COSMOS magazine

Thursday, July 3

"What's that, honey?" The judge looked down at Alex, sympathetically, but at the same time intently, trying to figure it out. Maybe if he was evasive she'd change the subject. Mom and Paul had insisted that nobody must know about the auxosomes, but Mom had also taught him never to tell straight-out lies. Ethics was hard.

"I just don't like to talk about, you know, medical things." No, that just made it sound worse. He bit his lip hard.

"Is there something someone told you to keep secret?"

Alex stared miserably at the floor. He was going to have to disobey his mother, either by lying or by telling the judge about the auxosome treatment.

"What did they ask you to keep a secret?

It was a crime to lie in court, so probably it would be best to tell the truth even though that meant revealing the auxosome treatments to the judge. And didn't lawyers and judges have an obligation to keep secrets to themselves, like priests?

"My auxosome shots," he said reluctantly

"Those are the treatments you had with Dr. Collins in San Antonio?"

He could say yes, but that would be a bare-faced lie. "No, the ones I had here in Austin."

"At the Wellness Center?"

"Um. No."

"What other sort of treatments did you have here in Austin? Who gave you the shots?"

"Paul."

"Dr. Paul Gibson?"

He couldn't meet her gaze. "Yes."

"Were the shots the only things Paul and your mom told you to keep a secret?"

"Yes, your honour." It was a relief to find that Judge Patterson didn't seem upset. Maybe everything would work out okay after all.

 

When Mom came in he was so relieved to see her he couldn't sit still. He ran to her and threw his arms around her. "I missed you, Mom!" He didn't ever want to turn loose of her.

"I've missed you too, Sweetie." Mom bent and kissed his upturned cheek. Dad walked in behind Mom, but April stayed outside, to Alex's relief.

"Very smart boy you have there, folks," said the judge. "Just a couple more questions for you, Jill. Alex said that Paul gave him some sort of shots here in Austin and that you told him to keep it a secret. Could you shed a little more light on this for me?"

Alex felt Mom's body go stiff.

"Judge, it's—" He felt her take a deep breath. "A week ago, an armed mentally ill man came into Paul's lab when Alex was there feeding the lab mice."

The judge made a whooshing noise with her mouth. "Oh-kay. That's what I've been trying to remember. I saw a report in the paper. That was you two? And your son, he was there too?"

"I'm sorry, your honour, I had no intention to deceive you by—"

"Ms. Shannon. Wasn't the intruder looking for narcotics or something?"

"That's what we thought, too, but then he pointed a gun at my head and threatened to kill me if Paul didn't inject him and the three of us with a... an experimental treatment Paul... Dr. Gibson's developing. You have to understand, Paul had to inoculate us or the crazy man would have shot us down in cold blood. He ended up firing his gun at Paul!"

Dad burst out shouting at Mom. "Good God, Jill! You never told me any of this!" He sounded so mean Alex took a step back, away from him. He added, "My apologies, your honour, but this is just outrageous."

Mom said, "You can check with the police about the gunman—"

"It's true! Mom wouldn't tell a lie." Alex stepped forward again, between Mom and Dad; he disliked Dad shouting at her that way.

"No one has accused your mom of lying," said Judge Patterson, but she was frowning and didn't seem as friendly. "We're just trying to get a clear picture of what happened. Now Alex, when we were talking a few minutes ago, you mentioned shots, plural, more than one. Did Paul give you another shot after the one you had when the man was pointing a gun at your mother?"

Maybe he could pretend to pass out. No, that would only delay the inevitable. "Yes," he answered faintly.

"Can you speak louder, please, Alex?" Judge Patterson leaned toward him.

"Yes, I've had another shot." He clutched his mother's hand.

"Jill, am I understanding this correctly? You voluntarily allowed Alex to have a second injection of this completely untested substance?"

"No, your honour. Alex and I received a stabilizing injection, a biochemical regulator. So did Dr. Gibson, of course."

Judge Patterson shook her head in amazement. "I can hardly believe what I'm hearing. I have no choice but to grant Keith's petition."

Alex hid his head against his mother, trying hard not to cry.

"Judge, please!" Mom sounded as though she was about to cry too. "You need to understand. This was like taking an antidote after some lunatic has forced you to swallow poison."

Oh no, Mom, you're making it worse.

"Not that it was poisonous, of course, but—"

"That will do, Ms. Shannon. These are only temporary orders. If you can present convincing evidence at the final hearing that these repeated treatments were in the child's best interest, that will influence my final decision."

Dad looked like he was about to burst. "Judge, I had no idea about this, or I'd have asked that Jill be limited to supervised visitation. How do I know she and that man won't try to shoot Alex up with something else when he's with her over the weekends? I'd like to make a motion at this time that Ms. Shannon be limited to supervised visitation on every other Saturday."

The judge sighed. "I'm going to grant Mr. Hindle's motion. Let's go back into the courtroom and get this on the record. Again, Ms. Shannon, these are only temporary orders, in effect until the final hearing."

Alex realized, with absolute clarity, what was happening. Supervised visitation meant he could never be alone with his mother. No chance to conclude his treatments. "No!" he cried. "The auxosomes fixed my tumour, but the new cells have to be pruned back just right! It's called apo— Apoptosis. What you're doing amounts to depriving me of my right to life."

Both Judge Patterson and Dad stared at him.

"Jill trained you to say that," Dad said. "Or was it Gibson?"

They were just like April, telling Tamara that he was too young to know how to read Les Miserables. They thought he was stupid, just because he was young. "Nobody told me!" He stepped away from Mom and looked into the judge's eyes. "It's obvious!"

"Someday when you're older, Alex, you'll understand that your father is doing this to protect you." Judge Patterson reached out to pat him on the head. She had seen nothing, understood nothing. He stepped away from her hand.

"Judge, I won't get very much older if you stop me having—" But the judge wasn't listening any more.

"As I told your mother, Alex, this is only a temporary order. I'm going to set a final hearing for a month from today. This will give your mom time to prepare a case proving she was acting in your best interest."

"Come on, Son. You're going back home with April."

"No! I want to go with my mother."

"Alex, darling," Jill said softly, "you do need to go with your father for now. We'll figure out something. Maybe your dad will let us talk on the phone sometimes."

"She won't let me call you."

Dad laughed in a way that implied Alex was being preposterous. "Certainly April will let you call your mom. Maybe not just as we're sitting down to dinner or going to bed or taking a bath, but you can call your mom any other time."

"Sweetie, you'd better go with your dad for now." Mom bent her knees so that she could look Alex in the eye. "I love you, sweetie. Remember that." He held his head up, feeling tired and sick, and tried to smile at Mom, to make her feel better.

Dad put a hand on his back to guide him out of the room. "Your mom loves you, Son, but she has some very dangerous ideas, and sometimes she acts in ways that are not very smart."

I'm going to die, Alex thought. It made him feel cold and horrible. After all this, I'm still going to die.

Thursday, July 3

On the way to the parking lot Alex had thought hard and quickly, and asked permission to get his Sega-Genesis games and some extra clothes from his room in Mom's house. Dad had already gone back to work from the courthouse, and Mom agreed to meet April at the house. April pulled into the driveway of 3204 Fruth Street, behind Mom's car.

"You wait here," April told him. "It'll just cause a scene if you go in with me."

"Okay." Alex smiled agreeably.

"I'm locking the doors so you'll be safe."

The boy nodded. "Don't worry. I'll be okay."

A workman on the front porch was painting the woodwork. April spoke briefly to him and headed toward the back door. The moment she was out of sight, Alex flung off the buckle of his car seat, got a grip on his backpack, opened the car door and slipped out. He was already hidden across the street behind the shrubbery at the apartment building when Mom came down the driveway. He heard her cry out when she saw that he was not in the car.

He forced himself to keep still and quiet as she walked anxiously around the yard calling, "Alex! Where are you, Alex?" I'll wait until April's left, he thought, then go find Mom. The moment she disappeared around the side of the house, he took the opportunity to run into the covered parking area under the apartment building. To his surprise, someone called his name softly, a strange looking woman in a long orange skirt. His breath was cut off by a strong hand pressing against his nose and mouth. He kicked wildly, and the woman cuffed him sharply across the back of the head.

"Listen carefully, Alex." A man's voice, not a woman's. Payback's voice. Alex felt his bowels contracting , and clamped down tight. "Do as I say, no one gets hurt. You make a lot of noise or give me trouble, you and your mother will pay the price. Understand?"

Terrified, Alex nodded. He caught a glimpse through withered shrubbery of April running from the side of the house.

"Goddamn you," Mom cried. Her voice came clearly from across the street. "I told you not to leave him alone."

"But the car doors were locked. I told him not to open them."

"You left the boy shut up in the car on a hot day like this? Of course he opened the door. He was about to suffocate in there."

"Oh, he was not! I wasn't gone for more than three minutes."

"Time enough for my child to disappear."

"You know he's around here somewhere. He's just playing games with us. Alex! You come out right now!"

"You fool. This is no game." Mom ran to her car. "Get your goddamned car out of my driveway so I can get out of here!"

"Shouldn't we look for Alex?" April sounded frightened.

"I mean it, April. Get your car the fuck out of my way, or you're gonna need to have it towed home."

"Okay, okay. But where are you going?"

"I'm going to look for the madman who's kidnapped my son."