Minna. "Come on in,
baby. You and me's got to have a little conference." His exaggerated
wink was barely perceptible in the gloom as Minna stepped over the low
sill into the store. "Won't be long, folks," Wilson said in high good
humor, and the two of them vanished into the darkness beyond.

Frank Brooks glanced at Nora, but her face was turned away. He cursed
softy under his breath. He said, "Wait a minute," and went into the
store through the huge, jagged opening.

Inside, he could barely make out the counters. The place was larger than
it had appeared from the outside. Wilson and Minna were nowhere about.

Frank found the counter he was looking for and pawed out several
flashlights. They were only empty tubes, but he found a case of
batteries in a panel compartment against the wall.

"Who's there?"

"Me. I came in for some flashlights."

"Couldn't you wait?"

"It's getting dark."

"You don't have to be so damn impatient." Jim Wilson's voice was hostile
and surly.

Frank stifled his quick anger. "We'll be outside," he said. He found
Nora waiting where he'd left her. He loaded batteries into four
flashlights before Jim Wilson and Minna reappeared.

Wilson's good humor was back. "How about the Morrison or the Sherman,"
he said. "Or do you want to get real ritzy and walk up to the Drake?"

"My feet hurt," Minna said. The woman spoke so rarely, Frank Brooks was
startled by her words.

"Morrison's the closest," Jim Wilson said. "Let's go." He took Minna by
the arm and swung off up the street. Frank and Nora fell in behind.

Nora shivered. Frank, holding her arm, asked, "Cold?"

"No. It's just all--unreal again."

"I see what you mean."

"I never expected to see the Loop dark. I can't get used to it."

A vagrant, whispering wind picked up a scrap of paper and whirled it
along the street. It caught against Nora's ankle. She jerked perceptibly
and kicked the scrap away. The wind caught it again and spiralled it
away into the darkness.

"I want to tell you something," she said.

"Tell away."

"I told you before that I slept through the--the evacuation, or whatever
it was. That wasn't exactly true. I did sleep through it, but it was my
fault. I put myself to sleep."

"I don't get it."

"I tried to kill myself. Sleeping tablets. Seven of them. They weren't
enough."

Frank said nothing while they paced off ten steps through the dark
canyon that was Madison Street. Nora wondered if he had heard.

"