Part 3: The Lunatic Yarn
Chapter 19
Now: rend her cloth and smash her treadle
And cut that throat she used to wheedle.
Damn the day she drew her needle,
And sewed the lunatic yarn!
From "The Lunatic Yarn©" by Carey Kasdot
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"Good morning, young woman," Elliot said blandly as the red-haired girl blinked dreamily at the ceiling. "Do you care to tell me how you got into this house?"
Roger hurried into the room, still clasping Hallie to him. "Elliot, we need you in the other room. Willie Loomis has apparently come under the madness of the poisonous afghan—we know now, definitively, that that blasted afghan is the source of the contagion—and I'm afraid he's done some violence."
"What?" Elliot asked in a harsh voice. He quickly rose from the chair he had brought alongside Roxanne's couch. His eyes fell upon Hallie.
"No, no," Roger answered quickly, reading his friend's thoughts. "Willie hasn't hurt Hallie, but I'm afraid he's a bit too much for Veronika to handle. She's trying to corral him down the stairs and it's not working. Buzz is also helping, but I believe it will take the four of us. Veronika's medical bag is downstairs, otherwise she would have—"
"Tranquilizer dart, yes, I see!" observed Elliot, straightening his pants as he stood. "Well! Let's take him. What violence has he done?"
Roger's voice lowered with unease. "I'm afraid he's—well, he tossed Harry Johnson into the dumbwaiter and used the cables to send it off somewhere. So now that's two of them missing! Oh, God, what are we going to do? Where is my son?"
"Wait," Hallie gasped.
"Roger, get yourself firmly in hand. Let us take care of Mr. Loomis and then—then—" Elliot glanced in perplexity at the beautiful young woman who continued to study the ceiling.
Roger started. "Yes, you're right, I must help Veronika!" he whirled and left the room.
"Uncle Elliot! Listen, I think—" Hallie began. Elliot drew her to his side.
"Not now, child," he said. "We've got to get Willie Loomis to the hospital. Steer clear, understand? Hang back with Mrs. Stoddard until the ambulance comes and we get him inside."
"But Uncle Elliot," Hallie persisted. But he wasn't listening.
For the third time in two days, an ambulance stood before the doors of Collinwood. A combative but laughing Willie Loomis was persuaded onto a stretcher. A grim-looking Veronika Liska climbed into the ambulance after him. As they drove off, Roger stalked back into Collinwood, his fists clenching his hair on both sides of his head. "Elliot," he gritted, "We deduce that my son took that dumbwaiter ride—and Hallie saw Johnson get thrown into it—but what about Barnabas and Julia? Could they possibly have, oh, ridden the damned thing to wherever it goes, and be trapped out there as well?" Roger wiped his eyes. "Listen. I'm going up there and getting into that bedeviled dumbwaiter carriage and see where I end up! I must find David. I can't bear it any longer, not knowing what has happened to him."
Elliot held out his hand, anguished for his friend.
"Roger, I can imagine how you are feeling. If Hallie were lost somewhere, I'd be panicked. But please don't go into the dumbwaiter. Come with me to the Old House and see whether Barnabas and Julia are there; perhaps some new theory or some lead caused them to dash off and leave us. I doubt that they would have gone off in the dumbwaiter together, or one after the other, without telling anyone or leaving a note. They must be pursuing an idea."
"Well," Roger exclaimed, covering his eyes with his hand, "I know how each of them feels about David, but let me tell you, Elliot, I am going to want an explanation for their absence."
Elliot looked down at the floor. "I don't think anyone should mention to Mrs. Johnson what was done to her son," he advised. Roger threw up his hands.
"Another tragedy in the making! Where is Johnson? I'm going to ask Buzz Hackett to please help us by getting into that dumbwaiter and going in search of David—and Harry! I don't care what he says! That's all there is to it."
The men were silent a moment. Roger went to the tall brandy cabinet against the wall and clinked glassware as he poured. Then, both of them looked up at the same time, sensing a third person near.
The woman they had left blinking at the ceiling in the east wing now stood in her flowing blue sleeveless nightdress, looking from one to the other of them.
"Good God," muttered Roger, quickly turning pink, "ah, miss, would you like to come in and sit down? … Great astounding God," Roger wavered, trying not to notice the firm, jutting breasts of his scantily-clad guest. He put his brandy glass down again with a clatter. "Elliot, help me."
Elliot strode toward the straight, silent figure. "Come in; welcome. You're safe here. Can you tell us who you are and how you got into this house?"
"Would you like a brandy?" Roger blurted, approaching with a glass.
The woman calmly studied him, then stared down into the glass. She slowly, slowly took it in both hands and seemed to study its depths. Then she thoughtfully turned her face away from it. Stepping cautiously into the room, she approached Elliot and handed him the glass with care. She then walked to the couch and sat, elaborately languid.
"Good heavens," Roger muttered. "Veronika's not here but where on earth is Julia when one needs her? Elliot, is this girl damaged in some way?"
"I doubt it," Elliot uttered, smiling at Roxanne, who met his eyes pensively.
"Well, why won't she speak? Why is she—dressed like that? If–" Roger suddenly jerked—"If Buzz Hackett is at the bottom of this, why, I'll—I'll tear him limb from limb! Master chef or no!"
Hallie came around the corner into the drawing room and started when she saw Roxanne.
"Come in, child," her uncle told her. "Now that Mr. Loomis has been packed off to the Emergency Room, why don't you tell me what it was you were trying to say earlier?"
Hallie pressed her hands together. "Well—you won't understand me, but I was thinking of—games."
"Games," repeated Elliot, as Roger lifted his head and stared at her in surprise.
Hallie looked at him and gulped. "Yes. Well. You see—you see, Buzz is here, and now this lady," she said, gesturing toward Roxanne. "And we are missing David and—and Harry. So now I think—it's our turn. I think we can go over now."
There was a moment of silence.
Roger shook his head at the floor.
Elliot motioned kindly to his niece. "Go on, child. I don't quite understand yet."
"You see," resumed Hallie, "It's like—maybe it is like Red Rover. Do you know that game? Where you send people back and forth. And—well, David went first, then Buzz came. Then Harry and this lady seemed to almost cross at the same time. Maybe. … I don't know. But it seems to me," Hallie stressed, ready to sink into the carpet with embarrassment and the urgency she felt to get her point across, "that now it's our turn to go. We went first; we started it. One of us can go into the dumbwaiter now and try to get David back. Because we're two for two. We have two of theirs, they have two of ours—do you—understand what I mean?" she finished tremulously.
The men were quiet. Then Elliot grunted.
"You might have something there," he admitted. "She's talking about the balance of the universe, in a way. Or these two universes—ours, and the one on the other side of the dumbwaiter." He smiled at Hallie, and she felt a great gust of pride that her uncle had heard her and understood her.
"Hallie, do you think that if we sent someone over now, that someone could successfully retrieve David?"
"Well, I think this," Hallie mused. "Buzz Hackett is here only for a while. He can't go back into the dumbwaiter until it's the right time for him to go. He can't just decide to leave. He told me that time is running out here for him and that soon he will leave."
Roger stirred. "That's right," he affirmed. "Buzz mentioned the same thing to me—that he has got to leave the way he came, and that he is here only for a proscribed period of time. Does that mean that, on the other side, David can't return to us until his time over there is served, as well? Oh, my God. I won't accept that. Let's get up there right now and see if anything else has happened."
Roger hurried to the doorway, but was met by Buzz Hackett himself. Buzz held in his hands a long board game, which he rattled at Hallie.
"My game!" Hallie cried. It was the Mystery Date boxed board game. She took it from Buzz and grasped it joyfully.
"Yeah, I was just up there, and damn if the thing wasn't sitting in the middle of the dumbwaiter, you know?" Buzz removed his dark glasses and poked them on top of his head, surveying the group. "It's been a mad scene and all that, but it's time for me to blow."
"What?" Roger blurted. He put a hand on Buzz's arm. "Buzz, how do you know this? Do you think it's the same for—my son? Can he come home?" Roger looked from Buzz to Elliot with a hopeful expression.
Buzz told him, "I don't know your kid, daddy-o, but if I was you, I'd get right upstairs again and keep my eye on the dumbwaiter. Because I don't know how to put it, but something's gonna happen."
Roger rushed out of the room, making for the stairs. Elliot blinked at Buzz and then followed Roger.
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