Frankenstein

stars tonight,” Travis said.
    “The stars are always there, whether we can see them or not,” Bryce assured him.
    The boy worried that his mother might not be safe, out there in the suddenly unknown streets of this long-familiar town. In spite of what Bryce had said about what-ifs, Travis Ahern shuffled through a deck of them, waiting for nightfall.
    After a while, Bryce steered the boy from worries to shining memories. His mother was his hero. When he recounted their good times together, his eyes were bright with love, his voice tender.

    Jean-Anne Chouteau came to the hospital to visit her sister, Mary-Jane Vergelle. She arrived with Julian, Mary-Jane’s husband.
    As president of the VFW Auxiliary, the lay chaplain of her church, and the founder of the Rainbow Falls Red Hat Society, she visited Memorial at least once each week, to sit a spell with one afflicted friend or another.
    Jean-Anne carried a Tupperware container filled with miniature homemade muffins, some walnut-carrot and some pecan-zucchini. Julian clutched a bouquet from Fantasy Floral and a paperback book wrapped in kitten-patterned paper.
    Even before they went through the glass door, Jean-Anne saw Chief Jarmillo and four deputies, and she said, “Oh, Julian, some poor soul must’ve been shot.”
    “Police don’t always mean gunplay,” Julian said as the automatic door slid open in front of them.
    But three years earlier, when Jean-Anne was leaving the hospital after paying a visit to a friend recovering from an encounter with a drunk driver, an ambulance followed by three squad cars came racing along the approach road to the ER entrance. Don Scobey—
the
Don Scobey of Don Scobey’s Steakhouse—had been shot by a stickup artist. Ever since, when from time to time Jean-Anne saw a police officer at Memorial, she steeled herself for the news that someone had been gunned down.
    As they stepped into the lobby, Officer John Martz—who was married to Anita, a Red Hat lady, and who always took the microphone as auctioneer at the annual charity auction for the hospital—came toward them, smiling.
    In spite of John’s smile, Jean-Anne said, “Who’s been shot?”
    “Shot? Oh, no, Jean-Anne. It’s nothing like that. There’s been a contamination problem. Nothing serious but—”
    “What kind of contamination?” Julian asked.
    “Nothing serious. But anyone who’s been to the hospital the last few days, and anyone who has a friend or family member currently here as a patient—we need you to give us a blood sample.”
    “Is Mary-Jane all right?” Jean-Anne asked.
    “Yes, yes, she’s fine.”
    “Is she infected with something, after what she’s already been through?”
    “No, Jean-Anne,” John Martz said. “She’s already been tested, and she’s fine. We don’t need much blood, just a drop, a thumb prick will do it. If you’ll follow me … ”
    Moving with the officer as he crossed the lobby to the elevator alcove, Jean-Anne said, “Her gallbladder wasn’t just inflamed and full of stones, poor thing. She said on the phone it was abscessed.”
    And Julian said, “I hope this contamination thing isn’t going to lead to complications for her.”
    “No, like I said, she’s fine,” John Martz assured them. “She tested negative.”
    “What do the police have to do with any kind of contamination?” Jean-Anne wondered. “Where are the doctors and nurses?”
    “They have their hands full. They asked us for assistance. By law, we’re obligated to help in a health emergency.”
    “Emergency?” Jean-Anne frowned. “But you said it was nothing serious.”
    “It’s not that serious,” John Martz said, escorting them into the elevator. “They’re short on staff because of the flu, and when this situation came up, they had to declare it an emergency for us to be able to assist.”
    As the doors closed, Julian said, “What kind of contamination? You still haven’t said.”
    “I’m no medical scientist, Julian. If I tried to explain it, I’d only make an idiot of myself. Dr. Lightner will lay it out for you.”
    The elevator was already descending when Jean-Anne said, “John, I think the blood lab is on the main floor.”
    “Yes, it is. But Dr. Lightner has set up a second testing station in the basement to speed things along.”
    The elevator doors opened, and they stepped into the corridor. John Martz turned right, with Jean-Anne at his side and Julian a step behind.
    A strikingly handsome young man came out