The next morning at ten Vince and I left work together and drove over to the horrible new building that had replaced the scene of my youthful joy. I rode the elevator to the top in silence, watching Vince fidget and blink. Why he should be nervous about facing someone who sculpted chopped liver for a living, I don't know, but he clearly was. A drop of sweat rolled down his cheek and he swallowed convulsively, twice.

"He's a caterer, Vince," I told him. "He isn't dangerous. He can't even revoke your library card." Vince looked at me and swallowed again. "He's got a real temper," he said. "He can be very demanding." "Well, then," I said with great good cheer, "let's go find somebody else more reasonable."

He set his jaw like a man facing a firing squad and shook his head. "No," he said bravely, "we're going to go through with this." And the elevator door slid open, right on cue. He squared his shoulders, nodded, and said, "Come on."

We went down to the end of the hall, and Vince stopped in front of the last door. He took a deep breath, raised his fist, and, after a slight hesitation, knocked on the door. After a long moment in which nothing happened, he looked at me and blinked, his hand still raised. "Maybe," he said.

The door opened. "Hello Vic!" the thing in the doorway warbled, and Vince responded by blushing and stammering, "I only hi." Then he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, stammered something that sounded like, "Er wellah," and took a half step backward.

It was a remarkable and thoroughly engaging performance, and I was not the only one who seemed to enjoy it. The manikin who had answered the door watched with a smile that suggested he might enjoy being in the audience for any kind of human suffering, and he let Vince squirm for several long moments before he finally said, "Well come in!"

Manny Borque, if this was really him and not some strange hologram from Star Wars, stood a full five foot six inches tall, from the bottom of his embroidered high-heeled silver boots to the top of his dyed orange head. His hair was cut short, except for black bangs which parted on his forehead like a swallow's tail and draped down over a pair of enormous rhinestone-studded eyeglasses. He was dressed in a long, bright-red dashiki, and apparently nothing else, and it swirled around him as he stepped back from the door to motion us in, and then walked in rapid little steps toward a huge picture window that looked out on the water.