Raga Six (A Doctor Orient Occult Novel) (5 page)

Orient looked at the door.
 

"Now, now." Jolter moved to the wall and sat down next to Julian, "Like Sun Girl says, it’s no time yet to go out there after anything." He reached into his pocket. "Since you ain’t no nark, why don’t you just help me get rid of this evidence here?" His fingers came out of his pocket holding three thin cigarettes.
 

"Well, that makes sense." Sun Girl sat down against the wall on the other side of Julian. Orient hesitated, then sat down cross-legged on the floor facing them. Joker passed him one of the cigarettes, gave another to Sun Girl and put the third between his tips. He looked through his pockets for a match, the cigarette in his mouth jerking up and down as he continued to talk. "This stuff will get you into trouble around here. And by the way, Doc, I wanna thank you for pullin’ me out of there. Wouldn’t do for the man to bust me for disturbin’ the peace and incitin’ to riot or somethin’ and find me holding this reefer." He struck a match. "Uh, uh, Doe," he muttered, lighting his cigarette, then holding the flame out to Orient, "I’m truly beholden."
 

Sun Girl blew out the match Joker held in front of her. "Not three on a match," she said firmly. Wearily Joker lit another match. "Sun Girl, you just got a head full of notions," he said, shaking his head as he watched her light her cigarette. Orient took a deep drag, letting the smoke linger in his lungs and ease the tightness in his chest. It had been a long time. Since before Project Judy.
 

The smoke tasted good in his throat and he felt warm and easy, like taking a hot shower after being caught in the rain. He looked up and saw Joker staring at him.
 

"Hey, Doc," Joker said quietly, "you look like you’ve smoked that stuff before."
 

Orient nodded. His mind was slipping into a receptive state and he could feel the serious probing under Joker’s words.
 

"Well, who’d you score from?" Joker smiled. "I can’t know every head in this town, but I sure know most every connection."
 

"Score?" Orient asked. He looked at Sun Girl.
 

She was staring at him curiously. "He means where did you get it," she said, "and Joker, you’re being a drag. Owen helped us out, remember?"
 

Joker started to laugh out loud, remembered their position, and clapped a big hand over his mouth. He looked sheepishly at the door.
 

"You got to pardon me, Doc," he stage-whispered, "Just professional curiosity, you understand."
 

Orient smiled. "A friend of mine used to bring me a supply every month."
 

Joker nodded wisely. "Was he giving you a good price?" He turned to Sun Girl. "Just talkin’ a little straight business now, that okay with everybody?"
 

"Business," Sun Girl pouted. She leaned her head back against the wall. "He didn’t charge me anything." Orient stared at the burning tip of his cigarette. "He knew it was for religious reasons."
 

Joker gestured at Orient. "Now that’s the biggest bushel of crap or the most interesting thing I heard today." Something occurred to Orient. "Tell me," he said, looking up, "do you two know each other?"
 

Sun Girl smiled. "Joker knows every available female on the eastern seaboard." Her features were plain, but the extraordinary alertness of her large soft eyes and the expressiveness of her small face made her something more than beautiful.
 

Joker shook his head slowly and grinned. "Nothin’ wrong with that."
 

Orient put the small nub of his cigarette out on the floor. When he lifted his head, he saw that Sun Girl was staring at him, her wide eyes appraising.
 

"You’re a pretty man, Owen," she said.
 

"Now that’s somethin’ special, Doc," Joker said. "I been trying to get this girl to admire me for a whole year, you understand."
 

Orient smiled. The throb in his body was still there, but it was no longer uncomfortable. His body felt whole and supple and he unconsciously began the process of charging his mind. His brain tingled as the rigidity that had built up over the months eased and his consciousness started to absorb energy instead of blocking it. He agreed with Joker that Sun Girl was special.
 

"Well, maybe you two want to hang out in this here john all night but I got things to do," Joker said, rising stiffly to his feet. He carefully stretched the kinks out of his knees before going to the door and opening it slightly.
 

"Can’t see nobody," he announced. Orient got to his feet as Jolter opened the door wider. He followed him outside.
 

It was dark and silent in the tiny park. The air was still prickly with the chemical stench of gas. Sun Girl came to the door carrying Julian in her arms.
 

"Everything cool?" she whispered. "Everything’s fine," Joker answered, moving toward the grassy field. "Now let’s see if we can’t find that bag of yours, Doc."
 

All they found at the end of a half-hour search through the scarred, littered area were a few gray tear-gas canisters and odd articles of clothing. They went back to the building where Sun Girl was waiting for them.
 

"Find it?" she asked Orient. "I guess it’s gone." Orient thought of the time and effort it would take to replace the identification. "No bag in sight." Julian lifted his head from his mother’s shoulder. "Ralph the Rat took Owen’s bag," he said. "I saw him."
 

"Well, that makes it easy, Doc." Jolter started pushing Orient and Sun Girl toward the far gate. "You just come with me and we’ll straighten the whole thing out." Joker took Julian from Sun Girl and led the way two blocks east to Avenue C. As they walked, Sun Girl held onto Orient’s arm.
 

Joker took them to a renovated building in the center of a block of tenements. They went up three flights until they came to a blue door painted with a golden eagle identical to the ones embroidered on his shirt. Joker unlocked the door and switched on the lights. The room was large and simply furnished. The floor was covered with a blue rug, and one wall was completely pasted over with posters representing various sporting events including football, basketball, boxing, yachting, karate, horse racing, and bullfighting. The other walls were paneled with deep brown cork. Three mattresses covered with madras fabric and placed on the floor against the walls served as couches. A mosaic-colored Tiffany lamp hung over a heavy wooden table in one corner. A turntable and amplifier rested on a low wooden plank supported by tapestry bricks against the poster wall. Two speakers hung on the wall on either side of the plank. Orient saw that there was another eagle-blazoned door across the room.
 

Joker waved toward the couches. "Why don’t you people just set while I take care of this bag business." He opened the door and went inside the other room. Orient sat down on one of the couches and watched Sun Girl make a very sleepy Julian comfortable on one of the other mattresses. When she finished she came and sat next to Orient.
 

"I’ve never thanked you for helping Julian and me," she said. She leaned against him. "Thanks, Owen."

"What was that all about anyway?" Orient asked softy. The warmth of her body felt comforting and good next to his. "I heard it was just going to be a free concert. If I knew it was going to be trouble, I would have taken Julian somewhere else." J

Joker ambled back into the room. "Boy, that was some rumble.”

 
"We were just talking about that," Orient said. "Do you know how it happened?"
 

"Same old story, Doc. The man told the freaks in the neighborhood to stop congregating on the premises so naturally they want to know why. When the man couldn’t lay no good reason on them, I guess they figured their rights were being gorilla’d by the authorities. Unfair, y’understand."
 

"I get the drift," Orient said. He realized he’d have to replenish his vocabulary.
 

"Hell, I just went down to the park to groove on some sounds and hang out with some of my people. If anybody told me there was gonna be a scene, I’d a taken one of them tours to the Statue of Liberty or somethin’."
 

"Speaking of your people," Sun Girl said, "did you call Ralph the Rat?"
 

"Easy now, don’t go associatin’ me with that street snake." Joker glared at her. "He’s got the bag all right. It’s all set."
 

"Good." Sun Girl nestled her head on Orient’s shoulder.
 

"Well, uh, don’t let me disturb nothin’ around here," Joker said pointedly.
 

"We won’t," Sun Girl said sweetly.
 

Joker grinned. "Maybe I should have listened to my pa and been a sawbones at that." He moved to the door. "Just give me a holler when the Rat shows," he grinned again.
 

Sun Girl stayed huddled close to Orient for a long while. They were just falling into a genre doze when a knock at the door roused them. "Joker," she called lazily, not moving her head from Orient’s chest.
 

"Okay, comin’," Joker called through the door. He emerged shirtless and barefoot, wearing a pair of tan leather jeans. He had a damp towel draped around his heavy-muscled shoulders and his hair was wet and plastered close to his head. "Takin’ a bath, y’understand," he said to no one in particular and opened the door.
 

A thin boy with a Fu Manchu mustache and dark glasses was standing at the door. He was wearing an oversized black overcoat which was buttoned all the way up to his neck and he was holding Orient’s suitcase.
 

"That it?" Joker asked.
 

Orient nodded.
 

Joker reached into the pocket of his jeans and took out a small, khaki bank envelope. He handed the boy the envelope. Without a word the boy passed Joker the suitcase, turned, and left. "Gucci," Joker commented, setting the bag down in front of Orient. "Not bad."
 

Orient opened the bag and checked the contents. His ID was intact and even the copy of the I Ching that Sordi had thoughtfully tucked into the side pocket was still there.
 

"Anybody got an I Ching with him probably ain’t no nark," Joker confided, winking at Sun Girl.
 

Orient closed the bag and stood up. He was relieved about his bag but he still had to find a room somewhere.
 

"Say,"Joker said slowly, "you got a train to catch or somethin’?"
 

"No, but I have to find a hotel."
 

Joker cocked his head to one side. "You on the run?"
 

Orient smiled. "In a way." He picked up the bag and held out his hand. "Thanks, Joker, I appreciate your help." He looked down and saw Sun Girl frowning at him.
 

Joker scratched his neck, paying no attention to Orient’s outstretched hand. "Now just a damn minute here, Doc," he said slowly,"You got no place to stay, right?"
 

"That’s right."
 

"Welly well, Doc." Joker grinned, grabbed Orient’s hand and began pumping it up and down. "I can’t stand goodbyes but I sure dig hellos. You’re a right interestin’ fella and I’d sure like the chance to get into your head some. Why don’t you plan on just stayin’ here for a little bit until you get yourself settled?"
 

Sun Girl exhaled a deep breath of air she’d been holding in and took the suitcase out of Orient’s hand. "I thought you’d never ask him," she said.
 

Orient started to say something but she cut him off. "Don’t argue with that freak, Owen," she said, setting the bag down next to the wall, "he gets violent."
 

"Then it’s settled." Joker headed for his room. "I got some business tonight so I’ll see you in the mornin’."
 

Sun Girl followed him to the door. "Give me sheets and a couple of pillows," she called after him.
 

She came back to Orient and took his arm. "You do want to stay, don’t you?" she asked quietly, studying his face with her large eyes.
 

"I guess I’d be proud, ma’am," Orient smiled.
 

Sun Girl giggled and put her head against his chest. "Easy now, stranger," she said, "there isn’t room in this drugstore for two buckaroos."
 

Joker came out budding a wide leather belt studded with coins over his hips. He had changed into another version of the shirt he’d been wearing earlier; silver velvet embroidered in white with the familiar eagle design. He took the sheets and pillows he was carrying under his arm and threw them at Sun Girl.
 

She caught them in midair and went to work stripping the cover off the mattress and spreading the sheets over it.
 

"You’re in good hands, Doe," Joker said, running a comb through his hair, "so don’t worry about nothin’. Tomorrow we’ll have a long talk about things." He stopped combing and looked at Orient. "I got a funny feeling we got lots to talk about."
 

Still combing his hair, Joker went back into his room. A few minutes late he returned carrying a suede portfolio. He opened the pouch and took out a small bank envelope similar to the one had given to Ralph when he delivered Orient’s suitcase. "This one’s for you," he said, tossing the flat envelope with an expert twist of his wrist so that it sailed across the room and came to rest against Orient’s bag, next to Sun Girl’s feet.
 

"How was that?" he said, heading for the door.
 

"Show-off," Sun Girl called over her shoulder as Joker left.
 

Orient stood for a moment trying to gather his thoughts. Apparently his fate had guided him well. But he was still unsure. He watched Sun Girl tucking the sheets under the mattress. "You don’t have to go to the trouble of making my bed," he said finally.