Rita and Larry take a day off work
As Rita paused outside the door to Larry's apartment, her thoughts turned to Larry's growing intimacy with his young friend and neighbour, Enid Bassett. In particular, she wondered whether she would be a witness once again to their disturbing behaviour. The image of an almost-naked Enid straddling the back of Larry as he lie on his bed caused her to shudder. Rita though it was very strange how you could grow to dislike someone so quickly. Rita steeled herself; she was not prepared to meekly surrender her relationship with Larry after it had lasted for so long.
Rita put her key in the lock and pushed open the apartment door. "Larry!" she called out, much louder than was normal. "It's me!" She turned into the room and stopped short on seeing Enid's boyfriend sitting in Larry's armchair in the middle of the room. He was smiling as he watched Rita take off her coat and hang it on the hook next to the door.
"It's Johnny, right?" she said.
Still smiling, he did not reply but confirmed his name with a nod.
"Where's Larry?
"I'm here." Larry stood in the doorway to the bedroom.
"Is Enid here?" Rita asked.
"No, she's gone to the store," Larry replied. He stepped into the room and was met by Rita with a kiss on his bandaged cheek.
She spoke brightly: "How are you feeling, today?"
"Good. I feel okay." If you could have seen Larry's expression under his bandages you would have seen an eyebrow raised in surprise at Rita's attentive behaviour.
She looked at Larry's pyjamas and dressing-gown. "We need to get you out of this place … and get these things washed." She indicated his grubby apparel. "You have another pair of pyjamas, I hope?"
"Don't fuss, I'm alright. And there's no need to go out. Everything I need is in this room."
Rita paused and turned to Johnny: "Haven't you got something else you should be doing?"
"No," Johnny replied.
"Okay," Rita's manner hardened. "Now I'm going to be blunt. Get out!"
Johnny looked at Larry before moving.
"It's okay," Larry said. "Give us some time."
Johnny got to his feet and headed towards the apartment-door.
With Johnny gone from the room, Rita's manner softened. "I don't like that Johnny or Enid being here with you," she said.
"I got that message without you saying it," Larry replied.
"Let me take you out, get you some fresh air," she pleaded. "We could go to the country or the beach?"
This suggestion surprised Larry: "The beach?"
"Yes, the beach," Rita repeated.
"Yeah, I could soak up some rays."
"Ha, ha," she said blankly. "You need to get out of this apartment. It'll make you feel better."
Larry sighed. He already knew the outcome of their discussion: "You're not going to leave me alone until I agree, are you?"
Rita just smiled. She pointed him in the direction of his bedroom. "Go and get dressed," she said firmly.
Larry wore a short-sleeved brightly patterned shirt and loose khaki shorts over his bandages. He also wore the dark goggles that he had taken to wearing whenever he was out in the sun. On his lap he held on to a panama hat ready to be sported when they arrived at their destination. He was sitting next to Rita as she drove her open-topped Ford Thunderbird out of the city.
The sun was shining and with the roof of the car down Larry had to admit that it did feel good to be doing something other than sitting in his apartment. He could even admit that he did not miss Enid's tactile attentions. He glanced admiringly at Rita with her hair held in place by an expensive scarf. "This is nice," he said. "I'm glad you asked me out."
"Asked you out?" Rita queried. "This isn't … like … a romantic date, you know?"
"Okay, if you say so?"
Rita was about to deny Larry's assumption but then she had second thoughts: why should she deny it? After all, it might take his mind off that upstart, Bassett.
The drive took about an hour before they arrived at the beach. It was surprisingly quiet allowing Rita to park the Thunderbird close to the sand.
Larry put on his hat. "I hope you brought plenty of sun-block," he chirruped.
"Only enough for me," Rita replied.
She led the way down on to the sand and selecting a suitable spot placed a large towel onto the sand. She indicated for Larry to sit. "You don't want sand to get under your bandages, do you?" When Larry was settled, she slipped off her dress to reveal that she was already wearing her swimsuit. Larry admired her shapely form.
"This reminds me of when we first started in our business," he said. "Back in the sixties when we were young."
"We're still young," Rita replied. "We'll always be young."
"Yes, I suppose …"
Some time later, Larry became restless. "Now that you've got me into the great outdoors, why don't we go for a walk?"
Rita shut her book. "Okay; if we come across a café, I'll buy you a coffee."
"As long as it comes with a straw," Larry replied.
They began their walk and Rita linked her arm around Larry's. "Do you miss that intimacy of having your skin touched by someone else?" she asked.
Larry paused before answering. How could he reply without saying how much he yearned for Rita's touch? "Yes … this condition that I have … having to wear these bandages … all the time. It's a curse. There's no other word to describe it."
"I wish I could do something," Rita said.
"You do plenty," Larry replied. "I couldn't have coped for this length of time without you."
"And now you have Enid as well."
"Enid is different. She wants to touch me, hold my hand or rub my shoulders. It's very soothing and gratifying for me. I get this overwhelming sensation of peacefulness when she touches me. But when she's not around, like now, I don't miss her like I miss you when you are not with me."
Rita cooed in response to Larry's flattering words. "I've noticed her with her boy-friend, Johnny. She's always touching him, stroking his cheek or holding his hand. She even touched my hand for the briefest of moments when we first met."
"Like I said, she's very tactile."
"Yes," Rita's suspicions were alerted. "I think young Miss Bassett's proclivity for touching other people may need closer investigation."
"What does that mean?"
"The 'touching' seems excessive: I wonder why she does it?"
"You're putting two and two together and coming up with five again," Larry said.
Further thoughts on the mysterious Miss Bassett were put to one side when they reached a built up area and soon came upon a small coffee-shop.
"Here we are," Rita said enthusiastically: "Two coffees and one straw coming up!"
Larry's entrance into the coffee-shop caused a few heads to turn. It seemed that his bandaged appearance was something out-of-the-ordinary for the sleepy seaside venue. They found a quiet table in the corner of the room and the waitress soon took their order.
Returning with their drinks, the waitress made known her concerns for Larry: "You poor dear! Is that a severe case of sunburn?"
Larry was in good spirits due to Rita's company and attention so was able to answer the waitress with a laugh. "Yes, but I'm getting better."
"Well you can have free coffee anytime you come here until your sunburn is better. We can't have people thinking that Happy Harbor is not good for them!"
"This is probably the first time that wearing these bandages has worked to my advantage," Larry said as an aside to Rita.
Minutes later, after Rita and Larry had finished their drinks, a local inhabitant of the sleepy seaside town rushed into the coffee-shop in great alarm. "There's a crack in the sky!" he screamed.
Larry, Rita, and several of the others who had been in the coffee-shop rushed outside in response to the alarm-call to see that a black 'crack' did indeed seem to have formed across a part of the sky above Happy Harbor.
"That looks ominous," Rita opined.
"I'd better send Negative Man to investigate," Larry replied. As he said that, Rita caught Larry as the Negative Man left Larry's body and zipped skywards towards the crack in the sky. Rita lowered Larry to the ground as the waitress from the coffee-shop noticed and said: "Your friend seems to be very delicate. Has the excitement been too much for him? Do you want me to phone for an ambulance?"
"There's no need for an ambulance," Rita replied, "though I'd be grateful if you could watch him for a minute." And so saying she left Larry and slipped through the crowd to look for somewhere that she could change out of her normal clothes and into her green mini-skirted Elasti-girl outfit.
Meanwhile, Negative Man had flown skywards and was able to approach close-up to the crack. At that moment, a large orange skinned hand reached through the crack and swatted the Negative Man out of the sky. The being whose hand it was continued to stretch its monstrous arm through the crack.
Rita had by this time changed into her costume and grown to giant size. She was advancing towards the strange orange-coloured arm and waded into the sea to grapple her giant hand with that of the orange-skinned titan.
With all her might, Rita pushed upwards but the orange titan was very powerful and was able to match her strength for strength. The titan though, was not able to increase his size like Rita and as she grew even larger she was able to push the titan's arm back up through the crack in the sky. By this time, the Negative Man had returned to the scene and flew to Rita's aid. By zigzagging across the inter-dimensional crack he was able to sew up the 'wound' until it was fully sealed. They both then returned to shore to a rousing reception from the spectators that had gathered outside the coffee-shop.
"That was one of the most bizarre incidents that we've had to deal with in recent years," Larry said to Rita when the crowd eventually dispersed.
Rita agreed. "And it was all over in a matter of minutes."
"When the Negative Man first approached that crack I was able to see through into that other universe," Larry said. "It wasn't like this world at all."
"How do you mean?"
"I could see an alien landscape, very strange indeed."
"Well let's hope that another crack never appears," Rita observed.
Later that evening they arrived back in the city and as they ascended the first of the stairs to Larry's apartment block he stopped and turned to Rita. He paused as if uncertain what to say before finally deciding to speak after all: "I have a few things from our old headquarters," he said. "They are in storage in the basement. Do you want to see them?"
"What sort of things?" Rita asked suspiciously.
"Keep-sakes," he explained. "Things I couldn't just throw away."
Rita was surprised at Larry's display of nostalgia. He had never shown any inclination towards it before and she readily agreed to see what he had managed to retain from their old headquarters.
Larry led the way to the basement where a central corridor led to a number of doors. The place was cold and strewn with dust, cobwebs and bits of discarded rubbish.
"Not many people come down here. Well, to be more precise, no-one comes down here," Larry explained.
He approached one door and indicated his trouser pocket to Rita. "Could you do the honours? It's difficult to turn a key in the lock with these mummy-wrappings."
Rita reached into his pocket and found the key. "I hope you didn't enjoy that too much?" she said.
"I hardly felt a thing … unfortunately."
Rita put the key in the lock, turned it, and opened the door.
"There's a light switch on the wall to the left," Larry said.
Rita turned on the light and they both entered the room.
It was not a large room but was filled with crates and several loose items. Old shelving on the far wall was used to hold several varied items including four small Oscar-sized statuettes of colourfully garbed figures. Rita's attention however, was immediately drawn to an open coffin-like casket that contained a bronzed robotic figure. She pointed at it hesitantly, unable, at first to say anything. After a moment she whispered: "Is that Cliff?"
"It's a spare body that he never used," Larry answered.
They both stared at the empty 'Robotman' for some time.
"I often think of him," Rita admitted eventually.
"Yes. It's strange to think that he's no longer here with us."
Rita turned away and began looking at other things in the dusty room: newspaper cuttings recounting the exploits of their team-work; strange pieces of gadgetry that Professor Niles Caulder had once worked on; pictures of the old group. "I've seen enough," Rita said eventually. "There's a lot of sadness in this place."
"Happy times too," said Larry trying to provide a lift to the moment.
"More sadness than happiness, I'm afraid."
Rita moved towards the door. She glanced at the lifeless Robotman for one last time before leaving the store-room. Larry followed her and turned off the light. He then struggled to turn the key in the lock and hurried to catch-up with Rita who was waiting near the bottom of the stairs.
"I didn't think that seeing that stuff would be so depressing for you," he said. "I'm sorry …"
"That's okay. I suppose that I'd prefer to look forward rather than back, that's all."
"Yes I suppose so, especially now that there's only the two of us."
"Perhaps we should try and find someone else to beef-up our membership," Rita suggested.
Larry laughed. "And who would be mad enough to do that?"
They paused in the entrance hall to Larry's apartment block. "You want to come up for a drink?" he asked.
"No thanks. I have... plans for tonight. I have to get ready..."
"Plans?" Larry queried. "What, like a date?"
Rita raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I have a life, you know?"
"Yes, of course... I understand."
"Don't worry, I'll tell you all about it, tomorrow."
She kissed his bandaged cheek and turned breezily before heading for the front-door.
"Okay," Larry called after her: "Looking forward to it!" He watched her pass out of sight before turning towards the stairs and started the ascent to his own apartment. As he made his way up the stairs he thought about Rita. She was special, very special; the only friend that he had managed to keep for so many years. Perhaps, he thought, they could become more than friends? Well, not lovers after all his unique condition precluded him from any sort of physical relationship but... well... perhaps... Perhaps they could become more than just friends. Yes, Larry decided, perhaps they could after all, become more than just good friends.
Larry opened the door to his apartment, stepped inside only to find Enid Bassett standing in the middle of the room waiting for him. Her brow was puckered and Larry couldn't tell whether she was concerned or annoyed. Enid quickly brought him up-to-date with her feelings on the matter: "I was worried about you," she explained.
"Why's that?" Larry replied gruffly.
"Well, for a start, you didn't tell me that you were going out."
Larry mumbled a vague apology.
Enid continued: "I suppose you've been out with Rita?"
Larry wasn't in the mood for a discussion with Enid on the topic of Rita and attempted to give her the brush off. "Shouldn't you be seeing Johnny: I thought he was your boyfriend?"
Enid ignored Larry's remark and caught hold of his hand and held on to him. "Now don't be like that, Larry. You know I like being with you, and you like being with me, don't you?"
"Yes." Larry stopped trying to move away from Enid and stood calmly while Enid held onto his bandaged hand. She spoke to him quietly and precisely: "We have a good connection, don't we? Rita may have been important to you in the past but I have that connection now, not Rita."
"That's right," Larry agreed readily.
"I can do things for you that Rita would never dream of doing."
"Yes, that's right," Larry added.
"So, no more talk of Larry and Rita, it is Larry and Enid now." She began to lead Larry towards his bedroom. "Where did you go with Rita?"
"To the beach at Happy Harbor," Larry replied.
"Really. I'll bet you could do with a massage after being with Rita?"
"Yes, a massage would be very good."
"That woman is so annoying!"
"Yes," Larry replied obediently.