Читать книгу The Lost Celt - A. E. Conran - Страница 7

CHAPTER TWO

“What are you doing, Mikey?” Mariko throws herself in front of me and hustles me back to the door. “You shouldn’t be seeing this! You shouldn’t be here!” She keeps shielding me and pushing me toward the hallway. “You might get hurt.”

The warrior glances around, his eyes wide, and I can tell he’s really confused. I would be too, if I were him. I scan the room. There’s no time-travel machine or anything that I can see, no portal, no wrinkle in time, so I don’t know how all this is working, but this guy must be really freaked. There were no hospitals in his time, no syringes or IV lines, none of this stuff.

“It’s OK. It’s safe,” I say, peering around Mariko’s white coat. Mariko shushes me, but I wriggle to one side so I can see the warrior better, and I keep talking. “You’re in a hospital. The VA. My grandpa’s here, too. He says the VA may have its problems, but they’ve always treated him right.” I must be saying the right things because the guy looked like he was somewhere else, but now he’s back, focusing on me. “Great doctors, Grandpa says. Isn’t that right, Mariko?”

“Yes.” She puts her hand on my shoulder, and I can feel her shaking. “You’re safe.”

The Celt relaxes his fists. Something changes because his eyes aren’t fierce anymore. They’re a warm, bright blue like two penny-sized chunks of sky stuck in a face as weathered as our redwood deck, and he looks like he wants to cry.

The nurses swoop over to him as he buries his face in his hands. “I don’t want to get stuck here,” he says.

And that’s when I know for sure that I’m right.

Mariko hurries me out of the room and down the hallway back to the reception desk. “Mikey, I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have seen that.” She runs her hands across her forehead and holds the top of her head for a moment. “Oh, what a mess. What am I going to tell—” but then she stops herself, takes a deep breath, looks straight into my eyes and says, “Oh my goodness, Mikey, are you all right? That was pretty scary back there.”

It’s true, I’m shaking. With shock, I guess, but with excitement, too. I can’t believe this is happening. “Yeah,” I say. “I’m great. Just great.” And all the time I’m wondering why Mariko isn’t as totally astonished as I am.

A door creaks. I crane my neck to see. The police officer who got kicked in the face comes out of the room rubbing his cheek.

“Everything OK? Need me to take a look, Miguel?” Mariko asks.

“I’m good. Just need some ice.” He shakes his head as if to say, “just another night at the VA.” “Good job quieting him down, kid! What grade are you in?”

“Fourth,” Mariko answers. “With my son, Kyler.”

“Cool.” Miguel makes for the break room, still rubbing his jaw. I can’t believe they’re all so calm about this, so un-amazed.

“But will he be all right?” I ask.

“Who? Miguel?” Mariko pulls the elastic from her ponytail, smoothes her long black hair, and ties it back again.

“No! The warrior!” I say. “The Celt.”

“What?” Mariko looks shocked. She puts her hand over her mouth and shakes her head. It takes her a while to recover. When she speaks again she’s kind of breathless. “Wow, you’re right! He did look like a Celt, didn’t he?” she says. “You nailed it, Mikey.” She hesitates, “But, you know…I think he’ll be just fine.”

She’s so casual. “Fine?” I say. “Fine? How can he be fine? I mean, does he even know where he is, and what’s happening?”

“Oh Mikey,” Mariko says. “You’re a sweet boy.” She puts her hand on my shoulder. “We’ll help him. We’ll work it out. Don’t you worry.” She pauses as if she has to be careful about what she says next and lowers herself down so we’re on the same level. Mom does this when she thinks she’s going to say something important, so I lean in. “You see, we’ve been dealing with this for years now,” Mariko whispers.

“You have? You’ve seen more guys like him?”

“Yes, and a few come back again and again. Especially on certain nights, when there’s a natural disaster or something. That’s when we see more activity.”

“Activity? You do? But how come we don’t all know about it? I mean this is huge!”

Mariko gives me a sad smile. “That’s one way to put it, Mikey. It is huge, and you know, I wish more people did know about it. Sometimes I think they don’t want to know. It’s like this…this…big secret!”

I can hardly believe what she’s telling me. Maybe the shock shows on my face because she suddenly drops her voice and says, “Oh Mikey, I can’t tell you any more about this guy. It’s against the rules. But we’ll look after him. He’ll be OK. Really, he will. I mean, once you’ve experienced certain things they never quite go away. But people do get better. We’ll help him. Don’t let this worry you, OK?”

Wow! What does she mean, worry me? This is the best night of my life!

I look into Mariko’s face. She seems really concerned. I’m not sure what I should say or do, so in the end I just nod and agree that I’ll talk to her if I need to.

I must have said the right thing because she smiles and straightens up. “Good. Come on, let’s go find Marty.”

She acts as if our whole incredible time-traveling Celt conversation never happened. But I was there. I saw him. Awesome doesn’t get any bigger than this.

I can’t wait to tell Kyler tomorrow!