Rouge (5 page)

“I’m glad that storm is
over,” she said, leaning over the railing and listening to the sounds around
her.

Red macaws were screeching,
forest animals were scattering, and the soft tinkling of the chime hanging by
the door was almost like a song in the background. The rhythmical crashing of
the waves could just be heard over the wind whispering through the trees.
Everything was fresh after the torrential rain that blew over them two nights
ago.

“That was terrifying,” he
said.

“Sorry about shouting at you
before.”

“That’s okay,” he smiled.
“I’m starting to get used to it.”

“Can I ask you something?”
She turned to him, dunking her tea bag in and out of the water.

“If it’s about your
nightmares or that burning feeling you get, it’s not the baby Liz. It’s just
the Feucotetanus wearing off in you.”

“How can you be sure of
that?”

He took a moment to stare
out at the clearing. “Because it’s one of the symptoms. I’ve been emailing a
professor in Sweden who studies it.”

“I thought they wouldn’t
talk to you.”

“The manufacturers wouldn’t
talk to me. They weren’t aware that any knowledge of the drug had ever crossed
Swedish borders. But I managed to get in touch with someone who knows about
it.” Joshua put a cautious hand on Liz’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about the baby
Liz, okay? What you’re going through is perfectly normal in childbirth.”

She laughed bitterly. “I
really don’t think this is normal Joshua, I mean look what I can do.”

“Speaking of-” he turned his
gaze back to the clearing. “We don’t actually know what it is that you can do.”

“What do you mean? I can
walk through fire.”

Joshua’s eyes turned to hers
again, pale and filled with doubt. “I’ve never seen you do it.”

“Right. Of course you don’t
believe me.”

“Oh come on Liz, if I came
up to you and said I could turn myself into an elephant, would you honestly
pack up all your things and move with me to the circus?”

“That’s different,” she
muttered.

“It’s not. I do believe you,
I just want to see it.”

Liz shook her head, pursing
her lips and trying not to cry. She’d been too afraid to go near any kind of
fire or the volcanic rock since that night, and she wasn’t about to go sticking
her head in an oven just to prove her point.

“I can’t Joshua,” she said.
“You’re just going to have to trust me.”

“Is this about the baby?”

“What about it?”

Joshua sighed. “Look, I know
you’re worried about it. I am too. I keep wondering why the baby has such high
levels of the volcanic lava in its DNA. I can’t explain the properties of the
stone because I don’t know what’s inside it, and after finding the hollow rock
in your apartment, I suspect whatever it contained was an accomplice in
creating the fire.”

“You don’t think there was
some sort of lava inside it, lava that somehow… crawled up onto the bed and
then, I
dunno
, attached itself to me?”

Joshua nodded thoughtfully.
“That’s an interesting theory.”

“But then… does that mean
the baby will come out as some sort of… lava monster?”

Joshua’s shoulders shook as
he chuckled to himself. “I don’t think that’s even possible Liz. But until that
child is born, we have no way of knowing. And until I get a sample of that
drug, we can’t do any testing.”

“What are you gonna do, fly
to Sweden and get it yourself?” Joshua didn’t answer, and Liz breathed a laugh.
“Come on, get real Joshua.”

“I’m not going. I just… I’m
sick of walking around in the darkness.”

Liz took a deep breath.
Joshua had been there for her when no one else had. He helped her through the
grief that wrecked her, through the pregnancy, and now through this horrible
ability that could be morphing her child. Did she not owe him the truth?

Liz took Joshua’s hand and
pulled him back inside. “Come on, I’ll show you.”

“Show me what?”

He stumbled after her
through the house and out the back to the garage they made into a lab. Joshua
had all his equipment shipped there and spent most of his time trying to create
formulas and solutions and God knows what else. He had become like a hermit.

The lab was dark and dingy,
exactly what you would expect of a wooden shack-shed made by a geologist. Rays
of light sliced into the room and flies buzzed all around the chemicals lying
uncovered on the tables. There were three stations; one for study, where Joshua
had set up his computer, one for their practical experiments of sorts, and
another for testing, where Liz had bared herself before Joshua and watched him
stick needles in her stomach for the sake of her child.

“What are you-”

Ignoring him, Liz went
around one of the tables and took hold of a Bunsen burner. With shaking hands,
she turned on the gas and lit the flame. The fire was only just bigger than the
flame of a candle, but in her eyes it was a monster.

“Liz, you-”

“Watch,” she snapped, and
without any more hesitation or doubt or fear, Liz stuck her hand in the flame
and held it there.

Joshua gazed in awe at her
skin through the flame, and Liz’s heart beat not in pain, but in shock. The
strangest tingling feeling fluttered in her palm and when she drew back, the
flame went out. Joshua’s mouth spread into a wide smile and he kicked the rusty
metal stool under him and sat down.

“Do it again,” he beamed.

“I can’t.”

“Please?”

“No Joshua,” she shook her
head. “That was hard enough-”

Joshua suddenly leapt
forward across the table, grabbed her shoulders and held her tight. Liz
squealed and froze, Joshua’s eyes terrifying her. “I
need
to see it
again!”

“Get – off me!” she yelled,
shoving him away. His behavior as of late hadn’t been exactly normal, but this
was definitely the icing on the cake. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Joshua paled and stepped
back, running his hands through his thick black hair. He didn’t meet her eyes
as he muttered, “I’m sorry. Uh… I just got excited.”

She stared at him, wondering
what on earth had taken this quiet, awkward man and given him such a bite.

“I might… go into town to
get a few things. Did you need any more painkillers?”

“Yeah…” Liz nodded, turning
to the window and pulling down the blinds. “And we might need some more
hardware, like nails and stuff. That storm blew down the door in front of the
generator and these windows need covering, or all your equipment is gonna get
flooded.”

“Fine. I’ll be back later,
okay?”

She waved goodbye and
watched him head out the door and into the house. As she sat back down and
stared at the Bunsen burner, her thoughts racing almost as fast as her heart,
she listened to the engine of the jeep roar to life and chug down the driveway
to the bumpy road over the hill.

Liz waited there for a few
minutes, staring around at the lab. She wondered if the answers to Joshua’s
behavior could be found here, where he seemed to be spending all his time.
Regardless of his privacy, it was her right to know what he was up to.

She dug deep in the lab,
searching through every drawer and box she could find. Soon, she came across an
old filing cabinet. It was rusty and bent and wouldn’t close properly. Liz
opened the bottom drawer first and found nothing but his notes on rock
particles. The second drawer was a little more interesting. Joshua’s chemical
formulas were scribbled with his own notes. On more than one occasion, she saw
the words ‘Feucotetanus’ and ‘fire’ with giant question marks. As Liz sat down
to read, she noticed a bunch of tapes from their video camera at the very
bottom of the drawer. She and Joshua had been documenting their findings ever
since they moved to the shack. But Liz had never seen these tapes. Instead of
being marked with dates like all the others on the shelf, they were instead
labeled with his formulas. Frowning, she picked up one of the tapes and made
her way through the mess of fallen chairs and broken glass to the shelf filled
with old hardcovers, jars of creepy specimens and their camera. Beside the
camera was a box of recent recordings that hadn’t been converted into disc
copies on the computer yet.

With her hand on the
recorder, she opened the eject pocket but stopped herself. What if Joshua’s
recordings were private? Had she any right snooping in there?

Her conscience never
answered her, and suddenly she found her fingers rewinding the tape and
pressing play.

As the afternoon sun bled down on the
horizon, Joshua’s peaceful thoughts on the thesis resting on his knees were
interrupted by the piercing scream that ripped through the shack and sent him
toppling out of his chair.

“Joshua!”

The back door of the shack
flew open and Joshua practically dove out onto the porch. He stared at Liz’s
clammy face, then at her stomach, and then at the puddle of water leaking
through the hammock and onto the deck. If it were possible, Joshua’s face would
have paled more-so.

“Oh God,” he whispered.
“Holy Jesus-”

“Get me to a fucking
hospital!” Liz shrieked.

A split second of panic
later, Joshua sprang into action. He helped Liz out of the hammock, thanking
God he’d pre-packed the baby bag when she’d asked him to a week ago, and snatched
it from the hat-rack in the doorway. Without even locking the shack –
unnecessary anyway, since they lived in the middle of the mountain range –
Joshua and Liz hobbled out to the jeep.

“How much does it hurt?” he
asked, throwing the bag in the small space at the back. “Should I call a
chopper? It’s a half-hour drive Liz, will you make it?”

“Yes,” she breathed, bending
over and clutching her knees by the passenger door. “I’ll be fine. Please
Joshua, just hurry.”

“Hey.” Joshua clutched Liz’s
shaking hand and directed her eyes to his. “It’s going to be okay. I promise
Liz. This baby is going to be beautiful.”

Forcing a smile, Liz nodded
and climbed awkwardly into the front seat of the jeep. Joshua slipped on the
gravel as he hurried to the driver’s side. The engine sprang to life and they
began the bumpy hike through the mountains to the local hospital in the main
town
.

Liz held onto the child in
her stomach and began the breathing exercises they’d practiced. Joshua tried as
best he could to navigate an easy road through the mountains, but every bump
and break in the path was like a punch to Liz’s stomach. Once they reached the
main road, Joshua drove like a maniac on crack to the hospital. Several times
they were hooted at and skipped over the curb.

Liz gripped the dashboard as
another contraction surged through her.

“Are you okay?” Joshua made
a sharp left turn. “We’re nearly there. Hey move it asshole!”

Liz winced at the beep of
the horn. Joshua cast her a quick sideways glance.

“Liz, how does it feel?”

“It
feels
like
there’s a goddamn alligator trying to chew its way out of my uterus!”

Joshua felt suddenly queasy
at the thought. “Ouch.”

“Yeah. Ouch.”

They screeched into the emergency
parking lot of the hospital three minutes later and were immediately crowded by
paramedics. Joshua followed them into the lobby, carrying Liz on a stretcher.
She was screaming in pain now.

The bright white lights of the
hospital flashed over them as he ran to catch up with the speeding stretcher.
All the doctors and nurses were crowding around, asking Liz questions, asking
him questions, and all the while something was building up inside him,
something cold and frightened. He clung to her hand as best he could and they
flew into an emergency room where Liz was lifted onto an upright bed. There was
already blood dripping from under her dress.

Liz reached out in the space
around her for Joshua’s hand and gripped it tight. The unpleasant heat made him
instantly nauseas. The bed was wheeled into a private room where people shouted
in Spanish all around them. Liz’s eyes were wide with terror, and he wondered
what his face looked like at that moment.

The doctor was barking orders
at the nurses, who were rushing around gathering supplies and helping Liz get
comfortable. But she was far from that. Her hair was dripping with sweat. Her
face was redder than a tomato. She clung to Joshua’s hand, and clung to it
tight.

“I’m here, Lizzie,” he
whispered.

Liz nodded, breathing
through her teeth, tears rolling down her cheeks.

She was injected with a
systemic analgesic. Joshua watched the doctor duck under the blue sheet and
then shout at Liz to push. She looked on the verge of collapsing, and Joshua’s
heart seemed to explode from his chest. His hands were slipping from hers. They
were burning up.