18. Rishi
18
Rishi
I continued to pick up Cas’s mail twice a week, and a week after Cas found out that Fernandez had called Cas’s parents, there was a pink piece of paper in his post office box. I went to the window and presented it to the clerk, and she handed me a smallish, very solidly packed box. “Here you are, sir,” she said with an air of polite boredom.
I put the mail in a canvas bag and took it all back to Cas’s apartment, setting it on the dining table. Cas looked through the envelopes, then we all stared at the package. “I didn’t order anything,” Cas said.
“I didn’t think you did,” I replied.
“It’s gotta be from Fernandez,” Luis said.
“Mmhm,” Cas said.
“Who’s opening it?” I asked.
Cas glanced at me, then at Luis, and then Luis and I looked at each other. “You haven’t heard the whole spider story,” I said. He knew that Fernandez had threatened Saint with a venomous spider and Rio with a rattlesnake, but he didn’t have all the details.
Luis looked at Cas and me warily, shaking his head.
“Saint Durand runs a shelter for LGBTQ kids, as you know. Fernandez and another parent, Douglas Greene, who recruited Saint’s sister to act as a pawn, were upset that both Greene’s son and Fernandez’s daughter were at the shelter and decided that they were going to take out the shelter by killing Saint, et cetera, et cetera. One of the first ways they tried to do it was by putting a funnel web spider in his kitchen. Rio and I had the dubious honor of extricating it from his brown sugar container together,” Cas said. He shuddered. “I do not like spiders,” he added. “And so it was quite memorable.”
We all looked at the box again. “He doesn’t want to kill me,” Cas said. “But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to incapacitate me.”
“Rules out the most venomous of creatures,” I agreed. “Could he have an idea of where you are and is hoping you’ll be bitten and go to the ER, so he can scoop you up from there?”
Cas pondered that. “It’s possible. I mean he’s got eyes all over the state. At least it seems that way.”
“I guess I’m opening it then,” Luis announced, and as one Cas and I looked at him in surprise.
“What?” Cas asked.
“He doesn’t know me, you’re not having sex with me, and I am not the one who is familiar with the different ways you need help,” Luis said. “It only makes sense. If there is something dangerous in there, I should be the one to open it.”
I was still processing Luis’s quite well-thought-out argument when he picked up the box and slit it with the blade of a pair of scissors.
Cas wheeled backward and I jumped to my feet, too. “Ow! Fuck!” Luis exclaimed as a scorpion fell from the box and skittered under the table. Luis swore again, and another fell into his lap and waved its tail threateningly.
“Jesus fucking Christ, why?” Cas yelled.
I lurched for the kitchen, knowing that there was a large mixing bowl with a lid in the cabinet. I grabbed it and raced back to Luis, who had his hands up like he was being mugged. The scorpion was still on his lap with its tail raised to sting at any provocation. I put the bowl at his knees behind the little creature and swiftly brushed the lid across his thighs, sweeping it into the bowl. Then I clapped the lid on and locked it.
“Why the fuck do I keep ending up with fucking arachnids?” Cas asked the room at large while I circled the table, looking for the escaped scorpion.
“What you fear will come to you or some other philosophical bullshit,” I answered absently and tensed when I saw the scorpion on the floor. It was crouched, clearly unhappy with its life, and I wondered exactly how fast scorpions moved.
“Broom and dustpan,” I said to Cas, who fetched it and gave it to me while I didn’t take my eyes off my new tiny nemesis.
I still wasn’t sure how quickly it would be able to attack — did they bite, too? Only sting? What kind was it? I only knew that some kinds were quite venomous, and some were much less so.
"I'm going to try to sweep it into the dustpan," I said. "Do you have any other lidded containers?"
Cas wheeled away and came back in a minute with a shoebox-sized plastic bin. I wasn't sure how I would transfer the scorpion from dustpan to bin, but it was the best plan I could come up with, so we were going with it.
The scorpion struck at the broom when it got close, but I swept it into the dustpan anyway. I dumped it into the bin quickly because as I was doing it, I realized I also didn't know if scorpions could jump.
I grabbed the lid and snapped it onto the bin, a picture of the thing flinging itself out of the bin and at my face clear in my mind.
"Jesus Christ." Cas breathed. "Luis, did you get stung?"
Luis was cradling one hand to his chest. "Yeah,” he said, voice strained. His hand was already swelling, and from the drawn look on Luis's face, it hurt .
“Cas, see if you can figure out what kind of scorpions they are,” I ordered, hauling Luis to the kitchen. I stuck his hand under running water, scrubbing it with soap vigorously. He hissed but didn’t resist.
His hand was already noticeably puffy, a red mark on the heel of it revealing where the stinger had gotten him. I let cold water run over it once I had finished washing it and glanced back at Cas. “Anything?”
“Yeah, I found it. It’s a deathstalker scorpion…” He was scrolling, reading intently. “Yeah, well, he’s going to the hospital.”
I frowned at him and looked at his phone, which he held out for me to read.
“While most people recover… antivenom…” I looked at Luis, at Cas, at the screen, and nodded. “Luis, get in the car, we have to go.”
Luis’s dark eyes were huge on his face, and he looked young and scared.
“Cas, I’ll have Rio come over and sit with you while I take him, okay?”
“Yes, that’s fine, just go!” Cas urged.
I wrapped Luis’s hand in a cold, wet towel and hustled him out of the apartment and into my rental. Once I was on the road, I punched Rio’s number and listened to it ring.
“Rishi, man, how’s it going?” Rio said after several rings.
“Not great. We got a package from Fernandez,” I said. “Kinda like the package you and Cas took care of at Saint’s apartment.
Rio cursed. “Another spider? Did one of you get bitten?”
“A deathstalker scorpion,” I said. “Luis was stung. We’re on the way to the ER now. I didn’t want to wait around. It already looks bad. Can you get to Cas and stay with him while I’m taking care of this?”
“I’ll be there in fifteen,” Rio promised.
“Sounds good, Rio, thank you very much.”
“It’s no problem, Rishi. Tell Luis that I hope he’s okay.”
“You’re connected to the car, he can hear you,” I said, belatedly realizing I should have said that as soon as Rio answered the phone.
“Luis, man, it’ll be okay,” Rio said. “I’ve got Cas. I’ll be there soon.”
“I appreciate it very much,” I said earnestly. I didn’t like leaving him alone but didn’t want anything to happen to Luis, nor did I want to attract attention to the apartment with a 911 call. Driving him was the best bet I could see.
My phone chimed, and I saw pictures Cas had taken of the scorpions, and a link to a site that identified them.
We reached the hospital, and I took Luis in. His compliance with whatever I directed him to do was noticeable. I wondered if he was simply in too much pain to care, if he knew I would make sure he was taken care of, or if it was something else, but I didn’t have the time to dwell on it.
His hand was even more swollen than when I had wrapped it, and when the triage nurse heard “deathstalker scorpion,” she put us in a curtained cubical straight away. I offered to stay in the waiting area, but Luis shook his head.
I wasn’t sure how I had ended up being everyone’s chosen nurse, but I guessed it was a compliment.
A nurse appeared to take vitals immediately, and shortly after that I got a text from Rio.
I’m there.
A few seconds later a text came from Cas, too.
Rio’s here. I’m okay. How is Luis?
I looked at Luis, who was pale as the nurse examined the bite. His heart rate and respiration were okay according to the monitor attached to his other pointer finger, which made me feel better.
We’re in a room. He wanted me to stay with him. They’re checking him, but the monitor looks good. Will let you know. 3
I tapped Send automatically before I realized what I had done.
I had just sent Cas a heart emoji.
Well fuck me, it looked like Luis wasn’t the only one whose evening just got turned upside down.