DODGSON

    

    They walked the now-familiar maze of streets back to Chase’s room in Little Venice. It was eight o’clock, nearly sunset and turning cooler. The rain had stopped but the seas were still high. There was still no getting off the island.

    Dodgson was tired. The tension, the inactivity, the wine-all of them conspired to make him yearn for sleep, for oblivion.

    But she likes it when we sleep, he thought. No can do.

    They waited while Chase fumbled with the key, then opened the door. All their gear was inside. The spacious room looked cluttered now.

    “I’d like to shave,” said Chase.

    “Me too,” said Eduardo.

    “I imagine we all want showers, don’t we?” Billie looked from one woman to the other and Michelle and Xenia nodded.

    “Ladies first, then,” said Chase. He sat down heavily in the chair by the window.

    Dodgson felt uneasy. “How much privacy do you need?”

    “None,” said Xenia. She answered for all of them.

    “Suppose we double up, then. It’ll be faster-and safer.”

    Xenia shrugged. “Come on, Eduardo.”

    She pulled off her shirt and jeans and dropped them to the floor, flung a towel over her shoulder and marched naked into the bathroom. In a moment they heard the water running.

    “How’s your supply of hot water?” asked Eduardo.

    “Good.”

    "Terrific.” He stripped and followed Xenia inside and shut the door. The room had two beds. Billie and Dodgson sat on the one nearest Chase by the window. Danny took the straight-back chair-probably trying to stay awake, thought Dodgson. Michelle was digging through her suitcase, looking for something.

    Dodgson watched Chase stare out the window. The man looked older than he had this morning. The five o’clock shadow almost succeeded in making him look seedy. He wondered what Chase wasn't telling them.

    “Something out there?”

    “No. I was just…remembering.”

    “Remembering what?”

    He didn’t answer and Dodgson didn’t push him.

    Billie nestled up under his shoulder. She felt warm and comfortable. He noticed that the beds had been made while they were out. He wondered what the landlady had thought of all the sudden luggage. “When this is over,” said Billie, “what are you going to do?”

    He sighed. “Well, I’ve had enough of Greece. You?”

    “I’d wanted to sketch the Parthenon. But yes, quite enough.”

    “I think I’d like to go home for a while. Care to see the States?”

    “I haven’t the money.”

    “I do.”

    She looked surprised, then smiled.

    “Thank you, Robert. I’ll…definitely think on it.”

    “Think hard.”

    “I will.”

    Her hand brushed lightly across his cheek.

    “Got it!” said Michelle.

    She held up a thin-handled safety razor. “I thought I’d lost it.”

    She plopped down hard on the bed across from them.

    "Merde!” she said. “I am exhausted.”

    Dodgson saw her eyes change suddenly, saw them go down to the bed. For a moment she looked like a fighter who’d been punched too hard too often. He followed her gaze. He saw something move. Then she screamed.

    And then she was on the floor scrambling toward them on her hands and knees. Dodgson started toward her. Danny was on his feet already. He heard the water go off in the bathroom.

    She was still screaming when she fell into Billie’s arms and Danny came around behind her.

    “What? What is-"

    “The bed,” said Dodgson.

    He remembered thinking that the landlady hadn’t done such a good job over there, that the covers were more rumpled than on the one they were sitting on, but he’d thought nothing of it and now…

    …now they were writhing.

    Something moving beneath the covers.

    Michelle was crying, hysterical. The bathroom door flew open and there was Eduardo, naked, dripping, Xenia peering out over his shoulder.

    “What…?”

    Chase stepped toward the bed. Dodgson didn’t like it.

    “Chase…”

    “It’s all right.”

    “It’s not all right. Be careful.”

    He reached for the comer end of the bedsheet. Flung it, leapt back.

    Michelle screamed again. Billie too.

    The bed hissed at them.

    It swarmed with snakes.

    They were gray and brown and red and Dodgson recognized them, the dark markings along the back. Vipers, fifty of them, maybe more, sliding over one another, tongues tasting the air, flicking, searching for body heat. Fifty, and any one could kill.

    They began to slide off the bed.

    It looked like it was melting.

    “Get out!” he screamed. Chase flung the door open. Eduardo and Xenia ran naked from the bathroom toward the door. Across the concrete floor snakes hissed angrily. They continued to fall off the bed-a hideous heavy sliding falling sound behind them. Then Chase and Eduardo and Xenia were through and then Michelle and Billie and finally Danny, kicking at one that darted near him, screeching in raw panic.

    And then it was as though a wind came up around him, a huge dense burst of air.

    The door slammed shut.

    He heard them shouting his name and pounding on the door as he pulled at it but it was as though it were cemented shut. He turned and saw snakes pouring off the bed, winding through the room, seeking, the hot steamy bathroom full of them already but they were coming toward him too. He heard the agitated hissing, the slide of muscular flesh against concrete.

    He picked up the chair by the window.

    One of them was winding its way up the chair leg and he slapped at it with the back of his hand, screaming, until it fell away. He swung the chair and threw it at the window. Glass exploded outward and the chair fell back inside into what was already a pool of snakes ahead of him and he hurled himself through the window in what was undoubtedly the single best dive of his life.

    He saw the waves beneath him and was grateful, for once, for the storm-the waves were high and he wouldn’t crash to the rocks below. Then they churned and parted.

    He saw her reach for him.

    Arms spread wide dripping kelp and seaweed, naked breasts bobbing on the surface, face and hair streaming, gleaming with water and starlight.

    He plunged down into her, into the waves.

    The cold water shocked him. He closed his eyes, praying.

    He pulled out of the dive to the surface. He looked for her.

    “Lelia," he gasped.

    She was gone.

    They were dragging him out of the sea.

    “I saw her,” said Danny.

    “You did?”

    “She was there all right. I was just coming round the comer. I heard glass breaking. She went down with you. You fell right into her arms.”

    “Jesus.”

    “You all right, buddy?”

    “I think so.”

    Danny lifted him to his feet.

    “Come on,” said Eduardo. “My house. Hurry. I’m freezing

    Chase stripped off his shirt and gave it to him. Danny gave his to Xenia.

    Billie grabbed hold of Dodgson. One or both of them were trembling.

    They followed Eduardo and it wasn’t far. They turned two corners and they were there.

    He slid a spare key off the lintel and they went inside. This time they left the door wide open.

    The place was a mess. Eduardo had thrown himself together in a hurry.

    Nobody sat down.

    Eduardo pulled on a pair of pants and handed a pair to Xenia. He got shirts for them out of a drawer and they gave back Chase’s and Danny’s.

    While they were dressing Dodgson looked at Michelle. She was burrowed deep beneath Danny’s shoulder. He caught Danny’s eye and looked at him questioningly and then glanced at Michelle. Danny nodded. Good, he thought. Danny felt she’d be all right, then. Chase’s eyes were fixed on the doorway. And that was just fine too.

    “What now?” said Eduardo. “I mean, what’s left. What’s safe?"

    “Nothing,” said Chase.

    “What?”

    “Nothing’s safe. We stay and watch and wait. If she wants us she’ll find us and I don’t think there’s much we can do about it.”

    “Great.”

    “I’m sorry.”

    Xenia buttoned her shirt and rolled up the cuffs of Eduardo’s pants. They almost but not quite suited her.

    “I could use a drink,” said Danny. “Got anything?”

    “Sure.” He went to the kitchen cabinet and pulled out a liter bottle.

    “Scotch! Eduardo, you’re a genius.”

    They passed it around. Nobody refused.

    “You should get out of those wet clothes, Dodgson,” Eduardo said. “I’ve got some that should fit you.”

    He found a pair of linen trousers and a large pullover sweater. Dodgson stripped and toweled dry and put them on. Michelle passed him the bottle, summoning up a smile for him. Just a small smile but it was good to see. He felt a moment of impotent fury. These were all good people. They didn’t deserve this. None of them did.

    “Listen,” said Chase.

    

***

    

    At first he heard nothing. He looked at Xenia and she shrugged, as puzzled as he was. Then he did hear something, far off in the distance.

    They huddled in the doorway.

    The wind had died outside and the night was much warmer. The weather was truly strange, he thought, changing from moment to moment. He’d never seen anything like it.

    He listened.

    Voices. Shouting. And something else-a kind of crackling sound, like static on a telephone line.

    Women wailing. Screaming.

    “What is it?” whispered Billie.

    “I don’t know.”

    “Whatever it is, it’s big,” said Danny.

    He was right. It was far away but clearly there were many voices, sometimes one alone and sometimes many together, rising and falling. And underneath them that other sound.

    A breeze wafted past them. Then all was still again.

    It felt eerie standing there, listening to some human chaos far away from them yet remembering what had just gone on in Chase’s room. The night felt thick with a terrible potential.

    Anything could happen.

    He felt Billie’s arm tighten around his waist. A light breeze blew up again.

    “There," said Chase. “Smell it?” He took a breath.

    “Fire.”

    They heard footsteps, someone running in their direction. They flinched as a group of men came tearing around the comer.

    Xenia ran to the street.

    “Tee enay? Tee enay afthoh?"

    One of the men whirled at her. The others kept going forward toward the harbor. His face was contorted with fear. “Fotia!” he shouted. He spit the word at her. "Bar Harlequin! Eji pandoo fotia. Ohla! Pandoo!”

    He turned, stumbling, and ran after the others.

    “What is it?” asked Billie. “What’d he say?”

    “Chase is right. He says there is a fire at the Harlequin. Fire everywhere!”

    “She’s burning it,” said Dodgson.

    They could smell it clearly now. Billie clutched his arm.

    “But we’re okay up here, aren’t we? Listen. It’s far away.”

    He did listen and she was right, it was far away. But not so far as before, he thought. Not quite. No. She’ll bum the whole damn island.

    What do you want, Lelia? What the hell do you want?

    “I don’t think so,” he said.

    He looked to Chase. His eyes seemed to mirror his own. He read a cold fine wariness there.

    “I don’t think we’re safe anywhere here.”

    Chase nodded. “I agree. I think she’s proved that. Nobody’s safe on this island. But have a look at that.”

    He pointed out to sea, to the ocean glimmering in the distance.

    It was smooth as glass.

    And Dodgson realized that for some time now there had been virtually no wind.

    “We could leave! Get the hell out of here!” said Danny.

    “Unless that blow starts up again,” said Eduardo.

    “Jesus, it’s worth a try.”

    “Is it?” said Chase.

    “Hell, yes.”

    “You know what the nearest island is, don’t you?”

    “Sure. It’s…”

    “That’s right,” he said. His smile was bitter, and Dodgson saw the sadness play across his face as gently and distinctly as someone closing the eyes of a dead man.

    “The nearest island is Delos.”

    They watched him. He didn’t move. It seemed to Dodgson that he was somewhere inside himself again, listening. A moment passed. Distant voices howled like lost souls, like the damned.

    Finally he sighed.

    “I can’t tell you a thing. Nothing at all. I’m not surprised. All I see is fire.

    “It’s possible I suppose. It’s possible that Delos is where we’ll escape to. But I doubt it. Quite the contrary. I think that’s where we’ll find her. Really find her.”

    “We’ve already found her,” Danny said. “Or she’s found us. I mean, what were those things in your room, Chase, party invitations?”

    “Maybe. Something like that.”

    “Come on, Chase. The fucking island is burning up! Jesus, let’s try it!”

    “I have ex-lovers on this island right now,” said Eduardo. “And not a few of them. This is happening to them too. If we leave maybe it will stop. I think I agree.”

    “I have a boat,” said Xenia. “We can do it. I know we can. It takes twenty minutes to get there. Even if the seas run high again we can make it if we have just ten minutes of calm. That’s all we need. Ten minutes. Please, come on.”

    “All right,” Chase said calmly.

    He looked at Dodgson, then at Billie. The others started off toward the harbor.

    “You’re sure?” asked Dodgson.

    “Not at all. But your friends are right. This place is a known quantity. We know she can get us here. There-who can tell what’ll happen?”

    “You’re not convincing me.”

    There was more than bitterness in the smile now-it was more like pain. He shrugged and turned and began walking after the rest. Billie and Dodgson followed.

    “It’s me who needs convincing,” he said.

    “What do you mean?”

    “I ought to have told you.”

    He spoke so softly they could barely hear him. He talking to himself now, thought Dodgson. Leaning forward as he walked, shoulders hunched against some unseen wind.

    “I think I’m supposed to die there,” he said.

    They stopped a moment, stared. And then kept walking.