Free Agnes Among the Gargoyles by Patrick Flynn Page B

row.
    Â Â Â Agnes should have wiped out the lot of them.
    Â Â Â Daintily, Madelaine blows her nose. "I wish you luck, Agnes. It's not easy to find someone out there."
    Â Â Â Agnes agrees. "It seems harder than it was meant to be. We are supposed to mate, and all."
    Â Â Â "I consider myself nothing but lucky. If not for Ron, I'd probably be shut up in a house somewhere in Long Island with my mother and a dozen cats."
    Â Â Â A rather large house right on the tip of the island, thinks Agnes unsportingly.
    Â Â Â "My problem is I've imagined someone who may not exist," says Agnes.
    Â Â Â "I used to think the same thing!" says Madelaine, growing excited. And Barbara thought she and Madelaine were similar—wait'll she hears about this. "You can't believe the relief I felt when I met Ron."
    Â Â Â The Great Man is the culmination of her desires? She dreamt of him, and didn't wake up bathed in sweat?
    Â Â Â "What do you want, Agnes?"
    Â Â Â "Someone intelligent."
    Â Â Â "Oh, yes."
    Â Â Â "And not effete."
    Â Â Â "You don't want a librarian."
    Â Â Â "A very tough librarian would be okay," says Agnes. "Someone tall enough to reach the top shelves. Someone who never has to shush anyone, whose sheer presence commands silence."
    Â Â Â Madelaine telephones Bob Syker. She brings Agnes into her office to wait for him. She shows Agnes a picture in a silver frame.
    Â Â Â "My daughter Sarah," says Madelaine. "She's in her last year at Miss Clavelle's."
    Â Â Â Agnes sees a broad-shouldered girl clutching a lacrosse stick. She has a flat face and a wide nose, and she smiles amiably for the camera.
    Â Â Â "Handsome girl," says Agnes.
    Â Â Â "Thank you. She's the image of her father. She's going to film school at NYU next year." It must occur to Madelaine that Agnes is someone with a fresh perspective. "What do you think about film school?"
    Â Â  "I think it's a million dollar idea for a business. I wish I'd thought of it."
    Â Â  "Do you think NYU can turn out a good filmmaker?'
    Â Â Â "You may be asking the wrong person. I think the last thing we need is more filmmakers. They're already a blight.
    Â Â Â Madelaine, despairing of getting anything resembling an answer, stops asking the question. "Sarah insists on going, but I think she'd be better off just making films, don't you?"
    Â Â Â "It's lovely that she has that option, of course, but I understand the allure of school. I've always enjoyed it—the enrolling, the posted grades, the pastries in the cafeteria, the registrar and the bursar and the ombudsman. If you decide to make movies on your own, then you pretty much have to spend all your time making movies on your own. But school gives you a comforting direction. Even when you're doing nothing, you're doing something—you're in school. Once you finish your homework, you can sit around and eat pastries with a clear conscience."
    Â Â Â "I caught that little thing in your voice," says Madelaine.
    Â Â Â "What thing?"
    Â Â Â "When you said it was lovely that she had that option. You think everything is easy when you're rich, don't you?"
    Â Â Â "I suppose I do, to be honest with you."
    Â Â Â "Just remember this, Agnes. Nobody wants to shoot you."
    Â Â Â A blood-curdling scream sounds on the other side of the triplex. Agnes looks at Madelaine with alarm. Has somebody jumped off one of the terraces?
    Â Â Â Madelaine checks her wristwatch.
    Â Â Â "Three o'clock," she says casually. "Ron just had one of his vitamin shots, the big baby."

    * * *
    Bob Syker opens his briefcase on Madelaine's desk. He studies Agnes over the raised lid. He flashes a knowing smile. "Let's get the formalities over with. Ron wants to offer you something for your services. A reward. I know that money can't even begin to compensate you for that you did, and I hope you won't be