“How do we get downstairs?”
“There’s a bunch of fancy-dressed waiters coming from the door over there,” Morty said.
Fifteen minutes later, we were dressed in white shirts, black bow ties, and black slacks, and we were back in the Great Hall. Morty and I looked halfway decent. Diesel looked like a Chippendale’s dancer ready to burst out of his clothes.
Men in black tie and women in cocktail dresses were entering, smiling, talking, looking for their tables. The wait-staff was circulating with glasses of champagne and hors d’oeuvres on silver trays.
“When this hall gets filled with people, no one will notice if we leave to do our thing,” Diesel said. “Grab a tray and blend in until then.”
Morty got a tray of stuffed mushrooms. “Look at this,” he said. “Would you take something that looks like this from a stranger and eat it? I got a new rule since my time living in the park. I don’t eat food that’s brown.”
“Don’t let him out of your sight,” Diesel said to me.
I trailed after Morty. He offered his mushrooms and I offered chicken on a skewer. Neither of us had a lot of takers. People were going directly to the buffet table and taking seats.
“It’s like I got cooties,” Morty said. “No one wants one of these crapola brown things. Not that I blame them. I feel like I’m serving goose turds. And look at this party. What a bunch of stiffs. There isn’t anybody here under eighty. They should be passing out Metamucil shooters. These people are falling asleep, and they’re not even talking to me. I bet I could liven it up.”
“We don’t want it livened up. We’re just waiting for a signal from Diesel to sneak out.”
“I used to be the life of the party,” Morty said. “Did I tell you about the time I bent three spoons at once? I was crafty about it, too. I don’t move my lips or anything.”
Oh dear God, I thought. Where the heck was Diesel? Five more minutes of Morty, and I was going to be stretched out under a buffet table.
I rearranged my meat on a stick and realized voices were raised two tables down from me. Everyone was focused on one of the women at the table.
“Look at her spoon,” someone said. “It bent all by itself.”
A collective gasp went up and attention turned to the man next to her.
“It’s a miracle!” one of the women said. “Another spoon just bent.”
“It’s a trick,” someone else said. “They must be trick spoons.”
I looked over at Morty. His face was red, his eyes were narrowed to slits, and he was sweating.
“I’ve got one, too,” someone yelled.
“Me, too!”
“I’m hot, baby,” Morty said. “I’m back! Morty Sandman’s still got it. It’s a record! No one’s ever bent more than four spoons at once. Boy, I feel like a million bucks. I bet I could bend every spoon here.”
Diesel appeared out of nowhere and ushered Morty out of the hall.
“What’s the rush?” Morty said. “I was just getting started. I was on a roll.”
“If you kept bending spoons in there, they’d clear the place out and call in an exorcist.”
We kept our trays in case we ran into security, and we walked to the front of the building.
“I did some research while you were serving,” Diesel said. “The shadow on Joy Street is for the most part thrown by the dome in the front of the building, so I think we should start by looking at the dome. It sits over the Senate Chamber on the third floor.”
We took the elevator to the third floor and Diesel led us into the Senate Chamber. The Chamber walls were painted brick and there were busts of famous people stuck in niches. Above this, on the fourth floor, was gallery seating. And above everything was the dome, decorated in a sort of star-burst pattern with an elaborate wrought-iron chandelier hanging from the middle of it.
We walked around the room, reading plaques and examining the sculptures. We looked up at the dome. No frescoes. Very simple artwork.
“There’s a cupola on the top of the dome,” Diesel said. “There has to be a way to get up there. Usually, there are steps winding up. I’ve been to the top of lots of domes in Europe. Usually, the steps wind along an interior wall. In this case, what we’re seeing must be a false ceiling and not actually the skin of the dome.”
I didn’t consider this to be good news. I was a little claustrophobic, and I didn’t like heights all that much, either.