Time(1): On The Phone Again
Dial, dial, dial...seven times.
"Who's this?" It's Harvey answering the phone. As much as he uses telephones, you'd think his phone etiquette would be better.
"Mr. Czakowski, this Jonathan Bell, David Bell's fath--"
"He bit me!" Harvey shrieks. "Your damn kid bit me!"
"Bit--?"
"You should put him away--put him to sleep!"
"--bit you, you say?"
"Chomped! Chewed!" Harvey cries. "With his teeth! Bit!"
"David? But, why would he bite you? Did you kick him, or--?
"Kick him? No!"
"--hit him?"
"No! No hitting!" Harvey screeches, leaving out some rather important details. "Biting! Biting! I'm bit!"
"I'm sure it was unintentional--an accident--"
"On purpose! On the elbow! Malicious biting!" Harvey screams. Then, "Has he had his shots?"
Jonathan's heart sinks. David hasn't had his shots. And, there's no telling what was on that elbow. "Oh God! We've got to find him! Do you know where he went? Did he run away? Jump the fence?"
"Run away? Jump the fence? What is he, a dog? He's right here...with his mother!"
"My wife is there?"
Harvey thinks a minute. It isn't long enough.
He shouts, "That crazy lady is your wife? Why didn't you stop her?" He is remembering Anna's horrible threats the day she came to the mansion. (He is confusing her with Becky, who is at the mansion, now.) His knees buckle and he sinks into a nearby chair. He wonders if he's safe in the mansion with her...and her biting boy. What if she's here to carry out those awful threats? What if she sics the boy on him, again?
"What's she doing there?"
"Having her baby, of course!" Harvey cries, suddenly relieved. He has just realized that this woman can't very well drain off his blood or puree his ears while she's giving birth. He's safe. (She could sic the boy on you, though, Harvey.)
"Her baby?" Jonathan asks weakly.
"Our baby," Harvey says, making the assumption that, since he assumes Lizzie is his daughter and since the woman he assumes is Anna is her mother, that he must be the father of Anna's baby, too (if it was Anna who was having the baby, which it isn't...it's Becky). "Our second. Lizzie's our oldest."
"Lizzie, the Dyke? She's...alive?"
"Yeah, she's okay. She just changed her name."
"...and my son is there? In the house with Lizzie?"
"Becky. We call her Becky, now. She isn't here. She's off buying formula for the baby."
Jonathan is silent.
"Hello? Hello?" Harvey takes the phone from his ear and pounds it against the palm of his hand. "Hello?" This time it doesn't work. No one comes back on the line.