Lurking In The Moonlight

Chapter Twenty: Feeling Is Too Much Sometimes

The next morning, Arthur and I went to the hospital, his mood still hadn't lightened but he came with me anyway. I left him in my office while I visited with the children. I hadn't seen them in a few days, and they were excited to see me and tell me about their days. I brought a few more books and tons of crayons for them to have, which they ate up like hotcakes. Sally had drawn me a picture of me and I told her how much I loved it and would at it to my collection.

When I went back downstairs, I found Arthur staring at my wall of art. I smiled at him as I put the last masterpiece up on the wall. He watched me as I smiled proudly at my last piece.

"Why do you put them up here? They aren't you're children, Why do you care?" He asked, not taking his eyes off of the latest picture of me.

"Because they're kids. They are so innocent and they worked really hard to make these pictures just for me to enjoy. It's only right I put it somewhere I can see them."

"Why care what they think?"

I almost looked at him, cocking my head to the side. "Why do you care if they laugh at you when you're a clown? It means that I'm doing my job right, making sure these kids are happy and cared for."

He never questioned me after that. He turned and walked out of my office, telling me he was going for a smoke. It was a few hours and Arthur never came back, but one of the nurses came down to tell me that Penny had died. I left work early, looking for Arthur from the parking lot to our apartments. I tried his apartment throughout the rest of the night, between packs of cigarettes. I had no idea if he knew what happened to his mother or not, the nurse didn't say otherwise.

It was the next day when I saw Arthur again, it was in the middle of the afternoon. I called off work, due to the loss and they gave me a few days of leave for the loss of a 'family member'. I lied, but I figured Arthur might need me at some point. He came pounding on my door, with a grin on his face as he stood in the doorway, with shopping bags in hand.

"Hey Sandy, how you been?" He said as if he had no cure in the world.

"Arthur? Are you okay?" I was confused. Didn't he know about his mother?

"I'm doing just great, for the first time in my life." He said smirking as if he knew something I didn't. "I need your help." grabbing a hold of my wrist and pulling me out of the apartment. We walked up the stairway to his apartment, where he pulled me in and locked the door behind him. "I got a call yesterday from the studio where they do the Murray Franklin Show, they want me to come on tonight." He reached into the bag, pulling out a bottle of green hair dye. "I need help dying my hair. It's for my new act."

"And you're dying your hair green?"

"Let's face it, the green wig I was wearing was so fake and ugly." He grabbed my hand and ran it throw his hair, giving it a tug. "This is the real deal. Don't you think I'd look good in green?" He grinned, laughing as if he told a joke. I awkwardly smiled, running my hands through his hair and grabbed his face.

"If that will make you happy, I'd be happy to help." He giggled as he put the bottle in my hand and went into the bathroom, stripping out of his clothes along the way. I looked over the directions as I mixed the ingratiates together. Arthur sat on the side of the tub, his back to me, waiting with excitement.

"Arthur, We need to talk about your mom."

"There's plenty of time to talk about that later. Right now let's focus on the task at hand." He answered, wiggling around in his underwear.

I got started, putting the dye in his hair, trying to make to make sure I got all of the brown hair. He giggled a lot, figiting a lot, unable to keep still he was so giddy. "There. All done." I said, put the empty bottle on the sink. He jumped up and looked in the mirror, excited to see the dye in. "We need to leave it in for 30 minutes then rinse it out." I looked in the mirror with Arthur, he made funny faces at me and I made some back. I grabbed a piece of my hair, twirling it in my fingers. "What if I dye my hair? I've always wanted to do something crazy, like purple or blue."