“Glad to have been of help, Miss Clay,” he said. “I’ll go locate that hotel now, I guess.”
“No, wait!” Lyla jumped up. “Please don’t go. I.” She had been about to reach out and catch hold of his arm; she canceled the gesture in mid-air. Some knees were very sensitive about blanks touching them without permission, and she was frightened of this man who could open locks without explosives and walk under a heavy deadfall to catch it with one arm. To cover her abortive faux pas she started to talk very rapidly and randomly.
“You see, like I was saying, if I hadn’t found out it was Berry here I’d have turned to him because I thought he was Dan’s friend and I don’t come from New York, not even from inside the state, so I don’t have too many friends and. Do you have any friends, Harry?”
“No.”
“None? None at all? Family, anything?”
He shook his head.
“You come from this part of the country?”
“Nevada.”
“You’re a long way from home, then, aren’t you? I only come from Virginia, but either way, it’s not New York.” She bit down hard on her lower lip; it was trembling like an advance warning of tears.
“Suppose Berry waits to catch me alone,” she said finally.
“You know him,” Madison said. “Do you think he might try?”
“I don’t know!” The words peaked in a cry. “I never even thought of him as an enemy before! He’s the last person in the world I’d ever have thought of as an enemy! Oh God, why can’t we have friends any more like they used to in the old days?”
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Madison said. “I expected that the doctors at the Ginsberg might, but they don’t.”
“Yes, I guess you would expect psychologists to be able to answer it,” Lyla said, falling into the game with a lightheaded, floating sensation like the very late stages of a Ladromide trip. “What did they put you in there for, anyway-if you don’t mind my asking?”
“For too many questions,” Madison said. “That kind of question you just asked. They put a gun in my hand and said go kill that naked savage with a stone spear, he’s the enemy, and I said why is he the enemy and they said because he’s been got at by the communists and I said does he even have a word in his language for ‘communism’ and they said if you don’t go kill him you’ll be under arrest. So they arrested me. I went on asking questions and I never got an answer, and I didn’t feel inclined to stop until I did. So they discharged me and put me in the Ginsberg-or rather, in another hospital first off, but when the Ginsberg was opened they transme. Because I’m a knee, I guess. It was a time when it wouldn’t have looked right to have a black man in a bad old-fashioned hospital.”
Lyla started to say something, changed her mind, changed it back again. “Harry, tell me honestly: do you think they were justified to put you in there? Do you think you were crazy? Because you certainly don’t sound it, to me.”
“I have a certificate,” Madison said with a wry smile. It was the first trace of expression she had seen on his face, even when he was confronting Berry, and it was gone in a flash.
“Yes. Yes, of course.” She cast around for words. “Well, look. Look, it’s like this. I don’t want to be alone. I’m frightened. I don’t have a gun any more-it was stolen by the block Gottschalk, the one we saw by the elevator. I’d have to go out and get food or something and. Well, look, can you stand to keep me company for a few hours at least? Just so long as necessary? Till I feel.”
Her voice died and her hands hung lax at her sides and her head bowed. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “You’ve done much more already than I had any right to ex
“Your talk of food is a good idea,” Madison said. “I think you’ll be okay later, but not right now. With a meal down you and a few drinks maybe, or a joint, you’ll be able to manage. It’ll make things seem more normal.”