for the first time, unable to comprehend the rules of the game.
Bobby said, “Once we’ve gotten him out of here, we can tell Fulgham he’s
been found just a few blocks away and that we’re meeting with him to
determine whether he wants-or even needs-to be returned to the hospital.
He’s our client, after all, not our ward, and we have to respect his
wishes.”
Without having to wait for tests to be conducted, they now knew that
Frank was not suffering strictly from physical ailments like cerebral
abscesses, clots, aneurysms, cysts, or neoplasms. His amnesia did not
spring from brain tumors, but from something far stranger and more
exotic than that. No malignancy, regardless of how singular its nature,
would invest its victim with the power to step into the fourth dimension
or to wherever Frank was stepping when he vanished.
“Hal,” Julie said, “get Frank’s other clothes from the closet, bundle
them up, and stuff them in the pillowcase with the money.”
“Will do.”
“Bobby, help me get Frank out of bed, see if he can stand on his own
feet. He looks awful weak.” The remaining bed railing stuck for a
moment when Bobby tried to lower it, but he struggled with it because
they could not take Frank out of bed on the other side without drawing
back the privacy curtain and exposing him to anyone who might push open
the door.
“You could’ve done me a big favor and packed this rail off to Oz with
the other one,” Bobby told Frank, and Frank said,
“Oz?”
When the railing finally folded down, out of the way, Julie found that
she was hesitant to touch Frank, for fear of what might happen to her-or
parts of her-if he pulled another disappearing act. She had seen the
shattered hinges of the bed railing; she was also keenly aware that
Frank had not brought the railing back with him, but had abandoned it in
the other world or wherever to which he traveled.
Bobby hesitated, too, but overcame his apprehension, grabbing the man’s
legs and swinging them over the edge of the bed, taking hold of his arm
and helping him into a sitting position, In some ways she might be
tougher than Bobby, but when it came to encounters with the unknown, he
was clearly moor flexible and quick to adapt than she was.
Finally she quelled her fear, and together she and Bobby assisted Frank
off the bed and onto his feet. His legs buckle under him, and they had
to support him. He complained of weakness and dizziness.
Stuffing the other set of clothes in the pillowcase, Hal said “if we
have to, Bobby and I can carry him.”
“I’m sorry to be so much trouble,” Frank said.
To Julie, he had never sounded or looked more pathetic, an she felt a
flush of guilt about her reluctance to touch him.
Flanking Frank, their arms around him to provide support Julie and Bobby
walked him back and forth, past the rain washed window, giving him a
chance to recover the use of his legs. Gradually his strength and
balance returned.
“But my pants keep trying to fall down,” Frank said.
They propped him against the bed, and he leaned on Julie while Bobby
lifted the blue cotton sweater to see if they be needed to be cinched in
one notch. The tongue end of the bell was weakened by scores of small
holes, as if industrious insect had been boring at it. But what insects
ate leather? When Bobby touched the tarnished brass buckle, it crumbled
a though it was made of flaky pastry dough.
Gaping at the glittering crumbs of metal on his finger Bobby said,
“Where do you shop for clothes, Frank? In dumpster?”
In spite of Bobby’s light tone, Julie knew he was unnerve What substance
or circumstances could so profoundly alter the composition of brass?
When he brushed his fingers against the bed sheets to wipe off the
curious residue, she flinched, not expecting his flesh to have been
contaminated by the contact with the brass, and to crumble as the buckle
had done.
AFTER CINCHING Frank’s pants with the belt that he had worn when he’d