There Is A Trick
between the second and third toes- coated with motor oil
- “That’s Charlie.”
- sprang upon me with a jeweled dagger
- please take my hand
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There is a trick to climbing up a metal pole. There are probably many tricks, but the one they taught me at the Academy consisted of a special way to grasp it between the second and third toes, which hurt like hell and meant, usually, carrying your shoes and socks in your mouth. This time that trick was no help anyway, because this pole was coated with motor oil.
I could still hear the pillow talk of Jim and the one-legged woman, but could no longer discern their actual words. However, a new voice from the darkness overhead came through clearly.
“Someone opened the lower panel,” the voice said.
“That’s Charlie.”
“You ain’t even looked. And it ain’t Charlie, I promise you.”
“Who else could it be?”
“Come look, and then you tell me.”
“Hey,” I called softly, “can you help me?” I had no reason to trust them, whoever they were, but they already knew about me so I really had no choice.
“Charlie!” the second voice cried.
“Sure,” I said. “Pull me up?”
“I told you,” the voice went on. “You think I’d forget the face of a man who thrice sprang upon me with a jeweled dagger? You think so? Well, I tell you, I would not.”
“Maybe we ain’t talking about the same Charlie.”
“Could be we’re not. Very likely, in fact.”
A rope reached down from the blackness, swaying and waving as if sniffing around for me. When it came within reach I started to climb. There were few people upon whom I had ever sprung with a jeweled dagger, and most of them only once. I had used numerous aliases over the years, too many to keep them all straight, but I didn’t recall ever telling anybody my name was Charlie. The puzzle pieces didn’t all fit, but I had a feeling I was going to recognize the owner of at least one of these voices.
I hauled myself up the rope in darkness until one of those voices said, “Here, please take my hand.”
bonus points for using them in order