Illusion of Luck (28 page)

“
Pounce. Is that the one
where you—“

“—
yes. So, don’t say it now,
in front of all these people.” He grinned.

“
Sandy, you are one sick
puppy.”

He laughed. He certainly was
one sick puppy. And he was in puppy love. Or maybe even
people
love.

**********

Sandy and Rebecca stopped off at the
restrooms and then headed for Disney’s Magical Express. Their plane
had landed at 5:38 PM—right on schedule. The free bus ride would
deliver them to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort, where Greg and
Cynthia were staying.

“
Won’t be long now. It’s
only 35 minutes,” said Sandy.

Then they saw the lines.

Rebecca said, “Yeah—once we actually get on
a bus.”

They had been standing in line for just a
few minutes when she noticed Sandy staring at the most beautiful
woman in the room. “Why don’t you take a picture?”

“
I think I know her—and him.
But I can’t place them.”

Rebecca took a closer look. “That can’t be
Chaucey Reed.”

“
Yes! That’s it. And that’s
her neighbor.”

“
Or boyfriend.”

“
Nah. He
couldn’t
be a
boyfriend
,” said
Sandy.

“
I wonder if they’re here
for Larry. Let’s go find out.”

Before Sandy could try to stop her, she was
ducking under roped aisles to get there. He followed her, feeling
guilty all the way, knowing that at any moment some tired, irate
vacationer with four young kids would holler, “Hey, you! No
breaking in line, Buddy!”

“
Thanks for saving our
place, Sis.”

When Chaucey felt the arm around her
shoulder, she nearly elbowed Rebecca. But she recognized the face
from somewhere. And the guy seemed familiar too.

Rebecca spoke more softly. “We’re Greg and
Cynthia’s friends. We were with Greg the other night at your
apartment.”

“
Oh, yeah. So, that’s her
name—Cynthia.”

“
What are you guys doing
here?”

“
Crow read Barry’s latest
chapter and thought he had come here to Disney World.”

“
Yeah,” said Rebecca.
“That’s the reason we’re here too.”

“
Barry’s gonna be sorry he
ever messed with Chaucey,” said Crow.

Sandy said, “By the way, his real name is
Larry. Larry Luzor.”

“
How appropriate,” said
Chaucey.

“
Yeah,” said Rebecca. “But
it’s spelled L-u-z-o-r.”

“
I don’t care how you spell
it,” said Crow. “I just want to teach him a lesson he’ll never
forget.”

Chaucey grabbed him by the arms and made him
look her in the eyes. “You mean you want to catch him and hand him
over to the police. Right, Crow?”

“
Okay. Fine.”

Rebecca whispered into Crow’s ear. “Yeah,
and while we’re waiting for the police to come, I’ll give him a
swift kick in the groin.”

Crow pictured it and grinned.

Chapter
37

It was nearly 7:00 PM. Greg and Cynthia had
spent the entire day at Disney-MGM Studios.

“
You still want to do room
service for dinner?” He opened the door to their room.

“
Yeah. That sounds fine. But
I’m not very hungry right now.”

“
I understand.” He smiled
slyly. “We’ll play around for a while. That’ll work up an
appetite.”

“
Actually, I don’t want to
play around right now.”

Was she kidding? It was only the second day,
he thought. She can’t be bored with sex already.

Cynthia put her arms around
him, pulled him close and looked deep into his eyes. “I don’t want
to play around. I want to get
serious
.”

“
Okay…I’ll try to do better.
Just tell me what you want, Baby.”

“
No, Silly. You’re doing
just fine. Perfect, in fact.”

“
Then, I don’t get what
you’re talking about.”

“
I want to have your
baby.”

Greg gulped. “Well, I want to have your baby
too—I mean, I want to have a baby with you too.”

She smiled. “No protection tonight.”

“
No argument here.” Greg was
ready.
More
than ready. “But I thought you wanted to wait a while to have
kids.”

“
I thought so too. But then
I realized today that there’s no reason to wait.”

“
Really? When did that
happen—during the
Beauty and the
Beast
show? Were you thinking that even
though I’m a beast we can still live happily ever after and our
children will turn out okay? Or, did you figure it out when we were
free falling in the Tower of Terror? Maybe you realized life is
short, so better have the kids now—before we get in a freak
elevator accident.”

She stuck out her tongue and
then smiled. “I don’t know. I guess I was being cautious because my
first marriage failed, and I wanted to be sure. But you’re no Troy.
I was
so
glad I didn’t have kids with him. But, now I’m ready. No
doubts. I want Greg Tenorly to be the father of my
children.”

“
Children?
”

“
Two kids—like we talked
about.”

“
Yeah. A boy and a girl
would be great.”

“
Or maybe three or
four.”

“
Whoa. Three or four? I
don’t remember talking about
that
.”

“
Well, that’s just a
contingency—you know, in case we don’t get a boy and a girl with
the first two.”

“
So, do you have any kind
of
limit
in
mind, Mama Tenorly?”

“
Limit?”

“
Yeah. Suppose we have four
boys and you still want a girl. What’s the cutoff number? Six?
Eight?”

“
It wouldn’t take that many
tries…surely.”

Greg looked as if he had just watched a
monster truck demolish his prized 1965 Bonneville. His libido had
suddenly been rendered undriveable. How would they support that
many kids? How old would they be when the last one finished
college?

“
It’s okay, Sweetie,” she
said. “We don’t have to think that far into the future.”

His head was nodding along numbly in
agreement.

“
We definitely want to have
at least one child, right?”

“
Yeah.” He seemed to be
coming back to the present.

“
So, let’s just think about
that one child when we make love tonight.”

“
Okay.” The juices were
beginning to flow again. “I can do that.” He began to
smile.

“
Great. So, why don’t you go
ahead and take your shower? I’m dying of thirst. I’m gonna go fill
up our ice bucket. You want a soft drink?”

“
No, thanks. Ice water
sounds great.”

Cynthia walked out with the ice bucket.

Greg went into the bathroom. He turned on
the shower and began to undress, thinking about the prospect of
several little redheaded girls running around the house. They would
be so cute.

“
Daddy, could we please go
to Dairy Queen tonight?”

How would he ever be able to resist them?
He’d say ‘Yes’ to everything. But that would be okay, because
Cynthia would say ‘No’ when necessary.

“
Daddy, will you buy me a
car?”

“
Dad, I want to go to
Harvard.”

Ouch. But they would be so sweet—just like
their mommy.

And what about boys? He could roll around on
the floor with them, play football in the yard, and practice
throwing a baseball. Gee—they would want cars and college too. But
it would be nice to have at least one of each. A sweet little girl
with long, shiny red hair and a cute, but tough, little boy
with…

Greg frowned at his balding
head in the mirror. Well, maybe the boy would have his
mother’s
hair.

**********

Cynthia pushed the button, and ice cubes
began to rumble out of the machine into her bucket.

“
How did you do on the Tower
of Terror?”

It was the young hippie-looking man with a
ponytail from earlier in the day. He was putting money in the Coke
machine.

“
Oh. We did fine. In fact,
it was my favorite ride of the day.”

An older gentleman walked up behind Cynthia
with his ice bucket and stepped up to the machine when she was
finished.

“
So, you didn’t get queasy
at all?”

“
Nope.” Enough small talk
with this guy. She had a horny husband waiting for her. “Well, nice
to see you again.” She walked away.

Halfway back to the room Cynthia heard the
young man calling to her, so she stopped and turned around.

“
I think you dropped this.”
He held out a twenty-dollar bill. “I found it on the floor by the
ice machine.”

What was that odd scent—his cologne? It
seemed familiar to her. “No, it can’t be mine. I didn’t have any
money with me. But thanks.” She started to turn.

He grabbed her arm and whispered into her
ear. “I’ve got a gun in my pocket, so do exactly as I say,
Cynthia.”

She jumped back a bit.

“
Easy.”

Pipe tobacco. Larry’s pipe tobacco—that’s
what she was smelling. He looked so different without the
beard.

“
I don’t want to kill you,
but I will if I have to. Because if I can’t have you, nobody
can.”

Their door was twenty feet away. Why hadn’t
she walked faster or just ignored the pony-tailed man? There were
probably a dozen or so people in the lobby below. They would hear
her cries for help. But would she be dead by the time anyone could
get to her?

**********

Greg finished drying off, and looked through
the new sleepwear Cynthia had bought for him. He picked out a pair
of red silk boxers with an industrial-looking label across the
front that said ‘Warning: Highly Flammable.’

As he walked out of the bathroom, he heard
someone knocking on the door.

“
I hope you remember the
password,” he said in a loud singsong voice. Holding in his
stomach and flexing his muscles, he would model his new boxers for
her.

But when he flung the door open, he was
shocked to see Sandy and Rebecca. And Chaucey Reed and some
guy—maybe her friend from the other night. “What are y’all doing
here?” He stepped back, grabbed his robe, and put it on.

Sandy laughed. “It’s a funny story,
Man.”

“
Well, come in for minute.”
As happy as he was to see his old buddy, he had more pressing
matters—like pressing himself up against his wife, thank you very
much. But he would not be rude—as long as they left
soon.

Rebecca said, “So, are y’all having a good
time?”

“
Oh, sure. We spent the day
at Disney-MGM, and rode all the rides and saw most of the
shows.”

“
Which park are y’all going
to tomorrow?” said Sandy.

“
EPCOT, I think.”

“
Rebecca and I might be
there too.”

“
Really?” Greg was beginning
to think he had missed a lot of what went on between his friend and
Rebecca while they were looking for Cynthia.

“
Yeah. And we could meet up
with y’all for lunch and a couple of rides. If it’s okay with
you.”

“
Sure.”

Rebecca jumped in. “But we don’t want to
impose.”

“
No, no,” said Greg. “That
would be fine.”

Sandy noticed the red light flashing on the
hotel room phone.

Greg saw the concern in his eyes.
“What?”

“
Have you listened to any of
your messages?”

“
No. We just got back to the
room about fifteen minutes ago.”

“
So, then you don’t know
about Larry?”

“
What? Did the police catch
him?”

“
No.” Sandy had assumed, and
was hoping, that Cynthia was in the bathroom. “Greg, where is
Cynthia?”

“
She went to get some ice.
Wonder what’s taking her so long?”

Sandy’s face went from concerned to
panicked. “Greg, we think Larry might be here in Orlando.”

Greg ran out the door and down the hallway.
The four visitors followed him. When he got to the ice machine, he
began to freak out.

“
Check every hallway, every
floor! I’m going to the parking lot! We cannot let him get
away!”

Chapter
38

“
Where are you taking
me?”

“
To our little love nest,”
said Larry, as he shifted into third gear.

Cynthia could only hope that Greg was
following the Jaguar.

“
You know the police are
looking for you.”

“
Well, I wish them good
luck. Because they’re gonna need it.”

“
You understand that I don’t
want to be with you.”

“
Yes. You’ve made that very
clear.”

“
Then what are you planning
to do? Are going to rape me, Larry? I really thought you were more
of a man than to do something like that.”