever owned.

Willow had made it for him.

When he brought the new-old computer down to #22 and Sadhu saw how it worked, the guy’s eyes almost popped out of his head.

It made Dell proud.

Now he adjusted the pillows behind his back and opened his computer to his secret file.

It was late and he couldn’t sleep.

But not like before from severe indigestion.

He didn’t have a TV in his room at Sadhu Kumar’s, so he had to read or work.

He clicked on the screen, and the Dell Duke System of the Strange appeared.

He needed to add a new category.

Dell’s fingers slid across the keys and he typed in:

MUTANT.

Color code: blue.

His favorite color.

Next to MUTANT he typed the word: ME.

Dell shut the computer and stared up at the ceiling.

He was changing. He was capable of that.

He decided that all his life he had been influenced by things around him.

Now he lived with a cranky man who was originally from Punjab. And when he wasn’t with him, he was down the hall with the Californian Vietnamese.

He was identifying.

Since he was usually self-destructing, this felt so peculiar.

But he knew that he was now different.

And it wasn’t just the little things.

Sure, he now trimmed his beard. He’d raised the bar on his personal hygiene in a lot of areas.

But that wasn’t the mutation.

It was bigger than that.

It was on the inside.

Because the truth was that, as frustrated and angry as he first felt, he had to admit that once his junk was all gone, and the rest of his things were put into some kind of order, he had started to feel stronger.

Pattie had taken over his apartment and moved him down the hall, but that, too, had an upside.

Because for the first time, in as long as he could remember, Dell belonged to something.

Even if he was the one that they all talked about behind his back, it still made him part of a group.

They were playing on the same team.

Pattie had fixed the buttons on his shirts and had offered him a free pedicure at the salon (with one of the girls who was in training).

When he didn’t show up she scolded him, prompting Dell to clip his toenails down so close it hurt to even put on his socks.

But then she gave him foot lotion and powder to sprinkle in his shoes, and that made his toes smell fresh like lavender or something sweet.

Before, his feet smelled pretty rotten.

And then there was the running.

That started out as a lie. He hadn’t planned on jogging anywhere.

But now it had been two weeks.

Every day after work he came back to the apartment building. He put on the orange tracksuit that he’d had since high school. It didn’t fit anymore, but he could still squeeze into the pants if he kept the waistband low.

Then he set his watch for twenty-two minutes and he headed out the door.

In his comic books, the Mutants had secret powers.

It was possible, he now thought, that he did too.

Hadn’t he and Pattie managed to take care of Willow Chance?

That was pretty powerful for someone who couldn’t even keep a houseplant alive.





Chapter 45





The sunflowers are coming up.

We planted seeds in twenty-three containers, which have pretty much taken over the kitchen. And we have germination in all of them.