look at you, mister brown growled.
sebastian looked down at himself. his shirt was not on backwards, so far as he could tell.
you are a hopeless case, mister brown continued, but i am going to give you one more chance. one more chance, but only because i owed your grandfather a favor, do you understand?
yes, sir, i understand. what do you want me to do?
moloch will tell you what you have to do.
mister brown tapped a number on his desk phone.
the door opened and moloch’s hulking figure appeared.
job number 53, mister brown said to moloch. he nodded to sebastian that the interview was over and that he should accompany moloch.
outside, the night was dark and the streets were deserted.
an ordinary looking pickup truck was parked beside the building.
moloch got in the driver’s seat and sebastian went around and got in the front passenger seat.
sebastian did not speak until they were out on the main road, which was as empty as the streets in the city.
what is job number 53?
nothing that concerns you. i will be doing it myself. you will be doing a job, a real easy job, for me instead.
sebastian knew enough not to question this.
they drove along in silence.
they drove and drove, out to the outskirts of town.
finally they came to a little house, on a back road by itself in the middle of nowhere.
moloch turned his lights off and pulled up about fifty yards from it.
he reached into the glove compartment and took out a small pistol. it looked like a toy.
take this. go up to the door and ring the bell. the bell works. a dame will come out - she will take her time, but she will come out. just plug her.
right there, in the door?
go inside if she lets you in right away. them let her have it. don’t waste time, just do it. i will be out here waiting.
why don’t you do it yourself?
because she knows me, you idiot. just do it
sebastian took the small weapon, put it in his side pocket, and approached the door.
he hoped there was nobody inside.
he rang the bell. no answer.
he looked back at the dark truck. he decided to ring again.
the door opened.
a woman with long black hair, wearing a tightly belted black bathrobe, stood there .
and what a woman! the most beautiful woman sebastian had ever seen in his short life. he felt overwhelmed by her spectacular knockoutedness.
her eyes scanned the street behind sebastian. who are you and what do you want? she asked.
sebastian’s hand shook in his pocket and he could not get the gun out of it.
who are you? he gasped.
without answering, she grabbed his arm and pulled him inside.
when she let go of his arm, he got his hand out of his pocket but the pistol fell out of his hand and clattered on the floor.
the woman picked it up.
she looked out the window. the lights on the truck were still off.
i have to get out of here, she said to herself. gripping the pistol, she headed toward a back door.
take me with you, sebastian implored.
she ignored him, but he followed her.
a small black two door sedan was parked in back of the house. the woman got into it.
take me with you, sebastian asked her again.
all right, but only as far as the bus station.
instead of circling around to the street where the truck had been parked, the woman backed the car up an alley behind the house. soon they were on the main highway, moving at just under te speed limit.
there was no sign of the truck, or anything else, following them.
what is your name? sebastian asked the woman again.
what? what do you care?
i am just curious.
um - my name is lorelei.
thank you. i like to know peoples names. i am peculiar that way,
why? they don’t have to give you their real ones.
lorelei dropped sebastian off at the bus station.
he took the first bus he could, as far as it would take him for the money he had in his pocket.
it took him to thompsonville, just as dawn was breaking.
from thompsonville he hitched a ride to weaverville, and from weaverville through death valley and up the coast to santa cruz.
he joined a small commune of peaceful souls like himself and stayed there for sixty years, becoming known and revered as rhe old man of the mountain, although rarely venturing near any mountains.
but he never forgot that night in mister brown’s town.
and he never forgot lorelei.
