Hood and Janet Bly walked into Seliah Ozburn's darkened home just after nine the next morning. She stood back to let them pass and smiled briefly at Hood, then looked down as he came by her.
They sat in the living room and Hood saw that the sun blinds were down and the curtains were pulled closed also. The air conditioner started up. Seliah sat on the couch with her laptop on the coffee table before her. She looked tan and fit as always. She wore a simple black shift and her straight platinum hair was newly trimmed. Her nails were painted red.
'I've been thinking about this since we decided to do it,' she said. 'I thought it would be easy but I don't know what to say to him. Maybe I'm afraid he won't want to see me. Maybe I don't want to betray him.'
'It's the only way to save his life,' said Bly. 'We're trying to get him back alive from wherever it is he's gone. He's clearly losing his reason.'
'I know. I see that.'
'But he's passionate about one thing-you,' said Bly. 'Can you be passionate back?'
Seliah looked at Bly and nodded and lowered her hands to the keyboard. 'Let me see. How about this? 'Dear Sean, let's meet in Las Vegas and hump 'til we're cross-eyed. Hugs, Sel.' '
A silent moment.
'Not bad,' said Bly. 'Maybe something a little more romantic.'
'What do you know about romance, you dried-up cunt?'
Bly stood. 'I'll get some fresh air. Call me if she stops hissing.'
Seliah looked up at Hood with anger in her eyes. 'You can't make me do this.'
The front door slammed.
Hood sat in a chair across the coffee table from her. Seliah hugged herself against the chill from the air conditioner. Then her cheeks flushed and Hood saw the sheen of moisture appear on her forehead and shoulders. She was still glaring at him. Slowly the glare softened and she took a deep breath and let out a wavering sigh.
'I've vanished, Charlie,' she said softly. 'I don't know where I went.'
'Sean's there.'
'I don't know where he's gone, either.'
'Think.'
'Think what, Charlie? All I do is think about what went wrong.'
'Any progress?'
'Costa Rica. That was the beginning.'
'On the volcano.'
'The Arenal Volcano.'
'In the hotel in the jungle.'
'Yeah. There. I'm so ashamed of what I said to Janet. I don't do that. I'm just not me anymore.'
'Forget what you said, Seliah.'
'I have thoughts I can't control.'
'All of us do.'
'But I have actions I can't control.'
'Have you seen a doctor?'
'Flu. Stress. High blood pressure. Depression. Take your pick.'
'Tell me about the volcano. Where this all started.'
She closed her eyes and nodded and a small smile appeared on her lips. Her skin glowed damply and the AC fan stirred her hair. 'The frogs were so loud at night you could hardly sleep. The hotel rooms were built up onto the branches of the trees. The rooms all had screens instead of windows. Like a big tree house in the jungle. There were geckos and macaws and toucans and a green boa constrictor. They got more bugs and beetles than you could believe, ones with horns and pinchers and stripes and dots. Ones that make noises, ones that smell good and ones that stink. I always liked that kind of stuff. Nature's pure weirdness. Nature's extravagance. Sean, too. Down in the lobby the hotel owner's son had a tiny baby monkey in a birdcage. Sean held it. It was about the size of a pear, eyes like silver buttons. And Sean stared at that little thing for a while and he looked up at me smiling and he said, 'Sel, can you even believe this thing? Who designed it? Whose idea was this?' And of course Sean tried to give him twenty bucks for it and I said, 'Hey handsome, come up to the bar with me and I'll buy you a drink and we'll talk about this monkey. Because I can give you something you'd like even more.' That was when it hit me. When I knew I was ready for a baby. Took me twenty-eight long years to get to that point but, well, there I was. So. I talked him out of the monkey.'
She opened her eyes. 'Father Joe-I told you about him-well, he told me that the Lord would bless our union with many children.'
'That must be nice to know.'
'We'll have them, Charlie. I'm going to have them.'
'I know you are.'
'And Father Joe told me he got strong feelings from certain people and that Sean and I were two of them. People who would have some effect on the world around them. He sought those people out, he said. He'd invite himself right into their lives because he enjoyed their company. He said it was unusual for both people in a marriage to strike him that way. And I said, 'You're not going to follow us home and take up residence in the spare room, are you?' And we all got a laugh about that. Man, oh, man, did we do some drinking that night. Father Joe-you're going to love this-he had this secret potion he wouldn't tell us the ingredients of. And he'll only let you drink it straight from either his silver flask, or this old cocktail shaker with the top that fits tight. That's because he doesn't even want you to know what it looks like. And Sean's all, 'Go ahead, Sel-try it. You'll love it.' And I'm not brave about things like that, so I'm all, 'Okay, I'll try it once.' And, weird thing is, it tastes really good. Kind of like wood smoke with a little mint in it. Like if you could make a liquid out of cedarwood. Cold. Went down a little too easy. We drank beer and tequila, too, so maybe it was just the combo, but I've never been quite that messed up in my life. In college I'd drink so much that the next day in the pool I'd exhale underwater and smell it. Really. So I can hold my liquor, Charlie. But that night with Father Joe. Wow.'
'What happened?'
'What do you mean?'
'Tell me about that night and you and Sean and Joe.'
'Nothing really happened.'
'It's just that you've already told me so much about it. I can see the Arenal Volcano smoking in the background, and the rooms with screens instead of windows up in the trees, and all the birds and bugs and geckos. I can see you and Oz and the priest and his silver cocktail shaker with his secret elixir. That's quite an opening scene, Seliah. I'm hooked.'
She smiled and Hood thought it was the first true smile he'd seen from her since this nightmare had started. He also thought that for the events of the last ten days to have had their beginnings on the volcano, then something damn well had to have happened. She wanted to tell him. She'd led him up close to the rim of that volcano. But she didn't know exactly what had occurred, or she didn't remember it clearly or she had buried the memory of it.
Hood heard the front door open and close. Bly stood in the entryway to the living room.
'Potty mouth still here?' she asked.
Seliah stood up and ran to Bly and took her hands. She bowed her head. 'Please forgive me for that ugly lie. Please.'
'Forgiven, Seliah.'
'I'm so sorry.'
Bly hugged Seliah and Hood heard her whispering into Seliah's ear until Seliah said something he couldn't understand; then she whispered into Janet's ear and the women didn't let go of each other for a full minute. Unincluded, Hood timed it on his watch, wondering at the durability of women.
When they broke the embrace Hood saw the tears on Seliah's face and the long clear ribbon of mucous hanging from her chin. She glanced at him with a hunted expression, hurriedly swiped it onto her hand and hustled into the bathroom.
She was back a few minutes later, her face clean and a fresh coat of lipstick on. She sat on the couch behind the laptop. 'Okay. I can do this. I'm going to give it a try.'
