Set This House in Order (26 page)

“I'll talk to Penny,” I said, preoccupied now, waiting for the lighter button to pop back out. “You get her to meet with me, and I'll do my best to help her understand what's going on.”

“Fucking right you will,” said Maledicta.

And so the next day at noon I waited for Penny in front of the Harvest Moon Diner, trying not to laugh as Adam did Maledicta impressions: “How about this fucking weather? Pretty fuckingly clear fucking skies for fucking April, don't you fucking think?”

Then Penny arrived, and the laughs were over for a while.

There's a type of protector soul, called a runner, whose function is to remove the body from threatening situations. Penny had at least two runners, and it wasn't long before I'd met both of them.

The first runner came out only moments after Penny's arrival. I don't think it was my fault; when I'd asked my father's advice about how to speak to Penny, he recommended I be direct, but he also warned me that no matter what approach I used, Penny would probably switch several times in order to avoid hearing what I had to say. “It's a terrifying thing to find out about yourself. I remember.”

“But Maledicta said Penny already knows…”

“I'm sure Penny
suspects
the truth, or part of it,” my father said. “That's not the same as knowing for sure…or being told flat out.”

Thread and Maledicta had told me that they would leave Penny a message instructing her to meet with me. I decided that would be a good opener: I'd say something about the message, and segue naturally into the question of who had sent it. It was a reasonable plan, but I never made it to the segue. As soon as I mentioned the message—something that, from Penny's perspective, I shouldn't have known about—Penny got scared, and out came the first runner.

This runner didn't actually run, just walked fast: ducked Penny's head down so that her chin nearly touched her chest, fixed her arms stiffly at her sides, clenched her fists, and shuffled off with surprising speed. Almost before I realized what was happening, she was out of the parking lot and
scooting away up Bridge Street. I chased after her, calling Penny's name; she didn't look back, but as I came up behind her she started making a noise, a low caterwauling from deep in her throat, that caused the hairs on my arms to stand up. I wasn't the only person unnerved by that sound—other pedestrians, hearing that caterwaul come out of Penny's mouth, hurried to make way for her.

Then I was alongside her, putting a hand on her shoulder, and the caterwaul jumped octaves, rising up into a high keening—the sound a porcupine might make if it screamed. The keening froze me on the spot; the runner pulled free and kept moving, ducking out of sight around the next street corner.

“Don't lose her!” Adam warned.

So I took off again, following from a distance now, not wanting to hear that keening a second time. The runner was almost a block ahead of me when she went into Maynard Park, and for a moment I worried I had lost her; but when I entered the park myself, Penny's body was seated on a bench, waiting for me.

“Penny?” I said uncertainly. The runner was gone, that was obvious, but I wasn't sure what soul had taken its place.

Then Penny's face darkened in a scowl, and I knew.

“Sit down,” Maledicta fumed. “We'll have her back out in a fucking minute.”

I sat. The scowl disappeared, replaced by confusion, and Penny's shoulders hunched. I gave her a second to get her bearings, then started in again, commenting matter-of-factly that she'd just had a blackout, trying to make it sound like it was no big deal.

Out came another runner, this one a sprinter; it dashed off into the trees behind the bench.

“Oh boy,” I sighed, getting up to follow. The direct approach wasn't working very well.

To make a long story short, I got my exercise that day. In the end, Penny did listen to everything I had to say, but only after I'd put several new miles on my sneakers, and only after Penny had nearly broken her own neck.

That evening, I called Dr. Grey's number to try to set up an appointment, but Dr. Grey wasn't available. “Danny's having a pretty bad weekend, Andrew,” Meredith told me. “She hasn't been out of bed since yesterday.”

“Oh no,” I said. “Not…not because of my visit, I hope.”

Rather than reassure me, Meredith simply asked: “Is there something I can help you with?” I explained why I'd called. “Uh-huh…well, she's defi
nitely not going to be up to seeing anybody tomorrow. Maybe later in the week. You want to try back on Thursday or Friday?”

“OK,” I said, wondering how Maledicta would feel about waiting.

On Monday morning I came into work early to talk to Julie—and to apologize. At one point on Sunday, in between flight responses, Penny and I had bumped into her on Bridge Street. It was bad timing, as Julie belatedly recognized—even as she came running up to us, she saw the look on my face, and slowed. “Hi,” she said. “I hope I'm not interrupting anything…”

“You are,” Maledicta piped up. “Fuck off.”

I figured Julie might still be upset about that, and I was right. I found her in one of the storage tents, digging through a carton of old printouts, and at first she wouldn't look at me, though she grudgingly acknowledged my presence. “So,” she said tersely. “What's up?”

“Well, Penny has agreed to go see Dr. Grey…”

“I know,” Julie said.

“You do?”

“Sure. That's why she called in sick today, right?”

“Penny called in sick?”

Julie finally looked up, an expression of disgust on her face. She thought I was only pretending ignorance. “You're going to tell me you didn't know?”

“No,” I said. “No, I didn't know. When did she call you?”

“This morning around five-thirty,” Julie told me. “Not my best time of day.”

“What did she say?”

“Just that she wouldn't be coming in. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me to mind my own fucking business.”

“Maledicta,” I said.

“Yeah, Maledicta. What does she have against me, exactly?”

“Against you?”

“She's been openly hostile to me every time we've met.”

“I think Maledicta is hostile to everyone, Julie—even to Penny. It's her nature.”

“No,” Julie said, shaking her head. “With me it feels like it's personal, somehow.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you say something to her about me? Something to make her mad?”

“No,” I said. “At least I don't think I did. Like what?”

“Did you tell her the only reason I hired Penny was so you could get her treatment for her MPD?”

“No! Why would I tell her that—it's not true, right? And besides, Maledicta
wants
Penny to get treatment. She's more committed to the idea than Penny or even Thread at this point. So she wouldn't be mad at you for that.”

“Hmmph,” said Julie. “Hmmph, well…I suppose in one sense it's an improvement over last week, at least she called before not coming in this time…so she's
not
seeing Dr. Grey today?”

“I don't see how she could be. Dr. Grey is…she's not available today. If Penny called in sick, it's probably something to do with her neck.”

“Her neck?”

“Penny got a pretty bad knock on the head yesterday,” I explained. “I was worried that she might have given herself whiplash. And if her body is in pain, then whoever's in control of her body is in pain too, which could be why Maledicta seemed extra unfriendly.”

“Oh,” Julie said.

Seeing her soften a little, I took advantage of the opening: “About what happened yesterday, Julie, I'm
really
sorry…you just caught us at a bad moment.”

“Saturday too I guess, huh?”

“Saturday?”

“Saturday afternoon, I saw the two of you driving in town. I waved, but you ignored me.”

I shook my head, and Julie lost her temper again.

“Jesus Christ, Andrew!” she exclaimed. “I
saw
the two of you together, don't try to tell me I didn't!”

“No, Julie, I'm not saying we weren't together, I just, I don't remember seeing
you
on Saturday afternoon.”

“You were looking right at me when I waved.”

“Well that doesn't mean I saw you. If the car was moving, I was probably paying attention to Maledicta.”

“Yeah, well, whatever,” Julie said dismissively. “Never mind.”

“Would you like me to call Penny and find out why she's not coming in?”

“No.” Julie shook her head. “No, let's just try to get some work done today…however much we can get done with half the software team missing.”

There were any number of tactless remarks I could have made at that point, but I wisely chose to keep my mouth shut. A little while later, though, Dennis, far less cautious than I, decided to crack wise about Penny's
absence: “Gee, Commodore, that was a great idea you had about hiring a second programmer. It's only been a week and already I can't remember how we ever got by without her…”

Julie and Dennis were at each other's throats for the rest of the day, which at least kept Julie's attention off me. After work, though, as I was leaving the Factory, I spotted Penny's Buick idling just inside the gates, and got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

“Penny?” I called, walking up to the car.

Maledicta. “Fucking get in. Thread wants to ask you some more questions about the house.”

“OK.” I glanced back nervously towards the shed; Julie was still inside, but I knew she'd be out soon. “OK, but listen, I think we should go somewhere else. Julie's kind of upset that Penny skipped work today.”

“Fuck Julie. Get in the car.”

I got in. Rather than drive away immediately, Maledicta took the time to light a cigarette. I noticed she was still holding her neck a bit stiffly. “How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Fucking peachy,” Maledicta replied. “But Mouse is being a fucking basket case. We decided she needed some time off.”

“Oh. OK. Listen, can we please—”

“So did you make the appointment with the doctor yet?”

“No,” I said. “I couldn't.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“I'll tell you as soon as you start driving.”

“Fine,” Maledicta spat. She yanked the Buick out of neutral and stepped on the gas. But it was too late; as we passed through the Factory gates, I looked back and saw Julie standing out on the lot, her hands on her hips.

Tuesday was in many ways a repeat of Monday: I came in early, and Penny didn't come in at all. But Julie wasn't interested in hearing more explanations. “Whatever you two need to do, Andrew, you go ahead and do it. When Penny decides to come back to work,
if
she decides to come back to work, you just let me know.”

“Julie…I did warn you that something like this might happen.”

“That's right, you did. So there's no foul, no blame on you. Now can we drop it?”

That day after work, I again came out of the Factory to find a vehicle idling by the gates. But it wasn't Penny's Buick this time. It was a tow truck: the same tow truck that had honked its horn at Julie and me on Saturday
morning. A man got out of the cab as I approached, and I recognized him too: he was the same Triple A mechanic that Julie had been dating over a year ago.

Julie came running past me, laughing, and jumped up on the mechanic, slinging her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips. I turned away as they kissed.

“Hey Andrew,” Julie called, her feet back on the ground. “This is Reggie Beauchamps. I don't know if you two have ever actually met.”

“No,” said Adam from the pulpit, “but we sure have
heard
of him…”

“Be quiet,” I muttered under my breath, at the same time raising my hand in a halfhearted wave.

“Well, we've got to go,” said Julie. “Say hi to Penny for me if you see her, OK?”

It was then that Adam shared his insight that Julie was jealous of Penny.

“How can she be jealous?” I protested. “Penny and I aren't a couple! And Julie…Julie
is
part of a couple again, it looks like.”

“Yeah,” said Adam, “and even if she weren't part of a couple, she still wouldn't want to fuck you.”

“Adam!”

“But even though she doesn't want to fuck you, she still thinks of you as a special friend. And now she sees you developing this friendship with Penny that seems like it's even
more
special, and she's cut out of it.”

“But that's not what's happening!”

“Doesn't matter. It's what she sees: you spending a lot of time with Penny, both of you acting mysterious about it…”

“But we're not trying to be mysterious! And besides, all I'm doing is what Julie
wanted
me to do!”

“Yeah,” said Adam. “I told you that was a bad idea.”

Thinking that the sooner Penny started getting professional help, the sooner my relationship with Julie could return to normal, I gave Dr. Grey another call that evening. “Hello,” I said, when Meredith picked up, “I know you said try back on Thursday, but I was hoping…”

“Andrew,” Meredith said, in a flat tone I couldn't read. “Hi. Listen, Danny is still—”

I heard Dr. Grey's voice in the background. Then Meredith must have put her hand over the phone's mouthpiece, because everything got muffled. It sounded like she and Dr. Grey were yelling at each other.

Eventually Dr. Grey came on the line: “Andrew?”

“Dr. Grey,” I said. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes, everything is
fine.
” The connection got muffled again for a moment, and Dr. Grey shouted something that I couldn't make out. Then she came back on: “Andrew?”