Just Believe (2 page)

"They what?"

The vehemence in the doctor's voice,
the edge of disapproval, bothered Annabelle. It hadn't occurred to
her that a doctor, especially one as young as Dr. Duncan, would be
a prude. After all, this was a college town, filled to overflowing
with young, healthy people, some free of parental supervision for
the first time and surrounded by a double pheromone
cocktail.

"Of all the stupid--" The doctor's
whispered words jerked her back to the present.

"Excuse me?" she asked, confused by the
change in the doctor's attitude from shock to
irritation.

Dr. Duncan clamped her lips together.
"I'm sorry. Please, go on."

"When," she paused, glancing into the
doctor's eyes. "Well, Erin said he, ah..."

"Ejaculated," the doctor helpfully
offered the clinical word.

"Yes. Well, when he did, Erin says he
vanished."

The doctor stared at her for a long
time. Annabelle stared back, waiting for a question. A
comment.

Something?

Dr. Duncan stared. And stared. She
couldn't be sure, but Annabelle though she saw a twinkle of humor
in the doctor's green eyes. And did the corners of her little bow
mouth tip up in the threat of a grin?

"Let me get this straight," she
finally--finally--said. "Lucas Riley had his orgasm, and then he
vanished into thin air?"

The deep growl of masculine laughter
behind her made Annabelle jump before she could form an answer. She
jerked around, alarmed by the unexpected sound. The two orderlies
had come up behind her. Now they stood, waiting for Dr. Duncan's
orders, hands in their pockets, deep chuckles still rumbling from
their chests.

Their humor struck Annabelle in her
indignant bone.

"What exactly is so funny about this?"
Annabelle asked sharply.

"Nothing, ma'am," one said, though he
raised his hand and whispered behind it, too loud for Annabelle not
to hear it, "Sounds like the lad had a good time."

Another deep rumble of amusement
followed.

"This is not funny!"

"Indeed not." The doctor directed a
glare at them. The two men responded not by smothering their grins,
but merely by directing their eyes to the floor.

"Is there anything else I need to
know?" the doctor asked.

"Well, only that she seemed so calm,
and then she said something about space aliens taking Lucas off for
experiments and that you, Dr. Duncan, were spying on her. She said
you were one of them. The space aliens."

The doctor didn't seem offended. In
fact, her response was quite positive. "Excellent," she said,
exchanging a glance with the orderlies. "Gentlemen, would you stay
with Miss Tinker--like I already told you--while I speak with her
sister?" she said with quite a sharp tone.

The two burly men nodded and left them
alone.

Dr. Duncan crossed her arms and drew a
breath. Annabelle mimicked her, knowing serious words were
coming.

"You must not be fooled by the calm
façade, Ms. Tinker. Your sister is very disturbed. She is
displaying clear, paranoid delusions, and now she's involving me in
them." She pursed her lips as though thinking over her words. "That
may help us, or it could hurt our course of treatment. We'll just
have to wait and see. I'm going to sedate her and let her rest. I
suggest the same for you and your mother. We'll call you when she
wakes up."

"Please let me stay with her." The
doctor's frown prompted Annabelle to add, "My sister has always
been levelheaded and sure of herself, doctor. You can't imagine how
unnerving it is to see her like this, but I think I can help keep
her calmed down, now that I'm aware of how serious her condition
is. Please let me stay."

"I don't know..."

"Annabelle, what's going on? What's
wrong with my baby?" Her mother came out of the room, wringing her
hands together, nearly tying her fingers in knots.

Dr. Duncan went to her and took her
hands. "Mrs. Tinker, I'm going to sedate Erin so she can rest. Go
home and get some sleep."

"No, no, I won't leave her!" Susan's
tone was as frantic as Erin's had been before she'd flown out of
her room.

"Mom," Annabelle said. "I'll be here.
Go home and try to sleep. You can't help Erin if you collapse from
exhaustion."

Her mother calmed. Dr. Duncan stepped
back, allowing Annabelle to manage her mother.

"I'll never be able to sleep. I'll
stay, too."

"Oh, no." Annabelle shook her head.
"Absolutely not. The doctor is going to give you something to help
you sleep. You are going home, taking a pill, getting into bed and
sleeping. I'll stay with Erin and call you if there's any change,
for better or worse."

Susan held onto Annabelle's hands and
soon her breathing was slowing to match Annabelle's consciously
slow breaths.

"Doctor, can you give my mother
something to help her sleep?"

"I'd be glad to." The tiny woman went
to the nurse's station.

While she was gone, Annabelle sat her
mother down. "Thank you, Mom. This will be better, I
promise."

"All right, dear," Susan sighed. "I'm
sorry I'm so useless."

"You're not useless," Annabelle offered
helplessly.

Susan gazed at her, her eyes swimming.
"I know I am, but you're an angel to try to say otherwise. Just
like your father was an angel." She sighed.

Annabelle wished she could say
something to help.

"If there's any change?"

"Yes, I'll call. Promise."

Susan wrapped her in a big hug that
went on and on. "Thank you for coming so quickly."

Annabelle squeezed back, breathing in
the subtle fragrance of her mother's ginseng soap. It was a
familiar scent, comforting. Something that said, everything's going
to be okay, in spite of her own sick feeling this situation would
blow her own life completely to Neptune.

Whatcha gonna do?

It was what her Dad had always asked in
such situations. Somehow everything had always turned out
okay.

Except when he'd said it about himself,
and the illness that smothered the life out of him.

Whatcha gonna do?

Her mother's gentle chuckle shook her.
Annabelle realized with a start she'd spoken the mantra
aloud.

"Oh, how I've wished to hear those
words today! You sounded just like your father." Susan squeezed
tighter. "Thank you."

Was that all it took?

Susan eased her embrace and stood back
a step. "I'll be all right, dear. You take care of Erin, and I'll
be good."

"Here you are, Mrs. Tinker. There are
two. Should be enough."

"I won't need them now,
doctor."

The doctor pressed the tiny envelope
into Susan's hand.

"Take it, just in case."

Susan accepted the sedative and dropped
it in her purse. She squeezed Annabelle's hand and left.

After the elevator doors closed on
Susan, Dr. Duncan said, "You handled that very well. Ever think of
being a shrink?"

Annabelle chuckled. "No,
thanks."

Dr. Duncan smiled. "I'm going to see
Erin now. I'll come find you when you can go back to sit with
her."

Annabelle sighed as the weight of it
all settled on her shoulders. First, a fragile, grieving, dependent
mother to take care of, and now, a demented sister.

Who was going to take care of
her?

Chapter Two

The next few hours crept by. Annabelle
sat at Erin's side as she slept the uneasy sleep of the
drugged.

Annabelle dozed in the ugly brown
plastic chair beside the unnaturally high hospital bed. She felt
guilty for being tired when her family was in such
turmoil.

Why had things started going so badly
for the Tinkers? When had they?

Never had Annabelle missed her father
more than now.

"Dad would know exactly what to do,"
she said, realizing even as she said the words they weren't true.
Vern Tinker had been no more Superman than the guy in the movies
and unfortunately, no more immune to death, but to Annabelle, he'd
seemed able to handle any emergency.

"Mom?" Erin's voice, cloudy with sleep,
interrupted Annabelle's self-pity.

"Mom's gone home, honey." Annabelle
leaned over Erin and brushed back her hair. "I'm here,
though."

Erin turned up a weak smile. "I knew
you would be." She tried to sit up, prompting Annabelle to reach
for the remote control for the bed. After raising the head of the
bed to make Erin more comfortable, she sat down again.

"How do you feel now?" It was a stupid
question, but how else to get a conversation started?

Erin shrugged. "Okay, I guess." A flush
colored her fair face. "I'm sorry I went crazy like
that."

"It's okay. Don't worry-"

"No, it's not okay. I don't know why I
acted like that. It's not like me to go out of control." She raised
her eyes to Annabelle's. "You know that, right?"

"Sure, I do. You're as normal as I
am."

Erin smiled. "I had wondered if maybe
whatever happened to Mom..." She didn't need to finish. Both Tinker
sisters had heard their Granny Smith's words on how Susan Smith
Tinker had changed in her twenty-second year. They sat in an uneasy
silence.

"Annabelle, I have to ask you a
favor."

"Sure, honey, anything."

Erin didn't give her a second to think
about her promise.

"Find Lucas for me."

Annabelle felt her eyes go wide. "What?
You can't be serious, Erin."

"You don't believe something happened
to him, do you?"

Annabelle paused before deciding to
answer truthfully. "No."

"Then he's right here in town
somewhere. If he was just using me and left me after he got what he
was after, find him and bring him here so I can spit in his
face."

Sounded like a good idea.

"I don't know what the doctor would
say."

"I don't care. If nothing's happened to
him, find him."

It was a challenge to Annabelle's
certainty. If you're so smart and I'm so gullible, Erin was saying,
go prove it.

"All right. Do you have a
picture?"

"Yes, but it's not a good one." Erin
pointed to the small closet in the corner of the room. "I think my
things might be in there."

Annabelle opened the closet and got
Erin's bag. She tossed it to Erin and waited while she went through
it. Erin finally retrieved her wallet and popped it open. She
pulled a picture from a plastic frame and held it up.

"The light was funny. He was angry my
friend snuck up on him and snapped it."

Annabelle took the picture and glanced
quickly. "What's with him? Camera shy?" Suddenly, her attention was
pulled back to the image of the tall, handsome man standing by Erin
in the picture. "What's this?"

Holding the picture so Erin could see,
Annabelle pointed to a spectrum of light surrounding the man. It
radiated from him, shades of purple and deepest blue.

"It looks like an aura," Annabelle
said, marveling at the photographed radiance.

"Lucas said it was a reflection off the
camera lens. My friend said she'd never seen anything like it
before."

Annabelle passed her finger over the
picture as she stared at the image. Erin's voice grew fainter
until...

"Annabelle! Aren't you
listening?"

Annabelle shook herself out of her
fascination with her sister's boyfriend's picture and turned to
Erin.

"I'm sorry. It's just so
beautiful."

Erin smiled. "Yes, he is, but he's
taken."

A laugh escaped Annabelle's lips. "No,
sweetie, not him. It."

"It?" Erin frowned.

"The aura. It's rare to see one so
perfectly photographed, and even then it's always faked. Wonder how
he did this?"

"I told you, he didn't do anything. He
didn't even want his picture taken."

"Whatever. So, where should I
start?"

"You're the investigative
reporter."

"Honey, I write absurd pieces for a
supermarket tabloid. I'm hardly a reporter."

"Well, you were trained to be. So do
it." Erin crossed her arms over her chest and gave Annabelle a
pointed stare.

Erin really knew where to stick it,
didn't she?

"Okay. But even Lois Lane needed a lead
now and again. So, help me out. Where does he hang out? Friends?
How about his address, phone number?" Annabelle got out her
notebook and pen and waited.

"His address is 572 College Street. His
brother, Gaelen, lives in town, too." She sat up, watching
Annabelle copying this information. "G-A-E-L-E-N, I think it
is."