Chapter 6

Much later, Carolyn made another call home to talk to her dad again.

Their conversation was easy and friendly. She listened, interrupting occasionally with comments, to what Ray assumed was her father's lengthy elaboration on what the doctor had told him.

After that she provided her father with some pretty comprehensive medical advisories of her own and told him (in terms that, to Ray, sounded shockingly blunt) that she had "gotten lucky" and accordingly wouldn't be coming home that night.

When she hung up, she told Ray that her dad had reminded her of her commitment to visit his physician tomorrow to discuss the mystery of her father's recovery.

"I'm supposed to see his doctor around ten in the morning," she said. "I guess that means you'll be leaving town about then."

"I really do feel like I have to go," he said. "I sure don't want to. Not anymore. But it's like - it's my job, you know?"

"I do understand," Carolyn said. "But I can't just say, 'Hey, it's been real, ' and kiss you goodbye."

"Wanna come along?" Ray said. "The camper sleeps four — or so the literature claims. I think even just two would be pretty cramped. But you get the right two in there, it maybe wouldn't be so bad."

It wasn't really a serious offer he was making. He didn't expect Carolyn to respond affirmatively. It was just his way of telling her it was going to be painful for him to leave her.

"You don't sleep in that thing all the time, do you?" she asked.

"Not even most of the time," he said, finding it interesting that she had even made the inquiry. "It's just kind of an emergency haven — and a place to keep my stuff."

"Your disguises."

"Yeah. All my stuff. But yes, the disguises, too."

"Those disguises would make it pretty easy to prove who you were, if anybody ever searched your truck."

"Yeah. Well. You do what you can, you know? I've always figured that eventually somebody would catch up with me. After all, you did."

"Lucky for you that you turned out to be such a hottie," she said.

"Yeah, right," Ray said. "Only, the real reason you didn't blow the whistle on me was because you cared about those people who were dying in the ICU."

"That doesn't mean I don't still think you should re-examine your decision to go it alone," she said. "I mean, I get it that you don't want to get discovered and treated like Elvis, but I have to think there might be a happy medium."

"Turning my body over to Science, you mean," he said.

"Yes. But doing it with the backing of this guy — your benefactor - whatshisface."

"Cosgrove."

"Right. Cosgrove. He could work toward seeing to it that you didn't get stepped on by an army of doctors and researchers."

"You've already gotten me to thinking about it, a lot more than I was before," he told her. "I promise you I'll keep on thinking about it."

"I want to go with you," she said suddenly.

"Really? ... Just like that?"

"No. Not 'just like that' at all. I'm the straight-arrow type. I'll want to give notice first at my job. And I'll have to pave the way with my dad. I can't just up and disappear. But I want to go with you. I want to join you in just a few weeks."

He didn't want to talk her out of it. His heart was pounding with excitement at the idea that Carolyn really might do it — that she might join hands with him and march into a new life, for both of them.

"It's not an easy life you'd be getting into," he told her.

"We wouldn't have to eat at Cracker Barrel every day," Carolyn said, smiling.

"Was I really that good in the sack?" he asked her.

She frowned. "You really are an incredibly good lay," she said. "But that's not why I want to go. At least it's not the only consideration. But if you don't want to believe that, I guess I can't force you."

"You said something to me earlier about gift horses," Ray said. "If you want to come with me, I'm sure-to-God not going to be asking too many questions!"

"I'd be nagging you a lot," she warned. "I think this 'work' of yours is rough on you, physically. And maybe emotionally, too. I want to watch you. Monitor you."

"My own private nursie," Ray teased. "Will you wear tight white uniforms with super-short hemlines?"

She ignored him. "I'll be nagging you about the other thing, too," she said. "About working with Cosgrove to set up a research project."

"Nagging me? ... Sounds like you're going to be taking over my entire life."

"Somebody needs to," she said, dead serious now. "You can't just go on indefinitely, wandering the world, doing good, like Caine."

"Like who?"

"Caine," she said. "The Kung Fu guy."

"Kung Who?"

"Never mind," she said. "It was all before your time, anyway."

"But not before yours?"

"It was just an old TV show from way back," she said. "Guy was some kind of monk, wandering around, doing good."

"The detective guy?" Ray said. "The hyper-fastidious one?"

"What?"

"Monk. I know about that show," he said. "It's not so old. I think it might still be on, even - or at least in syndication. The little curly-headed dude, worries about germs all the time?"

"No! No," Carolyn said. "That's not the one. That show is called 'Monk.' I'm talking about something else entirely. Jesus! Where have you been hiding?"

"Are you kidding? I watch a lot of television," Ray said. "I'm in some motel room somewhere, watching TV three-four nights a week. Me and Letterman, and that Craig Whozitz, the later-night guy? We're old buds."

Carolyn was mildly exasperated with him, but amused, too. "If I get with you on this deal, we're going to find something else to do besides watching television," she said, giving Ray a conspiratorial smile.

"Wanna give me a hint?"

After breakfast, they talked seriously about the future. Carolyn needed assurances that she wasn't forcing herself on him - that she wouldn't be a liability; a hindrance to his work.

But Ray, too, needed assurances. That she wasn't just doing this on an impulse. That she really cared enough about their incredibly brief relationship to make a sea change in her entire life.

"My dad is completely well," she said. "If I know him, he'll soon be returning to his firm, fully resuming his old life. He won't need me nearly as much as he has up to now. He's got a chance for a new start. Hell, he's liable to meet some babe, hook up all over again — especially if I'm not around, watching him."

"My life isn't exactly stable," Ray warned her — again.

"I'm going to be your partner," she said. "I'm pretty confident that you want me, and I'm damned sure I want to do this. Just stop worrying about it, and let's make arrangements so that you can call and tell me where you are, three weeks from now, and I can come there and join you."

Outwardly calm, but doing backward somersaults of joy inside, Ray made plans for Carolyn to join him approximately three weeks thereafter, and for covert communications with her in the interim period.

"Take care of yourself," she said as he walked her to her car. "I'm not kidding. I think this — what you're doing — is really hard on you. When I get with you, we're going to get serious about monitoring your health. Blood pressure, pulse rate, the works. Regular bloodwork, even."

Ray just gave her an evil smile. "When I see you again, the first thing I'm gonna do, see if I've got enough blood to get it up."

She looked mildly disappointed in him. "Please don't just treat this as something casual, Ray," she said. "You're willing to devote your whole life to the health of other people. What about your own health? Ever hear about that goose and those golden eggs?"

"I got your golden eggs right here," he said, rudely grabbing his crotch and giving her a little bump-and-grind move.

"Okay, okay, I know you're feeling frisky right now," she said. "And that's fine. No problem. But take care, Ray. Because ... Because I love you, okay? There! ... That's the first time I've said that - to anybody."

Ray did get serious — and fast. "I ... jeez, Carolyn!"

"Relax, I'm not expecting anything," she said. "You don't have to say it back. We've only known each other for a few hours. You're a free man, Ray. When you call me three weeks from now, if you've decided you don't want me to come, well then, I just won't. And I won't make a fuss, either. It's still going to all be your call."

"Carolyn, I think I was ready to fall for you the moment I first saw you."

"When I was standing in the men's room door, you mean? I guess that was pretty romantic!" she said.

"Don't tease me," he told her. "It's just that I'm amazed that you'd want to be with me. Things like this just don't ever happen to me."

"Maybe they didn't before," she said, "but you're a different man now. And It's not just me, either. You could make any woman you wanted fall in love with you."

"I already have," he said, "I've already had exactly the woman I wanted tell me she loved me. Exactly the one I've always wanted."

Ray had anticipated that it would be pure torture, saying goodbye to Carolyn that morning, watching her drive off toward the east, knowing that within the hour, he would be heading in the opposite direction toward the Alabama state line.

But now he didn't feel that way at all. In a few weeks — less than a month — they were going to be together. All that talk of hers about how he could still reject her, tell her he didn't want her to join him. They both had to know that was meaningless. Surely she knew that he was crazy in love with her already.

Saying goodbye isn't so painful when it's only for a little while. Three weeks was nothing compared to the long life together that — possibly — they would mutually decide to enjoy.

Birmingham, Alabama had all sorts of hospitals Ray could have gone to. He well knew that the smart thing would be to go to one of the several small-to-moderate sized public hospitals in the city.

But he didn't want to. He wanted to go to Mecca — the University of Alabama Hospital right there on the city's south side. It was huge, nationally known, and chock full of customers. He could wander around the corridors of that place for three days, if he had enough nerve to try it.

He could by-God clean 'em out! Everybody go on home ... And quit smoking, damn it!

Except maybe for right after sex.

Well, Ray knew better than to spend more than a few hours within Alabama's largest hospital. He would follow his usual, relatively safe policy of going in wearing a mild disguise. It was just fake long hair, sunglasses and the baseball cap, intended as a safeguard against hidden cameras.

He would work the wards for several hours, always moving swiftly but without ever making a spectacle of himself.

When he got the feeling that it was time to leave, he would leave - even if he knew there were plenty of other people in there who could use his help. He had learned long before that you can only do so much.

So he went to Mecca, and spent a very pleasant five or six hours there. He was feeling cocky. He even took a mid-day lunch break and had a cheeseburger in the hospital cafeteria.

Fries, too. Health food.

When he finally left the massive building, it was close to dusk. He had already checked into a pleasant-looking motel several miles to the southwest - just outside Bessemer, a suburban city on the opposite side of Birmingham from the Interstate he'd come in on from Atlanta.

He planned, on the following day, to see whether his exploits had made the Birmingham News. Probably not. He knew the next day was Sunday and they probably put the paper to bed pretty early on Saturday nights.

But he would check the local paper anyway, and then he'd have breakfast — probably at another of the ubiquitous Cracker Barrels that lined the Interstate. He'd already noticed one in the vicinity of his motel.

But that night when he got back to his room, Ray felt really whipped. Instead of pining for the erotic company of the newfound love of his life, he admitted to himself that he was relieved that she was far away. It was a relief this night not to be called upon to demonstrate to Carolyn what a stud she'd hooked up with.

He found a Tex-Mex restaurant nearby and forced himself to go there and have dinner. By nine o'clock Saturday evening, he was in bed and asleep. He hadn't so much as turned on the television set to check the local news.

He woke up once, six hours later, and hit the bathroom briefly. Maybe Carolyn's right, he thought as he gratefully fell back into the bed. Maybe this work is taking a lot out of me.

In the morning, having slept for eleven hours, Ray felt fine. Normal. There was the Cracker Barrel, less than one hundred yards from his motel. There was nothing wrong with their breakfasts - at least not from an esthetic standpoint.

He went there, bought the Sunday paper out of the sidewalk vending machine, and settled in for a big breakfast.

Now he was feeling strong — or at least normal, and he once again really began to miss his girl. But the countdown until they could be together had begun. He could feel warm about that.

There turned out to be nothing in the local paper about strange goings-on at the University Hospital, so he checked out the sports page instead. Even though it was midsummer, the first two pages of the local sports section were chock full of football news.

That's just the way things are in Alabama.

Ray finally found the baseball scores on page four of the section. It had been a good night. The Yankees had lost.

Back in his room, there was a comment on one of the morning television news programs about the hospital. It seemed that his work had been officially noticed already.

Ray had observed with interest that it was becoming increasingly common for medical staff officials to pick up swiftly on the fact that something unique had occurred in their facility.