Chapter Fifty-One
The three made their way to the stockroom, where Larry was supposed to be on duty. No one was there. Then they tried his room. After several bouts of knocking and shouting from Voot, the young man opened the door, looking a little woozy.
“Why aren’t you on duty?” Voot demanded.
Larry looked behind him, to see who was being addressed.
“I’m talking to you!” Voot specified.
“What was the question, monsieur?” Larry asked.
“Why aren’t you on duty?”
Larry looked behind him again.
“Are you drunk, boy?!”
Larry looked around his room for a drunk person.
“Is there anybody else in your room?!” Voot wished to know.
“No, sir,” answered the boy truthfully.
“Then whom do you think I’m asking, precisely?”
Larry considered the question, before guessing: “Me?”
“Very good!”
Larry smiled; he felt like he was back in school, and, for once, top of his class.
“Wipe that smile off your face, you idiot!”
Larry did so. Now he was sad.
Enid’s maternal instinct, so long suppressed, burst the surface, like a diver whose lungs had exhausted themselves of air: “Leave the poor child alone, you scoundrel!” This was addressed, there should be no room for doubt, to Herr Voot.
That gentleman bowed to Enid. “Forgive me, mademoiselle.”
“Kindly frame your future remarks towards me in a respectful manner,” Larry, a little smugly, demanded.
Voot’s glare was full of promised revenge. “Monsieur”—that word fairly dripped, like a thawing icicle, with sarcasm—“are you intoxicated?”
“Only with life!” the boy returned in a shrill, sing-song tone.
“At least we’ve established that he’s still alive,” remarked Gangakanta, returning to the purpose of their visit.
“Yes, that’s true,” Voot admitted. “We just wanted to check you were still alive,” he explained to Larry. “Seeing as that appears to be the case, I’ll deal with you later.”
“I’m still alive,” Larry confirmed. “Goodbye, all.”
“Goodbye!” said Enid pleasantly, and Larry closed the door, took a moment to pat his chest, legs and sexual organ, to ensure that his assertion of life had been genuine, then went back to bed.