Ask the Parrot

way.

Bank robbers were being hunted all around the countryside, but when this had happened to Suzanne, did she think, bank robbers? No, she thought, now, see what they’re doing to me, and it took Brian Hopwood of all people to tell her, not gently, that this time the story wasn’t about her, it was about him, about that man, the one who’d tied them up and gone away.

Then, of course, once Brian had explained to her what was actually happening here, she’d felt such belated terror, mixed with such humiliation, that the tension had kept her absolutely silent for hours, afraid to make somehow an even bigger fool of herself. Brian, who never said anything to anybody, anyway, was also silent through all this, until, who knows how much later, the phone had rung, and rung, and rung, and Brian had finally said, “By God, I hope that’s Edna, and I hope she’s starting to smell a rat.”

But then the phone stopped ringing, and Brian said nothing else, and somehow, despite the discomfort, despite the fear, despite the embarrassment, Suzanne had fallen asleep. Asleep! To wake up who knew when, with gunshots somewhere outside.

Finished now. Who was shooting guns? Was the bank robber back, had he decided he should kill them, after all? But it had been so long since he’d gone away; still daylight then. Wouldn’t he be miles and miles from here by now, while Suzanne slept like a rag doll on the floor of Brian Hopwood’s filthy gas station, wouldn’t he be deep into some other badness by now?

She tried a whisper: “Brian.”

“Yes.” Gruff but not unfriendly.

“Brian, what’s going to happen?”

His laugh now was bitter, and not friendly at all. “Well, we’re trussed up here like Thanksgiving turkeys. There isn’t a thing for either of us to do until somebody decides to look for us.”

“But they’re shooting out there. Brian? Who’s shooting?”

“How would I know?” He was getting really irritated now.

Looking as much for some way to appease him as for some way out of their trouble, she said, “Would Edna come here?”

“I don’t think that was her, on the phone.”

Struck by a sudden thought, she said, “You know, it could have been Jack. You know, my grandfather.”

“I know who Jack is,” Brian said, very testy. “Why would he call me?”

“Looking for me.”

“Oh.” Brian considered that, then said, “Will he come looking for you?”

“Not after dark.”

“Wonderful.”

The silence now outside was worse than the gunshots; in the silence, you didn’t know where anybody was. Feeling sudden panic, Suzanne shrilly whispered, “Brian, we have to get out of here!”

“Go ahead.” Sardonic, unbelieving, unsympathetic; in other circumstances, rude.

Which she ignored. “No, really,” she whispered. “I know you can’t move in that chair there—”

“Huh.”

“But I can move.”

“You’re tied hand and foot.”

“But I can move. Brian, what if I came over there and—”

“How?”

“I don’t know, crawled or rolled or something. What difference does it make?”

“All right,” he said. “So you’re over here.”

“I tied that knot on your wrists. I know what I did. I think maybe, I think maybe I could untie it.”

“How do you get at it?”

She thought about that. Now that she was awake and oriented, she could see the office more clearly, even though all the illumination came from outside, from the gas pumps and the soda machine and the streetlight. She and Brian were near each other in the front left corner of the room, where no one looking through any window would be able to see them. The chair Brian was in, taped to the floor, was the only furniture near them. Beyond the dark doorway to the service area, Brian’s desk hulked like the recently abandoned headquarters of a defeated army. No, not army; a defeated platoon. An armless kitchen chair, a reluctant acknowledgment that there might someday be a customer to accommodate, stood against the wall on the far side of the desk.

She said, “Brian, is that chair on wheels?”

“No, why should it be?”

“I was just wondering.”

“Suzanne, let it go. In the morning, they’ll find—”

“I can’t wait till morning,” she said, and realized it was the truth. Now that she was fully awake, she needed a bathroom, and soon. “Let me just try something,” she said, though with every movement the need grew more urgent.

“What are you doing?” he asked, testy as ever, as she started hunching herself across the floor toward him.