I turn back to Grant. “I need you to know that that would literally never happen in real life.”
“Understood,” he says uneasily. “So what are we going to do about …” He flashes a nervous glance toward the other victim.
We move cautiously toward the man, walking on eggshells in light of his fragile state, but he just grins at us with a glazed look in his eyes.
“Hello, sir,” I say. “Do you know where you are?”
He chuckles. “I know, right?”
Grant tries. “Do you remember what happened to you?”
He beams, nods emphatically, and says, “Hello!”
“Hello,” sighs Grant. “Okay. Just sit tight, we’re going to get help.”
He digs his phone out of his pocket and makes for the hallway. I snag him by the arm before he gets too far.
“Where are you going?”
“There’s no phone service in here,” he says, pointing a circle around the room. “Something in the walls, probably.”
“But … who are you going to call?”
Grant looks at me dubiously, like he’s wondering if I’ve misread the room badly enough to make aGhostbustersjoke. “An ambulance …?”
He begins to dial, and I snatch his phone from him. He levels a flat look at me. “Think about this, Grant. What are we going to tell them?”
The injured man chimes in. “Yes, whatarewe going to tell them?” He appears to think hard about this, scratching his chin with his free hand, then nods with an air of great wisdom. “Probably words.”
Grant’s eyes widen with alarm, but he plasters on a smile. “That’s a great idea, Princess Diana,” he says gently, then starts leading me away by the elbow. “Excuse us just a second?”
The man laughs brightly. “Please,” he says, with a lazy waggle of his hand. “Princess Diana is my father. You can call me Raj.”
We debate in whispers by the doorway.
“Are we sure heneedsmedical help? He’s a fictional character,” I say. “For all we know, he’ll be magically healed the moment we leave this scene.”
“But right now, we’reinthis scene with him,” Grant says. “Would you really be willing to leave him just because he’s not technically real?”
All the argument drains out of me at once. “No,” I concede. This is just like any other story. There are the little fictions, and then there are the big truths—the things that stay with you long after you’ve forgotten the characters’ names. The hope. The wisdom. The importance of helping a concussed delivery man.Theseare the things that matter.
Still, as I point out to Grant, this situation will be hard to explain to emergency responders. And if the police get involved … well, that’s about the top of Lesley’s list of things to avoid. I’m not even sure dying outranks it.
Grant blows out a breath and pushes a hand through his hair. “Maybe we could just walk him to the nearest hospital?”
We look over at Raj. He has begun to quietly sing to himself, a lilting rendition of “Space Oddity.” It seems to be going great until he gets caught in a lyrical loop in which Ground Control literally cannot stop asking Major Tom if he can hear them.
Resigned, I hold Grant’s phone back out to him and nod toward the hall. “Call them. I’ll keep our friend company.”
• • •
WITH EMERGENCY SERVICESon the way, Grant is now pacing the hall as he argues on the phone with Lesley, who seems predictably not stoked about our decision to involve law enforcement. Grant isn’t having it. It’s like a one-man courtroom drama out there, all stony-faced defiance and sharp gestures as he says things like “No,youlisten tome” and “End of discussion.” I can barely hear half the conversation, and I’m trying to pay moreattention to Raj’s attachment to consciousness, but it’s hard not to be inspired. I’ve never seen Grant get so passionate about anything. Focused, yes. Argumentative, always. But this—this conviction to do the right thing, to be a champion for someone in need—is really something to behold. It’s almost, dare I think it, a little bit hot.
“I like him,” says Raj, with a look toward Grant that is somehow both blank and sincere. “He is a very mice nan.”
“He is,” I agree. “A very mice nan indeed.”
Raj turns his sweet, empty gaze on me and places his hand softly on my shoulder. “And you,” he says, “have a most beautiful mustache.”
