Bernard laughed, then clapped a hand on Martin's shoulder. "You're not ready for a ride in the Twinkie Mobile just yet; it's the same building."

"You have any idea how it . . . how the watercolor came to be here?"

Bernard thought about it for a few moments, then shook his head. "Beats me. You wanna ask Ethel? Maybe she knows."

"No, it's all right. I'm not all that curious." Which was a lie, but he didn't want to risk drawing any more attention to himself than he already had.

Reminding him that lunch was in an hour, Bernard left Martin's room and returned to the nurses' station, where he informed Ethel and Amber that it hadn't been anything important.

Martin closed the door to his room, then walked back to the window.

The golden web was gone, as were the creatures.

And Martin was scared-scratch that: he was (as Wendy would undoubtedly put it) f.u.c.kin' terrified. Yeah, some of this could be chalked up to all the drugs that had traveled through his system in the last twelve or thirteen hours, but not all of it. Jesus! Had he done something to mess up his brain chemistry? Had some of the pills from last night done serious, irreparable damage before he'd gotten sick? Was this temporary or was it going to get worse? After all, he hadn't given a second thought to brain damage when a.s.sembling the ingredients for his Shuffling-Off c.o.c.ktail (as he'd thought of it), no; he'd intended to go all the way, so why bother worrying about the possible consequences of what might happen if he didn't finish the job?

Oh, G.o.d, he thought. Have I . . . damaged something?

Calm down.

Take a few deep breaths . . . that's it.

Think about something else, anything else.

He closed his eyes, saw an image in the darkness of his father sitting in front of the television, his body weak, his skin pale, sipping juice from a straw, asking Martin or Mom to turn up the sound a little, he couldn't hear so hot, and, son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h these treatments really took it out of you, if he had it to do over, he'd've told them d.a.m.n doctors to just cut out his prostate and be done with it instead of keeping the b.a.s.t.a.r.d . . . .

Martin went back into the main area, shoved in the videotape of The Best Years of Our Lives, and sat down, focusing all of his attention on the movie. It was a good movie, a d.a.m.n fine movie, a movie he'd seen at least half a dozen times, and you couldn't really get enough of Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell, especially in that glorious first half-hour, and here they were, all three of them, playing their roles to perfection, these three characters fresh from WWII trying to find a plane home, finally catching a ride in the cargo hold of a small transport, getting to know each other, talking about the war, what it was going to be like going home, then Harold Russell did that famous business with his prosthetic hands-his hooks-lighting everyone's cigarettes with a single match, and then- -and then all three of them stopped talking, stopped moving, and for a second Martin thought maybe the tape had gotten caught, it was an old VCR, after all, he was lucky it had played this much of the movie, so he leaned forward to hit the STOP/EJECT b.u.t.ton- -and Harold Russell looked right out at him, right into the camera. "We'd really prefer it if you didn't do that just yet, Martin."

"You need to hear the rest of the story," said Dana Andrews. "It won't take that long, we promise."

"By the way," said Fredric March, "we've been asked to apologize to you for the manner in which this is being sent your way."

Pulling the cigarette from his mouth, Harold Russell added: "We're a little pressed for time."

Dana Andrews nodded. "You can say that again."

"Fellahs," said March, "could we get on with this while he's still alone?"

Martin began rising to his feet. "What the h.e.l.l is-?"

Andrews pointed a finger. "This will go a lot easier if you'll just please sit still and shut up."

"What my friend means," said March, "is that we know how difficult this must be for you, but there is a good reason, and you'll understand everything a lot better if you'll just bear with us a little longer."

Harold Russell winked at Martin. "'Keep your eyes open and your ears peeled and-'"

"'-your a.s.s will stay attached,'" said Martin, tears welling in his eyes. "Dad used to say that all the time."

"It was his unit's motto during the war," said March. "71st Infantry, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

March nodded. "A good bunch of fellahs, your Dad's unit. Destroyed one of Hitler's secondary bunkers, didn't they?"

Martin nodded. "Dad carved his name into Hitler's desk before he spit on it."

Andrews laughed loudly. "Oh, I like that! Your dad must've been a h.e.l.luva guy."

"Yes . . . yes, he was."

Fredric March pointed to his watch, and the other two nodded.

"I'll start," March said. Then, looking directly at Martin: "'An old magic man's new apprentice learns his lessons well, and soon is as powerful as the magic man himself. But this irritates an old magic man, who demands that the apprentice stop being such a show-off all the time.'"

"'They argue,'" said Russell, taking up the tale. "'Each grows more and more angry. The apprentice loses his temper and pulls the drain-plug from an old magic man's head, re-opening the hole. The magic gushes out and the apprentice begins stealing it.'"

"'An old magic man attacks the apprentice,'" said Andrews. "'They claw at one another, screaming and thrashing and biting. Great gobs of flesh drop from their bones and smack against the surface of the wooden mask and begin to wriggle.'"

After this, Martin lost track of who said what; he only listened, he only watched, trying to make sense out of everything, trying to find a rational explanation; finding none, he could only accept what his senses dictated was real.

"'An old magic man and his apprentice tear at one another until they are nothing more than slick bones that soon clatter to the floor in a heap. But the magic that has oozed and squirted from both of them covers the wooden soldier mask. The mask comes fully alive and swallows the magic. It grows a body with giant, powerful limbs and terrible wings. It rises up and shrieks into the darkness. The darkness is afraid for a moment, and cowers back. The mask opens its mouth and takes a bite out of the darkness, leaving a bright, golden hole in the night. The mask smiles, for it has the power of both an old magic man and his apprentice. It can do anything it wants.

"'It unfurls its terrible wings and takes flight, soaring higher and higher, looking down upon all the wondrous things that have been revealed by the golden light spilling from the hole in the darkness. But, suddenly, it smacks its head into something and comes crashing down. Angered, it again takes flight, and again is knocked back down.

"'"Why is this happening?" it cries out.

"'"Where, exactly, do you think you are?" asks a distant voice.

"'And the mask cries, "Show yourself!"'

"'"You're only as powerful as I think you are," says the voice. "Never forget that."

"'The mask flies up again and rams into the invisible barrier-but this time does not come crashing back down.

"'And, suddenly, it knows where it is, and to whom the voice belongs.

"'"I'm inside your head, aren't it?"

"'"And here you'll stay," says the painter. "I may be ill, but I'm not so weak as to let you devour all my dreams."

"'"We'll see about that," says the mask.

"'And it remains there to this day, trapped inside the head of a painter who once dreamed a dream of a magic man and his young apprentice.

"'But the mask has changed, has grown more powerful as the painter grows more ill. It is stuffing itself-gorging itself-on his dreams, his images, his ideas and memories . . .

"'Most of all, his memories . . .

"'They say it waits for the day when the painter can fight it no longer, and it will tear through his skull and devour the world you know . . .

"'Swallow it whole . . .

"'It has given itself a name . . .

"'"Call me Gash," it says to the darkness . . .

"'Gash is the destroyer of all things wondrous, the eater of wishes, the mangler of joy, the killer of spirit, the ruiner of hope, the deformer of memories . . .

"'Magic never dies . . . but magic men do . . . .

"'And there is nothing so dangerous as the mad orphan called abandoned magic.'"

The three actors looked at one another, then nodded.

March crushed out his cigarette, lit another. "You know Gash by another name. One you should be familiar with, seeing as how he killed your grandmother, and how your mother was always worried he'd eventually get her, as well."

Martin opened his mouth to speak, but then Harold Russell shook his hooks and hissed, "Someone's coming!"

Wendy stumbled into the main area and fell into the easy chair opposite Martin's. Her face was flushed and her eyes glazed. She looked right at Martin, not seeing him, then stared at the television where March, Andrews, and Russell were saying their good-byes, promising each other that they'd get together again very soon.

"I hate these old f.u.c.kin' movies," Wendy said to no one in particular. "Why didn't they make 'em in color, anyway? f.u.c.kin' f.u.c.k-brains . . . ."

Martin laced his hands into a single, ten-fingered, white-knuckled fist and pressed it into his lap, rocking back and forth.

You know Gash by a different name . . .

That he did.

(Mom in the kitchen, looking around for a favorite sauce spoon: "I can't seem to keep track of anything these days . . . must be losing my mind or coming down with-") The eater of wishes, the mangler of joy, the deformer of memories . . .

Alzheimer's disease.

Saying nothing to anyone, Martin went back to his room, closed the door, and sat on his bed staring at the watercolors until Bernard came a-pummeling to announce lunch.

3.

It should have surprised-if not outright petrified-Martin to discover that the third client in The Center was the large, balding black man who'd read the first part of the story to him from within the television, but by the time he sat down to lunch that first day, he was almost beyond it; too much had happened too quickly for him to fully deal with any of it, so-after taking his afternoon meds-he decided to follow his dad's advice: He'd keep his eyes open, his ears peeled, and his a.s.s attached. He was feeling shiny and more than willing to go along for the ride.

Wendy sat at the far end of the second table; Storyteller-Man at the far end of the first; so Martin took a spot more or less equidistant from each of them.

"You're not making this easy," said Storyteller-Man.

"I get a lot of complaints about that," replied Martin, trying to figure out what sort of Mystery Meat had been used to make the hamburger.

Storyteller-Man sighed, shook his head, then picked up his tray and moved down to sit across from Martin. "They're real."

Not looking up, Martin doctored his hamburger with some salt and pepper and said, "Who's real?"

"You know. The Onlookers."

Now Martin raised his head. "Is that what they're called?"

"That's what Bob named them, yes."

"Who's Bob?"

"I am. Well, my name's Jerry, but I'm still . . . wait a second." He closed his eyes and pressed his chin down against his chest, and for a moment he flickered, becoming a reverse image, a living film negative, but then pulled in a deep, hard breath and re-a.s.sumed solidity. "Sorry. It's getting harder and harder to keep up this ruse."

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? What's happening?"

Jerry raised one of his large, strong-looking hands, stopping Martin from asking further questions. "Remember how your dad was always telling people to stop yammering and get to the point? That's what I'm trying to do."

"How do you know what Dad used to say?"

"The same way I know that you had a short but perplexing conversation with your six-year-old self last night. The same way I know that when you tried to lose your virginity to Debbie Carver when you were fifteen you shot your wad all over her left thigh before you even got it in, and from that day on she always called you 'Lefty' but never told anyone why. The same way I know that you once stole ten dollars from your mom's purse when you were sixteen to buy a couple of really rotten joints-and you always felt bad about that, didn't you? Even though you eventually put back twenty, you always felt bad about it-and remember the way she made such a fuss over finding that twenty? 'I must have a fairy G.o.dmother looking after me, Zeke.' 'Zeke' was her nickname for you, by the way, and no one except her and you knew that. Ever. Do you want more examples or can we a.s.sume that you now understand I know things and move on?"

Martin raised his hands in surrender. "How can you be both someone named Jerry and someone named Bob?" No sooner was the question out of his mouth than he knew the answer: R.J. Nyman.

Robert Jerome Nyman.

"But you weren't black," he said. "You were a short little old white guy with bad teeth, B.O., and shaky hands. I remember the shaky hands because the only time they were still was when they were holding a pencil or brush."

"Hooray, his powers of recall aren't completely in the c.r.a.pper. Yes, that's right-Bob is that short little old white guy; I'm the image he invented for his muse, and he calls me 'Jerry' because I'm as much a part of him as your right side is to you."

"Why'd he make you black?"

"You got something against black folks?"

"No. Just curious."

Jerry thought about this for a moment. "I guess I believe you. To answer your question: I don't know. I've only been . . . like this . . . real, I'd guess you'd say, for a little while. There's only so much mental detritus I can sift through at any given time."

"What are you, exactly?"

Jerry picked up his hamburger, looked at the Mystery Meat, then dropped it back onto his tray. "I'm what's left of Bob's lucidity, of his reason, of his creativity and intelligence. I'm what managed to escape before Gash started in on the last few courses of his feasting. I can only hold this form for so long-like when Bernie does his bed-check or Ethel comes around with the meds . . . they only think of me as being here for as long as they see me, then maybe for a few minutes or so afterward . . . I . . . uh . . . I can only be this way for short . . . wait, I said that already, didn't I? . . . I can only be this way for short periods . . . because the closer Bob comes to death . . . ." He stopped speaking, his eyes snapping closed, his whole body locking up in pain; his face began to bulge and swell and discolor; a jagged crack appeared in the center of his forehead and split downward, chewing through his substance like a shredder through sheets of paper, consuming him, bit by bit-his arms and legs became stumps, his eyes seemed to collapse into their sockets, his chest began to implode and he flickered once again, a human film negative, and from somewhere in the center of all this came the echo of a terrified scream, then with a sudden, powerful lurch, he pressed himself against the edge of the table and again was whole.

Martin shot a panicked glance toward Wendy, who sat facing down at her food with both eyes closed, emitting a low, deep snore, a thin string of drool trailing down from her mouth.

When he turned back, Jerry was breathing heavily, gripping the sides of his lunch tray.

"Are you all right?"

Jerry couldn't speak just yet, so gave his head a quick shake.