"OK," said Robbie. "It don"t bounce good on the carpet anyway."
"It doesn"t bounce well," said Step.
"I know," said Robbie, puzzled. "I told you."
Half an hour after DeAnne left for the church, the phone rang. It was DeAnne. "This is going to sound stupid, Junk Man, but would you mind asking Robbie where he got that ball?"
"He"s had it for years," said Step.
"But it rolled down one of the yucky holes in front of the house the first week we lived here," she said. "I want to know how it got out again. You didn"t rescue it, did you?"
"I didn"t even know it was lost. Maybe I could put it back."
"Step, please find out or it"ll drive me crazy for the rest of my life."
He agreed, hung up, and went in search of Robbie.
"The invisible guy got it for me," said Robbie. "He said it wasn"t very far down in the drain, and it came when he called it."
Step might have rebuked him for making up such a weird story, but the mention of an invisible guy gave him pause. "Where did you meet this invisible guy, Road Bug?"
"In the yard today," said Robbie. "He was naked because if he wore clothes people would see him."
"But you could see him," said Step.
"I"m your son," said Robbie, as if that explained everything.
Lee Weeks, thought Step. "How long ago was this?" asked Step. "Before or after Stevie got home from school?"
"Before," said Robbie. "He"s gone now. He had to fly to Raleigh."
Step went around the house, double-checking the locks. Then he made Robbie and Stevie go into Betsy"s and Zap"s bedroom while he went outside.
It was nearly dark, with scant moonlight, but Step saw him almost at once, a pale ghostlike figure standing up against the neighbor"s high hedge in the front yard. Step locked the front door behind him and strode toward him.
"How did you get over here with no clothes on, Lee?" he asked.
Lee laughed in delight. "I knew you"d be able to see me. Just like your son."
"You"re lucky it wasn"t a cop who saw you, Lee. This is called "indecent exposure" and you go to jail for it." In fact, though, Lee"s naked body was more sad than anything, so pale, the hair making feeble shadows. "I don"t appreciate you talking to my son in this condition."
"I can"t help it if he has your power to see the invisible," said Lee.
"You"ve been palming your medicine again, I guess."
"Mother checks my hands," said Lee. "She checks my mouth. And she watches me so I don"t throw it up."
"Do you hate it that much?"
"It makes me feel like I"m moving through the world in a fog," said Lee. "When I don"t take it, everything gets so sharp and clear. I can see forever. And my thoughts-I can think the thoughts of G.o.d. I don"t have to sleep. I haven"t slept in five days."
"I can believe it," said Step, noticing that if Lee was G.o.d, then G.o.d chewed gum. "Why are you here?"
"If you"re really going to be my spokesman, then you have to be tested."
"I"m not going to be your spokesman, Lee. Where are your clothes?"
"Those are the robes of my captivity," he said. "I never had clothing."
"Yeah, well, they don"t fit your mother."
"My mother likes you," said Lee. "She thinks you"re really smart."
"How nice."
"But she says you don"t like woman psychiatrists."
"She"s mistaken," said Step.
"Oh, you don"t have to pretend. I don"t like them either. They"re so bossy. And they don"t understand what it"s like. They"ve got their drugs to turn you into a robot, when you"re just this close to seeing it all. To getting the whole picture."
The picture I need right now, thought Step, is how to get you safely back into your mother"s care without endangering my family and preferably without bringing in the police. "We never get the whole picture in this life, Lee."
"I do," said Lee. "I see that you"re planning to call my mother."
"Of course I am," said Step. "You need your medicine."
"Never again. I"m going to go seven days without sleeping and on the seventh day I"ll come into my full power. It"s sleep that dulls our minds, you know. I almost made it once before. I was driving along in that jet-black Z and I knew that all I had to do was just lean back to the right angle in my seat and I could fly anywhere. It was G.o.d in me. I wish I"d done it, Step. But the police wouldn"t listen to me. The guy from the car lot must have called them. He didn"t understand that it was my car now. I drove exactly fifty-five, so the policemen wouldn"t stop me. But they have no respect for the law. They knew they had to stop me before I began to fly. They cut me off, about five or six police cars, and I got out of the car when they told me but they made me lie down on the road and the gravel got into my face and it really hurt." His voice went high at the end. A kind of whimper, a childlike cry. It made Step think of Howie Mandel"s little-kid voice, small and high. It was funny when Mandel did it.
"That was the time I was in the hospital. I told them, I can"t stand to be confined. But they strapped me down anyway, it"s this kind of straitjacket for when you"re lying on the table. You can, like, lift one arm, but if you do, it tightens down the straps on all the others, including the one around your throat. So if you move your arms both at once you can choke yourself. And I kept thinking, what if I fall off the table? I"ll strangle here and they won"t do anything because they"re jealous of me and they want me to die without ever coming into my power."
"I think they were trying to help you, Lee."
"It was killing me. So I started screaming, I don"t like this, I don"t like this, over and over but when the guy finally came in he just tightened it more so I couldn"t even move one arm anymore and he said, We won"t loosen this until you show us that you"re in control of yourself, and I said How can I be in control of myself when you"ve tied me up? You"ve got to let me stand up, I won"t go anywhere, I promise, and he says Yeah right. And then Mom got there and she had the medicine again but when she tried to give it to me I threw up right on her." He laughed uproariously. Then stopped. "She won"t let me drive anymore. I had to walk all the way over here. Look. My feet are bleeding."
It was true. When he sat down in the gra.s.s and held up his feet for inspection, Step could see even by the light from the porch that they were badly lacerated, with bits of gravel and road dirt ground into the wounds.
"That must hurt," said Step.
"I"m above pain," said Lee. "That"s how I know I"m on the verge of my power. Pain means nothing to me. I could break you in half and you couldn"t hurt me. I could break you up into pieces."
Step thought of Lee talking to Robbie in this condition and shuddered with retroactive dread.
"It"s time for your test," said Lee. "To see if you"re worthy to be my servant and accompany me into immortality."
Step could think of several ways to enter immortality, and he didn"t want any of them to happen right now, least of all with Lee Weeks. "I don"t intend to take any tests," said Step.
"Fine," said Lee. "But I"ll bet you can"t guess how I faked Mom out about the medicine."
Step said the first thing that came to mind. "You hid the pill in your chewing gum."
Lee cackled with glee. "That was the test! You pa.s.sed it!"
"One question? The whole test?"
"That"s it. I"m going to take you with me now." Lee scrambled to the hedge on all fours, and started searching for something. A gun? Step didn"t intend to wait to find out.
"Wait a minute," said Step. "What about my test for you?"
"You don"t test me," said Lee. "I"m G.o.d, you idiot."
"So you say," said Step. "Anybody can say that."
"But I"m invisible."
"Not to me."
"What"s your test, then?" asked Lee.
"Let me go in and get it."
"Get what?"
"The test. It"s an object, and you have to tell me where I got it. If you"re G.o.d, you"ll know."
"I already know what it is," said Lee. "G.o.d already knows what your whole test is. When I asked you, that was a joke."
"OK," said Step. "Wait there."
He unlocked the front door, went inside, and locked it behind him. He called Stevie"s name as he headed for the phone. Dr. Weeks"s number was ringing when Stevie got into the kitchen. "Go get me Robbie"s ball. Tell Robbie I need it right now, and bring it to me."
Then Dr. Weeks answered.
"Are you looking for Lee?" asked Step.
"Is he there?"
"Naked and talking about taking me into immortality with him. He might have a gun."
"Lee isn"t violent," she said.
"His feet are badly injured. I think you"ll want an ambulance."
"We"ll be right there. Don"t let him leave." She hung up.
Stevie came back with the ball. Robbie had followed him. "Go back to Betsy"s room, boys," said Step. "Stay there and don"t leave."
Back outside, the door locked behind him, Step held out the ball. "Do you recognize this?"
"I called it, and it came to me," said Lee. "I have called it again, and you have brought it unto me."
"How did I get this ball, Lee? If you"re G.o.d, you"ll know."
"You got it from Robbie, of course," said Lee.
"No, Robbie got it from me. It was a present. So I ask you again, how did I get this ball?"
Lee tried several answers, but as soon as he spoke, he immediately refused to let Step tell him whether he was right or not. "This is very hard," said Lee. "You have great powers, Brother Fletcher. You are able to conceal this knowledge from me."
The guessing game lasted until the ambulance and Dr. Weeks arrived ten minutes later.
"You tricked me, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d," said Lee.
"That was the test," said Step. "To know that the ball wasn"t the test."
Lee"s fury turned to disappointment. "Then I failed."
"You aren"t G.o.d, Lee. You"re just a nice kid with a serious problem."
Lee stood impa.s.sively as the men from the ambulance took him by the arms. Dr. Weeks came up to him, baring the needle of a syringe.
"Please don"t, Mom," said Lee. "You"ll ruin everything. It"ll all be wasted."
"You need to sleep," said Dr. Weeks.
"I need to sleep with you," said Lee, laughing. "Isn"t that what your precious Freud said? I need to kill Dad and sleep with you."
"How did you get off your medicine this time?"
"Step knows," said Lee.
"He hid it inside his chewing gum," said Step.
Lee looked crestfallen. "You told."
Dr. Weeks pushed the plunger down and Lee watched, fascinated, as the fluid went into his arm. "Is this the fast stuff?"
"Yes," said Dr. Weeks.
It was true. By the time they got him to the ambulance, Lee wasn"t walking under his own power. They strapped him down inside. "Take him right in," Dr. Weeks told them. "They"re expecting him. I"ll be there very soon."
They drove off. Dr. Weeks stood there on the lawn, facing Step. "Thank you," she said.
"It must be hard," said Step. "Being a psychiatrist, and having a manic-depressive child."
"Lee is the reason I became a psychiatrist. So I could understand him."
"And do you?"