Jack_ Secret Vengeance - F. Paul Wilson [62]
It was risky business, but sometimes you had to break the rules.
“So, we’ve learned that this bill means Dad had a vasectomy in 1962 that reversed itself in 1968 and was then redone by this Doctor Welsch. Fine. But you said it explains lots of things. What? It doesn’t explain anything to me.”
Kate grinned. “It explains why Mom calls you ‘miracle boy.’”
Her words hit like a hammer against the side of his head.
“Oh, God! It does!”
All his life he’d wondered about that, but she’d never had a good answer. Now he knew why she couldn’t explain it to him. By some—in her eyes—miracle, her supposedly sterile husband had become fertile again to give her a surprise baby.
“It also explains why you’ve been her favorite since the day you were born, something that did not endear you to your big brother.”
Jack shook his head. He fought a smile but it broke through.
“I guess I am a miracle boy.”
In a way it was a relief to realize that he wasn’t expected to perform a miracle sometime in the future. The miracle was already behind him.
Kate rose and kissed him on the top of his head, then handed him the folded bill.
“I’m glad you found it. I don’t know how you got your hands on it and I’m not sure I want to, but I’m glad to know what I know. As I said, it answers some questions.” She tousled his already messed-up hair. “Heading back?”
He shook his head. He had some thinking to do.
“Not yet. Think I’ll stay here. Catch you later.” As she started to move away, he laughed and said, “And tell the folks their accident says hi.”
Kate came back and leaned close, shaking a finger in his face. She wasn’t smiling.
“Don’t make me sorry I explained this to you. I don’t want to hear you refer to yourself as an ‘accident’ again. Okay? Please?”
He realized he’d upset her, and Kate was the last person on Earth he wanted to upset.
“Okay. Deal. Never again.” Anything for Kate.
She smiled. “Great. See you home.” Waving, she walked off.
Jack slouched on the bench. Now that the “miracle boy” mystery had been cleared up, and a family secret revealed, he felt an oddly peaceful feeling settle over him. But it didn’t last long.
The lock … Toliver’s damn lock. He couldn’t find any way past it.
He stared at the water and the canoers for a moment, then let his eyes drift closed. Maybe he could dream up a solution if he caught another forty winks. If nothing else, he needed the sleep.
5
“Some things that seem like accidents are not.”
Jack’s eyes popped open at the sound of a voice to his right. He thought it sounded like—
“Oh, hi, Mrs. Clevenger.”
The old woman sat next to him on the bench, her black scarf around her neck despite the warmth of the day. Her three-legged dog sat at her feet, panting as he stared at Jack.
Once again, where had these two come from? When he’d closed his eyes, they’d been nowhere in sight. Had he napped?
She turned her dark eyes on him. “I couldn’t help overhearing.”
Overhearing from where? he wanted to say. You weren’t in eyeshot, let alone earshot.
But then, she might have been screened by one of the trees or the people wandering around.
“Overhearing what?”
“About the ‘miracle’ of your birth.”
Jack suddenly felt uncomfortable. “That was private.”
She smiled. “But spoken in such a public place.”
Couldn’t argue with her on that.
“Yeah, well…”
“As I said, some happenings that appear accidental are not.” She lowered her voice. “Like your father’s return to fertility, perhaps.”
Jack looked around. Now he was really uncomfortable.
“I don’t think that’s something to talk about outside the family.”
She laughed. “Nor inside the family, I gather. Not to worry, no one will hear us. This is a conversation between an old woman and a teenage boy. No one is interested.”
They could be very interested, Jack thought, if the old woman is rumored to be a witch.
“Still