Scene 1. Fendor

Fall has come, and it is colder now. This is the time of the year when there are sometimes strong Autumn winds. Tonight is such a night. The spirits are out tonight, collecting souls…

Lilly and Liz are waiting impatiently for Fendor in Lilly’s apartment. Both are wearing Fendor’s chokers and the frilly little-girl skirts that Fendor likes. Of course the skirts are in complementary in colors. They are waiting for their weekly, Wednesday night, session with their favorite furry hug-pillow.

Both thinking: He is late! The nerve! We’ll have to punish him by making no threats!

Lilly has been listening to the front door, rattling with the wind. Suddenly hears something large hitting and scraping against the outside of the front door of the apartment. The wind? She sees nothing through the peep hole but she starts to open the door and the door suddenly blows open. On the entrance-way is Fendor. He has fallen down on all fours and is leaning against the open door. He is looking down, speechless, and panting hard. Lilly looks down and emits a short shriek, “Fendor! Wow!” “What happened?” “You don’t look so good.”

Liz quickly steps over to help Lilly lift Fendor up. He is too weak to stand on his own. “Maybe we need to cheer you up?” “What is wrong?” “Did your wife file for a divorce?” The two try to suppress their reaction to the sight, Eeek! He looks suddenly 80! And not a healthy 80 either!

“No” he gasps. “I just need some rest," “Gasp!” “And to see you both, “Gasp”.” He attempts to reach toward them, “Come to me and let’s nuzzle,” “I don’t think I am up for anything else tonight.”

Liz tries to assist him, “Can we get you anything? A drink? Some food?”

“No, nothing, please,” “I just want to be with you all.” “I just want to hold you both once again.” “You all are what I need right now,” “Please let's just lay together, quiet, for a while.” “You can make me some dandelion tea.” "Let me smell that smell again, like on the day we met, Lilly.”

Lilly recoils, You want to remember that day?!

They carry Fendor to the bedroom and lay him out on Lilly’s large bed. Carefully, they remove his shoes and outer clothing. Lilly notes his labored breathing and checks to see if anything else is constricting him, “I hope that will help your breathing.” “You just lay here for a few minutes and recover, while we make you some tea.”

A few minutes later the women return to the dark bedroom with tea. Fendor has his eyes closed and is lying motionless on the bed. Liz whispers to Lilly, “I think Fendor has stopped breathing.”

Lilly eyes spring wide and she jumps on Fendor’s chest, “Fendor wake up!” “You’re scaring us!” He does not respond.

Liz watches Fendor carefully, “He is still breathing, but not very well.” “We have to get him to a doctor.” “Now!”

Lilly is in a confused panic, “This time of night?” “Should I call an ambulance?” “Neither of us have a car and the wagon will take too long.” “I’ll call the emergency line.” “Are we are about to spring the scandal?” “Even calling Trish would take too long,” “And that would be an awful thing to do to her anyway,” “Especially at this time of night and she has a kid!”

Liz holds Lilly, “Lilly, calm down!” “You’re not helping!” Liz picks up the phone. Dialing sounds then Liz on the phone, “We have an unconscious middle-aged wolf-man. He is breathing, but not very well, please send someone right away.” “(Lilly, what is the address here?)” “Yes, it is 237 Peachwood lane, unit 5. It is the last apartment in the building on the north side, second floor. We’ll be watching for you and we’ll meet you down stairs when you arrive.”

Liz continues to try to calm Lilly, who is jumping up and down: “Scandal?” “The only one that doesn’t know about us meeting his wife is Fendor, and I don’t think he is listening right now.”

Liz continues to examine Fendor, “What is going on with him?” “Even though he is so thin, he always seemed to be so together and strong willed.”

Lilly, frowning, “‘Wifey’ isn’t the only one that pulled the PI trick." "I also ran a background check, on his family.” “His robust, ‘I’m never sick!’ persona was all an act." "For one thing, he is a lot older than he lets on." "He was 65 when I rifled his wallet two years ago," "And that’s not all." "I did a little background checking and found he was once a professor of Economics in the School of Business." "It seems he just couldn’t resist one of his little freshman students that had a crush on him, and he got her pregnant." "No, Liz, you were not the first one he has ‘nuzzled’." "He was fired from the college and found a job in industry." "Trish lied about her age too, she is not 35, she is 27." "She was a child prodigy that entered college at sixteen." "I guess he avoided jail by marrying her." "It made all the papers at the time, so they had to relocate where they could rework their past." "He found a business that was desperate for an accountant so they didn’t dig very deep." "I looked it up in the archives."

"His scandal even made our college paper at the time."

Scene 2. Hookers

They hear the siren of the ambulance outside and suddenly look at each other. They did not change from their ‘Fendor greeting’ clothes. Together: “Uh oh, we look like a couple of ‘hookers’!” “Oh No!” Lilly pulls two long coats out of the front closet and hands one to Liz. “We will have to make do." "It isn’t like we haven’t drawn attention before.”

The med-tech enters the apartment and observes Fendor lying on the bed. He checks Fendor for heartbeat and breathing. He turns and faces the two women. Liz and Lilly nervously pull their coats tightly closed. The tech does his best not to react, “Are either of you related to the patient?”

Lilly manages a crooked smile, trying to only look concerned, “Yes, we are his 'god-daughters'.”

The tech does his best not to react, god-daughters? That's a new one.

“Okay, you two can ride in the back, with the patient.” “Is ‘County General’ okay?

………..

Skunk-woman is attending the hospital reception desk, she looks up at the two women in overcoats,

"We are here to see Fendor Willis." "He was just brought in."

“Are you related to the patent?”

Suspiciously, the women answer together, “Yes, we are his ‘god-daughters’.”

She stares at them: “He is out of Emergency and has been moved to room 511. Visiting hours end at 7:00 PM.”

……….

The women ascend the stairs to the ward room. The hospital staff can be seen peeking around the corner at them and whispering, chattering, "Hookers killed another one."

Lilly gives them glints of hate from her eyes and frowns, but resists shouting at them, (That’s right, we’re a couple of ‘hookers’ that took our client to the ‘promised land’!) As they are walking Lilly reflects, and looks sad,

and it is probably true.

Scene 3. Goodbye

Lilly and Liz see that the lights are on and rush into the room. They see Fendor setting up in a hospital bed, with an IV. He is now conscious, But he looks like crap! The wind is ominously rattling at the window pane.

Lilly screams, “What the hell is happening to you!” “What is going on?” “You had better not be dying!”

Liz try's to calm the frantic Lilly, “Lilly! Calm down!” “You’ll get us kicked out!”

Fendor looks up from the bed, “I must apologize to you both." "Although I haven’t exactly lied to you (and my wife)," "I haven’t been forthcoming with the truth either.” “Yes, I am dying.” “I was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago, on the day before I met you, Lilly.” “I haven’t told my wife." "I was going to tell her that night, but then things happened, I met you.” “Before meeting you all, I didn’t mind dying so much…” “But after our first meeting, I suddenly wanted to live, for a while longer at least," "And (thanks to you all) I did.”

“When we ended up continuing our relationship, I felt very guilty about it." "Then I discovered how much I still loved my wife.” “And what a good mother, and a good person she is.” “I didn’t tell anyone anything for fear that it would break the spell.”

“So let the devil take me, I am a damned sinner!” Fendor shouts.

“My time with you all was worth every second of it!” “You are both young, strong women so I know you both will do well in the world.” “Just beware of old wolves, such as myself.” Fendor smiles at them. The women are holding hooves and sobbing. Their coats have partially opened, reveling their scant costumes to him and the hospital staff.

Lilly, unable to hold in her emotions, shouts, “Now Fendor you stop that!” “You just get up out of that bed!” “That’s an order!”

Fendor smiles at the concern of his friends, and lovers, “My wife will be here tomorrow and I don’t have much time left, so this is the likely the last time we’ll get to talk." "But I wanted you to know." "And no, you did not do this to me.” “I love you both very much.” “I learned a lot from you." "You saved my job and my marriage.” “I got an unexpected reprieve on life, even here, at the end.”

The two women, griped with guilt and loss, are loudly balling, bleating and hugging Fendor in the bed. Fendor smiles and closes his eyes, “Cool it with the waterworks!" "Nothing is as distressing as watching two goats cry!” "Baaaaaaaaaaa!" "Baaaaaaaaaaa!" "Baaaaaaaaaaa!"

-Ding-Ding, “It is now 7:00 o’clock PM, visiting hours are now over.”

Scene 4. Ram

Then a huge black ram appears at the doorway, blocking most of the light from the hallway. He is a giant, and almost as wide as he is tall. He dressed in black clerics and wearing a large gold cross around his neck. His yellow horns are large and curled tightly to each side of his head, contrasting with his barred, blue-gray eyes. The girls stop their theatrics and look up, totally captivated by the imposing figure, Oh, oh! We’re in deep trouble now, God has appeared!

God speaks, in a clear soothing voice, “May I come in?” Who are we to refuse the entrance of God?

Everyone is too stunned to answer his question, but he walks in anyway. The Ram walks up to the bed and speaks to Fendor, “How are you feeling, my son?” Fendor lies, fooling no one, “I feel better now.”

The Ram looks at the two, somewhat exposed, women that are lying on top of Fendor, “Since visiting hours are over, please accompany me to my office,” “I have some things for you.” It was not a request. The nurses start in to pull the women off of Fendor, but Liz and Lilly know when they are beaten. (they are competitive athletes, after all!) Wordless, they stand and follow The Ram out of the room and down to his office area by the reception desk. The Ram ushers them into his office and pulls out chairs for them to sit and one large one for himself, facing them. He apparently is not going to lecture them from behind his imposing desk. The women are calmed by the walk, and are now seated, facing The Ram. Lilly is drawn to the large gold cross he is wearing, ‘The Cross of the Lamb’. She remembers that she was given a similar, but much smaller, cross when she graduated from primary school. The school was run by the ‘Church of the Lamb’. She wonders: Do I still have my cross?

The Ram begins his lecture, telling them that Fendor’s prognosis is poor and that they need to conclude any outstanding business with him very soon. The girls now pull their coats tightly closed from their brief exposure for Fendor. The Ram is not fooled, but he is too professional to react or comment on their dress. He then enumerates the various services of consolation and support that he and his organization can provide to the grieving. He says that he will call if anything changes. He gives Liz his card and arranges transportation home. Liz asks if the cab can drop her off at her home across town from Lilly’s and the Ram nods his head ‘yes’.

The next word they hear about Fendor comes two days later. The Ram calls and gives Lilly gives the date and time for Fendor’s memorial service.

Scene 5. Funeral

The autumn winds have abated, as the spirits are now satisfied with the souls they have collected.

It is clear, warm and sunny fall day, at “The Hills” cemetery. The lawns are kept very nice and the air smells fresh.

The service is conducted by a different cleric. However, the cleric pauses to start the service. He leans down to his assistant: “See if anyone here knows the two women in the back that are causing such a loud fuss?” Liz and Lilly are loudly bleating to each other.

Trish takes note of the disturbance, and whispers, (“I do.” “They are friends of the family, his god-children.” “They were quite close to my husband.” “I’ll go talk to them.”)

The disturbance is quelled and the service continues. It appears that Fendor was much loved, with many friends and co-workers at his funeral. Farnsworth is there also, sitting alone. Farnsworth stares at the two women with a frown, but he says nothing, to them or to anyone else. Lilly looks back at Farnsworth and rocks back and forth in her seat, I can read your mind, and you are not wrong.

Fendor' coffin is lowered down into the grave for his last trip in this reality. Lilly walks to the graveside held up by Liz. Lilly closes her damp eyes as she drops a small pile of dirt into the open grave, that awaits us all, "Farewell, my love,"

"I can’t be with you now, as there is still something I must do in this life," "In this world."

"But save me a place…"