Chapter 13 – Hello, again
Joshua’s heart was in his throat. He had no idea where the gravely, hissing voice had come from, but it had been too close to his ear and it scared him. When it said to get out he had wasted no time fleeing from the room he had been hiding in. When it said run he had run, down the hall and into the first room he found with an open door. He held his hand over Stewart, terrified the salamander would fall to the floor and die. Images of those bright red eyes staring down at him from high above his mother’s head filled him with fear.
Stewart. Stewart was here, with him, in this crazy building. He should be out in the pond where he had left him a few weeks before. Joshua stroked the salamander through the collar of the white shirt he still had on.
The room he had run into had a short twisting hallway that ended up being a bathroom. There three toilets, each with its own little room, and two sinks backed by a long mirror. Two towel dispensers hung on one wall and there was a tall mirror that reached from the floor to the ceiling beside the dispensers.
“It’s a bathroom, Stewart,” he told the salamander. “There’s water.”
Joshua walked over to the sink and turned the faucet on. The water was icy cold, but as he added hot to the flow it grew warm and comfortable. He reached over to the towel dispenser and pulled a handful of paper towels out, stacked them together and then held the stack under the water until they were soaked. He squeezed the extra water out and then set them on the counter between the two sinks.
“Stewart,” he said and patted the salamander. “Come out and get wet. The towels are warm. You need the water or your skin will crack.”
He could feel the salamander uncurl himself from around his neck, Stewart’s tail and claws tickling as he moved. In the mirror Joshua could see the broad glossy black head rise up under his chin, the bright red eyes staring out at him.
“It’s okay, Stewart. Come and get wet.”
The salamander blinked and then crawled back down Joshua’s arm the way he had climbed up, tickling and wiggling as he wormed his way down the shirt’s sleeve and onto the back of Joshua’s hand. He stopped at the end of the sleeve, his head out, his front legs on the back of Joshua’s hand and looked left and then right before he pulled the rest of his body out from inside the sleeve.
The salamander had grown a lot. He was nearly as long as Joshua’s forearm and it took several seconds before his tail cleared the end of the shirt sleeve. But it wasn’t the length or breadth of him that startled Joshua and made his mouth open in wonder. It was the extra pair of legs that had grown between the front and rear pair.
“Stewart,” Joshua whispered. “You grew two more legs.” He reached out and gently touched one of them. Stewart glanced back at him and then walked onto the counter and sniffed the wet paper towels. He placed a tentative front foot on the wet pile and then, satisfied that they were safe, crawled onto the stack and lay down, belly flat on the moist towels, legs, all six of them, stretched out along his sides, and his tail flat out and hanging over the edge of the pile. If he had been in a tank of water he would have seemed to have been swimming.
“Do they hurt,” Joshua asked, stroking the other extra leg.
“Nnnnnnoooooo,” Stewart said, his head barely moving from the towel’s surface.
Joshua snatched his hand back. He stared at the salamander and then looked up, into the mirror, afraid someone had walked in when he wasn’t paying attention. There was no one there. He looked back at the salamander resting on the warm, wet paper towels with his eyes closed.
“Did you just say, no,” Joshua whispered.
“Yyyesssssssss,” Stewart hissed.
Joshua stood there, his mouth open, his eyes wide, warm water still running in the sink, and stared at Stewart. Slowly he reached his hand out and let the water run over his palm. He cupped some of the water and gently let it spill over Stewart’s back.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“Gggoooooooddd,” Stewart replied.
Joshua gently laid his warm, wet hand on Stewart’s back and could feel the salamander humming with pleasure.
“That’ really cool, Stewart. That you can talk.” He stroked the long smooth red spotted skin. “That’s really cool.”
Stewart opened his eyes and looked at Joshua. “Yyyesssssss,” he hissed.
The intercom crackled in the ceiling above them. “Access to the south entrance temporarily restricted. Please use alternate routes,” a woman’s voice told them. “Access to the south entrance temporarily restricted. Please use alternate routes.”
Stewart stood up and looked at Joshua. “Dddaaaanngggrrrrooouussssssss,” he hissed. “Gggeeetttt ooouuuutttttt.”
“You said that,” Joshua nearly shouted. “That was you back in the other room!”
Stewart put his front feet on Joshua’s right hand. “Gggeeetttt ooouuuutttttt.” Then he scrambled back up Joshua’s arm under the shirt sleeve and curled himself back around the boy’s neck.
Joshua laid his hand along Stewart’s back. The salamander was warm and damp from the water, but his grip on the boy’s skin was sure and firm. Without really thinking about it, Joshua grabbed the wet paper towels off the counter and tossed them in the trash and walked quietly down the twisty hall to the doorway.
The main hall was empty, though quite a bit of noise was coming from his right, where he thought the door to the outside should be. He looked that way for a long time and then decided they had better go left instead and try to find another door. He took several steps down the hall in this new direction when three men turned a far corner and came rushing towards him. Joshua froze for a second and then Stewart’s gravely voice filled his ear once more.
“Rrrrrruuunnnnnnn.”
Joshua turned and ran back down the hall, the three men right behind him. He held his hand over Stewart’s back and headed for the place he thought the door should be – just a little further and then down the next hall.
Behind him he heard one of the men call out.
“Hey! This area is restricted! Didn’t you hear the announcement?”
Another voice joined the first.
“Stop, damn it! You’re heading right into the hot zone!”
Another man appeared around the corner Joshua was headed for, his eyes wide and filled with confusion as Joshua ran at him.
“Grab him,” another man shouted from behind. “He’s going the wrong way!”
As Joshua ran past him, the man who had just appeared reached out and snagged the lab coat Joshua was wearing, pulled the boy towards himself and reached out to catch him in his other arm. Joshua felt the floor shift under his feet as he lost his footing, felt the fabric of the coat go taut and pull against his forward momentum. Along his throat he felt the pressure of Stewart’s body, felt it vibrate and the salamander’s head rise up under his own chin. He stepped down, put his free hand on the rising ground, let his other arm slip free of the coat, twisted to the left and spun out of the shirt. Beneath his chin Stewart opened his mouth, the bright flame red of his mouth and throat flashing at the man who had grabbed them, and hissed as loud as he could manage.
The man jerked back at the sight and sound of Stewart. “What the hell is that!?” he shouted and threw himself against the wall.
Joshua righted himself and rounded the corner. The door outside was where he remembered it, right there at the end of the hall – a hall filled with people in orange suits and uniforms.
~ Peace and courage