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Robinson, Spider - The Mind 3 - Lifehouse
For a fraction of a second Moira debated telling
Gorsky that "Metkiewicz" was a thief, who had
stolen their money. The scent of a burglar in the
neighborhood would elevate even her and Wally
to the status of provisional human beings in
Gorsky's eyes. But he would insist on handing
over his evidence to the police at once. "He's not
a friend, Mr. Gorsky. He's an acquaintance.
Someone we know from science fiction. He's
having trouble with his mind, you understand?"
"I understand good, you bet it. Big trouble,
sure."
"He was acting so crazy last night, after he left
we thought maybe we should make sure he got
home all right, but we don't know where he
lives."
"He go home naked, I know where he lives now.
In hose goo."
He couldn't say "hoosegow" when I had time to
laugh, Moira thought. "No, he wasn't that crazy.
But I really think we ought to check on him. Is
there someone at your warehouse at night?"
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Robinson, Spider - The Mind 3 - Lifehouse
"Is watchman. But he can not get paper. Is lock."
Moira briefly explored her decision tree. Branch
A: try to persuade Gorsky to give them the key
to his Restricted Substances records and phone
the watchman to expect them; rotsa ruck. Branch
B: try to draw the address out of Gorsky's murky
memory; forget it. Branch C: give up and hand
the whole thing over to the police, like a
civilian; make herself and Wally and by
extension, God help them, VanCon and the
entire Lower Mainland Science Fiction
Association international laughingstocks
within and without fandom.
Without fandom . . .
"But crazy naked man is bad thing. Hokay. You
come over, I give you key, phone watchman to
wake up."
Absurdly, Moira found herself thinking of the
silly joke Wally had once made after they'd seen
a video of Stallone as a mountain-climber,
endlessly going up and down ropes to display
his biceps. Wally had held up the video box,
moved it up and down a few times, pointed to
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Robinson, Spider - The Mind 3 - Lifehouse
Sly's picture, and said, "Yo. Yo. Yo. Yo " Up,
down; up, down "That's very kind of you, Mr.
Gorsky. Thank you very much. We'll be right
over."
"No crazy nakeds in this neighborhood I want."
Wally ended the conversation the way he
religiously ended conversations with that man.
"Good luck, Mr. Gorsky." He disconnected.
They swiveled to face each other, and
simultaneously reached to take each other's
hands, and as their fingers touched they allowed
themselves to smile.
"Hose goo," she said. "Oh, that is precious."
"The man next door has just walked on the
Moon," Wally said, smiling bigger.
"Every once in a while, maybe a good deed goes
unpunished," Moira said.
"We are going to explain to Jude that it's a fool
who plays it cool, by making his world a little
colder."
"Lets go get under his skin," she agreed. They
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Robinson, Spider - The Mind 3 - Lifehouse
put their silicon servants to sleep, and left the
office. Like any Vancouverite about to leave
home unexpectedly at night, Moira zapped the
TV on to access the cable weather channel to
find out whether rain-gear was required. It came
on with a shriek of sound, tuned to the local
news channel; the last time the set had been
used, they'd been listening for earthquake
warnings while running around the house
packing. The screen filled with a long shot of a
smoking ruin, and an earsplitting voice
bellowed, "OINT GREY COMPUTER
PROGRAMMER RALPH METKAVITCH'S
HOME WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE
FOLLOWING AN UNEXPLAINED
EXPLOSION LAST NIGHT, AND THE
PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION REPORT
SAYS THAT ARSON QUOTE CANNOT BE
RULED OUT UNQUOTE. SO FAR POLICE
HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO CONTACT
MESKOWITZ, WHOM NEIGHBORS SAID
HAD RECENTLY SHAVED HIS HEAD "
Moira tried for either the volume down or mute
buttons, and missed both; the set went off. She
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Robinson, Spider - The Mind 3 - Lifehouse
thought about turning it back on, and could not
think of a point. She turned to her husband, and
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