Holdin' On for a Hero (103 page)

“Mr. Weston, I…I really don’t know what to say. I’ll sure think about all the things you’ve said, and I promise you I won’t discuss them with anyone else without your permission. But I do want to tell Max. Everything you’ve told me involves him and I think he has the right to know. Now, I realize that all of you think Max is some mentally challenged individual, but I disagree and I’m going to prove it if I can, because like you, I don’t want to see Max spend the rest of his life incarcerated here in this lovely prison.”

Simon smiled and reached for her hand. “Thank you, my dear. And know that you have my full support. Anything you need, at any time, come to me or to Gaspar.”

Nikki wondered if his offer of help was motivated by a genuine desire for Max’s well-being and happiness or her own selfish search for the missing artifact.

She told herself that the artifact had taken a back seat. What she wanted most of all was to discover just how advanced or impeded Max was mentally, and find a way to help him communicate with others.

At least, that’s what she could admit to herself. That she might just be falling in love with Max was something she still couldn’t face.

* * * * *

Nikki made sure no one was around before she ran up the stairs to Max’s room. As far as the staff were concerned, Max was taking his afternoon nap and she was sequestered in her room working on her thesis.

She tapped softly. “Max? It’s me.”

Max opened the door and she quickly entered. She had a stack of papers and a thick book with her.

“I went to the university library last night and got online,” she said as she sat down on the bed and started sifting through the printed pages. “I found a couple of things I think will really be helpful. First, I found an IQ test. I had to modify it a little to eliminate questions that require spelling, but I think it’ll work okay.”

She looked up at Max, who was watching her with a less-than-happy expression.

“What?”

He went to his desk, pulled out a photo of his parents and pointed to his father.

“Your father? What about him?”

He pointed to her. She looked at him in bewilderment, not having the slightest idea what he was getting at. He pointed to her again, and then stabbed his finger at his father’s image.

“Me and your father?”

He nodded with a dark frown.

“Me and your father?” She repeated more to herself than to him. “What about us?”

Max didn’t know how to go about asking what he wanted to know. He put his hand over his heart.

“I don’t know what you’re getting at, Max. Give me another clue.”

Max hugged himself, pointed to his heart then to her and the picture.

Nikki stared at him for a long time. “Okay, let’s go slow. This is about your father and me. Is that right?”

He nodded.

“And your heart?”

He shook his head and stepped over to point to her heart.

“My heart?”

He nodded.

The point suddenly crystallized in her mind. “Are you asking me if I love your father?”

He nodded.

“No!”

He raised his eyebrows and turned his head slightly, as if saying, “Are you sure?”

“No,” she repeated. “I don’t love your father. If you want the truth, I don’t even like him. But what made you even ask that question?”

Max studied her face and eyes. She seemed sincere.

“Max, come on. I promise to you on my honor that I’m not in any way attracted to your father, or involved with your father, and if it’s all the same to you, it’d suit me just fine if I never had to be around him again.”

Max played his trump card. He rubbed his thumb over the tips of his fingers. Nikki frowned in confusion. Max opened the desk drawer and pulled out a fistful of money.

Her eyes widened then narrowed sharply. “I’m not sure I understand, but I’m starting to think I don’t like it anyway. What exactly do you want to know? If I’d play up to your father for money? No, I wouldn’t. Not for all his money.”

That was not what Max wanted to know. He wanted to know if she was only there because of the money. If she had no interest in Richard, then was she only there for the money?”

He pointed to her, then to himself, and then thrust the money at her.

Nikki got up and walked to him. She thought she knew what he wanted to know. It wasn’t a question she wanted to answer because the truth was complicated. She decided to tackle the least complicated issues first.

“When I first took the job, it was just for the money, yes. I was getting evicted, had no job and twenty-three dollars to my name. Your parents offered me more money than I’d ever dreamed of making and I jumped at the chance. And yes, even after I met you, for a while it was just the money. You were horrible to me and made me feel unwanted and if it hadn’t been for the money I would have been tempted to leave.”

Max was shocked at the admission and also hurt. He started to turn away, but she grabbed both of his arms to stop him.

“No, wait, I haven’t finished. It was the money, at first. But then after we finally were able to communicate and I finally understood, the money stopped being important. It’s not the money now, Max. It’s you. I’m here because of you.”

He wanted to believe her, but it wasn’t easy. Nikki’s fingers tightened on his arms. “I promise you that my interest in you has nothing to do with money, Max. Nothing. I don’t know how to prove it to you, but if you’ll tell me how I’ll do it.”

Max shook his head. She could be lying, but he didn’t think so. And he was tired of trying to figure everyone out. Like Mr. Robinson. Why did he show up and say the things he did?

“Max, do you want me to leave?”

He shook his head.

Impulsively, she stood up on her toes and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you.”

Max blushed from the kiss. The feel of her lips on his skin remained, tingling.

He pointed to the papers on the bed.

“Oh, yeah, the I.Q test.”

He shook his head.
I don’t want to take a test.

Nikki frowned. “I don’t understand.”

He crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. Nikki watched him for a few seconds. Again, he pointed at the papers.

“Do you still not trust me?”

He shook his head.

“Then are you mad about me going to the library?”

He shook his head.
No, I’m not mad. But I don’t want to take a test.

“Are you mad about the tests?”

He held up his hand with his thumb and index finger about a half an inch apart.

“Hey, I’m sorry.” She dumped the papers and got off the bed. “Max, I didn’t mean to insult you, I just…” She trailed off, for the moment unable to come up with an explanation that wouldn’t hurt his feelings.

He cocked his head to one side, cupping his hand around his ear. Nikki grimaced and flopped down on the bed, looking up at him. “I don’t know how to explain it without feeling like I’m stepping on your toes.”

Max took a seat beside her and lifted his feet off the floor.

“Okay, I’ll try. I know you’re not stupid, but I don’t know exactly how smart you are. Understand? I need to know how much you know. I know it sounds like I’m trying to judge you, but it’s not that. If we’re going to figure out a system to communicate we need to know where we both are in terms of—of knowledge and understanding concepts and…and…shit, this is coming out all wrong. Just forget it.”

Max narrowed his eyes slightly and she reached over to pick up the stack of papers she’d brought with her. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not making fun or judging. I just want to know—look, will you just go along with me on this? Please?”

She made sense. Max nodded. Nikki dug the IQ test from the papers scattered across the bed. “Okay, I’ve eliminated all the questions that require you to compose words.”

She handed Max the papers and searched around for a pen. Locating one, she handed it to him as well. “You’ve got forty-five minutes. Ready?”

Max nodded.

“All right, go.”

Scanning down the first page, Max quickly checked the appropriate answers. None of them were difficult. He forgot about Nikki watching him and focused on the questions. In just under twenty minutes he marked the last question.

“You’re done?”

He nodded.

“You sure you don’t want to check over it?”

He shook his head.

“Okay.” She took the test and started comparing his answers to the correct ones.

She was happily surprised that all of the answers on the first page were correct, as well as a little surprised. As she progressed through the test, her surprise grew. By the time she finished she was stunned. He had only missed two questions. It was incredible. If the revised test had any accuracy at all, Max was not in the least stupid. Quite the opposite.

But she wasn’t going to allow herself to get too excited. After all, it was only a sample test, and a revised one at that. She needed more to go on.

Max was watching her curiously. She gave him a smile. “You did amazingly well—only missed two.”

Satisfied?
He regarded her curiously.

“There’s just one other test I’d like you to try.”

Max crossed his arms over his chest.
Not another one!

“Come on,” she pleaded. “I know it’s a pain but it’s important. This is the college entrance exam.”

Max accepted the pages she handed him and flipped through them. He looked up, shook his head and showed her a page.

“I know there’re questions that require written answers. Don’t worry about it. Just complete as much as you can.”

He shook his head and put the pages down.

“Please?”

Max blew out his breath and held out his hand.

“What?”

He made the motion of writing.

“Oh!” She handed him the pencil. “Okay, ready?”

He nodded and started the exam.

Nikki paced around the room. Max looked up and pointed to the door.

“You want me to leave?”

He nodded.

“Well, okay. But I’ll be back in one hour.”

He nodded again and she left the room, went downstairs to her room and tried to work on her paper. She couldn’t concentrate and finally gave up and nervously paced the floor. Her phone rang and she snatched it up. There was no one there. She hung up. It rang again. No one on the line.

Then she realized who it was. Running up the stairs, she burst into Max’s room. “You’re done?”

He nodded and handed her the exam. She snatched the pages from him. Using the answer guide Ben had provided she began correcting the exam.

The results were surprising. His mathematical score was extremely high, as was the score in the sciences. In fact, overall he scored high on every front. As expected, in questions that required essay answers, Max failed. Still, it was clear that he was very smart.

Nikki finally turned to look at him. “Max, this is incredible. How’d you ever learn so much?”

He pointed to books.

She put the exam down. She still wasn’t sure exactly what level Max was on intellectually, but it was for sure he would have had no trouble getting into a college, heck even a graduate program — even with his inability to compose words.

She remembered Ben’s formula and scrambled around for it. “Just one last thing. Can you solve this?”

Max took the paper from her. He looked at the formula and nodded.

“Okay, do it.”

Max stared at the equation

His eyes had a faraway look in them. She sat and waited.

Finally he looked at her.

“Done?”

He nodded and turned to the computer, keying in the answer on the numeric key pad.

Nikki looked at the answer Ben had given her. Max was right.

“Damn!” she whispered and grabbed the phone. “I have to call Ben. You know, my friend Ben I told you about?”

Ben answered on the third ring.

“Ben, it’s Nikki. He solved the formula!”

“No way!”

“Swear to god. And get this. He did it in his head.”

“It’s gotta be a fluke. Got a pen?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Just write this down,” Ben called out another equation to her. She read it as she was writing it down.

Max listened, mentally calculating as Nikki reread the equation to make sure she had written it down correctly.

“Hold on,” she said to Ben and turned to Max. “Ben asked if you could solve—”

Max turned away and rapped out the solution on the computer. Nikki looked at him in shock. “Ben, he’s finished. “ She read out Max’s solution.

“Fuck me!” Ben sounded like he was stunned. “This guy’s a—”

“Genius?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh yes! Gotta go. Talk to you later!”