SONS OF THE FATHERS

Chapter 18: Arresting Developments

Meanwhile, up on the roof, Bunny...but of course...had just had her first labor pain.  "I KNEW it!" she cried, clamping her teeth a bit roughly onto her knuckles.  "I just KNEW it!!!"  She beat wildly on the small, locked door.  "SID! You let me in! SIIIIIIIID!" And, but of course, in an equal bit of unpropitious epitiming, the bolts on the left side of the tiny platform began to bend.
****************
Immediately Bunny stopped beating on the door.  Too late she realized she had been bouncing up and down somewhat as she had been pounding on it with her fists. "Uh-oh!" she gasped perspicaciously as the bolts went *SCROOONCH* with a rather ear-piercing sound.  The tiny platform began listing sharply to the port bow, rathermuch as though Aubrey had fired several cannonades through its braces. Hanging onto the thin metal railing, she glanced quickly down at the paving but no one was in sight.  

With a sharp crack, the bolt at the outer corner broke in half, sending the little platform from its 25 degree incline down into almost a 40. "Aieeeeeee!" cried Bunny, looking desperately about for some, um, resolution to her current precariousosity.  Just a bit off to the right of the platform, a narrow ledge bordered the curve of the shell.Briefly, quickly, she sized it up for any offerings it might provide her sanctuarilly-speaking.  It was all of 3 inches wide and above it, the tiled surface of the shell curved upwards, smooth and pale in the moonlight.

 

When the bolt nearest the wall began to crack, she stepped awkwardly over the railing and there she was left...standing alone in the night, her heels upon the ledge, her back pressed tightly against the curve of an Opera House sail.  What she would do when the next labor pain took her...she had NO idea.  So she closed her eyes, thinking of Yorkshire and her tiny home amongst the hedgehog-infested hillocks where life had been so calm...so simple...and her biggest problem of the day had been correctly fitting the velvet harness on Hargreave, her pet owl, for the afternoon owlcart races on the village green.  She didn't even open her eyes to look when the rest of the platform finally broke free of its moorings and crashed to the paving far below.  No, mentally she was buckling Hargreave's last buckle and placing his little felt hat with the green feather just...so.  There was nothing to worry about...not one thing.  Not at all.  It was, after all, only an epi.  No one died in epis, now did they?  

 

Suddenly her eyes flew open!  "S...IIIIIIIIIII...D!" she shrieked.

But Sid was occupied.  As the four other men made their way two by two up the side ladders, he had gone quickly down to the storage area under the stage and busied himself in a study of the control gears for the 46 foot wide revolve in the stage floor above his head. There were also four very large platform lifts for raising and lowering scenery.  Sid had to smile.  They reminded him so of a kidney-stabbed Maximus being raised amongst the falling poppy petals.  What a happy thought!  

"I think he went through there," Terry said, jerking his head toward a doorway. Maximus opened the door, finding only a series of rope pulleys and a spiral metal stairway.  Had Sid gone up...or down?  Himself and Jim joined them.  

"Jim and I will take the downward spiral," Himself offered.  Jim gulped.  That was just what he'd feared...that his epilife was about to take some terrible downward spiral of its own.  

Maximus nodded assent and he and Terry darted with a bit of a metallic clatter on the upward spiral.  "Ah, well," Jim thought. "Maximus was due for a bit of an easier go of it for a change." He and Himself made their way rapidly back to the stage.  

Sid, beneath the stage, listened to the sound of their footfalls as they crossed it. "Only two," he murmured to himself, "and Maximus not one of them."  Being Sid and so marvelous and all, he could tell that merely from listening to them walk.  

"I don't see him down here," Jim remarked.  Himself had walked over nearer the enormous French tapestry that formed the stage curtain, absently letting his fingers run down the Australian wool from which it was made.  

"Me neither," Himself agreed.  "Let's go down under the...," he began but was stopped by the startling sight of the whole center of the stage where Jim was standing beginning to revolve. Sid had forced the gears far past their normal speed and the thing turned rapidly, huge metallic groanings coming up from beneath it.  Jim dropped to his knees, bracing himself with one hand on the stage.  Large sections of the rest of the stage floor suddenly fell away and huge pieces of scenery rose up, plopping over onto the spinning revolve then being slung off in various directions.  Himself grabbed a rope, swinging his booted feet in the air just as the side wall of a palace scooted past.  Jim, unable to stand, was twisting and dodging as best he could.  

Sid made his way up to the back of the stage, watching the chaos.  He giggled with pleasure. That should keep those two occupied for a bit. Now he needed to get back to Bunny before Maximus and Terry discovered where he'd tucked her.  

The two just-mentioned characters were, indeed, making their way ever higher in the innards of the Opera House.  Maximus had only one thought in his mind now and that was to get Bunny and his son off the roof and safely back inside.  But the structure of the Opera House was very complex.  He'd had no idea there were so many rooms, so many passageways, closets, storage areas...and doors.  Once inside, it was hard to judge just where on the roof he'd seen Bunny from the edge of the Botanic Gardens.  He and Terry tried door after door, all to no avail.  

Suddenly Terry pressed Maximus back into the shadows and nodded in the direction of a crossing corridor.  Maximus' breath hissed inward when he caught a flash of purple cape. Sid was heading back for Bunny. Soundlessly the General and the K&R agent followed.

 

Sid was humming The Music of the Night as he walked.  He was happy. Bunny would give birth in the next day or two in the comfortable room he'd prepared for her under the Reception Hall.  All he had to do now was get her from the platform to that room without being seen by Maximus or Terry.  He figured they were probably hurrying to rescue Jim and Himself from being sceneryed to death.  He paused, a large smile forming on his face as he indulged in a mental picture of Himself quite flattened by some spectacular section of Baroque dining room wall.  Then there would be no more new characters...ever.  With a grand swish of his cape, he continued on his way.  

Ah! There was the little door at last! He hadn't meant to leave Bunny on the platform so long.  She would need much warm cuddling tonight to make up for it!  At least the General ouldn't have found her there. Unlocking the door, he stepped out onto the little platform.  Well, his foot went out though only air was there to greet it.  *FWUMP* He started to slide down the steep curve of the portion of the shell below the door.  

Bunny, now quite stiff with cold, turned her head at the sound of the door being unlocked. Thank goodness!  She'd thought Sid would never come back!  The door opened inward and Sid appeared, stepping quickly out into...nothingness.  

 

"Sid! Stop!" she cried.  But it was too late.  Then another pain rose up through her back and she could only close her eyes, lean hard against the shell, and try to breathe.   It was a short, sharp pain and when she opened her eyes, she found Sid dangling there several feet below and to her right.  

 

Maximus stood in the doorway, his boots planted atop the hem of the purple cape.  The cape, like Maximus', had a slightly sleeved effect that curved around his upper arms, giving more support to his dangling form than if merely tied around his neck.  Maximus was not even looking at Sid. His eyes were glued to his left where Bunny stood on the narrow ledge.  He shifted slightly toward her and Sid yelped as he sank several inches lower.

"Bunny," Maximus said, his voice all deep and rumbly. "Don't...move!"

Bunny sighed.  Hadn't Sid told her that just a bit ago and then left her on a collapsing platform?  Her lips were so cold she could hardly form words, but she managed to croak, "Baby's... coming."  

Maximus' eyes went all large and round.  "No!" he gasped. "Not...here!"

She nodded vigorously.  "Here!" she croaked.  "NOW!"

Sid, having also heard Bunny's, um, announcement,  coiled his body for action.  No way was he gonna let the General rescue his woman and HIS son from the bloody ledge!!  He was quite unafraid of sliding down the shell and dropping to the paving far below.  He was perfectly capable of handling such a thing unscathed.  It was the General in the doorway above him, looking at Bunny, that, if he had had a human heart, would have sent it palpitating.  A roar rose up through his blue-tubed core. "NOOO!" he shouted as he pushed off from the side of the shell into a perfect upward somersault that took him, feet-first, into Maximus' torso.  Maximus fell backwards, crashing into Terry and the two of them went sprawling in the hallway.  Sid grabbed the door, slamming it shut, as he nimbly hopped onto the ledge beside Bunny.  

Bunny was feeling rather weak in the knees by now and had begin to sag slightly.  Sid scooped her up, draped her artfully over his shoulder, and surveyed the top half of the soaring shell.  There was no way out of this but...up.  The joinings of the small roof tiles gave him just enough space for his clever fingertips to find some purchase and he crawled toward the peak of the sail, Bunny's hands holding tight to the black fur that draped down his back.   Once the peak had been gained, he threw his right leg over it and sat there a moment astraddle the Opera House as though it were some extra-terrestrial mount.  He smiled.  Maximus had been foiled! Life was good!  

Bunny moaned and he felt her tense on his shoulder so he lifted her down, seating her across the ridge facing him.   For some reason, she was not terribly appreciative of the uniqueness of riding the Opera House.  She leaned forward, clutching her belly, burying
her face in his chest.  "I...cannot...give...birth..................here," she moaned.

 

Actually, she could were it in the script, but, thankfully as usual, there was no script and so she was spared.  

Gathering her in his arms, Sid stood and walked the ridgeline as it curved toward a large section of glass below the next, higher shell.  Shifting her for a moment to his left arm, he used his right elbow to deliver an unhumanly powerful blow to the thick glass, shattering a large section of it.  Luckily there was a light fixture on a long chain just inside and he grasped it, swinging Tarzanically to a balcony and then making his way unseen to the prepared, soundproofed room beneath the Reception Hall.

Back at the little doorway, Maximus had quickly regained his feet and was twisting the doorknob.  "It's locked!" he cried, his voice hoarse with desperation.  

"Let me see," Terry said as Maximus moved to one side.  The locking mechanism had warped when Sid slammed the door and even our masterful K&R agent could not get its gears to move.  

"Stand back," Maximus growled, flinging himself shoulder-first against the metal door. It bulged a bit outward and he backed up for another go at it.

"Hey!" came a hithertofore never heard male voice.  "What the bloody 'ell do you two think you're DOING?"

Terry turned as a burly security guard, gun drawn, walked toward them down the hallway. "Maximus...stop," Terry cautioned in that phrase so often spoken to the General.  

 

But Maximus could only think of his son and his son's mother outside on the ledge, so he rammed the door once again, making it bend even more.

"STOP THAT!" cried the guard, slightly crouching as he aimed the gun directly at Maximus.  

Terry gripped Maximus' arm.  "You'd best do as he says, Mate."  

The guard called for backup and, unlike Jim, got it.  Soon three more guards, all with guns, dashed down the corridor to join their fellow. The four of them stood there a moment, just staring at the strange sight of the two felons, one dressed in full camo, the other in ancient armor.  

 

"They've obviously been raiding the wardrobe as well," one whispered to the guard closest to him.  "Or they're just bloody nongs," he added in that way that showed "she" had been perusing lists of Strine again. Sigh. 

"Whatever," the more senior of the guards said, "but," and he approached the costumed duo with narrowed eyes,  "the both of you are under arrest for the destruction of iconic Australian property."  And so, alas and great alack, Terry and Maximus found themselves marched off in handcuffs to an Aussie jail cell.

Meanwhile, back on the stage of the Opera Theater, all the scenery that Sid had set in motion had finally been lobbed across the floorboards and other than a slight gash through Jim's left eyebrow , neither of them were scathed.  Himself reached into a handy metal bucket of ice, pulled out the cold coin amongst the cubes, and pressed it tightly against Jim's brow.  

 

"We've got to find Maximus and Terry," Himself said.  "If Sid's done this to us, he's probably done worse to them."  

 

Jim frowned, not from the eyebrow pain but from the thought that those who had taken the upward spiral might actually have fared worse than he and Himself had done on the downward one.

The two of them made their way out of the Opera Hall and were just about to enter the foyer when they saw the four guards marching Maximus and Terry out the main door.  Jim, a good and decent man who had never EVER been in ANY sort of untoward situation before his epilife had begun, watched with rounded eyes.

 

Himself, of slightly more volatile temperament than the world champion boxer, leaned against the wall, closed his eyes and, banging his head against the paneling, murmured, "Shit, shit, shit," over and over.