Page 21 of Wicked Hungry

y. So who knows? I mean, no one ever offered me steroids or anything. They weren’t so popular then. And I wouldn’t have known how to make a pact with the devil, if I even believed in that. What brings all this up?”

“Nothing,” I say. “But you never took anything that wasn’t natural, right?”

“You know that just because something is natural doesn’t mean it’s good for you. But yeah, me and your mom, you know... I don’t know how to put this. Let’s just say my body wasn’t always my temple. I had my moments, and so did your mother.”

“You mean, you and mom—”

“We made mistakes. I don’t want you to go through what we went through, but I want you to know you can always talk to us, all right?”

I nod. But I don’t think we’ll be talking about it anytime soon.

Lauren is waiting for me when we walk in, and gets me up on the bench first, to do some strengthening exercises, but mostly just to make sure I’ve been taking care of myself and doing my stretches.

“How’s it going, Stanley?”

“Fine, I guess. Those sharp pains I was having, though? They’re gone.”

“So, on a scale of zero to ten, your pain would be...?”

“Zero.”

“It’s completely gone?”

“The sharp pain, yeah, for a week or so. But I still had this ache until, well, a couple of days ago.”

“You’re telling me the pain is completely gone now?”

“Not even an ache or a twinge. It’s just...”

“Just what, Stanley?”

“Well, the aches are gone, but my knee kind of itches.”

She rests her hand lightly on my knee. I feel nothing, except the warmth of her hand.

“I have no explanation,” she says, finally. “Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like this. Unbelievable.”

Then she gets to the business of torturing me. She pulls my foot around and watches me, waiting for me to wince, to groan, to clench my teeth. But all I feel is the itch. I want to scratch it. That’s all.

“Dr. Pietrano give you a new prescription?” she asks. “Put you on some steroids?”

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

She twists my foot around.

“This is real awkward. I mean, I know you’re a good kid, but I have to ask.”

“What?”

“You aren’t taking anything illegal, are you, Stanley?”

I shake my head again. She keeps making me move, then she puts me on the weight machines, and I pull and push and nothing hurts.

“Andy?” she calls out, then. “Can you come here for a minute?”

He backs up her observations. My pain is gone. My range of motion has improved significantly, become almost normal. There is also more strength than normal. The itching they can’t explain.

Actually, they can’t explain any of it.