 |
 |
|
| E-mail this page to a friend | Tell me when this page is updated |
| IMPOSTER BY MARIQUA |
CHAPTER 93 |
It's you...
Why...why can't you ever leave us alone? Toddy left you...I left you...but still you keep coming back like a bad penny...
Slider studied Nick's face which had suddenly turned ashen the second his eyes locked in on Sam. He knew that Nick must be exerting every particle of power he had to contain what must be happening within him. I was right...Sam is shaking him up.. this is it...before he has time to recover...
As Sam walked up the stairs toward them, he saw Slider nodding as a go-ahead for him to talk. Talk...definitely...I've got plenty to say...
"Boomer!" Sams voice burst with enthusiasm but with an underlying touch of reserve. Checking to see that Slider approved, he continued. "You gave us all a real scare, pal! Now I find you back at the old homestead..."
"...uh...well, the place still looks about the same...not much has changed," Sam said, looking around with an affable smile.
Nick's body tilted slightly forward as he felt some hidden force applying intense physical pressure.
"This is like going down Memory Lane, isn't it?" Sam said, his hands spreading out expressively, "...except, I know you probably don't really like being here."
Memory Lane...memories...Toddy's memories...
A switch had been thrown on and a blinding light tore into Nick's brain. Coach...Toddy...
Sam stopped momentarily and looked at Slider again for a sign that he was proceeding according to plan. Okay? I can't screw this up...
The conversation that they had had in the car coming over to the house had prepared him somewhat for his part in this predestined drama. Sam also intuitively surmised that his instincts would have to do most of the work. He was no therapist, but he did know more about Todd's past than anyone except Slider. Slider had said that Todd's mind was shut up tight behind a locked door, and a key had to be turned in that lock to free up those memories again. Slider had pressed him to be the one to initiate the turning of the key.
"I've already talked with Nick about that night, Sam...but you've got to get through to Todd...about those days...the days before he changed. You are the father he never had. Todd knows that deep down. Use that, Sam...touch every emotional nerve he's got."
It was what Sam had wanted to hear -- acknowledgment that he had been and could still be the missing parent in Todd's life. He never would fully understand why he had been so tied to someone else's child, but he knew love was often unexplainable. Maybe he had seen himself in the awkward, misunderstood kid and yearned to somehow impart something of what he had learned from his own failings.
"One more thing," Slider had said in the car, "...it's not just about old times...you witnessed something pivotal happening that night..."
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Looking back at Slider, a twisted grin formed on Nick's disbelieving face. Another setup...Dr. Shrink strikes again...having fun, Slider?
"Cut the crap, Coach...I know you know who I am!"
Sam blinked as his eyes watered. What a mind you have, Todd...capable of inventing an entire personality with every trait carefully constructed and embedded in your thoughts. He's just like a character I could have created in a novel...
"I'm not interested in talking to you," Sam walked between the two men and stood next to Nick. "Todd knows that I'm here."
Nick laughed softly, but uneasily, sensing that his confidence had already been compromised by the appearance of this man.
"Toddy is deaf, dumb and blind, Coach...he likes it that way, too... believe me."
"I want you to remember a certain day, Boomer, Sam said, folding his arms and deliberately ignoring Nick's remark,"...when you tried out for the team. You know...back then, when Slider first told me about you, I didn't really have any high expectations. You were just another kid coming for tryouts, but I could tell after meeting you that you were a kid who really wanted to belong somewhere. Then, that day at tryouts...well, something unbelievable happened on that field...I saw it...others saw it. You had this unrestrained, unlimited natural ability to play ball that wouldn't quit. When you ran toward me with that flushed look of pride and hope on your face..man...I couldn't take my eyes off of you! "There's something so special about this kid," I thought, "...even apart from his moves on the field...what is it?"
"I didn't understand why you even mattered to me. All I knew was that from that point on, I had to watch out for you, and I could never abandon you. It was crazy...but it was a fact. I coached many kids...some just as good as you...and I had my own kids...but why did I look for you everyday? Why did you come into my life and turn me all around?"
Standing perfectly still, Sherry listened in stunned silence to the words of this new visitor. He hadn't noticed her. He seemed too wrapped up in talking to Nick. Something is unfolding here...I can't interrupt...not now...
Snapping his fingers, Sam's brilliant blue eyes flashed on suddenly. "Well... it took me a long time to figure out why I was placed in your life and worried over you like you were my own flesh and blood. You tried to tell me that day in the cabana...tried and failed. Yet, I knew then that it all had something to do with Peter Manning."
Stop it...damn you!! I can talk about him...but you can't ...Toddy never wanted you to know...
"He was a flawed man, Boomer...selfish and cruel...not the father you should have had. No one to look up to or emulate. But he was your parent, and the only role model you had...until I came along."
"...I think you loved him as any child would love their father, but he turned on you and stomped all over your young soul. You began to hate him and you did something else that was unforgivable in your mind. You rejected him."
The pressure bore down harder on Nick, and his tongue swirled against the inside of his mouth to dampen the sudden dry, parched sensation. His vibrant eyes hollowed into vacant orbs staring out at some unseen vision.
"Why did you affect me as you did? Because...because I saw in your eyes how you felt about me every day that we were together. You couldn't hide that, Boomer. You were reaching out to me because I could provide what you couldn't get from him. Oh, you know, I shook it off and tried to pretend that it was just a passing thing...that you and I didn't have some inexplicable bond. I...I didn't know if I could handle that...not when you weren't my own child..."
A drop of moisture materialized and clung to Nick's eyelash. Lies, all lies, Toddy...you never cared that much about Coach...
Pausing, Sams eyes shifted and looked over at Slider. I'm on a roll here...please God, somebody stop me if I go overboard!
Slider's eyes shone their acceptance of what he was saying. Go ahead, Sam...this is the first step...
"Do you think I never suspected what happened with you and Peter? We talked about it that day in the cabana when you chose to shut me out. You couldn't begin to tell me...it would have brought it all to the surface, and you were protecting someone...someone who had rescued you from this hell pit of a home. He had to be protected, didn't he, Boomer? Without him, you didn't think you could ever make it through your life."
Nick's skin stretched and tightened into a contorted mask of hatred as he listened to the man who had interfered now and all those years ago. Everything was fine...everything was working with us...we didn't need a father figure...you thought you did, Toddy...but you were wrong. I took over. It worked, too...except when you broke down and called him to help you with that makeshift wife of yours. Weakness...that was always your undoing.
"This mushy, pathetic appeal," Nick forced his energy to focus on the immediate problem--the problem of eradicating Sam Rappaport from a place in Todd's mind, "...it's not worthy of you...and, not only that," he said with undisguised venom lacing his words as his eyes narrowed, "I think the Coach has been coached."
"If you listen to him, Boomer," Sam exhorted, "he will try to destroy every memory in your life...every good time...every emotional moment that was your own...do you want that? And he can never take the place of the father you so desperately needed."
Slider winced and knew that Sam had made a critical error. Nick will pounce on this...and he'll turn it back on him...
"And you think you're the answer, Coach?" Nick's razor-sharp mind began working furiously, and it exulted in an immediate rush of triumph. "Don't puff yourself up and give yourself any delusions as to what you meant to him! You stank as a surrogate father...you did abandon him...you weren't there for Toddy when he was incarcerated! He knows all this and much more about you that was anything but parental...you're all talk, but when it comes to real commitment, you failed him...and you always will."
I did...I did fail you...he nailed it...
The sincere, confident manner that Sam had projected began to fizzle into nothingness. What Nick had said was only the truth, and a truth that had haunted him for years. I left you...I walked out on you...a boy who was like a son to me in every way but biologically. This alter...he's only relaying your deepest, most painful thoughts back to me...this is how you really
Got any more skeletons in Toddy's closet to trot out, Slider? This was a roaring success...one zinger to the heart and Coach is useless to your concocted plan to bring Toddy back...look at him...I think he's about to crumble...
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Sam heard the echo of the question he had asked Slider in the car.
"Yes...I am. No one...not one soul on this earth has seen what you saw that night in the room downstairs...no one except you. You can use this, Sam...if everything else fails...this will be what identifies you to him and Todd as someone who changed the course of his history."
The lawyer's face had just drained of all color with the agonizing truth of Nick's diatribe. I deserve all of this...but, I can't let my feelings get hurt...it's not about me...it's about getting past this bastard's bravado and tampering with his power...
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
"Edwards!" the voice speaking into the cell phone was low but shaking with urgency.
"Are you there? Answer me!"
The ladies are making a move...they're walking up the porch steps! Edwards, wherever the hell you are, you'd better not let them see you!
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
"You're forgetting something very important," Sam's head snapped up from its lowered position, and this time there was no mistaking that he was only addressing the alter.
"You're dead right...I have failed him before, and I probably will again, but...I did not fail him when I walked in the room that night...no...I saved him!"
To Be Continued
