The Midnight Tour

“Yep. And we’re gonna eat there.”

“So I shouldn’t expect you for supper?”

“Nope.”

“Throwing me over for a guy, huh?”

“You better believe it.”

“How’ll you get home?”

Dana shrugged.

“Maybe you should spend the night with him. Then you’d just have a convenient little hike to work in the morning.”

“I’m not going to spend the night with him.”

“How do you know?”

“I know.”

“Do you want me to pick you up at a certain time?”

“He’ll probably drive me home.”

“What if he won’t?”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

Tuck shrugged. “He might not want you to leave. Or you two might not be speaking to each other by the time you’re ready to go. Or he might get drunk and pass out. Or...”

“Has he done anything like that?”

“Not that I know of. But guys will be guys.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. But if he does give me trouble, I’ll call you.”

“He doesn’t have a phone.”

“Really?”

“You’ll be trapped like a moose.”

“Up yours.”

“Tell you what. If you’re not home by a certain time, I could drive over and pick you up.”

Dana grimaced. “I don’t know if that’s such a great idea.”

“Couldn’t hurt. If you’re home by then, it’s a moot point. If I get there and you want to stay with Warren, that’ll be fine, too.”

“I guess that’d be okay.”

“What time? Two a.m.?”

“Very funny. How about midnight?”

“Fine.”

“But I’ll be home long before then.”

“Let’s hope not.” She gave Dana’s arm a pat, then said, “I’d better go downstairs and spell Clyde. “See you...”

“Excuse me?”

Looking over her shoulder, Dana found a husky young man standing behind her.

“Oh, hi,” Tuck said to him. “John?”

He beamed. “John it is. That’s right.”

“Hi, John,” Dana sad, tuming around. She’d noticed him earlier, herself. Hard not to notice a guy that size wearing black-rimmed glasses and a Beast House cap. She’d seen him up here before she went off to lunch.

The way he’d been wandering around, taking photos of every-thing in sight and fiddling with his tape player, she’d pegged him as a true aficionado of the house.

John and I are old buddies,” Tuck said.

“I’ve got pictures of her with Gus,” John explained, patting his camera.

“Gus is the one that’s hung,” Tuck said.

“Can I get a picture of you two together?” John asked. “I’ll send you a couple of copies.”

“Sounds good to me,” Tuck said. “How about it, Dana?”

“Sure, why not?”

“That’s great,” John said. “That’s really great.” As he took a few steps backward, Dana and Tuck stood side by side.

“I’m gonna have a great photo album of this place,” he said, and snapped a shot. “Hang on. Let me get a couple more, just in case.”

He clicked more than a couple more.

Sidestepping, ducking, zooming in for closeups, he took shot after shot.

“I have to get going,” Tuck said.

“Ah. Fine. No problem. Okay if I get a couple with my flash, just in case?”

“Well...”

The flash blinked, hitting them with a flick of brightness.

“I’ve got (flash) high-speed film in here (flash) but you never can be too sure. It’s awfully (flash) dark in this place (flash).”

“That’s enough, John.” Tuck put a hand across her eyes. “Knock it off.”

“Oh. Okay. Fine.” He lowered the camera. “I really appreciate it. You’ll never know how much I appreciate it.”

“Don’t forget to send us copies,” Tuck said.

“Oh, I won’t. But I guess I’ll need your names and stuff.”

Tuck reached into a seat pocket of her shorts. She took out a wallet and removed a business card. “Here you go. You can send them to me, and I’ll see that Dana gets copies.”

He took the card, squinted at it, then smiled and slipped it into a pocket of his enormous, wrinkled shirt. “Will do,” he said. “And thanks again.”

He hurried away.

“I think he’s in love with you,” Tuck said.

“Eat my shorts.”

“Bet he’d like to eat what’s in ‘em.”

“Hey, real nice. Aren’t you supposed to be relieving Clyde, or something?”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks for reminding me.” She slugged Dana’s arm. “See ya later, alligator.”

“In a while, crock-a-shit.”

Laughing, Tuck headed for the stairs.

More than half an hour went by before the Japanese tour group entered the house. When Dana heard them flood in, she crouched and looked down the stairs. The foyer was packed.

A lot of flash photos were being taken.

But Tuck was down there, smiling and nodding and making no objections.

A slim young woman carrying a miniature flag seemed to be in charge of the group. She spoke loudly and clearly in Japanese. It made no sense at all to Dana, but every so often the guide spoke familiar names: Lilly Thom, Ethel Hughes, Beast House, Maggie Kutch.

She couldn’t spot a Beast House tape player around the neck of anyone in the bunch.

They probably all know English, she thought. But it would be better to get the tour in their own language.

She wondered how long they would be staying downstairs.

Five minutes, maybe?

Dana stood up, turned away and walked the entire floor, looking into rooms and counting heads from one end of the corridor to the other.

Twenty-eight already up here.

Gonna get crowded.