Page 93 - The Myth and the Moment

Evening

Whoa! They’re going to send me to Camarillo in a strait jacket!
Christ! Got to get out of here fast! Can’t go out that way—they’ll see
me. French doors: open onto balcony. Easy, easy does it. Don’t
squeak, damn you! There. Now, where does this leave me?
Aestheria’s living room to the right, drapes open, bright as a spotlit
stage. To the left, nothing. So it’s over the side. Branch looks strong
enough; I don’t. I was too old for this about thirty years ago.
Urkhh.
Just a little more and I can drop to the ground. Ooops!
“Oww!”
Cripes! Did they hear that? Damn! Scraped my hand. No matter.
Small price to pay for my freedom. Now, where am I? Front of the
Nataraja Arms, there’s the lobby. And—wait! The elevator door’s
opening. It’s the Kolpaks, sneaking off into the night. Got to hide.
Car turning the corner: headlights going to shine right on me! Crouch
behind this station wagon. Damn! They’re coming this way. Bound
to see me. Door’s unlocked. Roll into the back, flatten out under this
quilt, lie still! They’ll just walk right past and then I can make a break
for it. Did I—
“Did you leave this door open, Lin?”
“On your side, Phil baby. My side closed okay.”
“Guess I was in a bit of a hurry to get here, you know. But she had
him nicely tucked away, all the wind out of his sails.”
“What?”
“Oh, it’s just an expression, Lin honey. I mean, we didn’t really
have to come down here. She had the situation well under control.
Anyway, let’s get rolling: I’ve had enough for one day, and I’ve got a
story conference at nine tomorrow morning.”
Oh, no, here I go again! Out of the frying pan into the fire. The
men in the white suits look good next to these two. God, it’s dusty
under this old rag. Sneezing is out of the question. Just hope they
don’t need to rummage around back here for some essential
component of their nocturnal activities, like a cat-o’-nine-tails or a
branding iron. Ooops! Got to brace myself: Phil’s got a heavy foot on
the brake pedal. What if he gets stopped by the police? ‘What’s in the
back there, buddy?’ ‘Why, nothing, officer; just some padding I use in
the interstate transport of my voluminous files of manuscripts in the
public domain.’ ‘Oh, yeah? Looks like you got a dead body in there.

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