Endless Night Part 20

She almost told him, "It's all right." But that would be a lie, so instead she crouched down beside him and kissed him under the eye.

"Why don't you get up now." she whispered. "Dad thought you might want a chance to take a shower before your uncle gets here."

"The nurse said to leave the bandages on for a day or two. Didn't he tell you that?"

"Yeah, guess he did."

"They'd get all soggy if I took a shower."

"Well, do you want to wash up? You can wash around the bandages."

"Yeah, okay."

Jody eased the blanket away, and he sat up slowly. He was bare to the waist of his jeans. He had bandages on one shoulder, both arms, his chest, his belly, his sides and back. Where there were no bandages, he had plenty of bruises and sc.r.a.pes. Still, he looked only about half as damaged as Jody. She supposed his knee made up for that, though. X-rays at the emergency room had shown no fractures, but the twist to his knee was a lot more severe than any injury Jody had sustained last night.

She helped him up, and hung on to him. He stood on one leg. Carefully, he lowered his other foot to the floor. He put some weight on it. "Oooo."

"Bad?"

"Not real good."

"Maybe we should've got you some crutches."

He reached up behind Jody's back and clamped a hand on her shoulder. "You're better than some old crutch."

"Okay, let's go."

Side by side, they made their way across the living room and down the hallway to the bathroom. She lowered him onto the toilet seat. Stepping back, she said, "Just a second." She left him there, took a washcloth and towel from the hall closet, and returned. "Can you get around well enough to ... take care of stuff?"

He looked up at her and blushed. She felt her own skin go hot. "Gosh," he said. "Don't worry about it."

"Well. No. But if you need help, yell. Okay? And you can specify whether you want me or Dad."

He was still red, but now he laughed. "Okay."

Jody left him in the bathroom and shut the door. Then she went to her bedroom and made a selection of clothes: plain white socks, white cotton underpants, and a pair of faded blue denim shorts that she'd worn almost daily for two summers, but which were now too snug and ought to fit Andy just fine. With a quick search of her closet, she found the bright red blouse that always went so great with the shorts. It had been slightly too large for her, last summer. Now, it would probably fit just right. But she wanted Andy to have it, even though it might be a bit too large for him.

She had to crouch and scurry around at the back of her closet to locate her old pair of Keds. They'd been white and beautiful, once. Now, they were grimy but otherwise okay except for a broken lace on the right shoe. She remembered when it had snapped. She'd done a quick fix with a square knot, but never gotten around to replacing the lace.

She took a package of fresh white laces from her bureau drawer, then sat on the edge of her bed and stripped out the old laces. While threading a new one through the eyelets, her gaze wandered over to the collection of clothes beside her.

Dad shouldn't mind, she thought. It's mostly old stuff except for the socks and undies.

Undies! Oh, my G.o.d. What was I thinking of!

She knew what she'd been thinking of; she'd seen Andy last night pulling up his jeans and glimpsed his bare b.u.t.t. So she knew he wasn't wearing undershorts.

But he doesn't know I know, she told herself.

It would embarra.s.s the daylights out of him, me giving him some undies to wear. Especially a pair of mine.

Jeez!

She s.n.a.t.c.hed them off the bed and hurried to her bureau. As she stuffed them into the proper drawer, she heard the bathroom door open. She pushed the drawer shut.

"Andy? In here." She suddenly remembered his knee. "Wait. I'm coming."

Before she could take a step, he called, "No, I'm okay. I'll make it." She heard him hobbling up the hallway.

"Are you sure?"

"I'll make it. You stay there."

"Okay." Jody went to her bed, sat down and resumed lacing one of the shoes.

Seconds later, Andy stopped just beyond the doorway and pushed a hand against the frame to hold himself steady. His hair was matted down, dark and slick. Where he'd been smudged and streaked with filth, he was clean. He looked in at Jody. "See? Made it. All by myself."

"The champ."

"Yep." He smiled, but it only lasted a moment. Then he looked grim again, as if he'd again remembered last night.

Jody finished with the laces of one shoe and started on the other.

"What're you doing?" Andy asked.

"I've got some stuff for you to wear. If you want it, anyway. Come on in."

He looked uncertain. "You sure it's okay if I come in your room? I mean, your dad won't yell at me or something, will he?"

"You've gotta be kidding."

"I mean, you're a girl."

Jody rolled her eyes upward and sighed. "Jeez, kid. Sure, I'm a girl. But you're twelve years old."

"Twelve and a half."

"Oh. Okay. Anyhow, Dad isn't gonna care. Just leave the door open."

Andy nodded, then stepped into the bedroom. He glanced from the clothes to Jody, then returned his gaze to the clothes. "I don't get it," he said.

"They're for you. You don't have anything to wear but those jeans. All your other stuff is ... you know. Anyway, my dad's clothes would all be way too big for you." She shrugged.

"But these're yours."

"Hey, who's gonna know they're girls' things? n.o.body'll know if you don't tell."

His upper lip lifted slightly. He kept staring at the clothes.

"Don't worry, they're clean."

He met her eyes, and let out a soft laugh. "It isn't that."

"You mean you're not afraid of my cooties?"

His smile widened. "No."

"Don't you like the stuff?"

"Yeah. Sure. But it's yours. I saw you in this red shirt last summer. And in the shorts, too. You looked so ..." He stared down at the clothes and swallowed. "You can't just give them away."

"Okay, I'll lend 'em to you."

"Lend them?"

"Sure. You keep them till the next time we see each other."

"What if we never ... ?"

"Hey, don't be a dope. We'll see each other again. So you can have the stuff till then."

Frowning, he picked up the blouse. He studied it. "Are you sure? It's such a neat shirt. You're the one who oughta be wearing it."

"Put it on, Andy."

He swung it behind his back, wrestled his arms through the sleeves, and pulled its front together. He started to work on fastening the first b.u.t.ton. And stopped. And ducked his head for a closer look. "Hey, something's wrong."

"What?"

"I don't ... Is it inside out?"

Jody could see that the big, twin pockets were exactly where they belonged. "No, it ..."

"The b.u.t.tons are on a funny side."

"They are?" She got up from the bed, stepped closer to Andy, bent down and studied the situation. "No, they're right where they always ... Oh. Woops. I forgot. Guys wear their b.u.t.tons on the wrong side."

"Huh?"

"Girls' shirts have their b.u.t.tons attached to the left side, but guys' shirts have them on the right."

"Well, that's sure dumb."

"Sure is. You still want it, though, don't you?"

"Sure I do."

"Here." Jody began to fasten the b.u.t.tons for him.

"Thanks."

"No big deal."

"They'll probably buy me some new clothes pretty soon, anyway. Or at least let me wear Gary's old things. He's my cousin. He's in high school."

"Is he all right?"

"He's okay. Sort of a geek, is all."

"How are your aunt and uncle?"

"Oh, they're okay."

"They're nice?"

"Sure. Uncle w.i.l.l.y's sort of weird, but ..." He shrugged.

Jody finished with the top b.u.t.ton, but she didn't step away. She put her hands on Andy's shoulders. "Make sure you give me their phone number before you leave. And I'll give you mine. I'll call you every so often. And you call me. Call collect. You know, reverse the charges. Then they won't have any reason to not let you do it. We've got to keep in touch. I have to know that you're all right and they're treating you good and everything."

Andy nodded. "I sure wish I didn't have to go."

"Me, too. But they're your relatives. You could probably stay here with us, but they want you with them, you know? Besides, Dad says you'll be safer there."

His face contorted. "What?"

"Safer. You'll be all the way in Phoenix. Those guys won't stand a chance of finding you there."

"They're still after us?"

"Of course. What do you think?"

He looked stricken. "Can they find us?"

"They'll have trouble finding you, that's for sure. Your aunt is your mother's sister, right? So her name wasn't even Clark to begin with, and on top of that she got married to your uncle. So they'd have two name changes to get through. Unless they found an address book before they ..."

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Dad won't let anyone hurt me."

"Do they know who you are?"

"They might. Or they might not. It depends on whether they found my purse."

"Where was it?"