Symby (6 page)

Jody raced to his room, ignoring Snuffle's happy blandishments. He sat down at his computer, accessed BFF.com and clicked on Missy's link. Relief flooded him when Missy answered after a few beeps. Angst returned when he realized she was lying in her bed. He guessed that she was using her laptop. Angst intensified when he heard the weakness in her voice. She smiled wanly.

"Hi Jody, how are you?"

"Never mind me, what happened to you?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"I had a little setback today," she answered. "I just felt really tired and weak. I couldn't get out of bed. My mom brought me to the doctor, but the doctor wasn't very helpful. The scary thing is that I haven't even been doing chemo. I had lots of days like this during chemo. On top of that, the new treatment I've been getting doesn't seem to be working either."

"Are you feeling any better now?" asked Jody.

"Not really," she replied.

"So you're not coming to school tomorrow either?" asked Jody.

Missy hesitated before she replied. "I don't know yet, but I'll have to feel better than I did today." She didn't want to tell him the truth and have him worry about her. The truth was that she was feeling as if she might never make it back to school.

Even through the poor lighting in her room and the ethereal effects of the video transmission, Jody could tell that she looked pale and gaunt. He had been so busy celebrating his own recovery that he hadn't really noticed her rapid deterioration.

"You live at 25 Howland Street, right?" he asked.

"Yes, but..."

"I'll be there in thirty minutes. Tell your parents that you really need to see me and that you don't think you can live without me, or something like that. Just make sure they let me in."

"Jody, I'm not sure I can talk much more..."

"You don't have to talk. This isn't about talking. It's about maybe making you better."

She started to object again, but Jody wasn't having it. "Remember our old friend Jimmy Hines?" he said. "He confronted me on my way home tonight. Guess what happened?"

She guessed. "I don't see any bruises on you, so I guess he just threatened you?"

Jody smiled. "Wrong. I nailed him. He ended up crying like the baby that he is. You've been telling me how much better I've been looking and moving, but you don't know the half of it. I'm pretty much a normal kid now. My disease is just about gone."

Missy looked stunned. "How can you be recovered from a disease that can't be recovered from?"

"Let's just say I found a cure," replied Jody. "I think it might work for you, too."

Missy laughed as derisively as he had ever seen her laugh. "Come on, you can't cure me. You probably just think you're cured because you're in remission."

Jody answered patiently. "There's no remission for my disease. It's supposed to just get worse until I eventually die. But that's not what's happening. And it might not happen to you, either."

Missy was beginning to wonder whether Jody had gone off the deep end in her absence, but she had to admit that something had been making Jody better. Since she had met him, he had clearly grown stronger and faster. His coordination and balance were almost normal again. His arms and legs were no longer twisted. She had actually been jealous recently as she watched him energize while she continued to weaken. Besides, what did she have to lose by trying Jody's "cure?"

"O.K., Jody, I'll talk to my parents and get them to let you in. They feel so sorry for me that I can pretty much talk them into anything."

"Great!" said Jody. "See you in thirty minutes." He clicked off before she had a chance to change her mind.

Jody raced to the backyard, scanning for the creature. He panicked when he couldn't see the creature.

"Snuffles, go get him, go get him," he said, hoping that Snuffles would understand that he was referring to the creature. He regretted that he hadn't yet thought of a name for the creature that Snuffles would recognize. Snuffles obediently wandered into his dog house and returned with the requested ball of fur in his mouth. Jody breathed a huge sigh of relief. He took their little friend out of Snuffle's mouth and placed it inside the big pocket of his heavy overcoat. The temperature was approaching eighty degrees when he left the house.

Snuffles attempted to follow him, but Jody closed the gate too quickly behind him.

"Sorry, boy, see you in a little while."

Jody began sweating profusely after a just a few minutes of walking. He hadn't thought about the heat. Eventually succumbing, he removed the overcoat and held it in front of him. He broke into a slow jog. He had no idea whether he was capable of jogging an entire mile, but he was going to try. He wanted to get to Missy's house as fast as he could.

Jody pulled up in front of Missy's house in less than twenty minutes. He now knew the upper limits of his newly renovated body, because he had just come up against them. He was taken aback when he viewed the tiny, weathered shack that provided shelter for the girl he loved most in the world. She may have come from California, but she clearly wasn't from Beverly Hills. Jody was still panting and sweating when he rang the doorbell.

Both of Jody's parents answered the door. Her mother looked a lot like Missy, a petite brunette with a moon-shaped face highlighted by huge, emerald, sparkling eyes. The heavy, black pouches under her eyes revealed that life had been a struggle for her, at least lately. Missy's father didn't look at all like Missy. He was good-looking in a different way. He towered over Jody, even at Jody's new height. Broad-shouldered and tan, he looked like a man who had spent most of his life working outdoors. This was true, Jody knew. According to Missy, he had started his own lawn care business in California. His business had expanded to the point where he primarily contracted for work and supervised his five employees. Now he was starting over alone. Despite his impressive physical appearance, he too displayed the effects of caring for Missy. He looked haggard. Jody's trepidation at meeting Missy's parents dissolved instantly when he looked into their eyes. They were nice people.

Missy's mother greeted him pleasantly. "You must be Jody, correct?"

"Yes, I'm Jody, Ma'am," answered Jody politely. Jody's father spoke next. Jody was surprised and spooked by his stern demeanor.

"We had no idea until now that Missy had a boyfriend," he said. "So you two have been sneaking around behind our backs, eh?"

Jody flushed. This was totally unexpected. Missy's father suddenly broke into a wide grin. He laughed and extended his massive hand.

"Just kidding son, welcome to our home," he said, his eyes twinkling with mischief. "I'm Ken, and this is Missy's mom and my wife, Lisa. Missy's in the back bedroom. Follow me, but you two behave yourselves, O.K.?" He laughed again. He obviously thought Jody's relationship with Missy was cute.

Jody followed Missy's parents to the back of the house, a trip that took almost no time at all given the small size of the home. The only floor consisted of a small family room which flowed into the kitchen on the left side, a small room on the right that had been closed off with sliders and Missy's bedroom in the back across from the kitchen. Jody guessed that the room with the sliders was designed as a living room, but was now being used as Missy's parent's bedroom. There was no second floor, so where else could they sleep? Jody calculated that Missy's house had less than half of the square footage of his small cape.

Missy's father knocked on her closed door. "Missy, you've got a visitor. It's Jody," he said. "You said I should I kick him out, right?"

Missy's father obviously thought he was funnier than he actually was, but Jody didn't fall for his teasing this time. Missy's muffled voice wafted through the door.

"Daaaaaddy!" Missy whined. "Stop teasing and just let him in."

Ken opened the door and motioned Jody inside with a wave of his hand. "Welcome to Missy's world," he said. "Be careful, son, you never know what might get you in there. She's not known for her neatness." Missy moaned again. Jody was surprised when Ken closed the door behind him. He was really starting to like Missy's father.

Jody had never been in a girl's room before. He didn't know what to expect. His first observation was that Ken might not have been kidding about Missy's organizational skills. There was stuff all over the place. Dolls, toys, clothing and stuffed animals were all strewn haphazardly about the room. Other than that, there didn't seem to be much difference between her room and his room at home if one replaced the posters of hot female divas with hot male pop stars. Jody grabbed her desk chair and took a seat next to the bed.

Missy was lying in bed dressed in black khaki pants and a plaid cotton shirt. She had lots of company. At least a dozen stuffed animals surrounded her on the bed. She picked up on his evaluation of her room immediately.

"Yeah, I know it's messy," she said, "but I shower every day, so at least I'm clean." Jody was ashamed that he had inadvertently revealed his opinion of her messy habits at a time like this. It wasn't as though everything in his room was where it was supposed to be either.

"I don't care if you're messy, you should see my room," he fibbed, resolving to mess it up more if she ever came over. "I like your posters," he said in an effort to change the subject. "Your father is funny, too, once you get used to his jokes."

Missy agreed. "He's really a great guy. He's always trying to be upbeat and happy. Life hasn't been easy for him or my mom the last few years. That's my fault. I know they're really in debt because of my condition. My father didn't have health insurance through his business. He couldn't afford it. Now he's trying to start over here, just so I can get this new treatment. My mom just got a new job, working at the mall. It doesn't pay much, but it'll help some. The only thing that's keeping us going is that we made a lot of money from selling our house in California. Houses are much less expensive here. "

Jody stopped himself in the nick of time before he stupidly uttered "especially tiny ones like this."

As bad as Missy had looked on the computer screen, she looked worse live. She was gaunt and pale, much whiter than she was the day before. Jody's eyes locked onto the oxygen tank on the floor next to Missy's bed. He didn't waste any more time with small talk.

"This thing I'm going to show you is alive. It looks kind of like a mouse, but it doesn't have eyes or teeth or legs. It's got fur, and it's kind of cute, especially when it vibrates. So don't be scared when I give it to you. It won't hurt you. The one thing that it does that might upset you is that you might think that it's peeing on you."

"Ewww," said Missy, "I don't want something peeing on me!"

"Actually, you do," said Jody. "Don't worry, it's not really pee. I don't think this little creature ever pees or does number two. I tasted it, and..." Missy interrupted him again.

""Ewww, you tasted pee!?" She looked horrified. This was going to be even more difficult than Jody had thought.

"I told you, it's not pee. I'm pretty sure it's the stuff that cured me. So you have to let it attach itself to you with its suction cup and wait for it to spread some liquid on you. Then you'll start feeling better, at least I hope you will."

"It's got a suction cup?" asked Missy. "So it's like a leech? That's disgusting!"

"It's really not disgusting once you get used to it," said Jody. "Actually, after a while it starts to feel like it's kissing you. It's weird."

"Weird is right," said Missy. She still looked skeptical. "Jody, let's face it, this is nuts. I really think you just got lucky with your disease somehow at the same time you found this little animal and now you believe in snake oil."

Jody was almost defeated. He tried another tack. "I'm not the only one who's been cured. Remember when you met Snuffles?"

"Yeah, he was a cute puppy," said Missy.

"That's just it, he's not a puppy. He's eleven years old. A few weeks ago he was fat and he had really bad arthritis, to the point where he could hardly walk. He's the one who discovered my little creature friend. Now he's lean and he runs around like he did when he was a puppy. You saw him."

"Snuffles is eleven years old, really?"

"Really," said Jody. Show and tell time had arrived. "Look, I'm going to show you my little friend now, so don't freak out." He reached into his overcoat pocket and pulled out the little ball of fur.

"He's cute!" said Missy. "He's really kind of cute! Can I hold him?"

"Sure, but just remember that you want him to put liquid on you, so don't freak out if he does." He handed his little friend to Missy. Missy stroked its fur and it began to vibrate.

"Ewww, it's sucking on my hand," exclaimed Missy.

"That's good," said Jody. "You have to let it do that. Just keep it in your hand like that. If we're lucky, your hand will get wet in a little while."

Missy kept stroking the little creature and continued gushing about how cute it was. She was still wary about the liquid, thinking that Jody might be wrong that it wasn't pee. "What else could it be?" she thought.

"What's its name?" asked Missy.

"I don't know, I haven't named it yet," admitted Jody, suddenly wondering why he hadn't.

"Can I name it?" she asked.