I wanted him to get on with it and
explain how it tied in. I must have looked impatient.

"So go ahead," I said. "Sign it."

He signed it.

The girl got up off the paper and brushed herself off.

* * * * *

I felt the cigarette smoke burning my eyes, but was too frozen to close
them. I must have gone as white as the paper the girl got up off of.
Willy touched my shoulder. I looked blearily at his spaniel eyes, which
were puzzled.

"Didn't you believe me?" he asked.

[Illustration]

I made a noise in my throat, and suddenly wanted desperately to be back
in my apartment. Anywhere. But I knew that if I stood up my legs would
fold. So I just stared at the girl while my heart flopped like a beached
fish.

She smiled at me, then turned to Willy.

"Who's your friend?" she asked in a voice proportionate to her size,
which was about a foot.

Willy looked at his hands. "Just a friend." Turning to me he said
imploringly, "You _did_ believe me, didn't you, Jim?"

I felt like asking him what the hell difference it made whether or not
I'd believed him, but I merely swallowed and cleared my throat. I worked
my jaws. I took the cigarette from my mouth and looking at it, then at
my hand, moving it back and forth to adjust the focus. I didn't want to
do any thinking about it because I knew I'd be scared senseless by the
conclusions. So I made my mind a throbbing blank and to the cigarette
said the first thing that popped into my head.

"She's pretty."

The girl smiled coyly and seated herself on the blank layout pad.

"Of course I'm pretty," she said. "I'm Willy's ideal. He wouldn't have
drawn me if I weren't." She blinked her eyes demurely.

Willy just sat there looking woebegone, so I went along with it.

"What's your name?"

"Red."

It fitted. The first basic had gone into her hair. I felt myself
beginning to twitch. The reaction was setting in again. I found myself
wishing that Willy would do something, and not just sit there with his
jaw drooping to the floor. I wondered if he could erase her with his
dough rubber. I clung to that thought because it seemed funny. I started
to laugh. The girl pouted. Willy looked up at me and frowned.

"What's so funny," Red asked.

I took a deep breath and gritted my teeth, but the shakes were coming
and this time they wouldn't be deferred. I wheeled from the chair and
charged for the door. Willy was up and grabbing at my arm.

"Don't go,