Chapter 13: Daphne Wallace

Nyk locked up the lab. He headed down a street lined with shops and storefronts, crossed an intersection and proceeded into his neighborhood. Footsteps approached him from behind. He ducked into the doorway of a corner diner and glanced in the window. He saw the reflection of two men who had stopped and were loitering by a lamppost.

He headed down the street again. The footfalls followed him. An MTA bus was closing its door. Nyk pushed his way onto it and slipped his transit card into the fare box. He took a seat in the middle and saw the two men standing on the sidewalk as the bus pulled into traffic. They were the two, he thought, whom he had encountered outside the Kyhana household.

The bus took him past the house. He pressed the stop request, stepped to the street and headed to the house from the opposite direction. Nyk let himself into the front door and saw Yasuko sitting in the living room with Nicky on her lap. He walked to her and took the baby. Nicky smiled and reached toward him. Nyk let the boy grab his finger. “How’s our mom doing?” he asked.

“I think she’s much better. She came down around mid-morning. She was alert. We talked, and she held Nicky. She even gave him some lunch.”

“Were her spirits better?”

“I’d say so. She didn’t mope around. She seemed a bit subdued, but I attributed that to the medication.”

Nyk returned Nicky to her. “She seemed better last night, too. Where is she now?”

“She went upstairs for a while. She seemed calm and at peace.”

“Calm and at peace? Yasuko, that’s how she gets when she’s...”

Nyk sprinted up the stairs and into the apartment. “Suki?” He looked in the bedroom. She was lying on her back on the bed. Nyk looked at the nightstand. A glass half-full of water sat beside an empty pill bottle. Nyk picked it up and recognized it as the prescription he had filled earlier in the week.

He put his ear to her breast and listened for her heart. With his finger he probed her temple and found a strong pulse. Her breathing seemed deep and regular. He leaned close and looked at her face. Then, he pried up one of her eyelids.

“Nick! What are you doing?”

“Are you all right?”

“Of course I’m all right. I was just trying to take a little nap.”

He showed her the pill bottle. “Your mother said you were calm and at peace. I came up here and found this. I was worried...”

“You thought I was suicidal.”

“I feared you might be.”

Suki sat up, pulled open the nightstand drawer and withdrew a glass spice bottle filled with capsules. “I dumped them in here because I kept breaking my fingernails on the child-proof cap. Nicky has a few months before he’ll start getting into things, so I thought it was safe enough.” Nyk took the bottle from her and examined it. “They’re all there — except for the eight I’ve taken over the past four days.”

He returned the bottle to the drawer and flopped on the bed beside her. She stroked his face and he kissed her forehead, then her lips. “I had forgotten how good kissing you feels,” she said.

“I hadn’t.” He kissed her again and stroked her cheek. “We have some time before dinner. I know something else that feels good.”

“Maybe after dinner. I think I’ll use the time to take a shower. I need one, and I’ll bet you’d appreciate it, too.”

“Shall I have your mom set a place for you?”

She nodded. “Nick, a boulder’s been lifted from me.”

“Welcome home, {i}korlyta{/i}.”

----

Nyk lay on his back in bed. Suki stepped from the bathroom holding her hairbrush and with a hairclip in her teeth. She brushed her hair and fastened it into a ponytail. With a smile she slipped off her robe, stood sideways to him and ran her hand along her stomach.

“I see you have your figure back.”

“My figure and then some.” She pinched the skin on her abdomen and shook it. “Baby fat — I’d like to lose twenty pounds.”

“Maybe we should start going to the ‘Y’ on weekends.”

“You’d come with me?”

“I’d do anything to help you.”

“Deal.” She slid into bed next to him. Nyk rolled to face her and began stroking her face. He looked into her eyes, leaned toward her and kissed her eyelids. “I’m nervous,” she said.

“About what?”

“After all this time ... I hope I remember how.”

“It’s like learning to ride a bike,” he replied. “You never forget.”

“You have bikes on Floran?”

“Of course we do...” Nyk traced her eyebrows and caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers. He took her hand and placed it on his chest.

Suki guided his hands onto her body. “Like this,” she said, guiding his fingers. “And, like this ... you have such a nice touch.” She drew in a deep breath, closed her eyes and released it slowly.

Nyk took her hand and guided it. “Like this ... and like this.” She stroked a tear from his cheek. “I was so afraid,” he said. “Afraid we’d never have this again.”

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. He kissed salty moistness from her cheeks. “I was terrified. Oh, Nick — I never want to be that close to insanity again!” She kissed his shoulders and arms and guided his fingers. “Your touch is just right — I feel your strength and your tenderness — you’re strong but gentle — so sweet — and, so patient with me. No one’s ever been patient with me — like you are.”

“Maybe no one’s ever loved you as I do.”

“That’s for sure, Nick ... Mmm ... this feels so good ... so good...”

“Divide your mind.”

“Divide yours.”

He traded kisses and caresses with her. “What’s your key this time?” she asked.

“You don’t want to know,” he said with a smile. “I’ll just say every time we make love I discover something about your body.”