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“Wally!” Sally’s look transformed itself from one of complete shock to one of concern as she pulled her bruised and bleeding fellow guest within the front room of the hotel suite. Then the look transformed yet again to one of disgust as she felt both warm and coagulating blood on her hands. “I’ll be okay. I’m just feeling a little woozy right about now.” Wally staggered towards the couch set against one wall of the tiny room, but Sally redirected him towards a kitchen chair in an adjacent corner. “What happened, Wally?” Sally asked as she pushed his back against the back of the chair and reached to a table for the towel and washbasin Eddie had used to clean himself that morning. “I got mugged.” Wally stared at the shadows thrown on the ceiling by a lamp on the table. “I’ll be okay. They just roughed me up a bit.” “Roughed you up?” Sally started to wipe at the crusts of blood on her patient’s face, but pulled back in fear when he did so in pain. “Wally, you could’ve been killed. The others are at the police station to report you missing!” Wally nodded an assent and gritted his teeth as Sally gently daubed at his wounds with a wet towel. “The police in Nineteen Nineteen New York. A lot of help that would’ve done.” Wally gasped when Sally brushed a cut above his left brow, and she concentrated on cleaning the lower extremities of his face. “Wally, I’m so sorry this happened to you.” She reached for the top button of his sweat-and-blood-stained shirt and undid it. “Let’s get you clean and in some clean clothes.” Now it was Wally who took the already-bloody towel in hand, soaked it in the basin of cold water, and wiped at his face. “I think I’m gonna be okay. I just need to chill out for a second.” |