D. MacHale - The Pilgrims of Rayne

“I’m not buyin’ nothing. I just want to know what’s going on.”

Dodger seemed to Courtney like an okay guy. Bobby trusted him. Gunny trusted him. In the past that would have been enough for Courtney. Not anymore.

“You’re right,” she exclaimed. “You got me. I’m from outer space. Keep it to yourself or I’ll vaporize you.”

She tried to walk off again, but Dodger took her shoulder. Courtney pulled away angrily.

“Look,” he said, backing off, “Gunny asked me to help anybody who showed up with one of them rings. How can I do that if you don’t level with me?”

Courtney wanted to trust the little guy. Badly. “I’m sorry,” she said sincerely. “It’s not your fault.”

She left him standing on the steps of the hotel, dazed. She hurried to Gunny’s apartment and spent the next hour pouring over every word of Bobby’s journal. Reading about Bobby’s adventures wasn’t new to Courtney, but this time felt different. Aside from her trip to Black Water, Courtney always felt as if she were nothing more than an observer. The events Bobby wrote about didn’t affect her directly.

Those days were over.

The territories were folding in on themselves. Dados had turned up on Quillan and the three Earth territories. They turned up in her home in the form of a mechanical cat. Courtney knew the events Bobby described weren’t about Ibara alone. The puzzle was getting more complicated. The battle with Saint Dane was suddenly less about the struggle for individual territories. It was now about Halla.

Sitting in that lonely apartment, Courtney knew that finding Mark wasn’t just about saving her friend. It could affect events on all the Earth territories. It could affect Bobby on Ibara. It could affect every being in Halla. Saint Dane was making his final push to bring the territories down. The realization staggered her. She was worried about Bobby and what he’d found on Ibara, but she also knew there was nothing she could do about that. She had to stay focused on her mission on First Earth.

She had to find Mark.

The telephone rang. Courtney jumped. The bell was loud and jangling, not like the soft tone of her kitchen phone on Second Earth. Gunny’s phone sounded like a fire alarm. She calmed herself and picked up the heavy, black receiver. “Hello?” she said tentatively.

“Don’t hang up,” Dodger begged.

Courtney didn’t, but she didn’t speak, either. She didn’t know what to say.

“I think I got it figured,” Dodger said. “Are you and Pendragon on the lam from the law?”

Courtney burst out laughing. “On the lam?” she echoed. “What are you, some kind of mob guy?”

“No!” Dodger said quickly. “I got nothin’ to do with them guys! Honest!”

Courtney forced herself to refocus. She knew she couldn’t look at this world from a Second Earth perspective. This was 1937. It was a different territory with different rules.

“Look, Dodger, I understand that what you just saw freaked you out.”

“It did what?” he asked quickly.

“What I mean is, you saw something… unusual, and it’s making you… nervous.”

“You can say that again, sister,” Dodger agreed.

“And stop calling me ‘sister.’ Or ‘skirt’ or ‘dame’ or ‘broad’ or whatever clever macho demeaning term you can think of.”

“Sorry.”

“Look, I wish I could trust you. I can’t. I’ve been burned before. I mean, I’ve been fooled before.”

“Oh, I get it,” Dodger said knowingly. “You’ve been dumped by some chump boyfriend?”

“Yeah,” Courtney said. “You could say that.” Courtney laughed to herself, thinking that Dodger didn’t realize how close to the truth that was.

“Then there’s no problem!” Dodger continued. “I don’t want to be your boyfriend. I got no time for skirts, uh, girls. Sorry, that slipped out.”

Courtney was weakening. Dodger was getting to her, but she knew that was exactly the kind of thing Saint Dane would do. He was offering to give her what she needed most, friendship and help.

“Thanks, Dodger,” she said curtly. “But no thanks. Maybe someday I’ll get the chance to explain it to you, but not today.”

Courtney hung up. She barely had time to gather the journal pages and put them back into the waterproof pouch, when a knock came at the door. She looked around for a place to hide the journals and chose Gunny’s favorite hiding place… the oven.

“Who is it?” she called while quickly closing the oven door.

“Room service,” came a professional man’s voice.

“I didn’t order room service,” she called back.

Another knock. Courtney started to panic. There was no way out of this room. She ran to the door and put her eye to the peephole to see…

A smiling Dodger staring back at her through the fish-eye peephole. He had to stand on his toes to get up high enough.

“Compliments of the house!” he announced cheerily.

Courtney couldn’t help but smile. The guy was either a sincere goof, or Saint Dane was better than she imagined. She hesitated, then unlocked the door, and threw it open. Dodger stood there behind a dinner cart loaded with plates of food that were covered by silver warming domes. Courtney’s stomach rumbled.

“How did you get here so fast?” she asked suspiciously.

“I called you from the house phone in the laundry back there,” Dodger said, pointing to a door a few yards down the hall. “I figure you gotta be hungry after rocketing through the universe. Pluto, right?” He gave her an innocent, sincere smile.

“Come on in,” she said. “If you’re going to give me trouble, it might as well be on a full stomach.”

“Oh, no,” Dodger said. “It ain’t right being in a lady’s boudoir.”

“Ain’t that your, I mean… isn’t that your job?”

“Yeah, but I ain’t here on official business. I’m here on Gunny business.”

Courtney gave Dodger a good long look. The delicious smells rising up from the covered plates made her mouth water. “Tell you what,” she said. “If you’re telling the truth, I guess you’d call it being ‘on the level,’ I’m sorry for being so mysterious. If you’re not telling the truth, you know exactly where I’m coming from, so back off.”

“Jeez, you’re confusing me,” Dodger said. “You gotta understand. I owe Gunny a lot. I wasn’t the best kid growing up, you know. Gunny took me in and gave me a job. He trusted me. Nobody ever done that before. I think I did all right, too. All because Gunny gave me the chance. So if he asked me to swim over to Germany and give old Adolph a smacker on the lips, I’d be swimmin’ and puckerin’ up. The way I see it, helping you is easy-peasy.”

“All right! I give up! Jeez, you’re making me cry here… and now I’m starting to sound like you. Unbelievable.”

“I grow on people,” Dodger said with a sly smile.

“Look, it’s got to be on my terms. Don’t ask questions. Don’t follow me. And only do what I ask. If that’s okay with you, I welcome your help.”

Dodger let out a big, genuine smile. He tipped his bellhop cap and said, “I am at your service, ma’am. When do we start?”

“Tomorrow morning. Nine o’clock. And don’t call me ‘ma’am,’ either.”

“What should I call you?”

“‘Courtney.’ No title. No colorful slang. Just ‘Courtney.’”

“Done. Nine o’clock it is. Meet you in the lobby?”

“Done.” She couldn’t help but smile. “Thank you, Dodger. And just know that if you’re Saint Dane, I’m ready for you.”

“And maybe someday I’ll know what the heck that means,” Dodger said. “Until then, enjoy this delicious meal. I’ll see you bright and early!”

He tipped his cap again and left Courtney to pull the cart of food into the room. All thoughts of Dodger and Saint Dane and Ibara evaporated for the few minutes it took her to enjoy the feast. Dodger had brought her a fabulous dinner of sliced turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy, nut stuffing, cranberry sauce, and buttered green beans. Thanksgiving had come a few weeks early. Courtney was all set to chow down when the thought crossed her mind that somehow Saint Dane knew how much she liked Thanksgiving dinner, and this meal was another way to earn her trust. Was he that incredibly devious? She decided she was too hungry to care. She put her fear of manipulation-by-turkey out of her head, and tucked in. It was delicious. She ate too fast and ended up feeling totally bloated, but she didn’t care. Dodger had thought of it all, including the pumpkin pie and milk. Courtney decided to hold off on eating the pie until she digested a little. That held her back for a whole five minutes. It was too tempting. She downed the pie and enjoyed every last decadent crumb.