“I’m not sleeping, Freddy. I’m just laying here.”
His head spun to me. He raced into the room.
“Want to play, Carson? Puppy just woke up, too. He takes an after-supper nap with me.”
We played, which meant Freddy licked the puppet over me while I chanted, “Good boy, nice puppy.”
A few minutes passed.
“Freddy, could you do me a favor?”
“You want a drink? More purpleberry?”
“I’m interested in what’s going on outside. It’s kind of a special night. Now and then could you check at the window up front for me, tell me what you see?”
“What I see where?”
“At the house across the way.”
“Uncle Buck’s house?”
“That’s the one,” I said. “How about taking a look now.”
He tottered away, the puppet face dangling off his hand, returning after a couple of minutes.
“There’s just one car at Uncle Buck’s, Carson. It’s the one that belongs to that man I don’t like.”
“Which man is that, Freddy?”
“That man that comes around sometimes. He fired Ms. Holtkamp, my teacher. Then he came and fired Dr. Rudy, Lucas’s teacher.”
“Fired them?”
“That’s what Uncle Buck said. It means they had to stop working here. Dr. Rudy only came once in a while, but I liked him. I loved Ms. Holtkamp. She taught me words and numbers.”
“The man you don’t like…You’re talking about Mr. Crandell?”
Freddy looked at the floor. “One time when no one was looking he stepped on Puppy, asked me if that hurt him. When I said yes, he laughed and did it again.”
“Freddy, I’m going to tell you the truth. There’s going to be some trouble outside. Something bad is going to happen if I can’t go help a friend of mine.”
He frowned. “What’s that mean?”
“I’ve got to get these belts off my arms and legs. They’re holding me down. Keeping me from helping my friend.”
“They’re tight, Carson. I don’t think you can.”
“I know. That’s why I need for you to help me. You can take them off, Freddy. Unbuckle the belts.”
He shook his head.
“I can’t, Carson.”
“Because it’s red?”
“I don’t do red things. That’s what Lucas does.”
“You’ve got to help me, Freddy. I need to get off the bed. It hurts. Do you want a friend of yours to hurt?”
“Lucas says things like that when he’s in the red bed and the red room. He asks me to help.”
“And you help Lucas, right?”
“I’m not allowed.”
It was a simple statement of fact, without moral judgment or sense of consequence. He’d been told not to unbuckle someone under restraint, thus he wouldn’t.
“Please,” I said.
“Let’s just play, Carson. Puppy wants to play. He likes you.”
“I don’t want to play, Freddy. I need to get the hell out of this bed!”
His face screwed up and he started crying.
“You’re acting like Lucas does sometimes. I’m leaving.”
He turned and stomped toward the door. I called at his back.
“Freddy, I’m sorry. I’m distraught.”
He turned, wiping an eye with a finger. “What’s distroffed mean?”
“It means I like you and want you and Puppy to stay.”
Freddy’s sudden smile was wet and lopsided. He ran to the bed. I let the puppet lick my face, bounce on my belly, bark at my toes. Freddy worked the puppet up my leg.
“Walking, walking, walking the doggie…”
I said, “Could you take another look outside for me, Freddy?”
His bottom lip pouted outward. “It’s way over on the other side of heaven, past the rooms where Miss Gracie lives. Do I have to?”
“It would make me happy.”
He sighed. “All right, Carson.”
He scampered away, returning moments later. He held up the puppet like it was talking. “ Rowf! There’s no cars over there now. Puppy says it’s empty.”
I wondered what time it was. Crandell had alluded to Dani being at Buck’s place near nine p.m.
“Do you know how to tell time, Freddy?”
He stared at the ceiling, remembering. “Miss Holtkamp said there are two hands on a clock, like on a person. The big hand-”
“Why don’t you look at a clock if there’s one around?”
“There’s one in Tyler’s room.”
“Let’s see if you really can tell time. I’m thinking you can’t.”
“Betcha I can.”
He was back in a minute. He held his arms out to indicate 7:40. “It’s seven and forty, ha-ha. Here comes Puppy, Carson.”
It was getting annoying, trying to think with the puppet slapping across my arms, chest, and face.
“How about you give Puppy a break for a few minutes, Freddy?”
Freddy kept up the licking and gnawing motion.
“I can’t stop him, Carson. Watch out.”
The sock puppet gnawed on the bedrail, licked at my arm. I started to again ask Freddy to stop, but heard his words repeat in my head: I can’t stop him.
Was Puppy an independent entity? Cold sweat prickled on my forehead. I kept my voice light and even and smiled at Freddy. I had one final shot at life, the strength of the fantasy of a retarded man.
“You’ve been told not to unbuckle the belts, right, Freddy?”
“Yup. Puppy’s licking your shoulder, Carson.”
I giggled, a happy guy. “You’re right to not unbuckle the belts, Freddy. But if you hadn’t been told not to unbuckle the belts, you could unbuckle the belts. Isn’t that right?”
“I had to be told not to do it. And like a good boy I do what I’m told. Lick, lick, lick.”
I took a deep breath.
“Freddy?”
“What?”
“Has Puppy been told not to unbuckle the belts?”
CHAPTER 47
Nautilus thundered into the jail. He looked in the holding cell where he’d last seen Shuttles; empty.
“Where’s Shuttles?” Nautilus yelled to a turnkey sipping a cup of coffee.
“Interrogation.”
Nautilus ran down the hall. He saw Doria Barnes, an assistant DA, sitting on a bench and sorting through papers. “I need to talk to Shuttles,” Nautilus said.
Barnes rolled her eyes. “Good luck. Mr. Shuttles is with his new attorney.”
