“Oh for the love of God!” I shouted, squirming on the cold steel floor in a fetal position. “I need a shower!”
Klaus helped me up and led me downstairs through that horrible tiny tunnel to a shower room. The water was good and hot. It was just what I needed to bring me back to reality. But my situation was the same. I was still stuck in the digestive system of the largest mechanical airship in the world. And she was eating me alive.
I dressed and made my way down to the cargo area. At least that had some semblance of a real room. The monkeys were there, but fortunately, they were in their cage. Alvon was feeding them from box loads of fruit. The Chinese man was standing in the same spot where I had seen him the night before. But even that didn’t creep me out as much as being alone in the middle of the Graf.
“Good morning, Mr. Bay!” Alvon said as I sat on one of the boxes.
“Yes, whatever, Monkey Man,” I replied, holding my head in my hands.
“You know,” he said, “I wasn’t always a monkey trainer. I was quite the circus star in my time! And I was an actor!”
I happened to be sitting on the very same box that I had the evening before, the one Klaus and I opened. It tipped over again with my weight, reminding me of what we’d found inside it.
“Whose boxes are these?” I asked, getting up from the floor.
“I don’t know,” Alvon replied.
“Well, they have flashbulbs in them,” I said. “You didn’t see who brought them onboard?”
“No Sir,” he replied. “The boxes were here before I arrived. I only brought these crates with fruit.”
He went on babbling about his days as an actor in Germany while I contemplated going back up to the observation point. I figured I’d better check in with Captain Clipboard first so as not to arouse suspicion of my whereabouts.
Just then, the two security men who frisked me during boarding entered from the passenger quarters. They were speaking German and in what seemed to be a serious conversation—about what, I had no idea. They barely looked at us but I could tell Alvon was concerned about what they were saying. A few minutes later, they were gone.
“What the hell was that all about?” I asked Monkey Man.
“They are trying to get an audience with Mr. Hearst,” he said, “just like everyone else. Apparently their efforts were failing.”
“To hell with Hearst!” I replied. “I want to meet Marion Davies!”
“Well, your ambitions aren’t politically motivated,” Alvon said. “You see, those two men are from the Nazi Party, and they are campaigning.”
“And Jean Harlow,” I said. “I want to meet Jean Harlow.”
“I was friends with Harry Houdini,” he said. “He was my mentor.”
“I don’t care,” I replied.
Alvon continued talking about how Houdini was the greatest magician of all time and how well he knew the man.
“I studied under him,” Alvon explained. “We were very close. I was at his last performance. When he got sick and went to the hospital.”
“That is fascinating, Alvon,” I lied. “But right now I need to get the hell out of here.”
“You have a friendship, an admiration, with Bela Lugosi, do you not?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I guess you could say that.”
“Then you have a reference point about what I am referring to,” he answered.
It occurred to me that I should just go into the passenger area alone and unannounced. Maybe I could find Bela and meet some Hollywood stars. Hell, I was on board the great Graf on this great historical flight across America with the most famous people in the world. What the hell was I doing sitting in the cargo area with a has-been acrobat and his monkeys? And what could they do to me anyway? I was already in prison. It was time to drive the Packard into the river.
I stood up and announced, “Monkey Man, thank you! I will see you later! I am going to meet Jean Harlow!”
Chapter Five
I took a deep breath and turned the door knob, and the damn thing was locked. I looked back at Monkey Man who was laughing at me contently.
“So you’re going to meet Jean Harlow?” he asked.
There must be another way in, I thought.
I climbed back up the ladder to the top side and went down the sloped hallway to the right. I’d walked the tiny, creepy tunnel the night before, but this time I noticed a small crawl space to my left.
I crawled inside on my stomach, figuring it might lead somewhere. Then I heard muffled voices from below. I was just above one of the rooms, and there was a small, round hatch about two feet wide. There didn’t seem to be any way of opening it from the top side, so I started banging on it with my fists in hopes the people below would hear and open it. The voices stopped, so I hammered even harder. But the silence persisted, so I backed out of the tunnel and continued down the hallway.
There was another passage way just ten feet down, but this time, I didn’t hear any voices. On the third one, not only were there voices, but someone opened the hatch! Squeezing through, I fell to the floor accompanied by the screams of two women. I looked up stunned, and standing over me were two angels. It was Jean Harlow and Marion Davies.
“Are you all right?” Marion asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Thank you!”
“Good Heavens!” Jean said as they helped me up off the floor. “Why were you up there anyway?”
“It’s a long story,” I answered.
The sleeping room was surprisingly tiny, only about ten by eight feet. It wasn’t the accommodations I had expected to find on the Great Graf. And as the starlets helped me up, I thought, maybe the upper side isn’t so claustrophobic after all.
“I apologize,” I said. “My name is Gretch Bayonne, but everyone calls me Bay. I am a writer, and I got passage on this voyage but had to stay up above. But one thing led to another, and I got lost up there.”
“You are a reporter?” asked Marion.
“Yes,” I answered. “But I am not covering this story. I am just here to get to Hollywood for another story.”
“Oh,” Marion said. “That is strange. What story are you writing then?”
“A missing person story,” I answered.
“Oh, how intriguing!” Jean said. “Who is missing?”
“Just a man,” I explained. “He is not an athlete or a star. His wife has sent me to find him and bring him back home.”
“Are you a stowaway?” Marion asked.
“No, well, not really,” I answered. “Karl got me onboard but I have to stay up top. He said there was no room down here.”
“Well, this is most exciting!” Marion said. “A man falling through our ceiling!”
“I am not sure how excited William Hearst would be about this if he found out,” I said.
“You leave that to me!” Marion said. “It is a pleasant departure to meet a reporter who is not interested in Hollywood stars, Mr. Bay.”
“Tell us more about this story you are working on,” Jean said. “It sounds far more interesting than the drivel these famous actors drone on about!”
I sat on the tiny lower bunk with Marion Davies on my right and Jean Harlow on my left, and recounted the story of how I’d come to be on the most famous cross-country air trip of all time. I left nothing out, including the fact that I had fallen head over heels in love with the woman who sent me to find her lost husband. They were both teary-eyed, and within a fifteen minutes, I had two new fans.
Then there was a sudden rapping at the door.
“Yes?” Marion asked.
“Time for breakfast, Miss Davies,” a voice called out.
“Okay, thank you!” she said.
“Come back down later this afternoon,” Marion told me. “I will explain this to William, and perhaps you can join us for dinner tonight.”
“Thank you,” I replied, climbing onto the top bunk. “And listen, I understand Bela Lugosi is here. I am friends with him, so I would appreciate it if you told
him I am here.”
“Oh yes, he’s here!” Marion said. “I’ll let him know, but I have to talk to William first. There are a lot of people here. And since we are shooting a documentary, it’s not easy. It is almost like being on a movie set. This whole trip is scripted. But I’ll try to tell him.”
“Thank you,” I said as I climbed back through the hole to the guts of the ship.
This whole trip is scripted? I thought. I wonder what that means?
I couldn’t believe what had just transpired. Not only had I met Marion Davies and the beautiful Jean Harlow, but they liked me and wanted to help me get out of the belly of the beast! They were genuinely impressed with my mission and were going to use their influence with Hearst to get me down into the passenger quarters of the ship.
It took me a good ten minutes of laying in that tunnel to recuperate from the experience and to prepare myself to go back into the strange surroundings of being top side.
As I crawled out of the tunnel that had led me to Marion and Jean, it dawned on me that there must be hatches to all the sleeping quarters. And sure enough, spaced about ten feet apart, there was the same type of tunnels.
After passing by about seven of these, I decided to climb into another one. Again, there was a hatch, and again, I could hear voices. It was hard to make out the words, but there were definitely multiple people talking. Occasionally, they would break out in distinctive laughter. This must be the dining room, I thought.
I crawled my way back to the main walkway and decided to go back up to the midsection of the top side where I had slept the night before, to retrieve my bag. It was just as dark and creepy as I’d left it.
As I pulled a bottle of bootleg whiskey from my bag to take a sip, I heard that disturbing noise again. That slow rumbling noise, like a snare drum marching from the distance. The sound seemed to come from all around, so it was difficult to distinguish where it originated. It could be coming from above or below. You just didn’t know until it was almost on top of you.
It passed by me so fast I could barely tell what it was. But since I’d seen it before, I knew it was a bowling ball zooming through a vertical spine of the ship right by me. Damn monkeys! I thought. I have to tell someone they are out again.
I made it to the cargo area just in time to witness the monkeys jumping back into the big steel cage. Alvon was there, counting them.
“You have got to keep these monkeys locked up!” I told him. “They scared the hell out of me!”
“I know,” Alvon replied. “My apologies.”
“No!” I shouted. “This place is creepy enough without your monkeys running around! You let them out on purpose!”
“You feel cooped up in here, don’t you, Mr. Bay?” he asked.
“Well, yes,” I said. “It is creepy, not a natural environment. And you are not helping!”
“Imagine how the monkeys must feel then,” he said.
“I don’t really care how they feel,” I countered. “It was your decision to bring them on this ship, not mine!”
“Yes, you are correct, Mr. Bay,” he said. “We all make decisions, good or bad. I have a poem I would like you to read, if you will, that has a lot to do with that.”
“I am not interested in your poetry, Alvon.” I said.
“But you are a writer,” he replied. “Your opinion would mean a lot to me.”
I was in a corner. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll try to read it sometime.”
He handed me a single page and I jammed it into my pocket.
“And here, take these as well,” he said. He handed me two bananas. “You might want a snack sometime.”
“Thanks, I said. “But keep the damned monkeys in the cage.”
As I climbed the ladder, I heard him mutter, “It is called Seven Monkeys, Mr. Bay.”
***
I took a sip of whiskey and contemplated what I should do next. I didn’t have many choices. I could lay in my sling and wait for someone to come rescue me or take the ladder back up to the observation point to the top of the Graf and see if it was possible to walk on her back. A few slugs later, I was climbing the ladder to freedom.
Just before I opened the hatch, I tied one end of the rope around my waist and the other to the top of the ladder. If I do fall, I thought, at least this rope may save my life.
I stepped out of the hole and onto her back. The wind blew strong, but not hard enough to whisk me away. I took a few cautious steps. Her back seemed safe and rigid. And from that vantage point, I again could see the green earth below and the blue sky to each side and above me. The difference from being inside the belly of the ship and outside on her back was like night and day. It was like being reborn, like going from the womb to the world.
I was flying again. The surface was relatively flat to each side, about thirty feet wide, before it started sloping downward slightly. There was no fear of falling. I decided I would not go back down. I would be happy to ride her back all the way to Los Angeles. To hell with the guts and the stars. I wasn’t here for them anyway. I was just along for the ride. They will look for me, I thought, but I don’t care. I will go back down when we reach Olympia Stadium. But not before then.
I’d gone about a hundred feet from the hatch when the rope stopped me. I was at the end of my rope, literally. Damn! I thought. I need a longer rope!
I turned around and started walking back. At that very moment, one of the monkeys jumped out of the hatch and started running towards me. Jumping Hell! I thought. What now?
If that weren’t insane enough, the damned monkey was quickly followed by first one man, then another, chasing him! They were the nice security Nazis! For some reason, they were chasing the monkey. I was confused as hell and felt invaded upon.
The monkey stopped about ten feet from me, and the Nazis stopped about ten feet behind him. I looked at the monkey, then the men, then the monkey again.
“What the hell is going on?” I shouted.
“He has the key!” one of them shouted desperately.
Sure enough, the monkey was holding a gold key on a chain. I shook my head in utter disbelief.
“Okay,” I said. “I take it that is important.”
“It is a matter of life and death that we get that key back!” one of them said.
I got the impression that the monkey liked the shiny key. And for the first time I empathized with the monkey, having been reborn and all.
“Not that I give a cat’s paw, but what is so god awful important about this key?” I asked them.
The monkey sat looking at the key as if he knew the answer. The men crept closer to the monkey and startled him. He ran a few feet towards me then stopped and turned towards the Nazis.
“Just stay there!” I said. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the bananas Alvon had given me.
“Hey boy,” I said kneeling down. “I’ll make you a deal. You give me the key, and I will give you these bananas.”
The monkey looked me in the eyes as if he understood. He was turning his head back and forth rapidly from me to the Nazis.
“We must have that key now!” they were shouting.
“Just stay put! You’re spooking him,” I replied.
“Here, little fella,” I said holding out the bananas.
The damned monkey snatched the bananas and dropped the key. It bounced and went sliding out of my reach. The Nazis screamed like school-girls and one of them ran and dove headfirst towards the key and down the side of the vessel. I knew he was going to fall to his death, and knowing I had the rope on, I made a split second decision to try to grab him. Given one more second, I am sure I would have let him go. I just didn’t have time to think.
I dove like I was going into a great swimming pool. Miraculously, I was able to grab his legs a second before my rope ran out, which stopped us suddenly in mid-fall. We were about half way down the Graf top side and slammed hard against her belly, nearly knocking me unconscious.
Somehow I was able to hang onto him. I
had the breath knocked out of me and contemplated whether I should let go of him. I couldn’t pull myself back up by the rope, hanging upside down, without the use of my hands. But I did hang on. This damn key better be real important, I thought.
A moment later, we were being pulled back up. It seemed to take forever until we reached the top again. When we finally did, I saw the person who saved our lives.
Chapter Six
Death had just licked me on the face like a German Shepherd after getting pork scraps, and I was pissed off about it. And just as it dawned on me that I was not going to die, or sack the rabbit as I call it, a voice called out from behind me.
“Bay! What the hell is going on here?”
It was my old friend Bela, accompanied by Alvon the Monkey Man and the other security guard.
“I don’t know!” I said hugging him. “But thank you for saving me!”
“Why are you up here?” Bela asked.
“Because I didn’t want to be down there!” I answered.
The wind was picking up as we walked back towards the hatch.
“This is amazing!” Bela said. “Quite the bird’s eye view!”
“Or bat’s?” I joked.
“Let’s get back inside!” Bela said.
“Yes,” I replied, “but when we get back down, I am going to whoop these guys asses. Just wanted to warn you.”
“Don’t cause any trouble with these men,” Bela warned. “They are guests from Germany.”
“I don’t care,” I replied. “I just hung upside down a thousand feet to save one of them, and I deserve an explanation!”
We went down the ladder one at a time. I made sure Bela went first, followed by me and Alvon, then it was Hans’ and Stefan’s turn. I wanted to be there waiting for them when they came down.
“What is so important about this key that you would risk my life for it?” I shouted.
Hans pushed me away, shaking his head as Stefan came down the ladder.
“It is our mission to get a box to Mr. Hearst,” he said.
“And what is in this box?” I demanded.
Chase The Rabbit: Gretch Bayonne Action Adventure Series Book #1 Page 4