How Blue Got the Job
I froze. I didn’t want to say yes and I couldn’t say no. The nurse smiled again, about the same way she would have at a cute knickknack. “He seems like such an interesting man, and your sister—was that your sister?—is perfectly lovely! Where does she buy her clothes?”
I stared at her, and wow did I ever feel like making some smart-ass remark; but all I could think of was here I am waiting for a crazy killer and you want to hear about Lord & Taylor.
Then Aladdin Blue came through the door. He had on slacks and an old sportcoat, which for him was most likely dressed up. What’s more, he was carrying ( I could hardly believe it) one of those little one-pound boxes of candy.
My brain unfroze. “Unc!” I trilled joyfully. “Uncle—”
“Al, the patient’s pal. How are you doing, Holly?”
“Wonderful. It may take a miracle, but somehow—someway—sometime—I’ m determined to play the tuba again.”
The nurse ducked out.
“Listen, Holly, I’m terribly sorry.”
“What for?”
“For what I did to you—or rather, for what I failed to do. The explosion rattled me, I’m afraid. Or perhaps it was merely the shock of knowing there had been one. I didn’t see you and so I didn’t think about you. I went outside to help the people who’d been hurt—”
“So you didn’t know I’d been cut up a little till I grabbed you and bled all over your pants.”
He nodded solemnly. “I should have helped you, and did not. And now I don’t know what to say, except that I am truly sorry.”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I said, “Pass me that candy and sit down. Then we’ll talk about sorry.”
I popped one in my mouth. It was an opera cream, which I love. While I was chewing it, I broke open a couple of others: caramels and nuts.
“I ought to have known, of course,” Blue said. “You were sitting in front of the window; the wall sheltered the rest of us. I didn’t think—”
“How much did this cost you? About five bucks?”
He nodded.
“Small, but good stuff. You don’t have much money, do you?”
“Enough for my needs.”
“Well, thank you for the candy. Maybe I shouldn’t eat it, but I’m going to. Listen, there were people bleeding to death out there. Screaming, too, I bet. What you did was brave. You ran—” Right there I stuck. I couldn’t figure any way to suck the word back in, and I couldn’t go on, and all I could see was his damned cane.
He smiled. He doesn’t do it often, but you like it when he does. “Let’s say I ran as fast as I could.”
“You know this’s really crazy?” I was chewing two caramels at once; it didn’t stop me from talking, just from talking good. “Here we are, we like each other, we’re not mad at each other, and we’re circling around like each thinks the other one’s going to bite. You do like me, don’t you?”
Blue nodded. “You’re charming. You’re also intelligent.”
“And rich and jailbait, and that worries you a lot. Don’t sweat it—I won’t holler unless there’s plenty to holler about.”
“There won’t be.”
“I know that. Listen, if you’ll open that locker, I think you’ll find my jeans inside it. Will you please take your five bucks back?”
He shook his head. “Don’t suggest that again.”
“I didn’t think you would. Why the uncle bit to bring me candy?”
“Only relatives are being admitted, so I became Alan B. Hollander. They didn’t ask for identification, which is too bad because I had some. Want to see it?”
“Nope. Don’t try to draw an innocent child into your evil schemes. You didn’t know you were terrifying me, huh?”
“They didn’t tell you my name?” Blue was looking worried again. He gets fine, close-together lines on his forehead when he’s worried.
“Just that it was my uncle. You don’t know about the rose, do you?”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “I know you were wearing a paper rose in your hair when I saw you at the book sale.”
So I told him all about the note from Uncle Herbert, and how I’d bought the rose and worn it ever since.
“But he hasn’t contacted you?”
“Not till now.” I pointed at the bouquet Elaine had bought. “See it? Down near the bottom.”
