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Chapter Twenty-Four
Things were not going well, Felicia decides. It was downright impossible to work the special effects that she'd rigged up. Who'd have thought that Lucy would have insisted on holding hands to complete some psychic link? And, who'd have thought that a cosmetics queen would have such strong hands?
"Concentrate, Felicia," Lucy urges.
"I thought I was supposed to let my mind go blank-float free and like that."
"Not this time. We're searching for Kevin."
Moments pass in quiet, when Felicia says, "I'm not getting anything."
"Shhhhhhhh......Kevin, Kevin, we're looking for you. We need you to..."
"Good grief, Lucy," Felicia laughs nervously. Maybe this wasn't such a hot idea after all.
"Shhhhhhh...I'm getting something.
Felicia's ears perk up, and she goes very still. "What is it?"
Lucy concentrates as if listening to a far off voice. "Follow the......follow the....follow the yellow brick road??!! What is this???? I'm tuned into the @#$%^&*'Wizard of Oz'??!!!" Hmmmmmm
Down in the basement, Kevin is again being subjected to watching "The Wizard of Oz". Was this the 15th time, or was it the 20th, he wonders sleepily. At least it was better than Barney. Anything was better than Barney. Kevin closes his eyes as Maverick, the red dachshund curls up next to him and TC drapes himself across Kevin's chest, purring loudly and within a few minutes, the trio is asleep. On some level, Kevin is aware that he's dreaming...............
"Somewhere, Under The Brownstone...."
Kevin opens his eyes-to a colorful world of bright yellow flowers, a robin's egg blue sky, and lush greenery. "Oh, hell, I don't think we're in the basement anymore, Maverick."
The red wiener dog who has joined him in the dream wags his tail. Kevin looks around, "Where the hell are we, anyway?"
"That's what I'd like to know," comes a voice, and we see to our amazement, Lucy Coe, elegantly gowned as Glenda the Good Witch of the North.
"You mean, you don't know?" Kevin asks. "I thought you were magical."
Lucy/Glenda frowns. "I'm working on it-besides, this is your dream."
"That makes a difference?"
"Indeed it does. I'm looking for you, and if you don't know where you are, how can I find you?"
"Good point."
"Can I buy a clue?"
"I'm clueless. I just want out of here!"
"But where is here? Until I know where here is, here can be anywhere!"
Kevin looks around, trying figure out his location. "All I see is a forest, woods-and a yellow brick road."
"Then follow it," Lucy/Glenda says. "Just follow the yellow brick road."
"But where am I going?"
"How the heck should I know? Just follow it! There has to be some significance here-there aren't too many yellow brick roads, you know."
"Makes sense to me."
"Then follow it and when you get wherever you're going, you can tell me where you are."
"I think I'm supposed to go to Oz."
"Not that I know where that is," Lucy comments.
"Why don't you just come along? We can go together?"
"I'd like to," Lucy begins, but then she starts fading...and her voice becomes weaker as she suddenly vanishes.
"Lucy!" calls Kevin, but it's too late, and she's gone. Disgustedly, he turns to Maverick. "Then it's you and me, mutt. We're off to see the Wizard, or whoever is in charge of this place. I want out!"
And, on a softer note, he adds, "And, while I'm at it, I'd like my sanity.
Then, as the music begins, we see him skipping off down the yellow brick road, singing, (To the tune of If I Only Had A Brain.)
"I could get my job as shrink back
Not be afraid to think back...
The sun would shine on me.
My name proudly carried,
Luce and I could get married-
If I had my sanity!"
Suddenly, he's joined by TC, who's wrapped over his shoulders, purring like a chainsaw. "What are you doing here? You aren't good for anything but a furcoat," Kevin tells him. "You wouldn't even chase the mice in the basement."
"Meow."
"You're not fooling me. You're chicken."
"Meow."
"Okay, you can come along. Maybe the Wizard can fix you up, too."
The trio prepares to leave, when out of the blue sky swoops the Wicked Witch of the West, aka Felicia. Cackling evilly, she announces, "Not so fast! You forgot someone."
With a wave of her magic broomstick, the potbellied stove appears, and with it, a chain holding Kevin fast.
Laughing maniacally, Felicia tells him. "The Iron Man works for me."
Tugging on the chain, Kevin sighs resignedly, then sings sadly,
"We could have a life together
All troubles we would weather,
We'd have a family...
With Sweet Lucy as my wife
I would really have a life...
If I had my liberty!"
Having gotten rid of Lucy, Felicia is back down in the basement where Kevin is dreaming of being kissed by Lucy. He's enjoying it until he awakens and finds Maverick licking him on the mouth. "YUCK!!" he mutters, pushing the dog away and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"You'll be pleased to know that Lucy was here tonight," Felicia taunts him. "She's going to Europe tomorrow to look for you."
"But I'm here," Kevin groans. "Felicia, has it ever occurred to you that you're playing right into the hands of whoever is killing people?"
"So now it's my fault?"
"I didn't say that. But, consider this. If the police are spending time searching for me, then it's time away from the search for whoever is doing the killing. And, we both know that I couldn't have committed either murder."
"That's true enough," Felicia says, sitting down on the steps. "But I still can't let you go."
"You mean you won't let me go."
"In essence, yes. I don't think that you really understand how thoroughly you disrupted my life."
"I don't," Kevin admits, "because I don't remember all you said that I did."
"You stalked me."
"So you say."
"You kidnapped me."
"If I have the story straight, you came with me willingly. Mac told me that you decked Garcia with a tapedeck, thinking that he was the stalker."
"That's beside the point. Anyway, you canceled my bank accounts, my credit cards, messed with my orders at the outback, hacked your way into a variety of computer systems to mess up my life."
"Damn," Kevin said appreciatively. "I sure can't do that as Kevin. My alter ego must really be talented."
"You can't program?"
Kevin shakes his head. "It's all I can do to use the word processor package. Why do you think that I hired Gina? She's great with that stuff."
"So you didn't do the rose on the computer?"
"Not as me, no. Now, if as this stalker character I'm also a hacker-then maybe I did, but I don't remember any of that."
Frowning, Felicia stands up, and heads to the tv/vcr combination where she inserts another tape. "European tour," she tells him. "First stop, England."
"What, no more Wizard of Oz?" Hmmmmm
"Lucy's going to Europe," Tom tells the listener on the other end of the phone line. "Felicia just told me.....I'm relieved to hear that. You have no idea how complicated this has become. What the hell were you thinking about with that last one??...You're taking orders, not giving them.....wait a minute....I don't care what they say....what do you mean, I'd better care?....You can't pull this off without me......we'll see about that....Sorry....this whole thing is getting nerve-wracking......good idea....all right....keep her out of the country as long as you can....bye"
Stay tuned!! How close was Lucy to learning the truth?? Is this why Felicia has changed the tape?? Will Kevin ever get his sanity and his liberty?? Have we stumbled on a reason that Gina may have been killed? Was she a loose end that needed tying?? With whom is Tom talking this time? Is Felicia starting to have second and third thoughts about keeping Kevin cooped up? Is she starting to believe in Lucy's psychic powers???? Hmmmmmmmm
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