Cherry Two

Part 7

Chapter 5

The phone rang at the house. Kate picked it up before Peter could intercept. "I thought you said you'd only be an hour?"

James spoke into his mobile. "It's complicated. I've missed the bus, but Mr. Ward has kindly offered to drive me home. We still have a few things to discuss here. Can you delay dinner for a while?"

"It's lamb. It'll spoil."

"I'll be home as soon as I can." With that the connection ended.

James returned from the bar with a coffee cup in one hand and a pint of mild in the other. He set the beer in front of Wallace Ward. The photos had been put away except for the one James could keep. The captured moment had exploded back as if it were only yesterday. The initial shock of seeing himself fighting over a bottle of suntan lotion with Calley, all naked and hazy, had partly subsided.

It was clear Ward had known nothing about Calley except her name and what he saw on that hot summer day. She had a way of burning herself deep into strangers' memories.

"I admit it," Ward said as James sat. "She bowled me over. I wanted to buy her time as a model—a nude model, you understand. That's how stupid I was in those days. As if I could just go up to a stranger and ask something like that. I'm lucky I didn't end up in prison."

James took a thoughtful sip of coffee. "She'd have done it if you paid her enough."

Ward's smile warped as he blinked, but said nothing.

"She took me to Shepperton Studios to meet a casting agent. Right in front of me she announced she'd do nude scenes to get any kind of start. At the time I didn't realize this was way more than simply a means to an end. You have no idea. We did dares all over the place. She liked it—shocking people. She liked other things too." James was opening up in a way he hadn't done in decades. He didn't know Wallace Ward from a stray dog, but the visual memory jolt had set something off.

Ward hadn't finished by a long shot. He'd been saving the best until last. After a swallow of beer he pointed to the sticker on the wall depicting a cigarette in a red circle with a line through it. "Those kinds of restrictions didn't exist when we were young. I was always what you might call a fitness freak. Worked out at the Y whenever I could. Hated smoke, rich food, lack of exercise. In those days I heartily believed I would be famous and wanted to enjoy every minute when it came true. You wouldn't think that, looking at me today." He started to unbutton the front of his striped shirt to expose what looked like a fresh red scar on pale skin. Chest hair had begun to grow back to cover it. Suture marks were still in evidence beside the wide incision along his rib cage. "I've been in hospital for three weeks. They removed the bottom half of one lung, and now they are saying all the disease is gone from the other one. It was in the early stages, but a very aggressive cancer—the kind that spreads fast and kills fast."

In the same instant James thought of Colleen. According to Sonia, it had been this tragic way with her mother. Early diagnosis might have made all the difference.

Ward reversed the unbuttoning procedure while finishing off the remains of his beer. "Since the beginning I'd take photos of myself on a regular basis—ever the narcissist." He laughed as he fastened the last button. "I would be irresistible to women some day and my standards were set very high. Through my lens this sad bachelor fellow that fixes TVs would make them famous—what a joke. You're probably running ahead of me by now, so I'll get to the point. Six months ago the first 'smudge,' as you call it, showed up on a print. It was barely perceptible then—only a thing I would notice. I felt fine. No cough, no pain. No symptoms of any kind. I began to take a photo of myself every week, and sure enough, the flare became a little bit stronger each time.

"I drove my doctor insane. I insisted on every medical test there was. They even stuck a camera up my arse... something I'd wanted to do to several of my worst customers. When they eventually detected the early lung cancer, my doctor said I had to be the luckiest man alive. He still looks at me in the strangest way."

All remained silent for a moment. A few umbrella wielding suited types from local offices had drifted into the lounge bar as the noon hour approached. No one gave the seated pair a second glance. James eventually took in a deep breath. "What are the latest photos like?"

Ward reiterated: "When we started this mad conversation I said I can change it—prevent the bad things from happening. Well I can. For whatever it's worth... the prints of myself are now normal."

It took a moment to digest. James eventually drew a hand across his face and said, "The future through a lens—my God. You're right. If it wasn't for this one," James held up the print of himself and Calley, "I'd have recommended a straight jacket."

"I don't think so," Ward dismissed. "Something told me you experienced some sort of precognition a long time ago. I'm drawn to people like you. None of us seers are 'normal,' Mr. Nameth. We're a breed apart yet we connect somehow. The urgency is the same. It's only how we see that's different. It took me twenty years to understand." He inhaled a deep breath. "Some of us poor bastards never understand."

How will James explain any of this madness to Kate? This meeting with Wallace will have implications that span across a continent.

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