The Tomb (Repairman Jack)

Nellie, but Gia had kept her daughter's spirits up by telling her that Nellie had gone to find Grace. Jack picked her up and swung her to his hip, but his responses to her chatter consisted mainly of noncommittal grunts. Gia could not remember ever seeing him so preoccupied. He seemed worried, almost unsure of himself. That upset her the most. Jack was always a rock of self-assurance. Something was terribly wrong here and he wasn't telling her about it.

The three of them trailed into the kitchen where Eunice was preparing lunch. Jack slumped into a chair at the kitchen table and stared morosely into space. Vicky apparently noticed that he wasn't responding to her in his usual manner so she went out to the backyard to her playhouse. Gia sat watching him, dying to know what he was thinking but unable to ask with Eunice there.

Vicky came running in from the back with an orange in her hand. Gia idly wondered where she’d got it. She thought they’d run out of oranges.

'Do the orange mouth! Do the orange mouth!'

Jack straightened up and put on a smile that wouldn't have fooled a blind man.

'Okay, Vicks. The orange mouth. Just for you.'

He glanced at Gia and made a sawing motion with his hand. Gia got up and found him a knife. When she returned to the table, he was shaking his hand as if it were wet.

'What's the matter?'

'This thing's leaking. Must be a real juicy one.' He sliced the orange in half. Before quartering it, he rubbed the back of his hand along his cheek. Suddenly he was on his feet, his chair tipping over behind him. His face was putty white as he held his fingers under his nose and sniffed.

'No!' he cried as Vicky reached for one of the orange halves. He grabbed her hand and roughly pushed it away. 'Don't touch it!'

'Jack! What's wrong with you?'

Gia was furious at him for treating Vicky that way. And poor Vicky stood there staring at him with her lower lip trembling.

But Jack seemed oblivious to both of them. He held the orange halves up to his nose, inspecting them, sniffing at them like a dog. His face grew steadily paler.

'Oh, God!' he, said, looking as if he was about to be sick. 'Oh, my God!'

As he stepped around the table, Gia pulled Vicky out of his way and clutched her against her. His eyes were wild. Three long strides took him to the kitchen garbage can. He threw the orange in it, then pulled out the Hefty bag, twirled it, and twisted the attached tie around the neck. He dropped the bag on the floor and came back to kneel before Vicky. He gently laid his hands on her shoulders.

'Where'd you get that orange, Vicky?'

Gia noted the 'Vicky' immediately. Jack never called her by that name. She was always 'Vicks' to him.

'In...in my playhouse.'

Jack jumped up and began pacing around the kitchen, frantically running the fingers of both hands through his hair. Finally he seemed to come to a decision.

'All right—we're getting out of here.'

Gia was on her feet. 'What are you—?'

'Out! All of us! And no one eat anything! Not a thing! That goes for you, too, Eunice!'

Eunice puffed herself up. 'I beg your pardon?'

Jack got behind her and firmly guided her toward the door. He was not rough with her, but there was no hint of playfulness about him. He came over to Gia and pulled Vicky away from her.

'Get your toys together. You and your mommy are going on a little trip.'

Jack's sense of urgency was contagious. Without a backward glance at her mother, Vicky ran outside.

Gia’s anger flared. 'Jack, you can't do this! You can't come in here and start acting like a fire marshal. You've no right!'

'Listen to me!' he said in a low voice as he grasped her left biceps in a grip that bordered on pain. 'Do you want Vicky to end up like Grace and Nellie? Gone without a trace?”

Gia tried to speak but no words came out. She felt as if her heart had stopped. Vicky gone? NO—!

'I didn't think so,' Jack continued. 'If we're here tonight, that might happen.'

Gia still couldn't speak. The horror of the thought was a hand clutching at her throat.

'Go!' he said, pushing her toward the front of the house. 'Pack up and we'll get out of here.'

Gia stumbled away from him, propelled not so much but his words, but by what she’d seen in his eyes...something she’d never seen or ever expected to see: fear.

Jack afraid—it was almost inconceivable. Yet he was; she was sure of it. And if Jack was afraid, what should she be?

Terrified, she ran upstairs to pack her things.

4

Alone in the kitchen, Jack sniffed his fingers again. At first he’d thought he was hallucinating, but then he’d found the needle puncture in the orange skin. No doubt about it—rakoshi elixir. Even now he wanted to retch. Someone—someone? Kusum!—had left a doctored orange for Vicky.

Kusum wanted Vicky for his monsters.