Chapter 8

12

"I know you'll find this hard to believe, Julia, but I did nothing at all to your brother... at least nothing that would have caused him to commit suicide. I think Richard was searching for some hope in a hopeless situation, and when he failed to find it... well, we all know what happened." The professor bowed his head, his shoulders slumping a bit. "If I could have done anything at all to keep your brother from killing himself, I absolutely would have. But nothing we knew about him, then or now, indicated he might do such a thing."

Julia narrowed her eyes, not happy with what the professor was saying. "You didn't do anything to him, and you never saw anything that would make you believe he'd kill himself... but, right after you used whatever machine makes it possible for seeing the future on him, he decides to throw himself in front of a bus. I find that kind of timing very inconvenient when it comes to believing you, professor."

Deciding that her husband had dominated the conversation long enough, Sarah quickly interjected, "Julia, that's not quite true! Your brother's death occurred nearly two weeks after he left us, which is more than ample time for any number things to have happened. I know you don't want to believe us, and maybe, in your place, I'd feel the same. But you didn't know your brother very well the last few years, and if there is one thing I can say with certainty, it is this: Leland now knows your brother better than any person alive. And if you don't believe that, ask him."

Julia looked at her in exasperation bordering on contempt. "Ask him? ASK HIM? What is this, some parlor game? I already KNOW he sucked my brother's brain somehow, so of course he 'knows' my brother. I'd be surprised if he couldn't tell me Richard's shoe size, current weight, or last bowel movement!"

Hearing her tone, the professor lifted his head, eyeing her with a somewhat wounded dignity. "I might indeed know those things, Julia, but those are the type of details that a stage psychic might use to bait a scam. What I would tell you about your brother are things you probably never knew, because he would never tell you for fear of being laughed at.

"Did you know that, in the last year, Richard drove down to Bath six times? Each time he would leave Rochester around 8 PM, arriving in front of your house between 9:30 and 10. He would sit in his car, watching the house, occasionally seeing you moving around inside. When you turned off all the lights and went to be, he would recline the front seat of his car and go to sleep as well, setting his watch to 5:30 AM... the very same time you always got up each day. He would watch the light come on in your bedroom, and then in the upstairs bathroom. He would see you faintly through the living room windows as you came downstairs to start the coffeepot in the kitchen. He'd wait for you to pour your first cup, then take the thermos of coffee he'd brought with him from Rochester from the front seat, and pour his own semi-warm cup. Then he'd pretend he was sitting across from you at the kitchen table, the two of you sharing coffee and a little morning chit-chat before you headed upstairs to your shower. That would be when he would start his car and begin the trip back to Rochester."

Julia said nothing for a moment, and then said derisively, "That's total nonsense! Richard would never have sat outside my house all night! He had no reason to!"

The professor shook his head ponderously, as if restricted by a great weight. "Yes, he did have a reason, once he could never share with you in person because he thought you didn't feel as strongly for him as he felt for you. Do you remember third grade, Julia? When there were older kids on the bus, and they started teasing you? Do you remember how you cried? And then, when teasing you no longer worked, how they pinched you and pushed you down, causing you to drop your books? That day, you cried all the way home, but your parents weren't there... only Richard. And, on that one day, you let him hug you and cradle you in his arms, as he said 'There, there, Julie-bear' over and over until you were finally quiet. And you told him what had happened, and he became so angry that you got scared and pulled away from him and ran to your room and locked the door.

"What you didn't know was that he waited until the next day, and he walked the 10 blocks to the house of the kid who had been the leader of the rest of bullies, and without saying a word, he picked the boy up by the collar of his jacket and threw him onto the ground, and then, as he put it, 'kicked the living shit out of him.' Then, when he was done, he knelt down by the boy and whispered, 'If you or your friends ever touch or talk to my sister Julia ever again, I'll be back. And if I come back, next time you'll wake up in the hospital.' And, amazingly enough, those bullies left you alone after that.