I glanced around. Except for the patch of grass we were standing on, the room looked like a large suite, with a big bed, a kitchen against one wall, and a private bathroom area off to one side.
The guy was sitting in what looked like a livingroom area, except that there was only one chair. He looked over at us, then shook his head as if not believing what he was seeing. Then he looked at us again and jumped to his feet, an expression of sheer joy and happiness on his face.
“My wonderful heavens!” he shouted. “You’ve finally come!”
“I think he’s happy to see us,” Tanda whispered.
The guy came toward us, his face almost breaking from the smile filling it.
“Really happy,” I whispered back.
“My friends, my friends, come in,” he said, motioning us to come toward his living area. “Don’t be afraid. I’m just so happy you have arrived.”
“You are?” Aahz asked.
The guy laughed.
“I am. I honestly am. I can’t believe after all this time the map has finally brought someone to rescue me!”
Chapter Thirteen
“You can’t always get what you want.”
M. JAGGER
The guy led us off the grass and into what was clearly his home.
“Sorry for the mess,” he said, scampering about picking up a book here, a notebook there, some dishes which he quickly put in the sink. We all just sort of stood in a group watching him. “My name is Harold. I’m sorry I don’t have enough chairs for you all.”
He looked like a Harold. The name fit him, and all the other guys who looked a lot like him in all the Audry’s-like places we had been in. Harold pulled his one kitchen chair away from the small table and set it out, then indicated that one of us should take it and another should take his recliner. It was beyond clear that he never got guests of any kind-at least the type of guests he wanted to sit down with. I think at that point we were all so stunned by what he had said, we really weren’t reacting well. I know I wasn’t. I have no real idea what I thought I was going to find when we got to the “treasure,” but a guy waiting to be rescued sure wasn’t it. And a guy who had used the map to bring his rescuers would have never occurred to me. Only Glenda took his offer of the recliner and settled into it with a deep sigh. The guy looked at her, worried.