THE WORD OF AL IGHTY GOD.
I remembered the day I had seen Sadie’s full name with part of it blocked out, so all I could read was “Doris Dun.” This was a harmonic of that magnitude. I closed my eyes and visualized the church signboard. Then I visualized putting my hand over IGHTY GOD.
What I was left with was THE WORD OF AL.
Al’s notes.I had his notebook!
But where? Where was it?
The bedroom door opened. Sadie looked in. “Jake? Are you asleep?”
“No,” I said. “Just lying quiet.”
“Did you remember anything?”
“No,” I said. “Sorry.”
“There’s still time.”
“Yes. New things are coming back to me every day.”
“Honey, that was Deke. There’s a bug going around school and he’s caught a good case of it. He asked if I could come in tomorrow and Tuesday. Maybe Wednesday, too.”
“Go in,” I said. “If you don’t, he’ll try to do it himself. And he’s not a young guy anymore.” In my mind, four words flashed on and off like bar neon: THE WORD OF AL, THE WORD OF AL, THE WORD OF AL.
She sat down next to me on the bed. “Are you sure?”
“I’ll be fine. Plenty of company, too. DAVIN comes in tomorrow, remember.” DAVIN was Dallas Area Visiting Nurses. Their main job in my case was to make sure I wasn’t raving, which might indicate that my brain was bleeding after all.
“Right. Nine o’clock. It’s on the calendar, in case you forget. And Dr. Ellerton—”
“Coming for lunch. I remember.”
“Good, Jake. That’sgood.”
“He said he’d bring sandwiches. And milkshakes. Wants to fatten me up.”
“Youneedfattening up.”
“Plus therapy on Wednesday. Leg-torture in the morning, arm-torture in the afternoon.”
“I don’t like leaving you so close to… you know.”
“If something occurs to me, I’ll call you, Sadie.”
She took my hand and bent close enough so I could smell her perfume and the faint aroma of tobacco on her breath. “Do you promise?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“I’ll be back on Wednesday night at the latest. If Deke can’t come in on Thursday, the library will just have to stay closed.”
“I’ll be fine.”
She kissed me lightly, started out of the room, then turned back. “I almost hope Deke’s right and this whole thing is a delusion. I can’t bear the idea that we know and still might not be able to stop it. That we might just be sitting in the living room and watching on television when somebody—”
“I’ll remember,” I said.
“Will you, Jake?”
