Friday, August 12, 2005

Our worries took leave the instant the last sliver of inn disappeared, urging us to focus on the two dozen stairs to the Doc’s office. There was one window in the stairwell, through which a pale streetlight shone, and were it not for this we’d be blind.

The clops of our feet were answered by wooden sighs from every third step. This exchange continued until we heard soft strains of jazz, scratchy and warm as only a gramophone could perform it, trickling under the Doc’s door.

“Maybe the jazz was good all week,” I said in a hushed voice. “Really good, I mean.”

Muse gave me a withering look.

She knocked twice, three times, then opened the door to reveal a cluttered office poorly illuminated by the last few embers in the fireplace. The doctor sat hunched at his desk and muttered to himself. He ignored us and continued to scribble in his notebook. Muse made her way over to him and reached out to give a friendly embrace.

“Doc, it’s me. We–” but she was cut short.

“Curecurecure-cure-curecure,” he rasped.

He wheeled around to regard her with yellow, sightless eyes, and lunged for her throat. Muse gave a yelp of horror and, almost as if she expected this, caught him squarely under the chin. The Doc landed with a sickening crunch behind his desk, where he began stirring painfully.

“What have you done?” I roared at Muse, backing away from her.

“I-I– I don’t know. It wasn’t me…I swear it wasn’t me,” she sobbed, genuinely shocked as I was.

I cautiously circled the Doc and looked closely at him. He had somehow managed to pick himself up and sat there whimpering, the saddest thing I had ever seen.

“Definitely looks like your handiwork. He’s just like the ones at Transitorio Station,” I observed coldly.

But at that moment Muse collected herself and gave me a desperate, heartbreaking glance. I knew I was in the wrong.

“Please believe me,” she said urgently.

“I do,” I grudgingly admitted. “I believe you. And I’m sorry. We need to figure this out.”

We got the fire going again with no small effort. I looked into the blaze, fervently hoping to find some answers.