She nodded gratefully. “Please.”
“Take as much time as you need.” The agent looked to the replacement nurse and motioned for her to leave the room as well. She made a note on her time chart, and exited into the hallway with her materials. Ziggler followed her, pausing in the doorway. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”
Skylar waited for the door to close, then pulled a chair up next to Eddie and continued to cry. All she could think was how helpless he looked. So docile. So innocent. He reminded Skylar of her brother, Christopher, who never did anything in his life to hurt anyone. Neither had Eddie. They weren’t capable of it. All Eddie had ever wanted was to hear his mother’s voice. Was that too much to ask? He had devoted his entire life to the pursuit of it. And now his only hope for that dream coming true had been taken away from him. The world cared nothing for him or his wishes. It only cared about his device, and what it could do. The mysteries it could solve. The answers it would reveal. And it was all her fault. Because she was just as guilty as everybody else. Right along with the rest of the world, Skylar had placed her needs above Eddie’s. She should have never taken him off Harmony House grounds. She would never forgive herself, just like she would blame herself for her brother’s suicide for the rest of her life. Tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. “Eddie, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
His eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, even as he whispered in a barely audible voice, “Why are you so, so sorry, Skylar?”
She stared at him in disbelief, certain that she must have just hallucinated. Until he slowly turned his head toward her and looked at her briefly. “Eddie, you spoke.”
“Yes, I did.” He sounded terribly sad and distant, and then he looked away.
She trembled with a mixture of excitement and confusion. “How . . . how is this possible?”
“In human beings, voicing occurs when air is expelled from the lungs through the glottis, creating a drop in pressure across the larynx.”
“They said you’d been traumatized,” she interrupted. “That . . . you were unable to communicate.”
Eddie nodded. “I became very frightened when the agents pointed their guns at me. I did not like when they did that.”
“I didn’t like when they did that, either. I was very scared, too.”
“I heard the doctor say I was unconsciously trying to protect myself. I didn’t know that’s what I was doing. But everyone was leaving me alone and I liked that so I decided to keep doing it.” His voice remained emotionally depleted. It reminded Skylar of how she must have sounded right after learning of Jacob’s death.
“Do you know what time it was when you first started being able to hear the doctor?”
“It was 3:17 in the morning. I know because there’s a clock on the wall.” He pointed weakly to the clock.
Skylar still couldn’t process what she was hearing. “So what have you been doing since then?”
“I have been lying here, thinking.”
“Thinking about what?”
“Birds. Lots and lots of birds. I thought about belted kingfishers. And green-winged teals. And common terns. And hermit thrushes. And swallow-tailed kites. And blue-winged warblers. I remembered how beautiful they sound. And how much better they make me feel. Birds don’t use expressions. They never expect me to interpret what they mean, so I never feel confused or embarrassed around them. I could hear them so clearly in my mind it was like I was actually hearing them. Do you ever do that, imagine something so clearly that it almost seems like it’s real?”
“Yes, I do.” She thought of Jacob. Then tried very hard not to. Skylar took a moment to consider that for the last seventeen hours, Eddie had managed to remain perfectly still while imagining birdcalls and nothing else. Zen Buddhists spent a lifetime in pursuit of such focus. “Incredible.”
Eddie smiled ever so slightly. “You were right, you know.”
Skylar didn’t follow. “About what?”
“That if I spent enough time outside Harmony House, I would lie, because everyone lies sometimes. Even you.”
She was astonished. “What did you lie about?”
“I let the doctors think I couldn’t answer them when I could have. It was a lie of omission.”
“I don’t know that I’d say you were lying. I’d say that you were acting, like the policeman who pretended to have a heart attack to help us.”
“He was still lying.” Eddie glanced around them, looking more like his old self. “I don’t like this room, Skylar. I don’t like the way it sounds. There are too many hard surfaces. I like my room in Harmony House much better. And I really don’t like the needle in my arm, or the adhesive stuck to my skin. It’s itchy and uncomfortable.”
All at once, she couldn’t stop the tears from streaming down her face again. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
He studied her. “You’re crying.”
She nodded. “Happy tears.”
“I don’t know how to cry happy tears. Do you think you can teach me?”
“I’ll do my best.” Skylar did not actually intend to hold his hand at that particular moment. It just happened. She reached out and gently placed her hand in his. It would have been a completely natural gesture, were Eddie anyone else. But he was not anyone else. He was more special than anyone she’d ever known. Skylar was just about to apologize when she realized Eddie had not withdrawn his hand from hers. In fact, he had not flinched at all. He was letting her hold his hand. “Wow.”
He didn’t know what she was referring to. “Why did you say that?”
She was staring at their hands. “We’re holding hands.”
“I’ve never held hands with anyone before.”
“That’s why I said wow.” This was the most physical contact Eddie had ever voluntarily had in his life. It was powerful. And utterly pure. It was something she had always hoped would happen with her little brother, Christopher, but it never did. Skylar could not stop staring at their clasped hands. Which she soon regretted, because Eddie pulled his back.
He seemed lost in his own world. “I did not let them have the echo box, Skylar.”
She took a deep breath before she answered. “I saw them take it from you. There was nothing you could do to stop them.”
He looked at her with absolute sincerity. “You are wrong, Skylar. There was something I could do.”
He said it with such conviction that she almost gave him the benefit of the doubt. “What?”
His eyes darted around the room for a moment, as he hesitated. “This is just another one of those things that you’re going to have to trust me on.”
She couldn’t help but smile at his imitation of her. “I can do that.” There was a light knock on the door. Skylar quickly leaned down to Eddie. “I don’t want you to talk to anyone else. Do you think you can keep acting for a little while longer?”
“I can do that.” He said it just like she had. He smiled briefly, then turned his blank gaze toward the ceiling, just as the door opened.
Ziggler poked his head in. “Dr. Drummond, pardon the interruption, but there’s someone who would like to speak with you.”
Skylar stepped out of Eddie’s room to come face-to-face with a man she recognized from watching the news. His name was Senator Corbin Davis. As the shorter agent made introductions, she struggled to connect the dots. What the hell is he doing here?
The senator turned to the agent. “I would like to speak to Ms. Drummond—excuse me, Dr. Drummond—privately.” The agent led them into the patient room adjacent to Eddie’s, which was vacant. The agent left them alone.
Davis studied her admiringly, just as most men did upon first meeting Skylar. “You’ve had quite a couple days.”
“Yes, I have.”
He paused meaningfully. “I’m sorry about what happened to Jacob Hendrix.”
“So am I.”
He nodded. “The man Homeland Security believes to be responsible for his murder was found dead early this morning.”
She bluntly asked, “How?”
“An explosion. It appears to have been an accident.”