Part 2: Red Rover
Chapter 17

"Hold up," Buzz ordered Hallie, clasping her upper arm as the others filed out of the room, alarmed and curious as to who Roger had found in the other room. Hallie looked up at Buzz.

"What is it?"

"C'mere," said Buzz, tugging Hallie back into the dumbwaiter room.

"But Mr. Collins says that there's a woman up here and that he doesn't know who sh—"

"Yeah, yeah," Buzz overrode, steadily pulling Hallie back into the now empty room until her back touched the wall. Uncomprehendingly, she watched as he put his arms out and braced the wall around her head with his hands, essentially trapping her. He bowed his head and stared at the floor between their feet.

"What do you want?" Hallie asked impatiently. "I want to see who that is in the other room."

"Jellybean, listen," murmured Buzz, his head still bowed so that she was looking into the stiff bush of his wild hair. "I been thinkin'. I'm running out of time on this end, you know? Don't ask me how I know, but I do. So, I was wondering if you would wanna—come back with me? When it's time for me to go?"

He raised his eyes to hers, reached up and took off his dark glasses and poked them into his hair, and stared into her face. Hallie stared back. This guy was asking her to go with him? She felt two things at once—a thrill of joy that an actual grown man was paying romantic attention to her, and a shock of surprise at the invitation.

Buzz lowered one arm, and caressed her cheek and chin with his thumb. "I been thinking about you, I dunno," he continued. "You're still 'way too young for me and all, but you'll grow out of that. And you told me you're not a member of the family here, right?"

"I—" Hallie began, then froze as Buzz's face suddenly took on a strangely somber cast. He slowly brought his face nearer hers. She could smell the leather of his jacket. His lips looked soft.

Buzz closed his eyes and nudged her nose with his. And then his lips—

"HEY, YOU!" a voice erupted from the doorway, followed by a clattering crash as Harry Johnson dropped the dustpan and broom he was carrying. They bounced on the hardwood floor. Hallie leapt at the noise and Buzz twitched and turned his face to Harry.

Harry fixed Buzz with terrible eyes.

"Who the hell are you? What are you doing? How did you get in here?" Harry demanded, quickly entering the room. Hallie pushed out of the trap of Buzz's arms around her head and faced Harry.

Harry held himself with dangerous stillness, and Hallie realized with a start that he was enraged.

Buzz fetched his dark glasses from atop his head and put them back on his face. "Look, man, this is nothing," he began.

Harry leapt across the room and seized Buzz by the collar.

"What do you think you're doing to her?" Harry yelled. "What do you think you're doing?"

They scuffled. "Lemme go, you idiot!" Buzz hollered.

Hallie shrank away along the wall, clapping her hands to her ears. Then she gasped as something in the doorway caught her attention.

A giggling, heavily-perspiring Willie Loomis entered the room tipsily and observed the struggling men. As Hallie watched in horror, the black-and-multicolored afghan Willie had been clutching about his shoulders slipped to the floor, and—it seemed to her—a freshet of sweat fell from his face with a splash, and began to be absorbed into his shirt. He looked as though he had just emerged from a locker room shower.

Willie passed his arm across his forehead and stood swaying in the doorway. Then he fetched breath and gave a shriek that made Hallie nearly jump out of her skin.

"JOHNSON!" Willie screamed. "I'm gonna kill you!" He launched himself at the two men.

Harry gave Buzz a vicious push which sent Buzz sprawling into a corner, then swiftly turned to defend himself against Willie's attack. But Willie, out of his mind with the afghan's contagion, was more than a match for him. He grabbed Harry by his shirt collar and tried to bodily lift him from the floor, and practically succeeded. He threw Harry against the dumbwaiter and waded in.

"Loomis, you jackass," Harry cried, then ducked and grabbed Willie about the waist, trying to knock him over. But whatever else the afghan had done to Willie, it had also given him a devilish strength. Staggering back against the wall as Harry drove into him in a football tackle, Willie reached forward, grasped Harry by the hips and yanked, flipping the other man in a sloppy throw partway over his shoulder. Harry gasped, then grunted as he crashed onto the floor.

In a flash Willie was at the dumbwaiter door, wrenching it open.

He seized Harry by the shoulders and hauled him to his feet. Both men were disheveled, their clothes split, their breath harsh. Hallie screamed.

"You get in there!" Willie roared and hurled Harry into the dumbwaiter. With a yell, Harry tumbled into the compartment. Willie launched himself halfway into the dumbwaiter bay after him, bellowing at his prisoner, tendons standing out in his neck.

"What do you think about that, hah? That's for Maggie!" He punched and pushed the man struggling inside the dumbwaiter, and Hallie got a confused picture of Harry with a bloody mouth. Then Willie reared back and slammed the door, trapping Harry inside. Harry began to shout and kick on the other side of the door.

"You don't be touchin' Maggie," Willie blathered fiercely, spying the cables above the dumbwaiter and seizing one with alacrity. He jerked the cable with gusto, and the compartment with Harry in it raced downwards, out of sight.

"Willie, no!" Hallie moaned.

"There you go!" Willie screamed, beginning to dance in front of the dumbwaiter as he worked the cable hand-under-hand. Drops of sweat shot from his hair and face and tapped onto the floor around him. "You don't go around tryna touch Maggie!"

Buzz Hackett stayed sprawled in the corner, shocked at the scene.

Hallie let out a sob and rushed from the room, colliding with Elizabeth Stoddard, who was just entering it. Both of them tripped over the broom that lay across the threshold.

"What in the world! Hallie—Willie, what are you doing!?" Elizabeth cried.

Willie immediately turned. His shirt was drenched and his pants showed patterns of sweat here and there. He fixed his eye upon Elizabeth and lurched toward her, gently pushing Hallie out of his way.

"Mrs. Stoddid!" he caroled, beginning to giggle, and put his burning hands onto Elizabeth's cheeks. She stared at him, startled, as he chuckled and brought his face close to hers.

"My God," he slurred, "You are—so—beautiful! Has anyone told you what a beautiful face you have? Oh, my God!" he gasped, laughing, crying, caressing Elizabeth's cheeks. Elizabeth tenderly put both hands on Willie's wrists and then gave a cry at the bizarre heat she felt there.

"Oh, no!" Elizabeth cried. "Veronika! Dr. Liska, help!"

"It's okay," Willie assured her, his eyes pleading and laughing into hers. Then they welled with tears. "I got that guy, did you see me get that guy? I can't get over how beautiful you are! I can't believe it!" He cupped her face and woozily kissed her nose.

"It's the afghan again!" Hallie sobbed in horror. She stumbled from the room and, seeing Roger Collins hurrying toward her, put out her hands to him. Roger snatched Hallie protectively into his arms, confused as to what was going on.

"Willie's sick from the afghan," Hallie wept on the front of Roger's suit jacket. "And he's k-kissing Mrs. Stoddard, and he threw H-Harry into the dumbwaiter and sent it away to the other side!"

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