The round little man with the halo of hair walked briskly to the
turnstile and there stood at a military parade rest with a look of
resignation on his face.
How hard on me it is, he seemed to be saying, that I have such dull damn
duty. How hard that an officer of my brilliance must do sentry-go for
every train to Syndic Territory.
The slack-jawed youth who was Lee Falcaro looked at him over her Green
Sheet and nodded before dipping into the Tia Juana past performances
again. She knew.
Passengers were beginning to line up at the turnstile, smoothing out
their money and fiddling with their permits. In a minute he and Lee
Falcaro would have to join the line or stand conspicuously on the
emptying floor. The thing was dead for twenty-four hours now, until the
next train--and then Grinnel headed across the floor looking very
impersonal. The look of a man going to the men's room. The station cops
and Grinnel's two bruisers drifted together at the turnstile and began
to chat.
Charles followed Grinnel, wearing the same impersonal look, and entered
the room almost on his heels.
Grinnel saw him in a wash-bowl mirror; simultaneously he half turned,
opened his mouth to yell and whipped his hand into his coat. A single
round-house right from Charles crunched into the soft side of his neck.
He fell with his head twisted at an odd angle. Blood began to run from
the corner of his mouth onto his shirt.
"Remember Martha?" Charles whispered down at the body. "That was for
murder." He looked around the tiled room. There was a mop closet with
the door ajar, and Grinnel's flabby body fitted in it.
Charles walked from the washroom to the line of passengers across the
floor. It seemed to go on for miles. Lee Falcaro was no longer lounging
against the past. He spotted her in line, still slack-jawed, still
gaping over the magazine. The monorail began to sing shrilly with the
vibration of the train braking a mile away, and the turnstile "unlocked"
light went on.
There was the usual number of fumblers, the usual number of "please
unfold your currency" flashes. Lee carried through to the end with her
slovenly pose. For her the sign said: "incorrect denominations." Behind
her a man snarled: "for Christ's sake, kid, we're all waiting on you!"
The cops only half noticed; they were talking. When Charles got to the
turnstile one of the cops was saying: "Maybe it's something he ate.
How'd _you_ like somebody to barge in--"
The rest was lost in the clicking of the turnstile that let him through.
* * * * *
He settled in a very pneumatic chair as the train accelerated evenly to
a speed of three hundred and fifty miles per hour. A sign in the car
said that the next stop was Buffalo. And there was Lee, lurching up the
aisle against the acceleration. She spotted him, tossed the Green Sheet
in the Air and fell into his lap.
"Disgusting!" snarled a man across the aisle. "Simply disgusting!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account