A YOOK BY ANY OTHER NAME
Chapter 10: Ups and Downs
by Jo Anzalone
Bud patted his jacket, assuring himself his gun was still in its holster.
Someone had to put an end to Sid.
*******************
After Bud and Berti left, Joimus walked back, sitting on the edge of the bed,
just watching Maximus sleep. He turned and moaned as if having some
nightmare, so she slipped off her shoes and lay beside him, curving her arm
over him. She liked the feel of the rise and fall of his chest under her arm.
Never any more did she take his mere breathing for granted. He
seemed to quiet after a time, and, as was her unconscious habit, her breathing
matched its rhythm to his. She had not intended to, but she slept.
Fifteen
minutes later, MaxiSid opened his eyes, looking at the ceiling of the caravan.
What had happened to him? He had closed his eyes and...gone away.
The lack of control over his consciousness troubled him. Then he became aware that Joimus was beside him, sound asleep. He
turned on his side, watching her. Her lips were slightly parted and
he held his hand just above them, feeling the warmth of her breath. Then he
moved his hand in front of his own mouth, turning it lightly as the air came
warmly from within him. Dropping his fingers to his lips, he dragged them
across their dry surface, deliberately letting the skin pull. How fragile
humans were. Much, much more than he had known. What a delicate thing
this exchange of air was, this pulling it in then letting it escape. He
had had a mechanism that mimicked it, but his body had no actual need for the
intake of air. He blew on his fingers. How very strange.
He turned then to the study of her hair. He had seen, there under the
live oak in The Village (Journey Into Jeopardy), how almost fiercely Maximus tangled his fingers in the
flowing length of it, how possessive, connective an act it was. He lifted
one wandering section of it, running it through his fingers. He had
had sensory receptors in his bodily covering, of course, but the feel of her
hair moving over the cells of his fingers
had a different quality to it and he experimented with it for some time.
So centered was his concentration on what he was doing, he failed to
notice that she had opened her eyes and was watching him.
When
he became aware of that, he saw clearly that she was pleased. Bending his
elbow, he propped his head up, and just stared in her eyes silently. He
had been around Joimus for some 3 years now and felt he knew her well...but
this was new. Never had she looked at him with...this...in her eyes.
This was how she looked at Maximus...this was what he had continually
tested, continually stretched, continually attempted to erase. That it
would be focused on him unnerved him somehow and his lids twitched.
She
saw it. Nothing about his face escaped her. "You are in
pain?" she asked quickly.
He
thought of replying, "In a manner of speaking," but instead just
said, "Yes," and rolled onto his back, one forearm resting across his
eyes.
She
thought he was trying to recover from some physical hurt, but he meant the
forearm as a shield. He could not, right now, look more into her eyes,
nor let her look into his.
Sidimus, too, had opened his eyes, looking up at the roof of the shed. The roofing was old, parts missing, and a single beam of afternoon sunlight
shone through, puddling itself on the floor just to his right. Turning his
head, he studied it. It seemed the only friendly, the only familiar thing
in this place and so he reached his hand out, resting it in the center of the
irregular circle, spreading his fingers wide. He lay there, just watching
as time passed and the circle moved, leaving his hand again in darkness.
Closing his eyes, he went back to his wheat.
"NO!" Ando cried. "I don't think they're meant to hold
weight!"
Hando
stood at the base of the strange tower near the end of the pink house, his left
combat boot resting on the bottom step of the unsupported, encircling spiral
steps. As usual, though, the stubborn Melbourner did as he pleased, and
began to run up them. He made it to the 18th step before she heard a
sharp *crack* and the suspended plank broke under his weight. The entire
cylindrical tower was covered in a thick tangle of leafless vines and his
flailing fingers were able to gain a grip. The plank crashed to the ground
near Ando who stood there, shaking her head as his boots swung back and forth quite some feet above her
head.
"Hey, this is even better!" he called down to her, letting go with
one hand, grinning at her. Then, hand over hand, he pulled himself up the
vines, throwing a leg over the crenellated top.
"STOP!"
called a man, running toward them, waving his arms wildly.
"STOP!"
But
Hando swung completely over the edge, and, feeling proud of himself,
let his boots drop onto the small circle that was the top of the tower.
Obviously, it was supposed to be a look-out from whence one could observe
the eucalyptus- covered lands spreading out from the house. Alas, it was no more than a prop at the moment and his boots went
right through the thin roofing, sending him crashing to its interior base.
"My
SET!" shrieked the man. "He's ruining my set!"
"Your
SET?" Ando shouted at him. “He may have just been killed and you are
worried about your SET?"
Just then Jocelyn Moorhouse herself walked out the door of the pink house, Hugo Weaving at her side. "What's going on?" she called
out, having been disturbed by all the ruckus and shouting.
"He
ruined my set!" the man shouted again, pointing at the tower.
"He?
Who?" Jocelyn asked, her eyes taking in the broken step.
"Hando,"
the former Welshwoman explained. "He's fallen into the tower."
Jocelyn's
eyes widened. "How on earth did he do THAT?"
Then she gasped, looking piercingly at Ando. "Hando? Did you say
HANDO?"
Ando nodded silently.
"Hando as in 'Romper Stomper' Hando?"
Ando
nodded again.
Wouldn't you know at that very moment Andy and Anna Shadow ran up. Timing in epis was just sometimes so...convenient. "Jocelyn!" Andy cried, his face gone all happy smiles at the sight of his very own director.
She
turned at the sound of her name, saw Andy, and dropped the script in her hand.
"You, too?" she gasped.
Andy
saw Hugo then. "Martin!" he greeted. "Killed any
cats lately?"
Hugo
grinned, holding out his hand. Andy skidded to a halt. "Whoa!" he said, "You've got your sight back!"
Hugo
grinned more widely, "I forgot again," he laughed.
Jocelyn
grabbed Andy's arm. "How can you BE here?" she cried.
"I'm
with Himself," Andy explained, as if that would make everything completely
plain to anybody.
"Somebody
get me OUT of here!' shouted Hando, his voice echoing up the tower walls.
"Hando?"
Andy shouted. "Hang on, Buddy, I'm coming!" And he began to run up
the spiral steps, making it to the 12th before coming crashing down.
"My
SET!" cried the man. "Get them away from my set!!!"
Anna ran up to the fallen Andy. "Are you OK?" she asked, kneeling beside him. He sat up, his eyes still rolling in their sockets just a bit.
"Get
me OUT of here!" Hando shouted again.
Jocelyn
looked from Andy to the top of the tower from whence emanated the voice.
She sat down hard on the grass.
"Jocelyn!"
cried Hugo.
"Andy!"
cried Anna.
"Heeelp!"
cried Hando.
"Hando!"
cried Ando.
"My
SET!" cried the man.
It
was definitely time for a bit more convenient timing. And, so, Himself
and Teller arrived. "Russell!" cried Jocelyn.
"Jocelyn!"
cried Himself, seeing his director sitting on the lawn, the script scattered about her like large pieces of confetti. Very large.
Jocelyn
pointed to Andy. "Andy!" she spluttered.
She
pointed to the tower. "Hando!"
She
pointed to Teller. "Him!"
She
pointed to Himself. "You!"
Himself
knelt beside her, gripping her shoulders to keep her from completely toppling
backwards. "It's all right, Jocelyn," he said earnestly.
"I can explain."
Ando
looked at him. "No you can't."
"SID!"
Jocelyn shrieked.
Himself
sighed, sitting down beside the director, burying his face in his hands.
A fine start this film was getting off to. Ando smiled, watching him shake his head helplessly back and forth. She hadn't hung around with
Hando all these years for nothin', you know!
Hando!
Ack! "Are you OK, Baby?" she hollered.
A
string of words that could not in any form or fashion EVER appear in an epi, filled the air above the tower. Himself lifted his head, peering
through the fingers he slightly parted over his eyes. "Hando's in
the tower?" he asked, his voice breaking a bit.
Ando
nodded.
Sliding
his palms slowly down his face, he looked at the man who had been worried about
the set. "Send for the crane," he sighed.
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