Embracing Darkness (49 page)

“Mr.
Willoughby,
Henrietta
Townsend
is
a
man.”

“Oh,
come
now,
Russo!
How
dare
you
say
such
a
thing
about
so
lovely
a
young
lady
as
Miss
 . . . .”

“I
tell
you,
she
is
,
Mr.
Willoughby.
And
if
you
don’t
believe
me,
just
take
a
peek
under
her
dress.
I
was
under
the
table
during
part
of
her
interview,
and
I
saw
what
was
between
those
legs
of
hers.”

“YOU
WERE
PEEPING
AT
HER
FROM
UNDER
THE
TABLE?
YOU
PERVERTED
SON
OF
A
BITCH!”

If
Cornelius
said
anything
at
all
to
Willoughby,
his
boss
would
accuse
Cornelius
of
being
jealous
of
Henrietta’s
success.
You
see,
until
Henrietta’s
employment
at
the
Willoughby
Real
Estate
Agency,
it
was
Cornelius
Russo
whose
name
was
always
up
on
that
bulletin
board
at
the
end
of
every
month
for
having
the
most
sales.
It
wasn’t
hard.
The
only
other
agents
were
Gretchen
Beals,
who
was
pregnant
and
would
soon
quit
to
raise
her
child,
and
Morris
Coleman,
who
was
72
and
only
kept
on
by
Graham
Willoughby
because
Morris
had
been
with
the
company
since
its
inception.

As
Cornelius
sat
in
the
Woodrow
Wilson
Memorial
Auditorium
of
the
town’s
elementary
school,
he
realized
that
he
had
to
make
all
the
townspeople
see
what
was
beneath
Henrietta’s
garb,
not
just
Willoughby,
and
his
reason
was
simple.
If
only
Willoughby
saw
for
himself,
he’d
just
fire
Henrietta.
That
wasn’t
enough
for
Cornelius
Russo.
He
needed
to
humiliate
this
man
who,
for
some
reason,
dressed
up
in
women’s
clothes
and
stole
all
of
his
sales.

Cornelius
went
to
work
on
getting
to
know
Henrietta.
He
began
talking
to
her
during
their
lunch
hour
and
even
chatted
her
up
one
evening
while
the
two
of
them
stayed
late
at
the
office.
Of
course,
Cornelius
had
a
fraction
of
the
work
that
Henrietta
had
because
she’d
again
taken
nearly
all
his
customers
that
month.
Cornelius
found
out
two
things
about
her:
she
loved
The Wizard of Oz
more
than
anything
else
in
the
world,
and
she
was
allergic
to
rhubarb
pie.

It
just
so
happened
that
the
town
theater
was
planning
to
run
The Wizard of Oz
the
following
week,
and
the
tickets
sold
like
hotcakes
at
a
loggers’
convention.
There
wasn’t
a
single
ticket
left
for
opening
night.
Cornelius
had
bought
several
tickets
beforehand.
He
then
went
to
Henrietta’s
house,
which
was
located
two
towns
away,
planning
to
slip
a
ticket
under
her
door
with
a
note
that
said,
“I
had
an
extra
ticket.
I’ll
see
you
there.
Enjoy!
—
Cornelius
Russo.”

As
he
approached
the
house
shortly
after
eleven
that
night,
he
decided
not
to
go
to
the
front
of
the
house
because
there
was
too
much
light,
and
he
knew
that
if
anyone
caught
him
there
he
might
be
arrested.
So
instead
he
went
around
to
the
side
of
the
house
and
ducked
under
one
of
the
windows,
which
happened
to
be
Henrietta’s
bedroom
window.
Cornelius
sneaked
a
peek
and
saw
not
Henrietta
but
a
familiar-looking
young
man
in
his
early
twenties.
It
was
this
guy
who
had
been
pretending
to
be
Henrietta
Townsend,
but
Cornelius
still
couldn’t
figure
out
why.
Then
Russo
remembered
where
he’d
seen
him
before.
The
man
had
come
into
Willoughby’s
Real
Estate
Agency
the
day
before
Henrietta
did,
responding
to
an
ad
for
the
position
to
replace
Gretchen
Beals.
Whatever
his
reason
for
dressing
up
in
women’s
clothes,
it
didn’t
matter
now
to
Cornelius
Russo.
He
wanted
revenge.

Cornelius
went
back
around
to
the
front,
poked
the
ticket
under
the
door,
and
then
returned
home.
It
would
be
only
a
matter
of
days
before
the
first
showing
of
The Wizard of Oz
,
the
night
of
Cornelius
Russo’s
revenge.

At
least
three
hundred
people,
all
clutching
tickets,
were
lined
up
outside
the
theater
to
see
Billy
Burke
and
Judy
Garland
in
the
epic
tale.
Present,
in
fact,
were
all
of
the
town’s
most
important
people.
The
mayor
was
there
with
his
wife,
as
were
the
local
congressman
and
his
“girlfriend,”
the
elementary
school
teacher
and
her
husband,
the
two
postal
workers,
as
well
as
all
the
store
owners
in
town
and
their
spouses.
If
ever
there
was
to
be
an
unveiling
of
something
for
the
whole
town
to
see,
this
was
the
occasion.