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The three-hundred-ring circus of ination abruptly set up its tent, and I beca-roo at me this very moment I spun around The pleated shade was down I crossed the roorabbed the pull cord, yanked the shade up Johnny wasn’t there
I listened to a little hteenth name on Delacroix’s list was Conrad Gensel No doubt he was the stocky bastard with the cropped black hair, yellon eyes, and doll’s teeth Perhaps he was one of the temponauts who had traveled to the other side, one of the feho had colimpsed a destiny of his own in that world of the red sky, or had been driven quietly mad by what he’d seen and had found hihtmare place In any case, he and Randolph hadn’t met at a church supper or a strawberry festival
The skin was still crawling on the nape ofhad been deconstructed down to the last chip of concrete and the final scrap of steel, I didn’t feel that we’d reached closure in this matter
John Joseph Randolph hadn’t been at the ever, noas sure Conrad Gensel had his nose pressed to the pane Because I had lowered the blind after checking for ain Hesitated Yanked up the shade No Conrad
The dog and the cat atching hly entertained
"The big question," I said to Mungojerrie and Orson, as I led them into the kitchen, "is whether the door Johnny opened was really a door into Hell or a door to sorant application with the proe to Beelzebub He’d have been er financiers believed that they were funding research and experiments in time travel; and because they are all comfortable in their lunacy, that seee of frankfurters out of the freezer, I said, "And frouess it must have been time travel of a sort Forward, back--butthe proble in circles around me
"Suppose there are worlds out there in ti to quantum physics, an infinite number of shadow universes exist simultaneously with ours, as real as ours We can’t see them They can’t see us Realities never intersect Except iant blender, whipped realities together for a while"
Mungojerrie was now pacing aroundOrson
"Isn’t it possible that one of those shadow universes is so terrible that it ht as well be Hell? For that lorious we couldn’t distinguish it fro cat were so focused on the hot dogs, in such a solid trance, that if Orson had suddenly stopped, Mungojerrie would have walked halfway up his butt before realizing where he was
I cut open the package of frankfurters, spread the sausages on a plate, headed for the microwave oven, but stopped in thethe imponderable
"In fact," I said, "isn’t it possible that soenuine psychics, h the barrier between time streams? Had visions of these parallel worlds? Maybe that’s where our concepts of the afterlife coe as I’d launched into ue He listened to ojerrie and Orson, pacing circles around me
"And what if we do move on from this world e die, sideways into one of those parallel to us? Are we talking religion or science here?"
"We’re not talking anything," Bobby said "You’re talking your head off about religion and science and pseudoscience, but we’re just thinking hot dogs"
Taking the hint, I put the plate in the ojerrie I gave six to Orson, because when I had lifted the cut chain-link and urged hiht, I had promised him frankfurters, and I always keep my promises to my friends, just as they always keep their proive any to Bobby, because he’d been a s the frankfurter grease froave me the Mystery Train cap
"This can’t exist," I said
If the entire building that housed the project had unraveled from existence, ould the cap have been made in the first place?
"It doesn’t exist," he said "But so else does"
Baffled, I turned the cap in my hands, to look at the words above the bill The ruby-red stitching didn’t form Mystery Train anymore Instead, the tords were Tornado Alley
"What’s Tornado Alley?" I asked
"You find it a little…"
"Not uncreepy?"
"Yeah"
"Maximo weird," I said
Maybe Randolph and Conrad and others were out there in Wyvern or so on the same project, which now had a different name No closure
"Gonna wear it?" Bobby asked
"No"
"Good idea"
"Another thing," he said "What did happen to the dead ain He ceased to exist, that’s all"
"Because I didn’t die"
"I’, and besideslime?"
"You’ll have to buy new sheets"
When ere packed and ready to party, we drove out to the point of the southern horn of the bay, on which Bobby’s cottage--a beautiful structure of weathered teak and glass--is the only residence
On the way, Sasha stopped at a pay phone, disguised her voice by doing a Mickey Mouse imitation--God knohy Mickey Mouse, when any of the characters fro would have been more apt--and tipped the police to the scene at the Stanwyk house
When ere on the ain, Bobby said, "Bro?"
"Yo"
"Who left that Mystery Train cap for you in the first place? And who slipped Delacroix’s security badge under the windshield wiper on the Jeep last night?"
"No proof"
"But a suspicion?"
"Big Head"
"You serious?"
"I think it’s way smarter than it looks"