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GEMINI
BY TROG
CHAPTER
7



Chapter 7

The three men stared in amazement at the sickly man before them, bewildered by what they saw.

“Oh...my...fucking...God!” whispered Chuck Springer.

Reaching up with a trembling hand, Mike Palladino wiped away a bit of spit which dribbled slowly from his shocked, gaping mouth.

Tukluk just stared.

Chuck approached the man in the wheelchair.

“Who are you?” asked Chuck in a shaky voice.

“Todd Manning,” said the man weakly, reaching for the oxygen mask lying on his lap. Taking a deep whiff, he pointed toward a bottle of intravenous solution that he’d knocked over accidentally.

Chuck walked over and picked up the bottle, hooking it back on the stand that attached to the back of his wheelchair. As he straightened the bottle and checked the intravenous line, he noticed the scar on the man’s right cheek, exactly like the “other” Todd’s. He was an exact duplicate-a perfect double-accept his hair was short and choppy.

“What are you doing here?” asked Tukluk.

“Not sure. I...I’m sick...so sick. Dr. Reese...helping me...” he gasped, each word an exhausting effort as he inhaled deeply between phrases from the oxygen mask.

Mike walked over, noticing a fresh, inch-long incision above his right eyebrow and staring at his hands, which seemed to peak his interest.

“I’m Dr. Palladino...uh...Todd,” said Mike as he picked up Todd’s hands and examined them. He noticed a thickening, white skin around the joints and his fingers were swollen and bent. Gently, he pulled on Todd’s fingers to straighten them, but he cried out with pain. “I’m sorry, Todd. Does that hurt?”

Todd nodded, whimpering a bit.

“Please...could...help me...to bed,” he gasped.

Tukluk walked over and pushed the wheelchair toward the bed in the corner. He and Mike pulled Todd up off the chair, noting his frailty, and carefully put him in bed as he moaned softly, every movement obviously excruciating. Mike moved the intravenous bottle onto the bed rack and checked the oxygen connection as Tukluk covered the shivering patient. Todd closed his eyes and went to sleep almost immediately, his raspy breathing filling the quiet room with a disturbing hum.

“Look at this,” said Chuck, looking over the x-rays along the wall. “Right there, above his eye. There’s something in there.”

Mike walked over. “What the hell is that?”

“An object of some sort...I don’t know.”

Tukluk just kept staring at Todd.

“Unbelievable! He looks exactly the same. This is...unbelievable,” he kept repeating to himself. Reaching down, he read the plastic bracelet around Todd’s wrist. “Gemini.”

Mike and Chuck turned around.

“What did you say?”

Tukluk pointed at the bracelet.

“His bracelet, it says his name is Gemini.”

Chuck walked over and looked at the bracelet.

“He’s a fucking clone, man...a fucking clone,” he said looking upward, smiling with a strange, almost spiritual euphoria. “Fucking, Jesus! They’ve done it! They’ve really done it!”

“It’s a miracle,” whispered Mike with quiet reverence.

They heard movement outside.

“Damn, someone’s coming. Let’s get out of here,” said Tukluk, heading for the door. Peeking out he noticed the guard down the hall was beginning to stir, his gun had fallen to the floor. “Shit, he’s waking up. Let’s go.”

They ran out the door and rushed up the stairs quickly, their hearts pounding, their legs wobbling with a mixture of excitement and fear. Tukluk pulled the key out of the basement door and replaced it carefully into the sleeping guards pocket. They ran down the hallway, out a side door and headed for the residents’ quarters in the next building, the icy wind crashing against them like a fist before they made it to the entrance.

Tukluk looked around but didn’t see anyone.

“I’ve got to get going. I have to go back to my dormitory...someone’s bound to notice I’m missing. I have bed-check in a few minutes. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

Tukluk started to walk away but stopped and turned quickly.

“And not a fucking word to anyone, you two...or we’re all bound to disappear like Wanda,” he warned, with a shake of his braids.

Tukluk ran down the hall and disappeared around a corner.

Mike and Chuck made their way quietly into the residents’ hall and went silently to their respective rooms, meditating on what they’d seen, to overcome by what they’d witnessed to speak of it.

* * * * *

Staring out her office window and drinking her third cup of coffee, Tea rubbed her blood-shot eyes, watching the heavy traffic far below her as New York City kicked into the full gear of another working day. Sleep had abandoned her and her mind was beginning to fragment, her thought process splintering into pieces that made no sense.

At first she assumed her anxiety was about her upcoming wedding, but...she knew it wasn’t that. The nightmares with Todd were escalating in frequency and intensity and she could no longer close her eyes without seeing his tortured face.

A battle of wills was unfolding inside her. Her most primal instincts raged within, screaming that Todd needed her, but her rational mind told her to ignore those instincts, instincts which had mislead her most cruelly on a deserted island where she’d made a complete fool of herself over a man who rejected her utterly. Her instincts, that most reliable weapon, both as a woman and a lawyer, had failed her miserably, and, after last summer...she no longer trusted them, especially where Todd Manning was concerned.

When her phone buzzed, it startled her.

“Yes, Tracy?”

Tea smiled.

“Put him through.” Walking around behind her desk, she sat down, swiveling around playfully. “Good morning, my future husband.”

Reaching over she touched a silver vase of white roses that had arrived this morning.

“Yes, I got them. They’re lovely, just what I needed today to remind me of how lucky I am to have you in my life.”

Pulling one of the flowers out of the vase, she smiled listening to his warm, deep voice.

“No, honey, I can’t have lunch...I’ll be in court then. I’ll see you later for dinner, though. Why don’t you come by my place...I feel like cooking.”

She laughed at something he said.

“Alright...I’ll see you later,” she said, listening to his last words pensively, her brow furrowing slightly. “Me too.”

Hanging up the phone slowly she gazed at the perfect white rose in her hand and smelled it.

“White roses have no scent...no color...no character. Don’t you know my favorite roses are peach? Didn’t I ever mention that to you?”

She leaned back remembering a long time ago, a hospital room filled with peach roses in her honor, a pretty reward for a foolish sacrifice, a profoundly romantic gesture from a man who’d rather swallow shards of jagged glass than show vulnerability. Were they her favorite because Todd had given them to her? Had she told him, or had he guessed it? Their past had taken on a strange mythology and she couldn’t remember what was fact or fiction anymore, her love for him having defined everything in their past with a strange, gothic splendor that confused the meaning of it all.

“A-A-A-H-H,” she shouted, clutching her head between her hands, twisting her long hair between her fingers till she felt pain, and shaking her head roughly. “Get out of my head, Todd Manning. You liar...you bastard...you ungrateful son-of-a-bitch! I should hate you! I shouldn’t give a damn what happens to you after what you put me through. So, you’re missing? Tough! Who cares! Let Blair worry about you, she’s the one you love...let her dream of you...let her look for you! I’m through caring about you! I’m done with you.”

Looking out the window her eyes began to fill with tears.

“God...I loved you so much, Todd! No one...no one could ever love you as much...but that wasn’t enough for you,” she cried, wiping her eyes quickly, ashamed of her own tears. “How could my heart have been so wrong? So blind? Todd...you’ve made me despise my own heart!”

Pushing her hair back she sighed deeply and looked up at the sky the way lost, desperate souls do when they’re searching for an answer.

“What is wrong with me?”

She paced around a bit, wrestling with herself, then, after a few minutes she reached over for her purse. Pulling out a leather-bound address book, she started flipping through the pages until she found what she was looking for. Sitting back, she dialed the phone quickly picking up the white rose and staring at its colorless perfection.

“Ivan? Hi, it’s Tea Delgado. I wanted to thank you for the work you did for our firm last month. It was very impressive. Listen, I have a job for you. It’s personal...and very urgent. A friend of mine, his name is Todd Manning...I need for you to locate him. He disappeared from Llanview, PA a few months ago. Yes. No. No one’s heard a word from him. Great, I’ll go by your place first thing tomorrow. Thanks, Ivan...I really appreciate this. Let me give you some information about him, and I’ve got his social security number...”

* * * * *

2003 Copyright by Trog







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