The Wire Hanger

Chapter Twenty-four

That night I woke up at three in the morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. I went to the bathroom and splashed warm water on my face, and heard Jezebel stirring in her room. I hovered by her door until she said, “Kid, just come in,” and then I crept into the small sitting room that she’d outfitted with blankets and pillows.

            “Sorry,” I said. “I can’t sleep.”

            “Me neither,” she said. “Something bothering you?”

            “Just one thing,” I said. “I feel like there’s a piece of the story missing.”

            “There are a lot of pieces missing,” she said neutrally. “We can’t overload you with information right away. You might explode. And, no offense, but we only just met Esau and there’s only so much we can take on your word.”

            I couldn’t decide between being offended on his behalf and strangely proud that I was considered so trustworthy. She sat up in her makeshift bed and I settled myself on the floor next to her.

            “So what’s up?”

            I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts, which were dim in the way of early mornings. “Esau doesn’t know about the bleeding woman,” I said finally. I wrapped my arms around my knees.

            “I figured as much.”

            “He doesn’t know what my mom was doing.”

            “Indeed not.”

            “But I hardly know what my mom was doing. And I don’t understand why the Corporation would take these women. Like, I don’t get how that fits into their big evil plan, or whatever.”

            Jezebel nodded contemplatively to herself. “You’re a smart kid, you know. You’re asking the right questions here.”

            “Will there be…answers?” I asked hopefully.

            She didn’t respond right away. “The thing is, Coby, you can’t unknow this stuff. And it’s not that I think you can’t handle it. It’s just…it’s a lot. And you’re still pretty young. Why don’t you tell me what you understand so far, and I’ll fill in the blanks, okay?”

            That seemed reasonable, not to mention efficient. “Okay. I know the Professor taught her, and a bunch of other women, and that’s related to their being kidnapped. But I don’t know what it is he was teaching her – I mean, I guess it must have been medicine since she had that doctor’s bag. And I know women can’t be doctors and all, but I don’t understand why it’s such a secret. And I don’t know why it’s such a badly kept secret, if people can find their way here. If that woman could find my mom. And I don’t know why the Corporation would care about my mother knowing how to stop bleeding and…whatever.” I took several deep breaths to recover my equilibrium.

            Jezebel put her hand to her head and tugged lightly at a fistful of hair. “It’s the ‘whatever’ that’s the sticking point, of course,” she said. “The Corporation has been in control of medical issues for quite some time, and they are not keen on competition. To put it mildly. And I don’t know how much you were able to absorb earlier today, but as you now know, they’ve got a pretty tight grasp on the economics of the city.”

            “I basically got it,” I said, feeling a contradictory bite of shame at my lack of modesty. But I did get it. Esau hadn’t looked convinced, but for me, it had explained my world to me in a way that suddenly made sense – these last details excepted.