Page 91 of Installment Immortality

Never look back when you can help it.

The Hockomock Swamp Beastie medical center was located in a low wooden building that looked as old-fashioned and well weathered as everything around it. Once inside, however, we found ourselves in a fully modern clinic, complete with glaring fluorescent lights overhead and uncomfortable chairs in the waiting area. Elsie was whisked away into a curtained area at the back, while I stayed up front with Arthur. He drooped in his seat, hands between his knees and head bowed. I sat down next to him after asking the receptionist—they had a receptionist—for a cup of apple cider, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, buddy,” I said. “How are you doing?”

“He just… stepped in and took me over,” he said. “I couldn’t fight him. It was like my body wasn’t even my own anymore, andhe said I was barely holding on to it, that it would be easy to stay where he was and push me out just a little bit at a time. He said he could just take over. Was he telling the truth, Mary?”

“Possession isn’t easy, and it’s not something I’ve ever really tried to do before,” I said. “But I think he might be right that you’re not as anchored in your body as someone like Elsie is. You belong here, and you’re still my family—I hear you when you call—but you weren’t here from the very beginning. I think it’s possible that he could have pushed you out, given time. For right now, I’m not going to recommend you go on missions that involve a lot of ghosts. I don’t think they’re very good for you.”

Arthur lifted his head, giving me a plaintive look. “Does that meanI’mpossessing the original Artie’s body?”

“No, I don’t think so,” I said. “You were built to live there, you’re not an uninvited spirit taking over a house that isn’t yours. This is your home.”

“And you wouldn’t make me leave if Artie came back?”

There was fear and hope in the question, enough to make me pause. Whatwouldwe do if Artie started to resurface? He was the boy I’d helped to raise, the one I’d known and loved since he was born. Arthur wasn’t an intruder, but he wasn’t Artie, either.

My pause must have been more telling than I realized, because he began to pull away. I winced, catching his shoulder before he could slip from under my hand. “If Artie started to recover, we’d find a way to keep you both,” I said. “We’d find a solution. Because you’re allowed to live as much as he was, and it’s not your fault he had to go. But you’re not a possession, and you didn’t steal anything, and we love you whether or not you’re him.”

Arthur made a thin choking noise and twisted to throw his arms around me, and I embraced him back, letting him cling to me as long as he needed to.

We were still like that when someone cleared their throat, and I looked up to find one of the Hockomock Swamp Beastiesstanding there, wearing a white doctor’s coat over gray scrubs. “You’re here with the, uh, Lilu?”

“I’m her babysitter,” I said, standing. I didn’t let go of Arthur, just allowed myself to turn insubstantial long enough to pass right through him. “How is she?”

“She was in hypovolemic shock when you got her here; any further delay might have been fatal,” said the doctor, sternly. “The bullet went through her shoulder and out the other side; it didn’t hit any bones or major arteries. We were able to repair the damage and transfuse her, and she should make a full recovery. Did Amelia tell you how things work here?”

“No,” I said, almost too giddy with relief to hear what he was telling me. “Please, just tell us what we owe you, and we’ll figure it out.”

“Ten units packed red blood cells, and five units saline,” he said.

“Done.” I could steal them from a hospital, even though neither I nor Arthur could donate. “I assume your community is cross-compatible with human blood products?”

“We are.”

“Then it won’t be a problem.”

“We’ll also ask you to replace any medications she uses before we can discharge her.”

“Understandable, and of course.”

The doctor frowned. “You’re agreeing awfully easily for outsiders.”

“You saved her. That’s all that matters right now. Lilu can’t go to human hospitals without causing riots.”

“She almost caused a riothere.We had to drench our surgical masks in peppermint oil. Two people fainted.”

“Thank you for going to all this trouble for us.”

He looked at me sternly, searching for signs that I was making fun of him. Then, frowning, he nodded. “She’s not awake yet. I’llsend someone to bring you back to where she’s resting when she recovers consciousness.”

“Thank you again.”

He nodded, then turned and walked away. I collapsed back into my chair as Arthur wrapped his arms around me, and for a little while, we just held on to each other.

That was really all that we could do.

Twenty-Three

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