Robin Cook - Contagion

“Just curious,” Jack said. He sank another long jump shot. He was feeling good.

Warren snatched the ball out of the air as it came through the basket. But he didn’t pass it back to Jack. Instead he walked it to Jack.

“What do you mean, ‘curious’?” Warren asked. He drilled Jack with his gun-barrel eyes. “You ain’t been curious about any gangs before.”

One of the other things that Jack knew about Warren was that he was keenly intelligent. Had he had the opportunity, Jack was sure he’d be a doctor or a lawyer or some other professional.

“I happened to see it tattooed on a guy’s forearm,” Jack said.

“The guy dead?” Warren asked. He was aware of what Jack did for a living.

“Not yet,” Jack said. He rarely risked sarcasm with his playground acquaintances, but on this occasion it had just slipped out.

Warren regarded him warily and continued to hold the ball. “You pulling my chain, or what?”

“Hell no,” Jack said. “I may be white, but I ain’t stupid.”

Warren smiled. “How come you got banged up on your jaw?”

Warren didn’t miss a trick. “Just caught an elbow,” Jack said. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Warren handed over the ball. “Let’s warm up with a little one-on-one,” he said. “Hit-or-miss for the ball.”

Warren got in the game before Jack, but Jack eventually played, and played well. Spit’s players seemed unbeatable, to the chagrin of Warren, who had to play against them on several occasions. By six o’clock Jack was exhausted and soaked to the skin.

Jack was perfectly happy to leave when everyone else departed en masse for dinner and their usual Saturday-night revelry. The basketball court would be empty until the following afternoon.

A long, hot postgame shower was a distinct pleasure for Jack. When he was finished he dressed in clean clothes and looked into his refrigerator. It was a sad scene. All his beer had been drunk by the Black Kings. As far as food was concerned he was limited to an old wedge of cheddar cheese and two eggs of dubious age. Jack closed the refrigerator. He wasn’t all that hungry anyway.

In the living room Jack sat on his threadbare couch and picked up one of his medical journals. His usual evening routine was to read until nine-thirty or ten and then fall asleep. But tonight he was still restless despite the exercise, and he found he couldn’t concentrate.

Jack tossed the journal aside and stared at the wall. He was lonely, and although he was lonely almost every night, he felt it more keenly at that moment. He kept thinking about Terese and how compassionate she’d been the night before.

Jack impulsively went to the desk, got out the phone book, and called Willow and Heath. He wasn’t sure if the phones would be manned after hours, but eventually someone answered. After several wrong extensions he finally got Terese on the phone.

With his heart inexplicably pounding in his chest, Jack casually told her he was thinking of getting something to eat.

“Is this an invitation?” Terese questioned.

“Well,” Jack said hesitantly. “Maybe you’d like to come along, provided you haven’t eaten yet.”

“This is the most roundabout invitation I’ve gotten since Marty Berman asked me to the junior prom,” Terese said with a laugh. “You know what he did? He used the conditional. He said: ‘What would you say if I asked you?’ ”

“I guess Marty and I have some things in common,” Jack said.

“Hardly,” Terese said. “Marty was a skinny runt. But as for dinner, I’ll have to take a rain check. I’d love to see you, but you know about this deadline we have. We’re hoping that we can get it under control tonight. I hope you understand.”

“Absolutely,” Jack said. “No problem.”

“Call me tomorrow,” Terese said. “Maybe in the afternoon we can get together for coffee or something.”

Jack promised he’d call and wished her good luck. Then he hung up the phone, feeling even lonelier for having made an effort to be sociable after so many years and having been turned down.

Surprising himself anew, Jack found Laurie’s number and called her. Trying to cover his nervousness with humor, he told her that the group of nuns he was expecting had to cancel.

“Does that mean you’d like to come to dinner?” Laurie asked.

“If you’ll have me,” Jack said.

“I’d be delighted,” Laurie said.

Jack was poring over one of his forensic science journals when his phone rang. Since he had yet to speak that morning his voice was gravelly when he answered.

“I didn’t wake you, did I?” Laurie asked.

“I’ve been up for hours,” Jack assured her.

“I’m calling because you asked me to,” Laurie said. “Otherwise I wouldn’t call this early on a Sunday morning.”

“It’s not early for me,” Jack said.

“But it was late when you went home,” Laurie said.

“It wasn’t that late,” Jack said. “Besides, no matter what time I go to bed I always wake up early.”

“Anyway, you wanted me to let you know if there were any infectious deaths from the General last night,” Laurie said. “There weren’t. Janice even told me before she left that there wasn’t even anyone ill with Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the hospital. That’s good news, isn’t it?”

“Very good news,” Jack agreed.

“My parents were quite impressed with you last night,” Laurie added. “I hope you enjoyed yourself.”

“It was a delightful evening,” Jack said. “Frankly I’m embarrassed I stayed so long. Thank you for inviting me and thank your parents. They couldn’t have been more hospitable.”

“We’ll have to do it again sometime,” Laurie said.

“Absolutely,” Jack said.

After they had said good-byes, Jack hung up the phone and tried to go back to reading. But he was momentarily distracted by thoughts of the previous evening. He had enjoyed himself. In fact he’d enjoyed himself much more than he could have imagined, and that confused him. He’d purposefully kept to himself for five years, and now without warning he found himself enjoying the company of two very different women.

What he liked about Laurie was how easy she was to be with. Terese, on the other hand, could be overbearing even while she was being warmly caring. Terese was more intimidating than Laurie, but she was also challenging in a way that was more consistent with Jack’s reckless lifestyle. But now that he’d had the opportunity to see Laurie interact with her parents, he appreciated her open, warm personality all the more. He imagined having a pompous cardiovascular surgeon for a father couldn’t have been easy.

Laurie had tried to engage Jack in personal conversation after the older generation had retired, but Jack had resisted, as was his habit. Yet he’d been tempted. Having opened up a little with Terese the night before, it had surprised him how good it felt to talk with someone caring. But Jack had fallen back on his usual stratagem of turning the conversation back to Laurie, and he’d learned some unexpected things.

Most surprising was that she was unattached. Jack had just assumed someone as desirable and sensitive as Laurie would have been involved with someone, but Laurie insisted she didn’t even date much. She’d explained that she’d had a relationship with a police detective for a time, but it hadn’t worked out.

Eventually Jack got back to his journal. He read until hunger drove him to a neighborhood deli. On his way home from lunch he saw that a group of guys was already beginning to appear on the basketball court. Eager for more physical activity, Jack dashed home, changed, and joined them.