Chapter 15

"You are aware that you have been a complete fool, don't you?" George said. "falling for that 'perfect woman' crap."

"Well, you can say it. You are in no danger of ever doing it."

George shook his head. "I am not going to lose my temper. But I am going to give you advice. Forget about dreamgirls. Dreams are not real. Try to patch things up with your wife. And if that does not work, get a divorce and find a woman who is no perfect, nor your dreams, but that you can live with. Learn to appreciate real women."

"Carolyn did not turn out the way I expected."

"She's no dreamgirl, sure. But then you did not turn up the way she expected. So just go and see if you two can still have a future."

"She was right." Quentin said to Barnabas. "I should have locked the door."

"There is no point in distributing the blame, is there? I don't lock it as often as I should. I know that it is a bad habit... and if I had not made Maggie suspicious when she came to see me, this could have been avoided.

"It could have been avoided if I had let Adam take care of himself."

"You could not have done that."

"Yes. But what is the net result? Both Maggie and Joe as good as dead, and Adam at large, with no guarantee that he won't get into worse trouble tomorrow."

"You used to be like that, once."

"I know, and because of that I made allowances for Adam. But I don't know... I just don't know.

"Adam never had much of a normal development."

"I am aware of that. No the question is, is Adam's life worth that of two people? Why should Joe be sacrificed so that Adam may live? Maggie, well, it was her fault, in part. But Joe was just an innocent bystander."

"Innocent bystanders always get hurt."

"Well, it should not be that way."

"Well," Sabrina was impatient. "have you restored her yet?"

"No" Angelique said wearily.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Julia has too many tests to run."

"Julia? What? Haven't you got any spells?"

"None. This is something I never learned."

"Some witch you are. You know nothing or mermaids and gorgons..."

"Well, never had the chance to learn about them. I need Julia to help find the answer."

"And how long will that take you?"

"Months, maybe."

"You must be kidding!"

"I am not."

"You just don't want to restore Maggie. You hate her. She looks like Josette, and you can't forgive her for that."

"Don't be silly."

"I am not silly. That's the whole story, isn't it?"

"What good would it do me to keep Maggie as she is? If I were doing what you accuse me of, shouldn't George Brant be the one turned to stone? Maggie is not my rival, has not been for a long time."

"But she could be."

"And rain could fall upwards... Sabrina, I can offer you a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"It is obvious that Maggie can't fulfill the duties of her office in the shape she is in. I can solve the problem on a temporary basis. I can create a doppelganger which no one will be able to tell from the real Maggie."

"You must be crazy."

"That's all I can offer now. Take it or leave it."

Sabrina seethed. There must be someone whom she could kick for all this, someone to put the blame on, someone of whom to demand that things were set right.

But it was impossible. And what Angelique offered was the best that she could expect.

"All right," she grumbled. "make me that doppelganger."

Urien did not like lying there. It was not the couch itself. It was the room. Something evil seemed to seep from the walls.

It could be his imagination. He wanted it to be his imagination. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

And he saw Robert Loomis again.

He opened his eyes with shock. No, not him.

He stared at the walls, at the ceiling. There was evil coming from the walls...

And if he closed his eyes not to see it, he would see Loomis again.

"Hey, kid!"

"You are not here!"

"She killed me. She did it. Tell them that. And tell them that she is coming back for them, that they got something she wants."

"What is it?'

"They will find out."

Tammy sobbed. How could such a stupid thing happen to Joe? And so easily, without warning?

They said that Angelique could fix it, and then that it could take time...

And maybe Angelique could do nothing. And Joe was as good as dead...

Why had they gone to the beach? Why had they gotten close to Adam? Why had Joe picked up the head? Why...?

Why couldn't she get Joe back?

Sabrina had to admit that the doppelganger was an excellent likeness of Sabrina.

"Well, it could fool me." she admitted grudgingly. "But will it do for the Washington Press Corps?"

"Not unless they had a strong suspicion that there was something wrong with her. That is going to be your job, deflecting those suspicions. And I say that you have a good chance of doing it. There is little reason for anyone to suspect hat the Margaret Evans who went to visit her district is not the same one that returned."

"Will this doppelganger know the right things to say and do?"

"I made her as much like Maggie as I could. Of course, when Maggie comes back, she will have to endorse the decisions her doppelganger made, or come up for a good reason not to."

"Well, that's another nice mess." George said dryly to Barnabas. "Maggie has become her own statute."

"I don't see anything funny about it. Add what happened to Joe..."

"Yes, Joe. But somehow I find it difficult to feel sorry about Maggie. She looked for trouble and she found it. And if you stopped making excuses for her, you'd see it too."

"I don't make excuses for her."

"You do. All the time. All right. I see your point. You hurt her terribly in 1967, and you feel awful about it. But she's gotten a free ride on it for too long." he put his arms around Barnabas's neck "Enough of that. You and Quentin have done all you could. Now it is up to Angelique and Julia. If there is something that we can do, they'll tell us. Until then, we have to go on."

"Poor Tammy."

"Yes. That could well be your next project. Keep cheering her up so that she does not give in to despair."

"And nothing else?'"

"Not until Julia and Angelique tell us what we can do."