Jack shook his head. 'Nothing.'
'That's okay. I have an extra one for you. Come on.'
The two of them walked down the hallway to the basement door, started down.
Penelope looked at Kevin, standing next to her. He shook his head.
'Somehow, I don't think that, in this instance, two heads are better than one.'
'Maybe we should get out of here,' she suggested.
'And go where? Did you see the way that guy was beat up? And he's a cop!' He shook his head. 'It's dangerous out there.'
'Holbrook said they could 'use' me.'
'I didn't like that either,' Kevin admitted.
'What do you think they plan to do?'
'From everything I can tell, they don't have any plans at all.'
'What are we going to do?'
Kevin shook his head. 'I don't know,' he said. 'I don't know.'
Jack didn't turn out to be all that bad.
He was a cop, of course, a conservative, hard-nosed kind of guy, but that cold steeliness she'd sensed in their first meeting seemed to have been the result of stress and hunger and lack of sleep. Rested, fed, and relaxed, he seemed nicer than Holbrook and infinitely more human, and she and Kevin found that they were able to get along with him quite easily.
She glanced over at Jack, curled up on the coucl sleeping. Kevin was sitting on the floor, leaning agains the opposite wall, reading one of Holbrook's texts. Thej teacher, as always, was down in his basement.
They were all starting to get a little stir crazy, starting! to act a little funny, and Penelope wondered, not for the J first time, if it might not have been better if they'd stayed'! outside, roamed around in the car, and not holed them-;f selves up in here. She thought of all of those shut-ins who received their impressions of the world solely through television. They watched the newscasts, watched the news magazines, watched the based-onatrue-story made-for-television movies, they saw shootings and rapes and robberies, an they were convinced that the world outside their doors was filled with danger, that violent death lurked around every corner. Paranoia fed upon itself, and she wondered if they weren't doing the same thing here, blockading themselves in Holbrook's house as they talked and worried about and demonized the frightening outside world.
But it was hard to demonize a world that had real demons in it.
Or gods.
What was Dionysus exactly? God? Monster? It was more comforting to think of him as some sort of monster or demon. She could imagine going up against that.
It was harder to think about fighting a god.
Kevin put down his book, stood, stretched. He glanced over at Jack sleeping on the couch, then silently motioned for Penelope to follow him into the kitchen.
She looked again at the stopped clock above the dead television, then, walked out of the living room. Kevin was already peeking through the curtains that covered the window above the sink. 'Anyone out there?' she asked.
He shook his head.
There had been earlier. A gang of wasted teenagers, dressed only in the bloody skins of domestic animals, had chased a herd of naked old men down the street using pistols and bullwhips. One old man had tripped and fallen, and they'd whipped him and trampled him, the last two kids in the pack picking the old man up by his legs and dragging him behind them as they disappeared from sight.
His head had left a bloody streak on the pavement.
Kevin turned away from the window. 'I'm tired of being cooped up in here.'
Penelope shrugged. 'Who isn't?'
'I feel like I'm wasting my time, like I should be doing something.' He waved toward the world outside the window. 'You know things aren't slowing down out there.'
'No,' Penelope admitted.
'We need to do something before it's too late.'
'It's probably already too late.' She walked over to the cupboard, got out a can of warm 7-Up, sat down at the kitchen table.
Kevin sat next to her. He was silent for a moment. 'So what were they like?' he asked finally.
'Who? My mothers?'
'Yeah.' He paused. 'Before.'
She shrugged. 'All right, I guess. I don't ...' She shook her head apologetically. 'I don't really know what you mean.'
'I mean, were they, like, good parents? Did they read your report cards?
Did they go to Open House? Did they make sure you brushed your teeth and ate properly?'
'Yes,' she said. 'They were good parents.' And felt an involuntary twinge of sadness at the thought.
'Were they, like, radical lesbians?'
Penelope felt heat rush to her face.
'Was it 'herstory' instead of 'history' and all that?'
'No. Besides, those words come from different roots. 'History' is not 'his story.' It comes from the Greek 'historia,' which means 'inquiry.'
'His' isn't even Greek. It comes from 'he,' which is Old English.'
He looked at her, surprised. 'Where'd you learn that?'
She licked her lips nervously. 'I don't know,' she admitted.
They were silent for a moment. 'You're a little spooky yourself sometimes,' Kevin said.
Penelope nodded. 'I know.'
They looked at each other across the table, and for the first time Penelope felt as though she was in one of those movie situations. He looked as though he was about take her hand, or reach over and hug her. And she ized that she would let him.
Jack walked through the door.
'Hey,' he said.
'About time,' Kevin told him.
The mood was broken. If it had been there at all. Peneml ope picked up her 7-Up, took a sip.
They needed to get out of this house. If they spentl another day in here, all four x)f them would end upjj fucking each other in one huge daisy chain.
She closed her eyes, tried to push the thought out of he head.
'So who do you want to play you in the movie?' Jacfclf asked, leaning against the sink.
Penelope nearly choked. 'What?'
The policeman grinned. 'After this is all over and done' with, you know they're going to make a movie out of it. This is a great story. If we play our cards right, we can! cash in on it.'
Penelope laughed. 'Go on Donahue and Oprah and5 Geraldot 'Hell, no. Let Fox make a quickie TV movie out of our| adventures. It's a lot more interesting than Waco or O. J.'
'TV movies never get top stars,' Kevin said. 'They'll ' just get some sitcom actors play you two, have the young j stud of the moment play me.'
Penelope snorted. 'Right.'
'They always get actors who are better-looking thanj the people in real life.' He grinned. 'Maybe they'll even ij find a semi-attractive girl to play you.'
'Ha-ha.' Penelope looked around the kitchen. 'Where's the king?'
Kevin shook his head. 'His playroom. Where else? He's probably building a little model of the Parthenon out of matchsticks.'
'No, I'm not. But I'm impressed that you knew the';' word Parthenon.
There's hope for you yet.' Holbrook walked into the kitchen, dumping the cold contents of his coffee cup into the sink behind Jack. 'As a matter of fact, I've been looking through my papers, trying to discover'
weaknesses of Dionysus, of the maenads. Things we could exploit.'
