Bones to Ashes

“Jesus, Ryan. What if she has gone to Tracadie?” Even to myself I was starting to sound a bit loony.

“Call her.”

“What if—”

Ryan placed a hand on my arm. “Call your sister’s cell phone.”

“Of course. I’m an idiot.”

I picked up the portable, punched Harry’s number, and listened to clicks as the call was routed. In my right ear, a phone rang. In my left, Buddy Holly and the Crickets chirped “That’ll Be the Day.”

Ryan and I both looked at the chair.

Grabbing Harry’s new red leather jeans, I dug through the pockets. And almost flinched when my fingers touched metal.

“She changed pants and forgot,” I said, extracting Harry’s sparkly pink cell.

“She’s fine, Tempe.”

“The last time Harry did this she wasn’t so fine.” My voice cracked. “The last time she almost got herself killed.”

“Harry’s a big girl. She’ll be OK.” Ryan opened his arms. “Come here.”

I didn’t move.

Taking my hands, Ryan reeled me in. As though by reflex, my arms went around him.

Frightening images played in my head, memories of my sister’s long-ago brush with crazies. An ice-pelted windshield. The crack of bullets.

Ryan made comforting noises. Patted my back. My cheek nestled into his chest.

Harry drugged and helpless.

Ryan stroked my hair.

A puppet dance of bodies in a darkened house.

I closed my eyes. Tried to calm my overwrought nerves.

I don’t know how long we stood there. How long it took for the pats to elongate into strokes. Grow more languid. Morph into caresses.

Other memories slowly took over. Ryan in a tiny Guatemalan posada. Ryan in my Charlotte bedroom. Ryan in the bedroom just beyond the wall.

I felt Ryan bury his nose in my hair. Inhale. Mumble words.

Slowly, imperceptibly, the moment redefined itself. Ryan’s arms tightened. Mine responded. Unconsciously, our bodies molded to each other.

I felt Ryan’s heat. The familiar curve of his chest. His hips.

I started to speak. To protest? Doubtful.

Ryan’s hands slid to my throat. My face. He lifted my chin.

I realized I was still clutching Harry’s mobile. I turned to place it on the desk.

Ryan twisted my hair in his fist, kissed me hard on the mouth. I kissed back.

Tossed the phone.

Our fingers groped for buttons and zippers.

The digits on my clock glowed 8:34. At some point I, or we, had migrated to my bed. Rolling to my back, I extended an arm.

Cold needles prickled my chest. I was alone.

The refrigerator door whooshed, then a drawer rattled.

Relieved, I grabbed a robe and hurried to the kitchen.

Ryan was fully dressed, holding a beer, staring off into space. Suddenly it struck me. He looked exhausted.

“Hey,” I said.

Ryan started at my voice. “Hey.”

Our eyes met. Ryan grinned a grin I couldn’t interpret. Sadness? Nostalgia? Postcoitus languor?

“You good?” Ryan asked, extending an arm.

“I’m good.”

“You look tense.”

“I’m worried about Harry.”

“If you want I can put out a few feelers, check airlines, trains, car rental agencies.”

“No. Not yet. I—” I what? Overreacting? Being cavalier? The anonymous call and e-mail had implied a threat to my sister as well as to me. “Harry’s just so impulsive. I never know what she’ll do.”

“Come here.”

I moved to Ryan. He hugged me.

“So,” Ryan said.

“So,” I repeated.

Awkward tension filled the kitchen. Birdie wandered in and broke it.

“Birdster!” Ryan squatted to deliver an ear scratch.

“Do you have to rush off?” I asked. To Lutetia? I meant.

“Is that a hint?”

“Not at all. If you’re hungry I can throw something together. But I understand if you have to get back…”

Ryan’s knee popped as he rose. “I’m starving.”

I made my standard bare-cupboard meal. Linguine with clam sauce and a tossed salad. As we prepared the food and ate, I told Ryan what I’d found out about Hippo’s girl. He listened, asked good questions.

“Leprosy. Like, clapper and bell, unclean, go away?”

“The bells were as much to attract charity as to warn people they were approaching the sick. By the way, it’s now called Hansen’s disease.”

“Why?”

“Mycobacterium leprae was discovered by Hansen in 1873. It was the first bacterium identified as causing disease in man.”

“Whatever the label, it’s a bad trip.”

“Leprosy actually exists in two forms, tuberculoid and lepromatous. The former is much milder, sometimes resulting in little more than depigmentation spots. Lepromatous leprosy is far more serious. Skin lesions, nodules, plaques, thickened dermis. In some cases the nasal mucosa becomes involved, resulting in chronic congestion and nosebleeds.”

“Not to mention the little buggers cause your flesh to rot.”

“That’s actually a misconception. It’s the body’s attempt to rid itself of the bacterium that causes tissue destruction, excessive regeneration, and eventually mutilation, not the bacterium itself. More salad?”

“Bring it on.”

I handed Ryan the bowl.

“I keep seeing that scene from Ben Hur.”

I raised both brows.

“Ben Hur’s mother and sister got leprosy so they had to live in a cave in a deserted quarry. The colony was fed by lowering food over the quarry rim.”

“OK.”