calculatingly so. He wore no jewelry, not even a watch. But around his neck was a thin, black cloth string that carried a tiny cell phone. There was a nervous expression on his face, which he was attempting to hide behind questioning eyes and a casual grin. All in all, he was extraordinarily good-looking and, even with his tapping foot and twitching hand, there was a palpable air of confidence radiating from him.
When Jack finally spoke, he was surprised at how hoarse his voice was. It felt as if he hadn't spoken in days. 'Congratulations. You've stunned me into silence.'
'He showed up at the market yesterday,' Dom said.
'So,' jack said. 'How are you, Kid? It's been a while.'
'It's been too long. I know. No, that sounds ridiculous. I mean, it sounds too… unimportant. I'm sorry. I don't have any real excuse for what I did… for disappearing like that, not being in touch. I've been away…'
'You've been away almost five years.'
'I know.'
'No details?'
'You'll get 'em. There's plenty of time for details.'
'I take it that means you're back. From wherever you've been.'
'Yeah, I'm back. I'm definitely back.'
There was an awkward pause, neither man knowing quite what to say. Dom broke the silence.
'Ask him why he's back, Jackie.'
'There's a reason?'
'There's a reason,' Kid said. 'At least there's a reason why I'm standing in the living room right now.'
'Just ask him, will ya,' Dom said.
'Okay.' Jack shrugged and his eyes met Kid's straight on. 'Why are you back – in the living room right now?'
Kid smiled for the first time since arriving at the apartment. It was a broad, penetrating smile that revealed white teeth and genuine pleasure. And the cocky, I've-got-the-world-by-the-balls attitude that Jack had seen since the man in front of him had been a small boy.
'I'm your new guardian angel,' Kid Demeter said to Jack Keller, and the smile broadened and lingered, looked as if it would stay on his face forever. 'I'm here to take away your pain.'
FOURTEEN
'All right, I want you to say when it hurts.'
'When.'
Jack could feel the sweat breaking out on his forehead. Little beads popping up and starting to stream down toward his eyes.
'When.'
Now the back of his neck was damp. And he could feel his shoulders tense up and his lower back start to ache. No, more than ache. A stabbing jolt…
'When, goddamnit!'
'I haven't done anything yet, Mr. Keller. We haven't started.'
It was the day after Kid had first shown up at the apartment with Dom. Following his proclamation that he was there to heal Jack, the three of them sat down and talked for two hours. It was a strangely nonpersonal conversation. Jack and Dom kept pressing but Kid shied away from any details about his life that didn't have to do with the specific reason he was there.
'I dropped out of St. John's after my junior year,' he explained. 'I know you know that; I remember the conversation.'
'Yes, I remember it, too,' Jack said. 'I remember the conversation and I remember that you disappeared.'
'First of all, I didn't disappear. I disappeared from here. That's two different things. And I don't want to go into that right now. It's gonna be hard enough trying to convince you to let me do what I want to do. So let's come back to that.'
'To the past?'
'Yeah. Let's come back to the past some other time.'
'He's right, Jackie. Let him explain what he wants.'
Jack nodded and Kid continued.
'I traveled around for a while. About a year, just trying different things. And then I got a job in a gym. You know I've always been into that.'
'You're in good shape, I'll give you that.'
'Uh-uh. I'm in great shape. I'm a jock, I've always stayed in shape. Always been kind of obsessed with it. But when I started at this gym it became even more of an obsession. And then it turned into something else. I became just as obsessed with getting other people in shape.'
'You're a personal trainer?'
'I was. In a way, I still am, but that was just the first stage. I realized I could do more than just get people in shape. I could… make them better.'
'Better, how?'
'I had the knack; I don't know how else to put it. If they came to me with a bad back, I could fix it. If somebody had an operation on their arm and couldn't bend it, they could after working with me for a while. It was exciting to me, it really was. People would come to me sort of… incomplete… and they'd leave whole. After a while, that's all I liked doing. I mean, I'd get started with someone, someone who needed my help, and work with him for hours. I could work all day; it was like I couldn't stop until the people I was working with reached their limits. And what happened is I started getting bored working with yuppies who wanted washboard abs and lawyers who wanted to get in shape so they could find someone to cheat on their wives with. So I went back to school.'
'To do what?'
'To become a physical therapist. I got my B.A. first. Had to. Then I got my master's in PT It was a two-year program and, oh, man, you guys won't believe the shit I had to take. A year of physics, a year of chem, two years of biology. It was brutal.'
'You took physics?' Dom said in an incredulous growl.
'Yeah.'
'So say something in physics.'
'Dom, I don't think I can.'
'Come on. Make an old guy happy.'
Kid looked at Jack and good-naturedly rolled his eyes. Then he turned back to Dom and said, 'How about if I explain what an energy level is?'
'Sounds good.'
'Okay. An energy level is one of a quantized series of states in which matter may exist, each having constant energy and separated from others in the series by finite quantities of energy. How's that?'
'Holy shit,' Dom said.
'Where was all this?' Jack asked. 'I mean, where you got your master's and learned about energy levels and discovered you had the knack?'
Kid ignored the barbed tone lurking at the back of Jack's question. 'Maryland. That's where I was so that's just where I stayed. Maryland State. Finished my B.A. there.'
'How'd you pay for it?' Jack asked quietly.
Kid didn't back down from the hurt underneath these words. 'I worked. As a trainer. And I got a partial wrestling scholarship that turned into a full.'
'Since when are you a wrestler?' Dom demanded.
'Thought I'd try my hand at it and I liked it. Fast and strong, why not? We even had one nationally televised match on ESPN… well, okay, the Deuce, against N.C. State. I always thought maybe you guys were watching, saw me.'
