~*The next night*~

"Ethel, I'm bored…" Lucy spoke into the telephone. "Would you and Fred like to come up and play cards or something?"

"Well, Fred's busy right now, but I'll come up."

"Oh alright."

"Okay, bye."

"Bye Ethel," Lucy hung up the receiver, and the doorbell rang.

She couldn't have gotten here that fast! Could she…? Besides, she doesn't ring the bell…

She answered the door, but of course, it wasn't Ethel. It was Bob. "Can I help you?"

"Yes. But you don't remember me do you?"

Lucy stared at him a little more. Oh yeah! "What do you want?"

"Just to talk with you for a minute," he told her.

She stepped back out of the doorway, "Come in."

He walked over and sat on the couch. "I came here because of last night. I wanted to apologize."

"Really? That's awful nice of you; thank you," she said, taking a seat next to him.

"You're welcome," he said. "Also, I thought you could recommend a good motel."

"A motel? Why?" she asked, curious.

"Good question" he muttered to himself. What was it Steve had told him to say? Oh, right! "My landlord kicked me out of my apartment today, and I need a place to stay."

Lucy shrugged, "Why not go stay with… you're friend?"

"Oh, his name's Steve. I'm Bob," he smiled. "Anyway, we had an argument," he told her. "And… And he won't let me in."

Lucy shook her head, "That doesn't seem very nice."

Bob sighed. Why was she making this so difficult? He shrugged, "Well…" he said, trying to stay on the subject. "I don't have a lot of money, so please, not an expensive one."

"Oh, well…" she started. I can think of plenty of suggestions, but which ones should I mention? After all, I have an apartment, I don't need a motel - I don't know their prices. And I also don't know how much money he has… She sighed, "I-I guess you can stay here if you'd like. BUT…" she warned him. "Only for one night."

"Oh thank you miss," he said gratefully.

"Yeah well, one night," she said again. She stood up, and motioned to the couch, "You can sleep here."

As she was saying that, Ethel walked in. Immediately, she recognized him, "H-Hello…" she greeted him. Quickly, Lucy grabbed her arm and pulled her into the kitchen. "Lucy! What's he doing here?"

"Well…" she said sheepishly. Quickly, she explained what happened. "Ethel, if Ricky finds out I let a stranger stay the night, he'll be mad. If he finds out who he'll be furious. I only offered to let him to stay to be polite… I didn't think he really would. What should I do?"

Ethel shook her head, "There's not much you can do. Let him stay, and hope he doesn't get too comfortable. He says one night, but you don't know…" she warned her friend. Then asked, "Are we still playing cards?"

Lucy shrugged, "Sure, for a while."

~~~~~

That night, after Ethel had gone home, Lucy woke suddenly from dreaming. She thought it was a noise that woke her up, but wasn't sure. What was that? She looked at the clock, one in the morning. She checked on Little Ricky, then went back to bed. Maybe it wasn't anything… Shrugging, she started to fall back to sleep. Then she heard it, a noise from the living room. Startled, she got up to see what it was. Slowly she peeked her head out the bedroom door. Bob was wandering around the room, looking at things. Opening drawers, going through them, then shutting them again. What's he looking for? Lucy wondered. Occassionally, he would stop, pick up an item, examine it, then set it back down. Quietly, she shut the door to the bedroom. She went over to the phone and called Ethel, "Could you and Fred come up here, I think there's a small problem."

"What is it?" Ethel asked sleepily.

"My 'houseguest'," Lucy explained. "He's acting funny - looking around."

"Okay," Ethel agreed. "Fred and I will be up in a minute."

"Okay," Lucy said nervously. She hung up the phone, and went to see what Bob was doing now.

She poked her head back through the door. Bob threw his arms up in frustration, and muttered to himself, "They sure don't have much here. If Steve was right about this guy bein' in a movie, and havin' lots of money, then how come he doesn't have anything worth stealing?" Lucy saw him start to leave, so she walked out, stretching her arms and stumbling, as if she had just woke up. She yawned, "Hi." Then she asked, "What are you doing?"

"O-O-Oh," Surprised, Bob turned around quickly. Nervously he said, "Y-You have a real nice apartment, and I w-was just looking around."

"Oh…" Lucy nodded, not believing him.

"Yeah," he confirmed his story. "And…And I th-thought maybe tomorrow I'll see about moving into this building. I-If other apartments are like this one…"

"Uh huh…" she nodded again, still not believing him.

He shook his head, "It's like I said, I was only looking around."

"Yeah, I saw-- I mean, I know, you told me," Lucy told him.

"You saw me?" he asked, tensing. He was considering trying to quickly run away.

Uh oh! I wish he hadn't heard that! "Yeah," she said, trying to sound tough. She pointed to the couch, "Sit down…"

Cautiously, he did what she said. "Now," she said, pulling over the desk chair and taking a seat. "Why were you looking around."

He shrugged, and said sadly, "It was Steve's idea…"

"Steve?… Oh! Steve! You're friend, right?" she asked, and he nodded slowly. "Where is he?"

"He's… Oh, I'm sorry, I can't tell you…"

She glared at him, "Well, you'll have to tell someone sooner or later. If you don't tell me, you'll have to tell the police!"

"The police?" he asked, alarmed. "No, no, I'm sorry, I'll leave!"

Lucy shook her head, "I can't let you do that."

"But… But… But…" he stammered, as someone knocked on the door.

I hope that's Ethel and Fred… She got up and answered the door - it was them. "Oh, I'm glad you're here," she told them. "Fred?" she asked quietly. "Would you mind going to the kitchen, and watching the door? Ever since I mentioned the police-- you did call them, right?" they nodded, and Lucy went on, "Anyway, ever since I mentioned the police, he's been wanting to leave."

Fred nodded, "Alright. I'll go in the back door." He turned and quickly headed back down the hall.

Lucy gave Fred enough time to get there, before she sighed and turned to Ethel. She motioned to Bob, who was still sitting quietly on the couch, "He was getting a little loud a minute ago, would you mind watching this door? I wanna' make sure Little Ricky's still asleep."

"Okay," Ethel nodded, as Lucy hurried out of the room.

Bob watched Lucy as she left the room, then looked from Ethel to the kitchen door. He had been in there before, he knew he could get out. If he could just get there…

Ethel glanced over to the bedroom door, hoping Lucy wouldn't be long.

She wasn't looking - now was his chance! Bob rushed from the couch to the kitchen door. "Hey!" Ethel called out, but he didn't stop. He reached the door, and pushed on it - but it didn't open. He wasn't prepared for that! He was going so fast, that after he slammed into the door, wholly expecting it to open, he bounced back and fell to the floor.

Hearing Ethel call out, Lucy hurried back into the living room. "What happened?" she asked, noticing Bob unconscious on the floor. She looked up at Ethel, "Wow! You must be stronger than you look!"

Ethel, surprised, shook her head, "I didn't do it, he tried to go into the kitchen, but the door didn't open. He must've knocked himself out!"

"Well, why didn't the door open?" Lucy asked.

Ethel shrugged, "I don't know."

Lucy pushed the door lightly - it moved. She pushed it harder - it opened. Curiously, she walked into the kitchen. She looked around. "Hey, where's Fred?"

Fred had been hiding behind the door, "Right here."

Lucy put her hands on her hips, "If he came in here, did you plan on hiding?"

"No, I probably would've chased him," Fred replied, not really sure.

"Oh…" Lucy nodded. "How come he hit the door?"

Fred pushed the door shut, and stood near it, lightly leaning on it, "I blocked it."

"Oh," Lucy smiled. "Well, don't worry about him, he's not coming in here. Come on," she waved, and he followed her into the living room.

Fred saw him on the floor, "I did that?!"

Lucy and Ethel both nodded. Lucy sighed, "Now all we have to do is wait for the police."