While the lady froze, the man tiptoed even closer. Hands up, waving. “Calm down. Everyone got to calm the fuck down. We can all be friends, right? Hey, buddy?” He grinned at me. “We can all be friends.”

“Get behind me, Magic Boy!”

But I couldn’t move.

“I don’t like this. I don’t like this.” Carl jabbed the air with the knife. “Stan. Stan. Stan. Workers. Two. They always come in twos. The concrete and the metal. Breached. No good, no good. It lost its functionality. Stan, you need to help me. I’m found.”

“Stop,” I whispered to Carl. But the word never came out. I stood up slowly, my legs wobbling. The blanket around my feet.

“Oh, my, god,” the lady said. “This guy’s, like, nuts for real. I’m totally freaked out.”

When Carl’s arm shot forward again—“Back!”—the knife flew from his hand. Clattered on the stones. In a flash the man lurched, snatched it up. A blur around me, and the man grabbed my wrist. Tugged me toward him. My back smacked against his chest. With one arm he gripped me around my waist. The other arm pinned my shoulder. I could feel damp heat from his armpit. Then stinging on the side of my neck.

“Eeeeee-sy, now. Eeeee-sy, my little friend.”

Girl was barking now, snapping her teeth.

“Better call off your mutt, old man.”

Carl kept mumbling. “What should I do, Stan? What should I do?”

My legs were icy rubber.

“They’ve come to take me. Put me in the white room.”

“You heard me, you whacked-out piece of shit.” He shuffled me in his arms. I was like a rag doll, responding to each nudge he made. A stream of tears coursed out of my eyes. I could see bubbles of spit around Girl’s mouth. She wouldn’t stop barking.

“Call off your bitch or I’ll cut it.”

The lady took off her hat. Her hair rippled over her back. “Lionel. That’s not funny.”

I stared at the lady. She stared back at me. Carl made a click-click noise in his throat, and Girl went silent. Sat back on her haunches.

“Lionel,” she said again. “Let him go.”

“Magic Boy!” Carl yelled. “Dissolve yourself.”