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CHAPTER 17

6 A.m. More About Dreams

      WHEN LUCY got back to the house, Uncle Bob was calling loudly, and Normalade was standing at the head of the stairs, wild-eyed from having waked suddenly, with her pinkish hair standing out around her head like the Bride of Frankenstein. "What's the matter down there!"

      "I was outside and didn't hear him," Lucy answered. Then she hurried into his room, saying, "Sir, I'm here. Were you having a nightmare?"

      "Oh Maybeth," he clutched at her hand, "I had such a terrible fright. I dreamed you'd gotten sick and died, and I . . . I —" he faltered, staring at her, looking like a lost soul.

      He must have been dreaming, she thought, and waking, he'd been lost for a moment between sleep and reality. "It's all right, now," Lucy said, trying to comfort him.

      "I dreamed," Uncle Bob whispered, "Maybeth, I dreamed you were gone, and I had to get old without you. I thought you weren't here any more. I'm so glad you're here!" As he spoke, he was looking full into Lucy's face, staring right at her with eyes full of love and affection. But it was clear that he was seeing somebody else entirely.

      Lucy's dream had stayed with her a while after she woke, but it had gone now. Bob Vance's dream had completely captured him — or else he had run away into it, because now that dream was masquerading as reality.

      "E-Everything's fine," Lucy said, "It's all right now." But she had a bad feeling that things were not all right at all. Holding his old hand, she asked herself, "What if he stays this way, what will I do?"

      He had been trying to struggle out of bed, but the effort seemed exhaust him, so Lucy pushed him gently back on the pillow. "Why don't you rest a while longer."

      He nodded, "Maybe I should, Maybeth. I don't feel so hot. Have I been sick or something?"

      Lucy didn't know what to do, but she felt she needed to keep him calm. And one way was to keep him in bed. And meanwhile, Lucy thought, she definitely needed to call the doctor.

      She said, "You . . . haven't been feeling too well lately. Umm — so suppose I bring you some breakfast on a tray. And while I make it, why don't you take another little nap — how's that?"

      He leaned back. ". . . Whatever you say, sweetheart. Matter of fact, breakfast in bed would go good."

      "Okay, you take it easy, and I'll be right back."

      Lucy backed out of the room and shut the door and leaned against it. What had just happened in there? And who in the world was Maybeth?

      Normalade was coming downstairs. "Lucy, I need some money."

      Lucy stared at her. "Money? What for?"

      "I need to get my hair done and my nails. And I want to get something pretty to wear, so when I see Bobby . . ."

      Lucy shook her head and started for the kitchen, and Normalade came clattering after her, saying, "Stop a minute, can't you. I really need those things. I'd get money from Bobby, but he's not here — and anyway, he's mad at me."

      Lucy opened the refrigerator and took out butter, and bread, and a dozen eggs. After a moment's hesitation, she also took out the remains of Sunday's ham and cut four thin slices. there might still be enough left for a nice pot of soup, she thought.

      Meanwhile, Normalade was saying, "Come on, please be nice about this. It's really important to me. It's important to my future, Lucy!"

      Lucy said absently. "I don't have any money." She began frying eggs and ham.

      "Darn it! You guys are so stingy — you know that?" Normalade started to stalk off in a huff, but then thought better of it. She sat down at the table and poured herself some coffee. "Okay, let me explain this to you. Because of having Hero and all, I haven't got anything at all to wear. And I can't go anyplace looking like this. I've got to look pretty."

      Lucy put bread in the broiler to toast. She got two plates and mug out of the cupboard and put them on a tray before coming back to turn the ham in the pan.

      Normalade said, "See, I been so dragged out that Bobby's forgotten how cute and pretty I am, and that's why he won't be nice. I don't know why I didn't figure it out sooner."

      Lucy turned the toast and began dishing the food onto the plates — one for Uncle Bob and one for Normalade. She poured hot coffee into Uncle Bob's mug and then bent down and pulled the toast out just as it turned the right color.

      Normalade took her plate off the stove and helped herself to toast. "So," she said, taking a forkful of ham, "Just let me have a hundred dollars, and run me up to Belen this afternoon, I'll be able to . . ."

      "A hundred dollars!" Lucy was so astonished she stopped dead. "What are you talking about? Where would I get a hundred dollars?"

      "Oh, don't be like that."

      "Listen here, Normalade, nobody in this family has a hundred dollars to spare."

      "Then how about seventy-five."

      Lucy picked up the tray. "This is foolishness. Uncle Bob's sick and I have to go to work. And can't give you any money, and I can't drive you to Belen or anyplace else."

      "Well, when can you take me?"

      "I don't know, maybe never. If you absolutely have to go someplace, call Miss Peaches and maybe she'll take you. But please not today. Somebody ought to stay with Uncle Bob today, and I have to go to work early and cook."

      "That's not fair!" Normalade pouted. "I have things to do, and a brand new baby and everything. You can't make me stay here — I won't do it!"

      "That's too bad. You have to do it anyway."

      Normalade's eyes narrowed. "All right, tell you what: if you want me to stay home and look after the old man, you got to pay the baby-sitter. Give me thirty dollars, and I'll get another twenty from Mama, and the rest from Swan. And I can get her to do my hair, I can manage it with that. She'll bitch about doing it, but she'll do it."

      Lucy thought: maybe it's worth twenty dollars to have her stay home without whining. "Well, go look in my purse. You stay home today — and every afternoon while Gene is gone, and whatever money's in my purse, you can have."

      That was safe. Lucy thought there was twelve or thirteen dollars of their personal grocery money in her wallet. As for next week's groceries, she'd worry about that later.

      Normalade headed for the living room to find Lucy's purse, and Lucy took that opportunity to reach for the phone.

      "It's an emergency," she said, when Doc. Swerengen's wife answered the phone. The doc lived up in Belen now, but he and Uncle Bob had known each other since they were in elementary school, and Lucy happened to know that his "answering service" was really his wife taking calls in the kitchen. "I know he's probably eating breakfast now, but I really need to talk to him right away," she pleaded.

      Although he was probably within arm's reach, it took him a long time to answer, and he continued to sound grumpy, even after she'd told him everything. "No reason for you to get me up from a meal for something like that," he grumbled, "Do you know what time it is? It's seven-thirty in the morning. I thought somebody was dead."

      Lucy said, "But sir, I have to go to work soon, and I can't call you from there. And I'm really worried. I don't know what to do."

      "Can he walk around okay? Does he have a problem using his hands or feet? Slurred speech or anything?"

      "No sir, his speech is okay, it's that he's not talking sense. I think his hands are all right, but I'll watch to see how he uses his knife and fork when he's eating. But so far as walking, you know, he doesn't get around very well at the best of times."

      "Okay then, keep an eye on things, and let me know this afternoon."

      "But Doctor, he thinks I'm somebody else. He looks directly at me and calls me by some other person's name. And the other night he was telling me some — some tall tale about himself . . . something I know couldn't have been true. And I don't know what to do. And it scares me."

      He sighed loudly, "Well, you can bring him up here if you want, Miss Vance, and I'll look at him. But ten to one, he'll have snapped out of it before you ever get here."

      "I don't suppose you could come down here?"

      "Not a chance. I got appointments. And a couple of cases I have to keep an eye on, and various other things." He paused, considering. "Tell you what, wait a day or so, see how he does, and call me again if he's not any better. That way, you'll save yourself a trip. I hear the roads are still bad."

      And that was all she could get out of him.

      Lucy took the tray to Uncle Bob's room, and he looked up with a smile. "How about this, breakfast in bed."

      "I made ham and eggs, just the way you like them."

      He nodded. "This is nice of you, Sister. Sit down and visit with me a minute. I just had the best dream, and it made me happy — it was all about a dear friend I used to have." He took a sip of coffee. "That's good."

      So it was over, just as Doc Swerengen had predicted. And he was more cheerful than she'd seen him in a long while. It was only that his dream had stayed with him. Poor old thing, Lucy thought as she sat and watched him eat, maybe he had a girlfriend named Maybeth one time. Maybe they were in love. I never thought of him having a girlfriend.

      "Here," Lucy said. "Let me put some jam on that toast for you."

      Even so, although her immediate worry was passed, she thought she'd run by Tagg's on the way to work and let Bobby know what had happened.

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