Pat said seriously, 'I wish you would.'
Chapter Ten
I had company again. I had a whole hall full of company. Everybody was coming to see me. I was the most popular guy in town and everybody was standing in front of my door dying to get a look at me. One of my company gasped in a huge breath of air before she said, 'Oh... oh, thank heavens, there he is.'
The super's wife was a big fat woman no corset could contain properly and with all that air in her she looked ready to burst. But she was smiling as she recognized my walk and then the smile froze on her face. The super stopped poking a key in the lock on my door, pushed through the small knot and he froze too.
Then there was Marsha. She shoved them all out of the way. The laugh she had ready for me twisted to dismay and she said, 'Mike!'
'Hello, sugar.'
'Oh, Mike, I knew something happened to you!' She ran into my arms and the tears welled into her eyes. Her fingers touched my cheek gently and I felt them tremble. 'Darling, darling... what was it...'
'Oh, I'll tell you about it sometime. What's all the excitement about?'
She choked and gasped the words out. 'I kept calling you and calling you all last night and this morning. I... thought something happened... like that last time in your apartment. Oh, Mike...'
'It's all right now, honey. I'll be back to normal soon.'
'I... came up and you didn't answer. I told the superintendent you might be hurt... and he... he was going to look. Mike, you scared me so.'
The super was nodding, licking his lips. The others crowded in for a last look at me before going back to their apartments. His wife said, 'You scared us all, Mr. Hammer. We were sure you were dead or something.'
'I almost was. Anyway, thanks for thinking of me. Now if you don't mind, I'd just like to be left alone for a while. I'm not feeling any too hot.'
'Is there anything...'
'No, nothing, thanks.' I took out my key and opened the door. I had to prop myself against the sill for a minute before I could go in. Marsha grabbed my arm and held me steady, then guided me inside to a chair and helped me down.
The day had been too long... too much to it. A guy can't take days like that one and stay on his feet. I let my head fall back and closed my eyes. Marsha sobbed softy as she untied my shoes and slid them off. The aches and pains came back, a muted throbbing at first, taking hold slowly and biting deeper with each pulse beat.
Marsha had my tie off and was unbuttoning my shirt when the knock came. It didn't make any difference any more who it was. I heard her open the door, heard the murmur of voices and the high babble of a child's voice in the background.
'Mike... it's a nurse.'
'The superintendent asked me to look in on you,' the other voice said.
'I'm all right.'
Her voice became very efficient. 'I doubt it. Will you watch the child, please? Thank you.' Her hand slipped under my arm. 'You'll do better lying down.'
I couldn't argue with her. She had an answer for everything. Marsha was on the couch still crying, playing with the kid. I got up and went to the bedroom. She had me undressed and in bed before I realized it. The sting of the iodine and the cold compresses on my face jerked me out of immediate sleep and I heard her telling Marsha to call a doctor. It seemed like only seconds before he was there, squeezing with hands that had forgotten how to be gentle, then gone as quickly as he had come. I could hear the two women discussing me quietly, deciding to stay until I had awakened. The kid squealed at something and it was the last thing I heard.
There were only snatches of dreams after that, vague faces that had an odd familiarity and incomprehensible mutterings about things I didn't understand. It took me away from the painful present and threw me into a timeless zone of light and warmth where my body healed itself immediately. It was like being inside a huge beautiful compound where there was no trouble, no misery and no death. All that was outside the transparent walls of the compound where you could see it happen to everyone else without being touched yourself.
They were all there, Decker with his child, listening intently to what Mel Hooker had to say, and Toady Link in the background watching and nodding to make sure he said it right, his boys ready to move in if he said the wrong thing. Lou and Teen were there too, standing over the body of a man who had to be Fallon, their heads turned speculatively toward Toady. A play was going on not far away. Everybody was dressed in Roman togas. Marsha and Pat held the center of the stage with the D.A. and Ellen was standing in the open wings waiting to come on. They turned and made motions to be quiet to the dozens of others behind them... the women. Beautiful women. Lovely women with faces you could recognize. Women whose faces I had seen before in photographs.
When the players moved it was with deliberate slowness so you could watch every move. I stood there in the center of the compound and realized that it was all being done for my benefit without understanding why. It was a scene of impending action the evil of it symbolized by the lone shadow of the vulture wheeling high above in a gray, dismal sky.
I waited and watched, knowing that it had all happened before and was going to happen again and this time I would see every move and understand each individual action. I tried to concentrate on the players until I realized that I wasn't the only audience they had. Someone else was there in the compound with me. She was a woman. She had no face. She was a woman in black hovering behind me. I called to her and received no answer. I tried to walk to her, but she was always the same distance away without seeming to move at all. I ran on leaden feet without getting any closer, and tiring of the chase turned back to the play.
It was over and I had missed it again.
I said something vile to the woman because she had caused me to miss it and she shrank back, disappearing into the mist.
But the play wasn't over, not quite. At first I thought they were taking a curtain call, then I realized that their faces were hideous things and in unreal voices of pure silences they were all screaming for me to stop her and bring her back. Teen and Grindle and Link were slavering in their fury as they tried to break through the transparent wall and were thrown back to the ground. Their faces were contorted and their hands curved into talons. I laughed at
