Lucy (13 page)

They heard the pebbles rattle as the waves withdrew. When a breeze came up, the aspen leaves clattered like coins. They heard a sneeze in the forest.

“Bear.”

“Is it dangerous?”

“No.”

“I’m a little scared here, Lucy. It’s so spooky. Beautiful, but spooky.”

Lucy felt Amanda’s hand touch hers as they stood side by side looking out. Lucy put her arm around Amanda’s waist, and Amanda leaned into her. They stood for another moment and Amanda turned toward Lucy. Lucy could smell the sun on her skin. Then they were kissing. Lucy tasted her and felt a warm energy rush through her. Amanda’s lips were so soft, her tongue so sweet. And then just like that it was over. Trembling, they held each other for a moment longer.

“You’re yummy,” Amanda said, and then they laughed and broke the spell.

They hiked the rest of the way back to the cabin, lost in their private thoughts. Jenny greeted them with obvious relief. She had a tuna casserole in the oven. Candles made the pine walls of the cabin glow and the shadows squirm. Jenny listened to the tales of their adventure as they ate. Amanda showed her the photo of the moose on her digital camera.

“Were you aware, Dr. Lowe, that your daughter sleeps in trees?”

Lucy saw Jenny flinch at the question. Jenny stilled herself and smiled. “Yes. So I’ve heard.”

After dinner Lucy felt very tired and excused herself to go to bed early. Jenny and Amanda made a fire and stayed up talking. Lucy could hear the murmur of their voices and their laughter as she began to feel the chills. The last thing she would later recall was Amanda slipping into bed next to her and then leaping out again as if she’d been burned.

18

IT WAS ALMOST TEN O’CLOCK
when Amanda and Jenny said goodnight. Jenny stayed up to read a few more pages of her book before going to bed. But a moment later Amanda emerged from the bedroom looking concerned. “You’d better come and take a look at Lucy. I think she’s sick.” Jenny felt a wave of fear wash over her.

Rushing into the room, she found Lucy shivering with the covers pulled up to her neck. When Jenny touched her cheek, Lucy moaned.

“What is it?” Amanda asked.

“I don’t know. Stay with her. I’ll get a thermometer.”

Lucy was running a fever of 103 degrees. Jenny was unable to coax her into swallowing an ibuprofen tablet. Lucy seemed only half conscious. “Get a wet washcloth. Quick.”

Jenny heard the water running and a moment later Amanda returned with a bowl of water and a cloth. They spent the night ministering to Lucy, who occasionally jerked and cried out in her sleep. Amanda fell asleep in a chair at around four o’clock, and Jenny continued wetting the cloth and gently sponging Lucy off. Lucy’s fever went up and down all night, spiking at 105. It broke at last at dawn and Jenny fell into her chair in the living room, exhausted. She woke in a sweat three hours later. The day was already hot. She went to check on the girls and found them sleeping.

Jenny put the coffee on and waited, looking out the window. The forest was alive with the racket of birds. Light fell in wheeling spokes through the forest canopy and lay in pools on the carpet of pine needles. Jenny thought over what she knew that might help. Bonobos were vulnerable to most of the same diseases that humans contract, in addition to a few more exotic ones that didn’t affect people. If Lucy’s fever continued, she’d need medical attention. They were a twelve-hour drive from the only doctor Jenny could trust. There was no mobile phone signal, so she couldn’t even call Harry for advice.

As she took a sip of coffee, she heard a thrashing, choking sound and ran to the bedroom to find Lucy having convulsions. Amanda stood beside the bed, eyes wide, her hand over her mouth in shock. Jenny sat on the bed and held Lucy tight as she bucked beneath her. Think and be calm, Jenny told herself. Don’t let fear overwhelm you.

“Go to the owner’s house. Down the path. Run. Tell them we need an ambulance.” Amanda seemed frozen to the spot, watching Lucy in horror. “Go!”

Jenny watched Amanda bolt out the door, then turned back to Lucy. She held her hand. “Hang on, honey. Hang on. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Just stay with me.” Then Jenny sponged her off and saw that her own hands were shaking. Half an hour later the Forest Service ambulance came crunching up the drive with its red lights searing across the cabin walls.

From the bedside, Jenny told Amanda, “Pack our things. Follow in the car.”

The paramedic put in an IV line and gave Lucy oxygen. Jenny rode in the ambulance, holding Lucy’s hand. It took an hour to reach the county medical center outside of Grand Marais. But the doctors there were unprepared for such a case, and a helicopter was called to take Lucy to Duluth. Jenny was waiting for it when Amanda arrived.

They sat in the emergency room on either side of Lucy. Curtains separated them from other beds. There was nothing to say. At one point Lucy opened her eyes and looked around.

“Lucy!” Amanda said. But she didn’t respond.

When the helicopter arrived, Jenny told Amanda to bring the car to the hospital in Duluth and rode in the helicopter, holding headphones over Lucy’s ears against the noise.

Skimming low over the forest, they reached the hospital in less than an hour. Much as Jenny didn’t want anyone to have a drop of Lucy’s blood, she knew that it would do no good to protect their secret if Lucy died as a result. She had no choice but to let them treat her. With a deep sense of dread, she signed the consent form. Lucy was in intensive care within half an hour. Amanda arrived about an hour later while the hospital lab was processing blood tests.

Amanda called her mother to let her know that she would be at least a couple of days late coming home. Jenny heard Amanda say, “I’m fine, Mother. I’m feeling just fine.” And: “No, I want to stay with Lucy. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do.” Then with a disgusted look she handed Jenny the phone. “She wants to talk to you. She thinks I’m going to get sick.”

Jenny assured the girl’s mother that Amanda was not in the way, had in fact been a great help. She also pointed out that the two girls had been together continuously. If Amanda had been exposed to something contagious, sending her home now would do no good. And they were, after all, in a hospital. Jenny said, “As a mother, I know how you feel.” She had never said anything like that before. But for the first time in her life, Jenny knew the truth about being a mother: That there was a fate worse than death.

“Okay,” Amanda’s mother said at last. “Okay, please take care of my baby.”

Jenny and Amanda stayed with Lucy through the night. The only sign of life from her was an occasional muscle spasm accompanied by a haunting animal cry. The night nurse came and changed the IV bag. Jenny and Amanda tried to doze off in the chairs but found sleeping nearly impossible. Jenny rose and washed her face when the first light of day leaked in through the curtains.

When the doctor appeared at last, he said, simply, “Let’s go to my office where we can talk.” His nametag said Dr. P. Syropolous.

Amanda and Jenny followed him down the hall. He closed the door before beginning. Jenny knew that this was not a good sign. She could feel fear descending into her gut as Dr. Syropolous began. “Well, basically I have bad news and good news. Lucy has a disease called encephalomyocarditis, or EMCV It’s a very serious illness, a virus that affects the brain and heart.”

When he said the words, Jenny felt her heart leap with alarm. Now she knew what she had to do. She saw no point in beating around the bush. If he was going where she thought he was going with this, then all she could do was buy a little time. She might as well tackle things head-on.

“What? What is it?”

Jenny put her hand on Amanda’s arm to still her. Then she turned to the doctor and said, “Yes, I know it. It’s treatable with the poly-l-lysine complex, but it’s not usually symptomatic.”

He looked surprised. “Are you a doctor?”

“Not the kind you mean. I teach in the anthropology department at the University of Chicago.”

“I see. Well, then you’ll probably know that she should make a complete recovery. We’ve started her on PLL, which, as you point out, is the correct treatment. Fortunately, we’ve caught this within the first twenty-four hours of the illness, so you can congratulate yourself for having brought her in so quickly. And we at Mercy Hospital can congratulate ourselves for having a lot of good serological people, because frankly, I’m not sure I’d have caught on to what this was so quickly without them. In any event, we should see Lucy start to improve as early as tomorrow.”

“She’ll be okay?” Amanda asked.

“That’s correct.”

“That’s good,” Jenny said. “That’s great news. When do you think she can go home?”

“Is it contagious? My mother wants to know. I never get sick.”

“Well, that brings me to my next point about Lucy’s condition. Yes, in fact, EMCV is contagious. She has a variant of the virus known as EMCV thirty slash eighty-seven. The trouble is …” He seemed reluctant to go on. He removed his glasses and looked around the room as if he’d lost his sight.

“What?” Amanda asked.

Jenny felt her stomach turn over. She already knew what he was going to say. For there was a catch. And Jenny was hoping that a doctor in Duluth, Minnesota, wouldn’t be aware of it.

At last he spoke. “Humans can’t contract thirty slash eighty-seven. But that leaves us with this puzzling question: What is Lucy doing with a disease that occurs only in pigs, mice, rats, rabbits, and nonhuman primates? It makes me wonder if the disease has jumped from animals to humans as diseases sometimes do. In which case it could present quite a threat to the public health. You see where I’m going with this …?”

The silence seemed to go on and on as Jenny stood there trying to think clearly. Amanda bit her nails, looking from one to the other in anticipation. Jenny kept telling herself that Dr. Syropolous couldn’t prove anything yet. He had only hunches, and so far they were the wrong hunches. He was looking for an abnormality in the virus, not in Lucy.

“Wait a minute. So are we supposed to worry or not supposed to worry?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t think this is a case of the disease jumping from one species to another. Because when a disease does that it has to make certain adjustments in its genetic makeup. We did some genetic workups overnight and …” Here Dr. Syropolous paused again, as if he had an extremely delicate matter to discuss. Jenny felt her heart sinking. It’s over, she thought. All we can do now is delay.

“And what? Can I get it or not?”

“I think I can assure you that you will not get this disease, Amanda. It’s the exact same form of the virus that animals get. It hasn’t picked up the extra genetic material it would need to be contagious to humans.”

“Wait, so how did Lucy get it then?”

“That’s what I was asking myself.”

“You know what? Lucy was scratched by a rabbit when we were in the woods.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Jenny said.

“It was just a little scratch. She said it was nothing.” Amanda turned to Dr. Syropolous. “But even so, you said it could never infect a human.”

“That’s correct. But a rabbit carrying it could infect other animals.”

“I’m confused. What does it mean?”

“I think it means that you won’t get sick. Tell your mother not to worry.” He turned to Jenny. “But that still doesn’t explain how Lucy could have contracted it from a rabbit, if that’s what happened. We’re doing a complete genetic workup on Lucy right now, and that may shed some light on this rather mysterious development. You don’t have any idea why—”

“No. None.”

“Okay. Well, in the meantime, you and Amanda can stay with her if you like, or you can go and get some rest. The front desk can give you a list of nearby motels. Lucy’s being well cared for, and I gave her something to help her sleep. She’ll recover just fine. Any questions?”

Jenny could tell that the truth had not yet entered his mind. It probably wouldn’t until he saw the actual genetic profile. It was simply too far-fetched. “No. Thank you, Doctor.”

As she led Amanda out and down the hall, Jenny tried to imagine some way to stop them from doing a genetic workup on Lucy. But she knew that as a responsible physician, Dr. Syropolous would have to do it. In desperation, Jenny imagined snatching Lucy from the hospital and vanishing, but they already had her blood. And Lucy still needed treatment.

Jenny and Amanda returned to Lucy’s room and sat on opposite sides of the bed to watch her breathe. The IV infusion pump made a whirring noise every minute or so as it pushed fluid into Lucy’s vein. The hospital made all sorts of strange and urgent sounds. Jenny knew what Lucy would say: This is a place where it is impossible to tell when you’re safe and when you’re in danger.

Jenny told Amanda, “You should get some rest.”

“No, I’ll stay. I want to be here when she wakes up.”

For a long time after that they said nothing. Jenny was thinking, Now they’ll know. Genes don’t lie. On the trail of an explanation for the EMCV infection in a human, Syropolous would have to take this all the way to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. It was a matter of public health now. Within weeks, perhaps only days, the world was going to know the truth about Lucy. Jenny would have to rest and gather strength for what was coming. She had already gone to talk to Donna in Milwaukee. Donna had agreed to help if it ever became necessary. But that would be a last resort. What Jenny didn’t know yet was how the world would greet Lucy in the meantime.

“Jenny.”

“Yes, honey?”

“When we went camping?” Amanda began as if asking a question.

“Yes.”

“Do you think I’ll get sick, too?”

“No. Why?”

Amanda hesitated, her finger to her lips. Jenny looked at the girl, so beautiful, so innocent, so intelligent. “What is it, honey? You can tell me.”

“I kissed her. In the woods.”

Jenny felt her heart ache for them. She thought, The rest of the world will know soon enough. Amanda should be the first to know. Tell her, she thought. So that she knows why she won’t get sick. But not here. Not now.

Jenny reached over and took Amanda’s hand. She put her finger to her lips, looking around to make sure that no nurses were nearby. She knew that they could be overheard through the device that the patients used to call the nurse.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Jenny whispered. “But you won’t get sick. Trust me. It’s okay. I’ll explain later.”

“Okay.” Amanda still looked worried. Then she said, “I’m so selfish. I should be thinking about Lucy.”

“Shh. She’s going to be fine. You, too. I promise.”