I'm getting there, getting there, wait'll you see - '
'Bobbi, what
'Fine, I'm fine,' Bobbi repeated, and she fell forward, semi-conscious, into Gardener's arms. She tried to say something else but only a loose gargle and a little spit came out. Her breasts were small, wasted pads against his forearm.
Gardener picked her up, shocked by how light she was. Yes, it was thirty, at least thirty. It was incredible, but not, unfortunately, deniable. He felt recognition that was both shocking and miserable: This isn't Bobbi at all. It's me. Me at the end of a jag.
He carried Bobbi swiftly up the steps and into the house.
BOOK 1. THE SHIP IN THE EARTH Chapter 8. Modifications
1
He put Bobbi on the couch and went quickly to the telephone. He picked it up, meaning to dial 0 and ask the operator what number he should dial to get the nearest rescue unit. Bobbi needed a trip to the Derry Home Hospital and right away. A breakdown, Gardener supposed (although in truth he was so tired and confused that he hardly knew what to think). Some kind of breakdown. Bobbi Anderson seemed like the last person in the world to go over the top, but apparently she had.
Bobbi said something from the couch. Gardener didn't catch it at first; Bobbi's voice was little more than a harsh croak.
'What, Bobbi?'
'Don't call anybody,' Bobbi said. She managed a little more volume this time, but even that much effort seemed to nearly exhaust her. Her cheeks were flushed, the rest of her face waxen, and her eyes were as bright and feverish as blue gemstones -diamonds, or sapphires, perhaps. 'Don't ... Gard, not anybody!'
Anderson fell back against the couch, panting rapidly. Gardener hung up the telephone and went to her, alarmed. Bobbi needed a doctor, that was obvious, and Gardener meant to get her one ... but right now Bobbi's obvious agitation seemed more important.
'I'll stay right with you,' he said, taking her hand, 'if that's what's worrying you. God knows you stuck with me through enough sh - '
But Anderson had been shaking her head with mounting vehemence. 'Just need sleep,' she whispered. 'Sleep ... and food in the morning. Mostly sleep. Haven't had any ... three days. Four, maybe.'
Gardener looked at her, shocked again. He put together what Bobbi had just said with the way she looked.
'What rocket have you been riding?'- and why? his mind added. 'Bennies? Reds?' He thought of coke and then rejected it. Bobbi could undoubtedly afford coke if she wanted it, but Gardener didn't think even 'basing could keep a man or woman awake for three or four days and melt better than thirty pounds off in - Gardener calculated the time since he had last seen Anderson - in no more than three weeks.
'No dope,' Bobbi said. 'No drugs.' Her eyes rolled and glittered. Spit
drizzled helplessly from the corners of her mouth and she sucked it back. For an instant Gardener saw an expression in Bobbi's face he didn't like . . . one that scared him a little. It was an Anne expression. Old and crafty. Then Bobbi's eyes slipped closed, revealing lids stained the delicate purplish color of total exhaustion. When she opened her eyes again it was just Bobbi lying there ... and Bobbi needed help.
'I'm going to phone for the rescue unit,' Gardener said, getting up again. 'You look really unwell, B - '
Bobbi's thin hand reached out and caught his wrist as Gardener turned to the phone. It held him with surprising strength. He looked down at Bobbi, and although she still looked terribly exhausted and almost desperately wasted, that feverish glitter was gone from her eyes. Now her gaze was straight and clear and sane.
'If you call anybody,' she said, her voice still wavering a little but almost normal, 'we're done being friends, Gard. I mean that. Call the rescue unit, or Derry Home, even old Doc Warwick in town, and that's the end of the line for us. You'll never see the inside of my house again. The door will be closed to you.'
Gardener looked at Bobbi with mounting dismay and horror. If he could have persuaded himself in that moment that Bobbi was delirious, he would gladly have done so ... but she obviously wasn't.
'Bobbi you - ' - don't know what you're saying? But she did; that was the horror of it. She was threatening to end their friendship if Gardener didn't do what she wanted, using their friendship as a