Amphiskios

Chapter VIII Re-Run

Howard Loomis spun as he heard a woman cough.

She was a tall girl in a wine evening dress. Her blue eyes were wide with fear and she stood, her hands at her throat. She looked at something in the air in front of her which did not exist.

“Rick!” she gasped.

Howard Loomis began to laugh. He couldn’t control it. He staggered to the side of the vast luxurious room, furnished in a manner so strange as to give it the appearance of a dream, and laughed until the tears dripped ridiculously from the end of his sharp nose.

“Too… too much,” he gasped. “Now bring on the golden harps.”

“Who are you calling a harp?” the girl snapped.

The sound of her angry voice brought him out of it. He stared at her in silence. “Where is this place? Who are you?”

“Those are my lines, mister.”

“Is your name Mary?” Howard asked. “If so, there’s a guy here who—”

There was no need to finish the statement. The young man with the air of authority, with the golden toga that left his bronzed left shoulder bare, pushed by Howard Loomis and advanced toward Mary Callahan.

In his odd English, he said, “Mary, you are more beautiful than before.”

“Than before what, friend?”

Anthon took her hands in his. His eyes were warm. “There is much to tell you. There is much that you do not understand.”

“That, chum, is a perfect understatement.”

“All I have time to tell you right now, Mary, is that this is a world thousands of years ahead of yours. You were brought her once before. I met you then. Others will come after you. I promise you a full and rich life at my side. You and those like you are the hope of this world, Mary. Through you we will gain the strength and vigor of times long past.”

Mary Callahan tilted her head on one side. “Brother,” she said, “I’ve been propositioned before but this is the first time I ever heard this line.”

“Line?” he said. “All you have to do is to believe me and trust me.”

She looked up into his eyes. She said, “Never let anybody say that Callahan doesn’t land on her feet.”

Anthon took her arm. He said, “Come with me. You must meet the Council. There are things I must explain to them. You can listen and I will translate for you and thus you will learn much.”

Mary let herself be led toward the vast doorway. As she passed Howard Loomis she winked broadly at him said in a stage whisper, “I don’t know what the deal is, chum, but something tells me I’m going to like it.”

Howard Loomis scratched his head, bewildered and frustrated, as he saw the tall girl, her fingertips on the arm of the oddly dignified young man, pass out through the enormous arched doorway into the sunlight.

Ten minutes later he was hastily wrapping his topcoat around a soaking-wet young lady with blond hair who, in spite of her irate tone, seemed badly in need of a competent man to look after her.

Any good salesman is resourceful.