was gone again, or maybe still gone, and I decided to risk it. Only there wasn’t anything, and I was on my way back when I heard the girl you bit yell.”
“You shall never know,” the witch said, “how truly thankful I am that I asked you to speak quickly. Otherwise we should still have been here on the Last Day. This child, then, is still in the room where you were strapped?”
Candy nodded.
“Then you, Mr. Reeder, must bring him to us now. If anyone should see my friend Candy with him, that person might easily remember that it was she who brought him here. But if you are seen with him, it will only be thought that he has been recaptured. I have a plan for our escape. It involves coercion and perhaps torture, but those are often characteristic of the best plans.”
Four In The Dark
“Doctor,” said the nurse who opened the door, “I hate to interrupt you, but we have a man here, and we don’t seem to have any record of him.”
She opened the door farther, and Barnes walked in. “I’m not really a patient,” he said ruefully. For a moment his hands wandered over the coarse cotton of his pajamas. “It’s just that these are the only clothes I have. Hello, Stubb. What are you doing here?”
“The hell with me, what are
Dr. Bensen rose to look at him. “Someone hit you on the jaw,” he said.
“Yes, sir.” Barnes nodded. “One of your patients, Doctor. He knocked me out and stole my clothes, my wallet, and everything. Even my glass eye.”
“The routine of this hospital is incessantly interrupted.”
Sandy said, “You know, you look very interesting without the eye. I didn’t know it was glass.”
“I bet I look terrible. Have you got a mirror?”
She took a compact from her purse, opened it, and handed it to Barnes. He studied his face intently. “Blow me down. I look awful.”
“I think you’re cute.”
“You can get another eye,” Stubb told him.
“What with? That eye cost me two hundred.”
Dr. Bensen asked, “What’s your name? Full name.”
“Osgood Myles Barnes. Listen, Stubb, do you know the one about the guy with the wooden eye?”
“I’ve got a hunch I’m about to hear it.”
“He was a farmboy, see? Up in New England, and somebody hit him in the face with a hay rake and put his eye out.”
“Age?”
“Thirty-four. So he went to Boston to buy a glass one. They had the real good ones from Germany, but they cost a bundle, and he only had twenty bucks.”
“Place of birth?”
“Pottstown, Pea Ay. So just when he was about to go back to the farm—he already had his ticket—this peddler comes up to him and he has wooden glass eyes.”
“Occupation?”
“Sales. What they really were was pine knots with a blue dot or a brown dot painted in the middle. So the guy bought one for twenty bucks and put it in and went home.”
“College graduate?”
“No. Two years at Pitt in business administration. But everybody on the train laughed at him and his wooden eye, and he got so embarrassed about it he wouldn’t go out any more after he got back to the farm.”
“When was the last time you were hospitalized?”
Sandy said, “Why are you asking him all these questions?”
“My nurse will have to fill out a card.”
“Wait a minute.” Stubb bent over the doctor to see what he was doing. “Ozzie’s not a patient here.”
Dr. Bensen removed his glasses and wiped them with a handkerchief. “Frankly, Mr. Stubb, I wouldn’t jump to conclusions. My nurse said she couldn’t find a record of him, but he’s dressed like a patient, and there is a certain child-like ambience I find suggestive.”
“You’re crazy yourself,” Barnes told him.
“There’s no need for hostility. If an examination indicates that you’re sufficiently responsible to function in society, you’ll be released, and your clothing, even your artificial eye, will be returned to you.”
“You mean you’ve got my stuff? I thought Reeder had it.”
“Clothing, and corrective lenses, or other objects that might be broken to produce a sharp edge, are stored for the patient until release. Have you ever been hospitalized before?”
“Does having a baby count? I had twins three years ago.”
