The doll was never found.
“Lord Fish,” cried the fisherman, gazing over the side of the boat, “I’m afraid my wife has another request.”
The great fish appeared at once, and looked up mildly at the fisherman. “What is it now?”
The fisherman was ashamed. “She is old and ugly, Lord Fish. She wants to be young again.”
A cloud drifted across the sun and cast a shadow over the sea. “It is done,” said the fish, sinking beneath the waves.
Chapter 13
Then she took up Hansel with her rough hand, and shut him up in a little cage with a lattice-door, and although he screamed loudly it was of no use.
The Brothers Grimm, “Hansel and Gretel”
There was a thump of feet on the porch steps. The door slammed. Mary was back. “So?” said Homer. “How did it go?”
She tore off her coat and dumped it on a chair. “Oh, I don’t know. They’re nice kids.”
“Was the great Judge Aufsesser there in all his judicial glory to meet his daughter’s new teacher?”
“Oh, Homer, of course not.”
Homer snickered. “What’s his daughter like?”
“Very shy, I think. The star of the class is Charlene Gast. You know, from the family renting Annie’s house.”
Homer swarmed together all the graded bluebooks and shaped them into a cube. He looked up at Mary gravely. “What do you know about that Flimnap character? I get the impression he’s there all the time. Is Annie getting involved again? I thought she’d sworn off men. I should think that last episode with Jack Whatshisname would have taught her a lesson. And Whoseywhatsis before that, Burgess, the hotshot stockbroker.”
“Homer, you haven’t even met Flimnap. He’s just a handyman around the place.”
“Maybe he’s handy in the wrong way,” hinted Homer darkly.
Mary changed the subject. She looked at Homer and said sweetly, “Oh, good, you’re finished with all those bluebooks. Now maybe you’ve got time to see that police chief in Southtown.”
Homer was indignant. In a ridiculous falsetto he parodied his wife. “Hurry up, now, Homer. You’ve got to rescue a princess, find an enchanted frog, fall down a rabbit hole, and drive fifty miles down 128 to bawl out the chief of police.”
“Oh, Homer—”
“Well, never mind,” said Homer gruffly, getting up from his chair. “I already called him. He sounds like a jerk, but I’m supposed to go down there tomorrow. Today, for Christ’s sake—how did I get into this?—I’ve got to talk to those kids in the Concord prison.”
“Oh, Homer, darling, thank you!” Mary threw her arms around him, and murmured into the shoulder of his coat, “Poor Princess, I know something terrible has happened to her. We’ve just got to track her down.”
Being admitted to M.C.I. Concord was a lengthy affair. Homer had been through it all before, but he’d forgotten some of the details. You had to register in the lobby and wait at the heavy door while new inmates in chains arrived under guard.
At last the big door ground heavily to one side to let Homer into the locked space called the trap. Under the supervision of a guard he had to take off his shoes, his jacket, his belt, his wristwatch, and empty his pockets before walking through a metal detector.
“Hey,” he said, “I don’t remember all this. Did you always make people take all this stuff off?”
“You’re lucky you’re not a woman,” said the officer, handing back his jacket. “Sometimes they got a wired bra, sets off the beeper.”
Released from the trap, Homer walked past the isolation block and the chapel, then marched through J Building and into H, where the corridor was full of inmates waiting to enter the canteen. The library was locked, but when he knocked on the door the librarian opened it and said, “Your class is expecting you.”
Homer was interested to see that the place looked like a normal library, with walls of cheerful-looking books, a blocked-off corner for the librarian, and sunshine falling through high windows. The room was empty. Homer looked left and right. “Where are they?”
“The law library’s up there.” The librarian pointed to a second level at one side. There they were, looking down at Homer through a wire grille. He followed the librarian up the stairs and waited while she unlocked the door. Once he was inside she nodded goodbye, locked the door again, and went back downstairs.
There were six of them sitting around a table, inmates in blue shirts looking up at him warily. Homer said, “Good morning,” and sat down. Then he beamed around the table, trying to put them at their ease. “Why don’t we start by introducing ourselves? My name’s Homer. I teach American literature, but I’ve got a law degree, so if I don’t know the answers to your questions, I should be able to find out.” He nodded at the good-looking kid with the earring. “You want to start?”