Lois as transparent? Gossipy? Unable to keep a secret?
No, I'm afraid it is a little more than that, old buddy.)'On thought she was shallow. You saw her pretty much through Bill's eyes, as a matter of fact: as "Our Lois." No less... but not much more.
"What?" she asked, a little uneasily. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You've been seeing these auras since summer? That long?"
"Yes-brighter and brighter. Also more often. That's why I finally went to see the tattletale. Did I really shoot that thing with my finger, Ralph? The more time goes by, the less I can believe that part of it."
"You did. I did something like it myself shortly before I ran into you."
He told her about his earlier confrontation with Doc #3, and about how he had banished the dwarf... temporarily, at least, He raised his hand to his shoulder and brought it swiftly down. "That's all I did-like a kid pretending to be Chuck Norris or Steven Seagal.
But it sent this incredible bolt of blue light at him, and he scurried in a hurry. Which was probably for the best, because I couldn't have done it again. I don't know how I did that, either.
Could you have shot your finger again?"
Lois giggled, turned toward him, and cocked her finger in his general direction. "Want to find out? Kapow! Kablam!"
"Don't point dat ding at me, lady," Ralph told her. He smiled as he said it, but wasn't entirely sure he was joking.
Lois lowered her finger and squirted joy into the sink. As she began to stir the water around with one hand, puffing up the suds, she asked what Ralph thought of as the Big Questions: "Where did this power come from, Ralph? And what's it for?"
He shook his head as he got up and walked over to the dish drainer. "I don't know and I don't know.
How's that for helpful?
Where do you keep your dish-wipers, Lois?"
"Never mind where I keep my dish-wipers. Go sit down. Please tell me you're not one of these modern men, Ralph-the ones that are always hugging each other and bawling."
Ralph laughed and shook his head. "Nope. I was just well trained, that's all."
"Okay. As long as you don't start going on about how sensitive you are. There are some things a girl likes to find out for herself."
She opened the cupboard under the sink and tossed him a faded but scrupulously clean dishtowel. 'Just dry them and put them on the counter. I'll put them away myself. While you're working, you can tell me your story. The unabridged version."
"You got a deal."
He was still wondering where to begin when his mouth opened, seemingly of its own accord, and began for him. "When I finally started to get it through my head that Carolyn was going to die, I went for a lot of walks. And one day, while I was out on the Extension.
He told her everything, beginning with his intervention between Ed and the fat man wearing the West Side Gardeners gimme-cap and ending with Bill telling him that he'd better go see his doctor, because at their age mental illness was common, at their age it was common as hell. He had to double back several times to pick up dropped stitches-the way Old Dor had showed up in the middle of his efforts to keep Ed from going at the man from West Side Gardeners, for instance-but he didn't mind doing that, and Lois didn't seem to have any trouble keeping his narrative straight, either.
The overall feeling Ralph was conscious of as he wound his way through his tale was a relief so deep it was nearly painful. it was as if someone. had stacked bricks on his heart and mind and he was now removing them, one by one.
By the time he was finished, the dishes were done and they had left the kitchen in favor of the living room with its dozens of framed photographs, presided over by Mr. Chasse from his place on the TV.
"So?" Ralph said. "How much of it do you believe?"
"All of it, of course," she said, and either did not notice the expression of relief on Ralph's face or chose to ignore it. "After what we saw this morning-not to mention what you knew about my wonderful daughter-in-law-I can't very well not believe. That's my advantage over Bill."
Not your only one, Ralph thought but didn't say.
"None of this stuff is coincidental, is it?" she asked him.