62

The red and the black was an interesting touch, Merry thought. What was it supposed to signify? Politics for politics' sake? They walked down the street towards Saffron Path, the three of them, locked arms and their clothes were all red and black. She only had a vague idea of the kind of politics that red and black were supposed to refer to.

And we ain't it, she thought.

Her hope was that the colors would make them stand out to cops and other authority figures as a watered-down reminder of something - just a reminder reminder, like the string tied around the finger, and by the time they realized it didn't remind them of anything in particular ... the whole thing would be over.

It's kind of a cheap shot, she thought, but it will at least make them pause for that extra moment as they wonder just what we are.

They would probably strike people as some kind of radical filmmakers, between the radical colorscheme and the fact that all three of them carried digital movie cameras which were already rolling.

"If I'm going to write a story based on our film footage," Debbie had said, "I want enough redundancy that there will be absolutely no doubt in what we're looking at. If it's fuzzy on one camera, another one will have caught it." They looked almost militant, which they were self-conscious about, so that when their heavy steps, in plastic-coated boots, happened to fall into synch, one of them would go out of her way to shake it up so that they weren't marching in complete unison.

Just as they reached Saffron Path, Merry stopped.

"Uh oh," she said.

Now what, thought Debbie.

"I felt something shift," Merry said. "Behind the scenes."

"Oh," Debbie said. "Well, is it relevant?"

"Mm hm."

Debbie was impatient. "How."

"The whole thing ... just lost its umph. You know, this whole past week or two, I've been aware somehow of this increase in revs, revolutions, like taking a turntable and going from 33 to 45 to 78, faster and faster, and--"

"A turntable?" Nora said. "You remember turntables?"

"Mm," Merry said. "My friends are DJs. Anyway, that's how I knew there was something there."

"That and the hamster wheel," Debbie said.

"Right. But now, I, um, the cycles just stopped."

"Stopped?"

"Yeah. The fire just went out."

"How can you tell that?"

"I don't know."

Debbie furrowed her brow. "Look, we got our cop. We have an appointment with a cop. Would you please come on?"

"There's nothing to come on to anymore."

"Well, would you please come on anyway?"

Debbie started to walk again. Nora tentatively went with her, more slowly. All three of them had rolling cameras.

"You're not going to find anything when you get there," Merry said. As she saw the other two walking away, she said, "Debbie!"

"What!"

"I've got your camera!"

"So come on!"

When they entered Saffron Path, they saw Officer Bondi talking on police band radio.

" ... ah ... Angela Whist ... still missing ... " said the radio.

"Hi," Bondi said.

"Hi, officer Bondi?" Debbie said.

"Right."

Debbie shook hands with officer Bondi.

"Debbie Nixon. Nora Bronsky. Our associate Merry Conrad, she'll be here in a second."

An anxious looking manager came out from a hallway. She was wearing a yellow robe.

"Hi," she said. "Is there some trouble?"

"Mm," Bondi said. "We've had a complaint. These women filed a complaint and asked me to come take a look."

The manager blinked. "Of course. Look around all you want. I think you'll find everything is in order."

Bondi nodded.

The manager pointed at Debbie's camera. "Um, can we get those things turned off please?"

"'Fraid not," Debbie said. "Now I think we want to be right over here by this poster."

They walked over to a poster of Bob B. Soxx hoisting 75,000,000 pounds over his head with ease.

As they approached the poster, Merry reached the restaurant and walked in the front door.

The manager looked at her angrily. "Oh no!" she said. "You were eighty-sixed from my restaurant a long time ago."

"I'm with them," Merry said.

"Get out," the manager said.

"I'm with them," Merry said. She aimed her camera at the woman.

The woman hung back a little.

"It's right behind here," Debbie said.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Merry said to Debbie and Nora. "I'm telling you, it flared out." Her voice was insistent, and hollow.

Debbie peeled back the paper to reveal an empty hamster wheel.

"We saw people back there," Debbie said. "Little people."

Everyone was silent. Top of the arc.

"Oh dear," Nora said.

"Well, officer?" asked the manager.

"Ms. Nixon?" Bondi said.

"You just tell me," Debbie asked the manager angrily. "Why was there a little Sammy Davis back there? Running and running on a wheel like there was no tomorrow? I saw Graham Nash from Crosby, Stills and Nash back there too."

"I have nothing to say to you," the manager said.

The front door opened - people leaving.

"You're telling me you have nothing to do with the Sams and the Grahams vanishing?"

"I have nothing to say to you. Officer, am I being charged with something?"

Bondi was quiet.

"I'm pretty confused about all of this," he said. "Ms. Nixon, there's no law against keeping an empty hamster wheel behind a poster in your restaurant. But I can think of a few for you bothering these people."

Ha, Merry thought. Does this mean now Debbie will have a good reason to be just as unhappy as me and Nora?

Now Debbie was silent.

"I guess um, you've only been here a few minutes, "Bondi said. "So maybe if you'd just like to leave now, we can call it a day. Would that be all right, ma'am?"

"And none of them comes back. You're all to stay away from my restaurant!"