Exo: A Novel (Jumper) Read Free Page B

least this way he’s not likely to grab anyone else for a bit. Hopefully even longer than that. I think he had a Baggie of cocaine. At least he had a Baggie of white powder. Hopefully the police will bust him.”
    Now that Mom had assured herself I was okay, she was getting angry. “They might not search him at all. After all, as far as they know, he’s a victim. Unless you told the police he’d attacked you.”
    I shook my head. “No. I just described his injury and his location.”
    “Did he just come out of the bushes or something?”
    “He followed me. He tried to pick me up on the A train and when I was having none of it, he tried to grab my ass, but I yelled at him to keep his hands to himself. There were plenty of witnesses. I thought he got off the train at Times Square, but he must’ve gotten right back onto the next car. Then when I got off at Columbus Circle—” I shrugged. “It was my fault.”
    “What?” Mom sounded really angry suddenly. “Honey, it was not your fault.”
    I held up my hand. “Oh, no. Not my fault that he attacked me. I’m with you on that. He deserved everything he got, maybe more. It was careless of me, though. I put in my earphones and was listening to music. I don’t think he could’ve snuck up on me otherwise.”
    Mom closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Ah. I see. Yes, you should be careful. You know what your father would say it could’ve been—”
    I finished the statement, making air quotes with my fingers, “— them .”
    Mom nodded. “Yes. It could’ve been a loop of wire and a hypodermic.”
    I nodded. “Yes. Believe me, I thought about that, too. I’ll be more careful.”
    “You should tell your father about it.”
    I winced. “Do I have to? You know how he’ll get.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “Keep it brief. You don’t have to tell him about the earphones. Tell him about breaking the guy’s jaw—he’ll like that.”
    *   *   *
    She was right. When I described being attacked, Dad’s eyes narrowed and I could see his jaw muscles bunch as he ground his teeth together, but when I described the condition of the guy’s jaw and his fifteen-foot drop, he smiled.
    But he also asked me to Bluetooth the picture of Mr. Daidone’s driver’s license from my phone to his.
    “Just want to check on his status. Find out if they busted him for the coke or not. Whether he has priors, especially for sexual assault.”
    “What are you going to do, Daddy, if he does have priors?”
    “Not much. But I’ll know he’s probably not one of them .”
    “One of them wouldn’t have priors ?”
    “If they did, they’d be made to go away, but really, their people don’t get caught in the first place. Not usually.”
    “I thought you just wanted to make sure he paid, uh, for what he did.”
    His face went still but there was a tic by his right cheekbone.
    “Oh. You don’t approve of his behavior,” I ventured.
    His eyes narrowed and for a moment, he seemed like someone else—someone a little scary. He pointed at me. “Just be careful, okay?” Then his face relaxed and he was back. “Speaking of that, let me see your wrist.”
    I held up my left arm and he said, “Very funny,” so I peeled the Band-Aid back on my right wrist. The blister had popped a few days before and in its place was a swollen scab.
    “It’s doing better,” I said, though, to be truthful, it looked a little worse than the blister had.
    Dad made a noise in the back of his throat, but didn’t gainsay me. “So, what are you going to do? We could probably get a used Orlan suit on eBay, but it would probably be too big. Don’t think we’re gonna spend twelve million on a new NASA flight-rated EMU.”
    I shook my head. “I’ve been doing some research. There’s a team at MIT doing lots of work toward a Mars EVA suit, and this other guy in New Haven who just lost his funding.”
    Dad rolled his eyes to the ceiling, then blew out through pursed lips.