The Light at the End of the Tunnel (3 page)

Another three months passed. His warm pool
had filled again and made his growing life very pleasant. He kept
the other’s appendage in his mouth, but long ago it had stopped
sending nourishment. He had stayed attached anyway, and staying
attached kept the memory alive of getting rid of that other
presence. The dim memory of that act caused his little face to
begin to smirk, and past memories kept coming alive in his brain of
things he had done that he would soon do again, but with more
gusto.

Then his pool began to shake and jerk, again,
and the fluid began leaving, again, and the screaming began…again.
He hung onto what was left of that appendage and allowed his body
to follow that disappearing fluid and suddenly he saw a very, very,
bright, light, something he had never experienced during the nine
months inside his new mother’s belly—but he
had
experienced
it. Untold numbers of times he had seen that bright light—then he
entered the light and found his voice, his own voice screaming and
crying and in some distant part of his brain he knew he was reborn,
that he had another chance to perform his…
evil
….

His first evil act in his new life, the
murder of his twin, was forgotten the instant his body entered the
air of the world. It didn’t matter. His twin had served its purpose
by giving its life to serve a better life: The new life and times
of worst-of-the-worst criminal, Les Paul.

Chapter 5
Meet Cassandra

When Cassandra was born her mother lived just
long enough to name her but then died from complications of
childbirth. Cassandra’s father, unable to be there for the birth,
died on the same day while on duty for the Marine Corps in
Afghanistan. Unfortunately there were no siblings and no close
relatives on either side, and the more distant relatives were not
interested in becoming responsible for an infant they felt they
didn’t even know. So Cassandra started her life alone. In foster
care she fell through crack after crack and remained alone, as
nobody—for some unknown reason—wanted to adopt this darling little
girl child. So, she became a statistic. Lacking love of any kind in
any part of her life, she soon discovered her crying voice brought
her nothing, so she stopped crying. In her little mind one would
wonder if she recognized the futility of crying, or did she just
forget how? As she grew, she would not learn about that greatest of
human emotion, love, and would not come to love
anything
,
and would not come to trust…
anyone
.

So, on October 18, this poor little girl
child was born. Halfway across the country that other baby was born
on the same day, just another child who would find no love, but for
a different reason than Cassandra. Les Paul would find no love
because from the very beginning he was not the warm, sweet, cooing,
combination of his new birth parents. He was the reincarnation of
evil, an endlessly long string of killers. He was born with the
memories of each, not really intact memories but memories
nonetheless, and they would serve him well in his new life.

Chapter 6
Second Evil Act

For the first two months of that new life Les
Paul was close to being a normal baby. He didn’t actually realize
he
needed
to be a normal baby, for at least awhile, but his
memories—like the instinct of an animal—told him:
you need to at
least be dry, be able to hold your eyes open and your head up, and
to focus, and to recognize certain people. You need their strength
and care for at least a while, but when you are ready you can begin
being yourself.

So one day while he was nursing that self
began to arise. His new mother held him closely, with his head next
to her left breast and his mouth attached to her nipple. Everything
was going along fine, except he was beginning to want the milk to
come faster, so he began to suck harder—

“It’s okay, honey,” his mother said, “Here,
maybe I’ll just switch you to my other breast.” She began to move
him…she began to
try
to move him, “Honey, you have to let
go…oh—ow!”

But he wouldn’t let go. He just sucked
harder, and bit, and began hearing that sound like screaming—he
loved
that sound!

“OW! Evan!” his mother shouted between her
cries, “Help me!”

His new father ran into the room, “What’s
wrong, Leslie?”

“He’s biting me!” Leslie held him away from
her as much as she could, “Here, pry his mouth open!”

Evan did as asked. Together they were able to
pry the child’s mouth open and free Leslie’s nipple, which now was
spurting not only milk but blood, and Les Paul began screaming,
shrieking his anger at not getting his way and filling his hunger
as quickly as he wanted.

Evan carried him to his crib. At just two
months old he was yet too small and weak to fight much. He had just
used most of his energy trying to hold onto that nipple, but his
voice was fine and he continued crying, just shrieking!

His father took him from his day crib and
carried him into the master bedroom, laid him down in his other
crib, left the room and closed the door, and returned to his wife
in the living room. They could still hear him screaming.

“I won’t nurse him again, Evan,” Leslie said
soberly, “He has held on before but I was able to pry his little
lips apart, but that bite today scared me. I’ll just have to take
that drug to stop my milk, because I won’t even go through the
discomfort of milking myself for him.”

“All right, Leslie, we’ll just do what we
have to do.”

“It’s not only that, Evan….”

“Yes?”

“You aren’t with him all day like I am.
He’s….”

“Yes? What…?”

“For a newborn baby he sometimes looks at me
like…I don’t know how to describe it. He…sometimes…recently—every
day
in fact…he…I can barely comprehend that I’m going to say
this: he…
frightens
me.”

“Honey, he’s our flesh and blood.”

“I know. Physically he is, I guess. But, it’s
almost like he is
not
, like, maybe, by mistake of course, we
got the wrong baby.”

Evan stared at his wife, barely able to
believe what he was hearing.

“I know! That sounds crazy, but it’s
possible, Evan, and anyway, I won’t nurse him again. He’ll have to
learn bottle feeding, and, right this minute we aren’t prepared for
that, and the little…monster—“

“Leslie!”

“I’m sorry! But he
is
! He wants to be
fed and we don’t have formula, so you have to go get what we need,
and I will stay here and listen to his screeching.”

“You won’t go and try to comfort him?”

“Evan, he
bit
me! He bit me
hard
! He drew
blood
!
No!
I won’t try to
comfort him…I…I don’t even know if I want to hold him again. It’s
like he knew what he was doing, like he bit me just to hurt me, on
purpose!”

“Leslie, my God!”

“I
told
you! You don’t see him every
minute of every day like I do.”

“Why haven’t you said something before
now?”

“Good Christ! He hasn’t ever done anything
quite like this! I just kept hoping he would grow out of it, even
that I was imagining that he’s….”

“He’s what…?”

“He’s
evil
, Evan. I don’t think I want
him anymore.”

Evan’s mind flew to the birth of their first
child. He had been there for everything. He had seen what his
darling wife, Leslie, had
not
seen, and he had never told
her what he, the nurse, and the doctor, saw. And he still wouldn’t
tell her that her first child was born with his twin’s umbilical
cord in his mouth. He could
not
tell her, and barely
believed it himself, and he would never forget the looks on the
faces of the doctor and nurse, professional people who likely had
already seen everything…but, evidently, had not, “What do you want
to do, Leslie?”

“Let’s take him to the hospital and leave him
on their doorstep, just like they do it in Nebraska—they still do
that, don’t they?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they do…” Evan didn’t
know what to say. He could barely believe that his beautiful wife
had just said what she said, but far in the back of his mind he
agreed.

“What about DNA? Maybe all they have to do is
check his DNA with their records and trace him back to us—I don’t
want him, Evan! And I don’t want to go to jail for abandoning
him.”

“DNA, they probably can do that. They
probably take fingerprints and everything these days.”

“Then we’ll take him to another
hospital—another state, Evan, all the way to Nebraska if we have
to! Surely the millions of babies born aren’t in a federal data
base…yet…are they?”

“I don’t know—“

“You keep saying you don’t know!” she
screamed, “What
do
you know?”

“I’m sorry, honey. Look, I’ll go get the
formula and a couple extra bottles, and we’ll figure out what to
do, okay…?”

“Evan, I just haven’t told you, but almost
from the moment we brought him home he has creeped me out—“ she
tightened her hands, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, gave a
quiet, throat-rattling, scream, “When he was three weeks old he was
screwing up his face, like he wanted to smile, like babies do. I
was almost to call you to come and see his first smile—but it
wasn’t a smile, Evan! It was a smirk! I wanted to scream right
then! I want him gone!”

“All right…all right, I’ll get the stuff we
need, and we’ll figure out what to do.”

“I will try to feed him again, with a bottle,
and that’s all I’ll do for him, but only if you’re there with
me.”

****

An hour later Evan arrived with a warm bottle
of formula. He handed the bottle to Leslie, who was seated in a
rocking chair, then he went to the baby, picked him up from the
crib, then walked to Leslie and handed him to her. Leslie at first
just stared, then smiled a bit, then reached and took him into her
arms, and placed the bottle to the baby’s lips.

Les Paul grabbed it with his lips and began
sucking furiously. Leslie’s eyes enlarged as she watched, “Look at
him, Evan. No two-month-old that I’ve ever seen has fed like this,
and with my sisters I’ve helped with five babies.”

Evan watched too, but said nothing.

“Look at him! He’s even trying to hold the
bottle!”

Evan kept watching, and remembering the grip
and hold that child had on his miscarried twin’s umbilical cord,
and suddenly, quite unplanned, the barely-believable thought
entered his head, was the twin miscarried…or murdered? He thought
so hard that he quit watching this child feed and momentarily
looked at the ceiling—

“Look at his face! Evan!”

Evan jerked back to his wife, “What,
Leslie?”

“He was smirking at me! He had a smirk on his
face! My god, didn’t you see him?”

“I’m sorry, Leslie, my mind wandered.”

“Right.” Leslie removed the bottle from that
ferociously sucking mouth. Les Paul immediately began screaming and
reaching for the bottle, “My god, he smirked at me at the only time
you wouldn’t see him!” Leslie held him slightly away from herself
and handed the bottle to her husband, “Quick! Warm him some more.
He knows we’re onto him now, so—“

“
Onto
him?”

“Yes!” She practically screamed her answer,
“He smirked when you weren’t looking so that I would look like a
fool who needs her head examined! He knows, Evan! He’s just a baby,
but also he’s…he’s…I don’t know. I just don’t know!”

“Will you be all right while I’m gone?”

“Yes, just please try to hurry, and, Evan,
we’re leaving tonight. Call your boss and just tell him…that
there’s an emergency in our family and we have to leave.
Immediately.”

“All right, dear.” Evan hurried to the
kitchen and got the second bottle of formula heating. He wished he
could share what he knew of the child with his wife, but she was
upset enough with what she did know, so he would hold off for then.
Maybe forever.

A few minutes later he returned with the
fresh bottle and handed it over.

Leslie took it, put it to the mouth and he
immediately stopped screaming and started sucking, again
furiously.

“He’s probably doing this so that he will get
sick and puke on both of us,” Leslie said, quietly, “Wash the extra
bottles, Evan, and mix up extra batches of formula, and we’ll take
our own tap water, and pack us both three suits of extra clothes.
And our winter coats! The farther west we go likely the colder it
will get. We’ll probably be gone for Christmas—damn it! My sister
was expecting us and our new baby, Evan, what can we
tell
her?””

“We’ll think of something, honey.” Evan
stared at his wife. She was speaking differently than he had ever
heard her, so completely sure of what she wanted to do. He agreed;
he just wished he had seen more of the baby’s antics then just that
with the umbilical cord, but that should have been enough. And it
was enough.
You know what you’re doing, my darling, and I’m with
you.

Chapter 7
The Abandonment

Just after dark, three days later they
entered the small city of Wayne Ridge, Nebraska, about the center
of the state, and pulled into a station. Evan started to get out.
They needed gas, and something to eat.

“Wait, Evan,” Leslie said, “Let’s do it
first, then we can go back to that little town about thirty miles
back.” She leaned over and looked at the gauges, “We’ll have enough
gas.”

Evan slipped back behind the wheel, closed
the door, and glanced at his wife. Her gaze and demeanor were calm,
her beautiful dark eyes shining. And she held the baby against her
bosom as if she loved the child, but he knew she somehow was able
to fake it, and in faking it, convince the child that all was
okay.