To a degree that surprised Ethan, the sight of the boy gladdened him. Nothing else had done so in this long, gray, dismal day.
He wasn?t entirely sure why the kid lifted his spirits. Maybe because you expected the son of the Face, raised in such wealth and with such indifference, to be spoiled rotten or to be dysfunctionally [250] neurotic, or both; and because instead Fric was basically decent and shy, tried to cover his shyness with a seen-it-all air, but could not conceal a fundamental modesty as rare in his glamorous world as pity was rare among the scaly denizens of a crocodile swamp.
Indicating the paperback, Ethan said, ?Has the evil wizard found the tongue of an honest man for his potion??
?No luck yet. But he just sent his brutal assistant, Cragmore, to visit a lying politician and harvest his testicles.?
Ethan winced. ?He is an evil wizard.?
?Well, it?s just a politician. Some of them come around here now and then, you know. After they leave, Mrs. McBee does an inventory of the valuable items in the rooms they visited.?
?So what?re you doing down here? Planning to go for a drive??
Fric shook his head. ?There?s no point making a break for it until I?m sixteen. First I?ve got to get my driver?s license, have enough time to put together a stash of cash big enough to start over with, research the perfect small town to hide in, and design a series of really cool impenetrable disguises.?
Ethan smiled. ?That?s the plan, huh??
Failing to match Ethan?s smile, with bone-dry seriousness, Fric said, ?That?s the plan.?
The boy pressed the button to call the elevator. The machinery hummed into motion, the noise only partly muffled by the shaft walls.
?I?ve been hiding out from the decorating crew,? Fric revealed. ?They?re still putting up trees and stuff all over the house. This is your first Christmas here, so you don?t know, but they all wear these stupid Santa hats, and every time they see you, they shout, ?Merry Christmas,? grinning like lunatics, and they want to give you these sucky little candy canes. They don?t just decorate, they like make a performance out of it, which I guess most people want, otherwise they wouldn?t have a business, but it?s enough to turn you into an atheist.?
[251] ?Sounds like a memorable holiday tradition.?
?It?s better than the paid carolers, on Christmas Eve. They dress like characters out of Dickens, and between songs they talk to you about Queen Victoria and Mr. Scrooge and whether you?re going to have goose and suet pudding for Christmas dinner, and they call you ?m?lord? and ?young master,? and you?ve got to be there because Ghost because my father thinks it?s all so cool. After about half an hour, you?re sure you?re either going to shit or go blind, and there?s another half-hour to get through. But then it?s okay, because after the carolers is the magician who does this act with dwarfs dressed up like Santa?s elves, and he?s radically hilarious.?
Aelfric seemed to be concealing a nervous and urgent concern that he unintentionally expressed in a flood of words set loose with a quality akin to babble. He wasn?t a tight-lipped boy by nature, but neither was he a nonstop talker.
The elevator arrived and the doors opened.
Ethan followed the boy into the wood-paneled cab.
After pushing the button for the ground floor, Fric said, ?In your experience, are phone perverts really dangerous or are they just all talk??
?Phone perverts??
To this point, the boy had made eye contact. Now he watched the light on the floor-indicator board and didn?t even glance at Ethan. ?Guys that call up and breathe at you. Do they mainly get their kicks from just that, or do they sometimes actually come around and want to grope you and stuff??
?Has someone called you, Fric??
?Yeah. This freak.? The boy made heavy, ragged panting sounds, as if Ethan might be able to identify the pervert from the unique signature of his breathing patterns.
?When did this start??
?Just today. First when I was in the train room. Then he called again when I was in the wine cellar, eating dinner.?
[252] ?He called on your private line??
?Yeah.?
On the board, the indicator light blinked from the lower garage to the higher garage. The elevator moved slowly upward.
?What did this guy say to you??
Fric hesitated, shuffling his feet slightly on the inlaid-marble floor. Then: ?He just breathed. And made some some almost like animal sounds.?
?That?s all??
?Yeah. Animal sounds, but I don?t know what they were supposed to be, ?cause he wasn?t like talented at it or anything.?
?You?re sure he didn?t say something to you? Didn?t even use your name??
Remaining focused on the indicator board, Fric said, ?Just that stupid breathing. I star sixty-nined him, figuring maybe the pervert still lives with his mother, see, and she?d answer, and I could tell her what her precious sicko son was up to, but then I just got him breathing at me.?
They arrived at the ground floor. The doors opened.
Ethan stepped into the hall, but Fric remained in the elevator.
Blocking the doors with one arm, Ethan said, ?Calling him back-that wasn?t a good idea, Fric. When someone?s trying to harass you, what gives them a kick is knowing they got under your skin. The best thing to do is hang up as soon as you realize who it is, and if the phone rings again right away, don?t answer it.?
Looking at his wristwatch, adjusting the time with the stem, busying himself, Fric said, ?I thought you?d have a way to find out who he is.?
?I?ll give it a try. And Fric??
The boy continued to fiddle with the watch. ?Yeah??
?It?s important that you tell me everything about this.?
?Sure.?
?You are telling me everything, aren?t you??
[253] Holding the watch to one ear, as if listening for ticking, Fric said, ?Sure. It was this breather.?
The boy was withholding information, but putting pressure on him at this time would only ensure that he would guard his secret all the more fiercely.
Recalling how he himself had responded to Hazard?s interrogation in the church, Ethan relented. ?If it?s all right with you, when your line rings tonight or anytime tomorrow while I?m here, I?d like to answer it myself.?
?Okay.?
?Your line doesn?t ring in my apartment, but I?ll just go into the house computer and change that.?
?When??
?Right now. I?ll pick it up on the first few rings, but if a call comes in tomorrow when I?m not here, then just let it go to your voice mail.?
The boy made eye contact at last. ?Okay. You know what my ring sounds like??
Ethan smiled. ?I?ll recognize it.?
With a look of consternation, Fric said, ?Yeah, it?s dorky.?
?And you think the first nine notes of ?Dragnet? makes me feel like I?m getting an important call??
Fric smiled.
?If you need to call me anytime, day or night,? Ethan said, ?on one of my house lines or my cell phone, don?t hesitate, Fric. I don?t sleep all that much anyway. You understand??
The boy nodded. ?Thanks, Mr. Truman.?
Ethan stepped backward into the hallway once more.
Self-conscious, Fric chewed solemnly on his lower lip as he pushed a control-panel button, probably for the third floor where he had his rooms.
Because of the boy?s diminutive stature, the elevator, as big as any in a high-rise building, seemed to be even larger than usual.
[254] Although short and slender for his age, Fric possessed a quiet determination and a courage, apparent in his posture and in his daily attitude, that were surprising for his years and bigger than his small body. The boy?s strange and lonely childhood had already begun to steel him for adversity.
In spite of his wealth and wit and growing wisdom, adversity would come to him sooner or later. He was a human being, after all, and therefore heir to his share of misery and misfortune.
The elevator doors slid shut.
As Fric disappeared from view and as machinery purred, Ethan looked at the indicator board above the door. He watched until he saw the light change from the ground floor to the second, listened as the lift mechanism continued to grind.
In his mind?s eye, Ethan saw the elevator doors open on the third floor, revealing an empty cab, Fric having vanished forever between floors.
Such peculiar dark imaginings were not common to him. On any day but this one, he would have wondered where such a disturbing twist of thought had come from, and he would have at once smoothed it out of his mind as easily as pressing a wrinkle from a shirt.
This was the day it was, however, so utterly unlike any other that Ethan felt inclined to take seriously even the most unlikely presentiments and possibilities.
The back staircase wrapped the elevator shaft. He was tempted to race up four flights. The elevator rose so slowly that he might beat it to the third floor.
When the doors slid open, revealing Fric unharmed, the boy would be startled to be greeted with such alarm. Breathing hard from his frantic ascent, Ethan wouldn?t be able to conceal his concern from Fric-nor would he be able to explain it.
The moment passed.
His clenched throat relaxed. He swallowed, breathed.
[255] The indicator light blinked from the second to the third floor. The elevator motor fell silent.
Surely Fric had arrived safely at the top of the house. He had not been consumed and digested by demonically possessed machinery.
As best he could, Ethan smoothed that bizarre idea from his mind as he went to his apartment in the west wing.