“That’s different. Sure, that way you can join the Gypsies.”
“Hey, Pete, you like this guy?”
“Hell, no!”
“No way!”
“Get lost!”
“None of those were Pete,” Stubb said. “Pete, you still here?”
“Yes!”
“No!”
“I heard once how the Gypsies steal kids.”
“That’s fairies!”
“We do not!”
“My God, listen to those sirens … .”
“Yeah.”
“I thought this only happened in the summer. Because of the air conditioning.”
“Is it going to last all night?”
“It could.”
“Probably not.”
“It could last two nights, easy. How the hell do we know what’s wrong?”
“Yeah, why don’t we all go back to our rooms and sleep?”
“That was a doctor! Or maybe an orderly. I got him!”
“Hey, let go!”
“So what? They’re bound to be mixed in.”
“He’ll have keys! They gotta have keys to the stairs in case there’s a fire. Help me, somebody!”
“I got him!”
“That’s me—let go!”
“Where’d he go?”
Stamping and stampeding.
“Where is everybody?”
“We’re all scattered out again.”
“He get away?” Barnes asked.
“Yeah.”
“Listen, Stubb—is that you, Stubb?”
“Yeah.”
“We could bust the door,” Barnes said.
“It’s metal.”
“I don’t care, I bet we could bust them. Come on, Little Ozzie, Daddy’s going to bust down a door.”
“I’ll help you.”
“Candy? Is that you, Candy?”
“Sure it’s me,” Candy said. “You probably think I can’t, but weight’s what it takes and weight’s what I’ve got.”
“Where’s the door, anyhow?”
“Next to the elevators.”
“Where’s Madame Serpentina? I was with her. And the tall guy—Reeder.”
“Reeder! Reeder was here?”
“He gave us a hand. You know him?”
“I owe him. I’m gonna knock his block off.”
“He’s pretty big, Ozzie.”
“He’s in for a susprize. I’ll deck ’at swab!”
“Big talk,” Stubb said. “Want to borrow my sap?”
“Jim, won’t you and Ozzie shut up for a minute. Listen. Listen outside.”
“All right, I’m listening. Sirens.”
“Lots of sirens. All the time. Everything the pigs and the firemen have must be out there, and every ambulance in the whole damn city.”
“You want to stay here, Candy?”
“No. No, I don’t. But if I wasn’t starving to death, I’d say yes. Have you thought about the people out there? I mean, a blackout like this in the dead of winter? The heat will be off in all the buildings. It’s been off here, but this is a big, solid old place, so it takes a while to notice it. Out there, they’ll have got cold in a hurry. They must have gone outside to start fires in the street. It would be garbage and stuff at first.”
“The hell with that—where’s the door?”
“Here’s one for you, Mr. Stubb. Why is—”
“Who’s that, Jim?”
“Nimo, I think. Where are you, Nimo?”
“—the door you’re looking for like Samson?”
“Okay, it’s a strong door. Nobody said it was going to be easy. Keep talking so we can find you.”
“Because they’re both unlocked!”
The Law Of The See
Behind them, the dark bulk of Belmont was soon lost among others equally dark. Moon and stars were hidden behind clouds heavy with snow, but leaping flames gave a distant, fitful light, and from time to time some wildly careening car swept by, its brights lancing the street. The air was still, and bitterly cold.
“Looks like hell, doesn’t it?” Candy said. “Just the same, I’d like to get closer to one of those fires.” She had no coat over her bulging nurse’s uniform.
Barnes, in slippers and thin hospital pajamas, was worse off still. He did not seem to know it, pegging along bravely with little Ozzie trotting beside him. Nimo was too active to suffer, turning flips and cartwheels on the ice.
“Sandy didn’t make it, I guess,” Stubb said. “We lost her.”
“She was with you?” Candy asked. “She’ll get out okay. She wasn’t a patient, after all.”
“I guess Doc Makee will too,” Barnes said. “What’s our course?”
“Back to the Consort.”
“Well, blow me down! I just remembered, I got a date wit Olive. What time is it?”
Stubb glanced at his wrist. “Six forty-five.”
“Wow!” Candy looked around at the darkened buildings. “It seems more like midnight. It really got late early tonight.”
Nimo capering ahead of the rest, stopped and threw his arms wide. “Lipstick!”
“Listen,” Barnes told Stubb. “I got to get slicked up. She’s going to pick me up in front of the Consort at eight.”
“Okay, you’re not heavy. I bet Candy could do it.”
Nimo dropped to his knees before her. “If I only had a lipstick, I could make stripes on these pajamas. I could give myself a red nose, too.”
“Jim, get him away from me! I think he’s going to sing that song from The Wizard of Oz.”
“I like it,” Little Ozzie announced. “We’re o-o-off to see the Wizard, the Wonnerful WizardoFoz!”
“No, no,” Nimo told him. “I-i-if I only had a lipstick, they could not think me a dipstick. I would not be thought insane! With a lipstick I could stripe me, I could even overripe me, they would not suspect my brain!”
“Blow me down,” Barnes muttered. “I’m cold.” He glanced down a side street where a fire winked like a star as dark figures passed before it. “Those guys might be working on a haberdashery right now.”
Little Ozzie looked up at him. “You wouldn’t steal the clothes, would you, Dad?”
“Of course not,” Barnes told him. “But there’s a thing called the right of salvage—that means that if something’s found abandoned, the finder gets to keep it. For instance, if somebody’s already broken into some store, and there’s nobody there to take care of the things, that store is considered shop-wrecked, and until the owner or the police come, anybody can take whatever he wants. Candy, will you look after Little Ozzie for a while?”
“If you’ll try to get me a coat.”
“Fine,” Barnes said. He turned and darted across the street. Once his hospital slippers slipped on the ice, but he did not quite fall.
“I didn’t know Ozzie could run like that,” the fat girl said.
Stubb shook his head. “I hope he doesn’t get caught. The power could come on any minute.”
The boy, who had not far to look, looked up at him. “If the store is store-wrecked, it’s all right, isn’t it?”
Candy said, “See, Little Ozzie, the lights are sort of like. having a cop watching the place.”
“Or the sun could come up!” Nimo looked at the dark sky and threw wide his arms.
“Hey, you really are crazy, aren’t you?”
“It could happen,” he told her seriously. “Anything could, and something has to happen. I’ll bet you a massage—against a kiss—that the sun will rise within a minute.”
“Are you a good masseur? I bet you are. Okay, it’s a bet.”
“Come here,” Nimo said to Little Ozzie. “Get up on me. I’ll carry you awhile.” He crouched, and the boy clambered onto his back. Nimo hitched him to his shoulders and stood. “See! Ozzie is that other Ozzie’s son, and he has risen!”
“Okay, I owe—” Candy broke off her sentence and pointed. “Jim! Do you see that?”
“See what?”
“That sign, down there. Jim, it’s the Dilly Deli. They have the greatest corned-beef sandwiches, wine, beer, all that stuff. Aren’t you hungry? My God, I’m starving.”
“I’m hungry,” Little Ozzie announced from Nimo’s shoulders.