Repairman Jack [08]-Crisscross by F. Paul Wilson Page B

ended yesterday. If the sun were still out he'd be parboiled inside this green rubber oven.
    Green… why did they always color the Creature green? The films were all black-and-white, so who knew his real color? Most fish Jack had seen were silvery gray, so why should the Creature be this sick green?
    Another recurrent question: If Eric Clapton had to steal one of the Beatles' wives, why the hell couldn't it have been Yoko? Imponderables like this were what filled his head when he couldn't sleep.
    He and Gia were chaperoning Vicky and five of her friends—two princesses, a leprechaun, a Hobbit, Boba Fett, and the Wicked Witch of the West—along an upper-crust Upper West Side block of single-owner brown-stones. Gia walked, Jack lumbered, and the kids scampered. Only Gia was uncostumed, though she denied it, saying she was disguised as a nonpreg-nant woman. Since she didn't look to be in a family way, Jack couldn't argue.
    Through the mask's eyeholes he watched the kids run up a brownstone's front steps and ring the bell. A pleasant, blue-blazered, balding man in horn-rimmed glasses answered the door to a chorus of "Trick or Treat!" He dropped a candy bar into each kid's goodie bag, then grinned down at Jack waiting on the sidewalk.
    "Hey, Creature." He gave a thumbs-up. "Nice."
    "Better be, after what it cost to rent it." Jack's voice sounded at once muffled and echoey inside the mask.
    "How about a snort of ice-cold Ketel One to keep you going?"
    "I'd need a straw."
    The guy laughed. "Not a problem."
    Jack waved and started moving after the kids. "Have to take a rain check. Thanks for the thought, though."
    The guy called, "Happy Halloween," and closed his door.
    Vicky ran back from where her friends were climbing to the next door. With her black pointed hat, flowing dress, and warty green skin she made a great mini Margaret Hamilton.
    "Look, Jack!" she cried, digging into her bag. "He gave me a Snickers!"
    "My favorite," Jack said.
    "I know." She held it up. "Here. You can have it."
    Jack knew she was allergic to chocolate, but was touched by her generosity. He was continually amazed at the bond they'd developed, and wondered if he'd ever be able to love his own child as much as he did Vicky.
    "Thanks a million, Vicks, but"—he held out his gloved hands with their big webbed fingers and rubber talons—"can you hold it for me till we get home?"
    She grinned and dropped it back into her bag as she ran after the others. Her friends were just finishing up atop the next set of steps. The door closed just as Vicky reached it. She knocked but the young woman behind the glass shook her head and turned away. She knocked again but the lady turned back and made a shooing gesture.
    Vicky trudged back down the steps and looked up at her mother with teary eyes.
    "She wouldn't give me any candy, Mom."
    "Maybe she ran out, hon."
    "No. I saw a whole bowlful inside. Why won't she give me any?"
    Suddenly it felt a lot warmer in the Creature suit.
    "Let's go find out."
    "Jack," Gia said. "Let it go."
    "I'm cool, I'm cool," he told her, though another look at Vicky blinking back tears made him anything but. "I just want to satisfy my curiosity. Come on, Vicks. Let's go check this out."
    "No, Jack. Leave her here."
    "All right."
    He climbed the stairs and rang the bell. The same young woman, maybe thirty, answered.
    "Mind telling me something?" He pointed to Vicky standing at the bottom of the steps. "Why did you stiff that little girl?"
    "Stiff?"
    "Yeah. You gave her friends candy but not her."
    She began to close the door. "I don't think I have to explain my reasons to anyone."
    Jack held the door open with a taloned hand. "You're right. You don't, but there's the right thing to do and there's everything else. Giving her an explanation is the right thing to do."
    The woman's lips tightened into a line. "If you insist. Tell her it's because I don't approve of this so-called holiday in the first place but, just to be a good neighbor, I put up