Page 13 of Outside the Veil
He recalled nothing about the attack. Nothing about that day. His brain hid the memories from him like bean-size shards of glass in a sand dune. Even if one were to cut one’s foot on a piece, the chances of finding it were slim to none.
Mitch had told him he had approached a homeless man in an alley with an offer of food and the man had proved unstable. A tire iron, several blows to the head and a prolonged hospital stay had left Diego with holes in his memory and a seizure disorder.
“I’d like to ask a favor.” Finn’s soft, deep voice startled him. He’d slept on the air mattress again the night before, declaring it was more like home.
“What sort of favor?”
Finn took his hand and pulled him to the bathroom, where he pointed to the tub. “That large vessel there. I assume it holds water.”
“You want a bath? Just turn the taps on like I showed you for the sink.”
“I thought as much. Now for the favor I’d have of you. Could we fill it with water from the bottles?”
How many gallons in a bathtub? He should have seen this coming since Finn so despised the tap water. They sold those huge jugs of spring water at the supermarket, didn’t they?
“You’ll have to give me a little time on this one. Tell you what—if you can promise to stay here and out of trouble, I’ll go get some. We need groceries anyway and you still need shoes.”
Finn put a hand over his heart. “I won’t stray out the door. I swear.”
This, coming from an admitted liar, was perhaps not the most comforting promise. Diego resolved to stop at Tia Carmen’s door on his way down to ask her to keep an ear out.
“Do you have any of those smooth, shiny books with all the picture leaves?” Finn asked when Diego was on his way out.
Magazines. He never had any lying around. In a desperate attempt to find something to keep his unpredictable guest occupied, he heaved down the survey of Renaissance Art. The huge tome connected with the coffee table with a solid thud. Finn eased the cover open and soon sat entranced, giving Diego high hopes that he might come home to both Finn and apartment safe and intact.
At the Goodwill downtown, Diego found a decent pair of leather high-tops, size fourteen, and a respectable selection ofclothes that would fit better than Mitch’s castoffs. At the market, he puzzled over the cooler-sized water bottles and finally decided on six. Only when he reached home again and parked the car, did he realize he would have to lug them all upstairs.
“Maybe I can do two at a time,” he muttered, as he stared at the sea of bottles in his trunk.
One bottle gripped in his right hand, the other slung on his left shoulder, Diego struggled up the steps. He arrived at his front door gasping and let both bottles down to fumble for his keys. “That’s not happening twice.” Maybe Finn could manage one or two if he went slowly.
A low growl greeted him when he opened the door. The art book lay abandoned on the table.
“You’d best bloody well come out of there!” Finn yelled from the kitchen.
Diego froze in the doorway before realizing he must have been speaking to someone else.
“Finn! Who’s in there?”
His pulse in his throat, he raced in and stopped, speechless. Finn stood alone in the kitchen, glowering at the answering machine, threatening it with the wooden meat tenderizer in his upraised fist.
“I don’t know how he’s done it.” He turned his head. “But your nasty erstwhile lover has spelled himself inside your little box here and I’ve been unable to dislodge him. You didn’t tell me he’s a sorcerer.”
Mitch. The answering machine. Mitch had left a message.
“He’s not in the box,” Diego explained, while he pried Finn’s fingers from his improvised club. “It’s just his voice.”
“The boy can cast his voice? Into far away objects? By your expression, this news is meant to reassure me. I am by no means reassured.”
Telephones took some explaining, but Finn finally dismissed the device with a disgusted snort as “simply another machine”.
With a slow, painful breath, Diego pushed the play button.
“Diego…it’s me. Look, I’m… I just wanted…”
Why did that voice still send a jolt through him? Why was he even listening to this?
“I saw what was in the apartment. I overreacted. I didn’t mean those things. Hell, I don’t know what I mean some days.”
