Chapter 42
Keith could feel the blood pumping through his body.
It felt like the second they walked onstage, only bad.
He was all fury, all hurt. Bobby was trying to clear the Talkers out of the room, but there were too many of them, all in their spangly dresses, and the security guards had their hands full.
He took a deep breath, and then another.
This was not a scenario he and Dr. Robert had explored.
Sarah snapped her fingers. “Terrence, Scotty, you go and get things started, okay? You’re the main attraction right now. Please move it.” She pointed toward the DJ booth. “Pancake is ready for you.”
They nodded. Terrence unglued himself from the wall, setting Kelsey free, and led her around Keith, giving him as wide a berth as possible. Scotty patted Keith on the back and followed.
“Corey, you okay?” Sarah asked. Keith looked over at him. Corey looked smug as ever. He was better than okay. He was Teflon. Corey nodded.
“Then you go too. Just get out of here, please. Go do your job.” Sarah pointed again, then turned her attention to the rest of the room.
Most of the Talkers had been herded out, but one woman remained.
Keith knew her. She was the one person on the boat who seemed to actually see him, who somehow knew he wasn’t okay.
She’d asked him about the opera, with the wind blowing her hair across her cheek.
“That was your roommate?” Sarah said to the woman still standing there, staring at him. Keith didn’t know her name. He wished he knew her name. He wished everyone on the entire boat would vanish except for her. The woman nodded, and Sarah said, “Okay, just hang on for a second.”
Keith straightened up, and Corey walked over to him on his way to the door.
Keith raised his hands in defeat. “I’m never doing this again.
I will never get on this boat again. I’m barely doing it now.
I’m not going to Japan. I’m not going anywhere,” Keith said.
He pointed at Jonathan, who was lurking in the back. “You can have them,” Keith said.
Corey made a face. “Is that your apology? I don’t want to do this bullshit! I’m not going to Japan either!” He looked around, incredulous and petulant, waiting for someone else to be offended on his behalf.
Keith shook his head. “You can just walk away. I can’t. You don’t understand.”
Corey came close so that no one else could hear them.
Keith could sense Shawn hovering somewhere behind him, but he couldn’t see him.
Corey’s breath was hot in his ear. “That was always your problem, Keith. You don’t have to do what he tells you, you know that?
You’re fucking fifty years old. You don’t have to do shit.
” Corey leaned back and yanked on his lapels, smoothing out his suit. There was dried blood on his hand.
“Go!” Sarah said. “Before I hit you too.”
Corey sucked his teeth and turned toward the door.
“Shawn,” Sarah said. “You too. It’s in the contract. I need you up there. Just fix it. Tell them whatever you want to tell them. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Keith looked at his brother. Shawn wasn’t used to being told what to do.
Keith could see him start to argue with her but change his mind.
He shook his head, came up behind Keith, and lay his head on Keith’s back for a moment, which made Keith’s body begin to vibrate again, like he might actually explode.
Shawn took a step back, and followed Corey without a word.
The problem wasn’t Corey. It never had been.
The problem had always been Shawn. Keith wondered if it would have been different if Corey were Shawn’s brother.
Maybe Shawn wouldn’t have taken Keith for granted if his subservience weren’t built in.
There was no way to know. That was the problem with life—you just had to live with whatever cards you’d been dealt and learn to accept them for what they were.
It was just the three of them left: Keith, Sarah, and the woman. “So, you don’t have a place to go, correct?” Sarah asked her. “What’s your name?”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t hurt me,” she said. “My roommate, I mean. But no. I guess the answer is no.” She paused and smiled. “My name isn’t No. It’s Annie.”
Sarah’s head rocked from side to side like a metronome. “Hmm,” she said. “Well, she’s going to be locked in your room. They won’t take her to the brig for that. Let me think.”
The next thing that came out of Keith’s mouth surprised him, until he heard it out loud, and it all made sense. “She can come with me to the Sanctuary,” Keith said. The anger and adrenaline ebbed, and his body flooded with something else, something like relief.
“And how do we know she’s safe with you?” Sarah asked.
Keith clutched his stomach, overflowing again with shame. Sarah put her hand on his arm and squeezed.
“I’m just kidding,” she said. “I think that’s a good idea.”