Incredibly, Ralph felt Lois in the back of his mind, telling him that enough was enough, not to really hurt himnot to hurt the pint-sized psychotic who had just tried to kill her.
Atropos attempted to roll over. Ralph kneedropped him in the middle of the back and knocked him flat again.
["Don't move, friend. I like you just the way you are."] He looked up at Lois, and saw that her amazing fury had departed as suddenly as it had come-like some freak weather phenomenon.
A tornado, perhaps, that touches down out of a clear blue sky, rips the top off a barn, and then disappears again. She was pointing at Atropos.
The nasty little thief has got my earrings, Ralph. ["He's got my earrings. He's wearing them!"] ["I know. I saw."] One snarling side of Atropos's face poked out of the slit in the nylon like the face of the world's ugliest baby at the moment of its birth. Ralph could feel the muscles of the small creature's back trembling beneath his pinioning knee, and he remembered an old proverb he'd read somewhere.
... maybe at the end of a Salad a teabag string: He who takes a tiger by the tail dare not let go. Now, in this unlikely den beneath the ground and feeling like a character in a fairy-tale concocted by a lunatic, Ralph thought he had achieved a sort of divine understanding of that proverb. Through a combination of Lois's sudden rage and plain old shitass luck, he had wound up at least temporarily on top of the scuzzy little fuck-The questionand a fairly pressing one, at that-was what to do next.
The hand holding the scalpel lashed up, but the stroke was both weak and blind. Ralph avoided it easily. Sobbing and cursing, not afraid even now but clearly hurting and all but consumed with impotent rage, Atropos flailed up at him again.
[Let me up, you overgrown Short-Time bastard! Silly old white-hair, ugly wrinkle-face!] ["I look a little better than that just lately, my friend. Haven't you noticed! [Asshole Stupid Short-Time asshole. I'll make you sorry I'll make you so sorry."] Well, Ralph thought, at least he's not begging. I almost would have expected him to start begging by now.
Atropos continued to flail weakly with the scalpel. Ralph ducked two or three of these strokes easily, then slid one hand toward the throat of the creature lying beneath him.
["Ralph." No." Don't."'] He shook his head at her, not knowing if he was expressing annoyance, reassurance, or both. He touched Atropos's skin, and felt him shudder. The bald doc uttered a choked cry of revulsion, and Ralph knew exactly how he felt. It was sickening for both of them, but he didn't take his hand away. Instead, he tried to close it around Atropos's throat and wasn't very surprised to find he couldn't do it.
Still, hadn't Lachesis said that only Short-Timers could oppose the will of Atropos? He thought so. The question was, how?
Beneath him, Atropos laughed nastily.
["Please, Ralph. Please just get my earrings and we'll go."] Atropos rolled his eyes in her direction, then looked back at Ralph.
[Did you think you could kill me, Shorts? Well, guess again.] No, he hadn't thought it, but he'd needed to find out for sure.
[Life's a bitch, ain't it, Shorts? Why don't you just give me back the ring? I'm going to get it sooner or later, I guarantee you that.] "Fuck you, you little weasel."] Tough talk, but talk was cheap.
The most pressing question was still unanswered: What the hell was he supposed to do with this monster?
Whatever it is, you won't be able to do it with Lois standing there and watching you, a cold voice that was not quite Carolyn's advised him. She was fine when she was pissed off, but she's not pissed off now. She's too tenderhearted for whatever's going to happen next, Ralph. You have to get her out of here.
He turned toward Lois. Her eyes were half-closed. She looked ready to crumple at the base of the archway and go to sleep.
["Lois, I want you to get out of here. Right now. Go up the stairs and wait for me under the tree.] The scalpel flashed up again, and this time it almost sliced off the end of Ralph's nose. He recoiled, and his knee slid on nylon. Atropos gave a mighty heave and came within a whisker of rolling out from under. At the last second, Ralph shoved the little man's head flat again with