Chapter 10
EQUILIBRIUM
Three weeks had passed before the woman showed up on Cyrus's doorstep. I happened to watch her enter his home, and I sat on the staircase next to the living room of the entryway so that I could listen to them speak.
She unnerved me, as she appeared a life-size doll with black hair and eyes too large for her face, her body looking as though it wasn't sewn together just right. She seemed so synthetic, with lily white skin, and her dress was disheveled, a bit too large for her.
She was escorted by another woman whose graying hair was pinned in a tight bun - this older woman was probably her mother, I had guessed, though I was not sure. Both of them nodded their heads to me when they entered, just like they nodded their heads to Cyrus, and then he asked them to step into the den.
As they walked past me, I noticed something even odder about the girl that perhaps would not have bothered me had her presence not already resonated in my spine. Her arm was incomplete. Her left hand and part of her left arm were gone. I saw the bandaged nub against her side, the white standing out against her purple dress. Then she was in the living room, and Cyrus was pouring all of them lemonade. I heard the tink tink tink of ice in glass.
In quiet moments like those, I checked for Alex in case he was nearby - I had learned to do this automatically - and when I saw he was not there, I sat quietly on the wooden steps and listened.
"I am so sorry to hear," Cyrus said. "What exactly happened to you dear? Was it a car accident?"
"No. No." There was a long pause. "I was in the barn with my brothers. And we were swinging on the big rope."
"Yes?" said Cyrus.
Another long pause. Something that sounded like tissue being pulled from a box.
"John needed to go to the bathroom, and I started walking him to the house. By then it was so dark outside... I didn't even hear it. It's like it appeared out of thin air! One of the nurses said that dogs are quiet like that when they attack. They only bark and growl when they want you to know they're coming. But it bit me and shook me so hard I thought I'd die.
"I fell down, and I screamed for John to go get help, and when I heard the cracking sound, I started crying. Because I knew what it was. Couldn't see it, but I knew. It was tearing me to shreds."
Another pause. "It hurt so bad, I can't even describe the pain. And I just kept hitting it. And hitting it. And it wouldn't let go. And I grabbed a rock..." Another long pause and what sounded like sniffling.
Cyrus mumbled something low. The next person that spoke was the older woman.
"John ran back to the barn. He told Walter and Jesse what was happening. Walter got a shovel. They ran out, found Lisa, and you can imagine. They hit the dog, and it ran off, but her arm was shredded.
"The doctors said the only thing to do was to give it time to see if it would heal. They couldn't stitch everything. But the arm didn't make it. So they had to amputate it."
I could hear Lisa crying, and for a while it was just her sobs, but finally she said, "It still hurts. It still hurts so bad."
"Ghost pains I think it's called," said Cyrus.
"Yes. Yes. I know. But they're terrible. And I can't... I..."
"Take your time," said Cyrus. There was more sniffling and another rustling of a tissue.
"I just can't move on with the pain. I'm terrified of going outside. I'm terrified of the barn. I can't do anything. I just have these panic attacks now. Over and over. It's just..."
"Shhh," said Cyrus. "I think I see. You need me to give you something for the pain."
"No. No," said the girl. "I have things for the pain, and they don't work. They just don't do anything. No, I... I..."
Now the older woman spoke. "Mr. Harper, Lisa and I came here today because we know that you are capable of difficult, and some say impossible, things. We simply want to know if there's any way that you can do something for the arm. Maybe take the pain away for good. Maybe even, well, get Lisa her arm back."
There was a sound of a heavy sigh and some shuffling. The woman continued hurriedly. "It's just that Lisa... she hasn't slept well for weeks now. She barely eats. She is losing weight so fast. If there's something you can do, please. We would be willing to pay you."
"No," said Cyrus. "That's unnecessary." There was a long silence.
"Just anything that you can do. If you would be willing to try. We would be indebted to you forever."
"I think you already are, Evelyn," Cyrus said, and then, "Do you still have the arm?"
"Yes," Evelyn said low. "They gave it to us. We kept it in the freezer, in case..."
"Bring it to me tonight," he said. "I make no promises. I guess we'll find out together... if I can help."
"Thank you," Evelyn said. "Thank you so much Mr. Harper. If there's anything at all I can do for you, anything at all, let me know."
"No worries," said Cyrus. "Exactly when did this event happen?"
I jumped at a voice loud behind me. "What are you doing?" It was Alex.
I missed the rest of the conversation to my left and turned on the stairs to look at him. His blue eyes were open but expressionless, his lips slightly parted, his head turned to the side.
"Listening to your future," I said.
"What?"
"Something tells me that your night is going to be very interesting," I replied and smiled.
Alex opened his mouth wider, drew in a breath, and paused. He looked in the direction of the living room. "What did you hear?" he asked.
Suddenly, Cyrus was in the entryway with the two women, and Alex and I turned to them as though we had never spoken. They nodded their heads to us again, and Cyrus opened the front door. The women's skirts blew back like flower petals before they parted through the opened door. Then, the sunlight on the floor was squelched, and Alex and I were alone again. I heard Cyrus walking them out to their car.
I stood on the stair and turned to Alex.
"What was that?" he asked. "What happened to that woman's arm?"
"You happened to it," I said. I walked past him, climbing the stairs.
"I don't even know her. What the hell does that mean?" he said.
I didn't respond. Instead, I went searching for Roland.