Chapter 32: Congratulations on Your Coma (Part III)

She tapped in a short message and hit send. Moments later a new message appeared and the smile that flooded across her face lit her eyes, if just for a moment, before she schooled her expression again.

“It’s him,” she said.

“I don’t know what to say,” Tom said.

Frog chuckled. “I think thank you will suffice,” she said nodding towards Emily. “Elaine could never leave well enough alone. I think if you ever saw her and her brothers together you’d understand how cutting you off from yours might be hard for her.”

“Is this the only one?” asked Tom. “Perhaps we’ll have to negotiate custody of the phone.”

“I don’t think—”

Emily spoke up before Elaine could finish. “How much would you want to make another one? I have a lot of money, I would make it worth your while.”

Elaine considered telling them she couldn’t make another phone, but that would be a lie, and it wouldn’t prevent Emily from seeking the ability to make more. The danger that Chance’s subconscious might again reach out to infect people again loomed large in that scenario. Even with the one phone too much already potentially could go wrong.

Tom reacted to the pause in Elaine’s reaction and touched Emily’s hand.

“I think if Ms. Mercer has only made us one she’s got a good reason,” he said. “I don’t mind sharing Chance with you, if you don’t mind sharing him with me.”

“The phone you have is the initial vector for all your current troubles,” Elaine said. “Making another one would not be advisable. However, if you damage this one, please feel free to bring it back to me for repair.”

“Maybe I can use the voice transcription and vocalization on this to make it like a speakerphone,” Emily said. “Excuse us, but Tom and I really need to catch up with Chance, I think.”

“Of course,” Frog said. “Have at it. Just look us up later if you need anything.”

Elaine nodded curtly.

Tom and Emily walked together back to Chance’s room and passed Zane in the doorway on his way out. He wore a worn, gray backpack where he stowed his tools, a stray bit of copper wire poked out through a hole on the side.

“That cage should work fine for that room,” he said. “It can’t cover the electrical outlets, but I used a disruption rune configuration around them to make sure that coherent spells won’t make it through without warning us. The sense I get, though, is that Chance exhausted himself with that last extravaganza, so I don’t think we need to worry about it as much.”

“I think you are correct,” Elaine said. “The strength of Chance’s power he drew from Emily and Tom as well and now that they’re aware of him and we’ve isolated them he won’t be able to do that again. Also, if his dreaming subconscious is to blame for this, having the line of communication may keep him from lapsing into such a primal obsessive state again.”

“Do you think he’ll come out of the coma?” asked Frog. “I’ve listened to the doctor’s talking and they’re not very positive about that.”

“If he does,” Elaine said. “The three of them may end up running this city.”

“We’ve made some good friends, then,” Zane said. “In case they do end up running things.”

In the room nearby, three siblings huddled near one another—one of them comatose—yet they could have never been closer. Tom’s gentle baritone played a merry counterpoint to Emily’s strong tenor, and between them spoke the edged harmony of the iPhone’s computerized voice as it dictated Chance’s replies. For a moment, as Elaine listened, she realized that they managed to escape the distractions of the noise all around them. In that room, those three together, created their own peace that so many others in the hospital so rarely found.

“What are we waiting for?” Zane said. “Let’s go get something to eat.”

“It’s not over until she says it,” Frog said. “And I think it’s about time.”

“Case closed,” Elaine said.