Angie sat back down and rolled back to the computer screen so that he could see. The fingers; the thumb against the index finger, with the third finger as the lower one that the index rested on, was illustrated on the screen. Rollie walked over, closer to the screen and squinted.

"The curse of truth! What kind of curse is that? You have to go around and tell the truth all the time? How inane is that?" Rollie said, putting his hands up in the air. Doesn’t sound too much like a curse, to me…"

Angie rolled down the screen, "Apparently, it’s a baddie, Rollie! It says here that the more you lie while cursed, the worse your symptoms of illness will become. Starts with headaches and gets, like- near death!" She looked back up at him as he grinned.

"He did say that he thought I was a used car salesman! Great!" Rollie said, and sat down in the chair next to her as Mira offered her two cents worth;

"He is all talk! According to my sources, Nicholas Czewt has been doing this kind of curse trick for years on police and investigators."

"And?" Angie asked, trying to get her to speed up the information.

"And, nothing happened to them," Mira replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Rollie smiled at Angie, "There, you see. Nothing to fret about."

"Yeah, of the ones that are still alive!" Angie retorted, as Mira pretended not to hear her.

"Okay, okay- so he cursed me- I’ve been in worse situations, eh?" Rollie asked Angie, giving her a quick kiss as she frowned.

Frank was still playing with the little baggie that he had confiscated from Czewt’s second tent. He shook his head.

"This is weird. I could have sworn I smelled hashish in the tent when I opened this baggie. Now, I don’t smell anything. And the stuff has gotten brittle and is dissolving into fine powder."

Mira looked at the baggie he held in his hand, "Come on, let’s get it down to the lab. I am NOT going to be tricked by Czewt out of this bust!"

Without even a thank you, she left with Frank, leaving Rollie and Angie by themselves.

"A fine how’da’do to you too," Angie said, to the direction of Mira’s exit.

"She’s got her detective mode in full swing. She wants that bust tonight so bad, she can’t think of anything else," Rollie told her, taking a towel to his face.

"Hey, hand me some of that bottled water, Ange- I’m parched!"

She gave him her bottle and he swallowed most of it, taking a bit to douse his towel and place against his face, "Whew, I am hot!"

Angie looked at Rollie and he could see she was not happy. She stood up and walked over to him, touching his face and then turning the overhead van light on so that she could see him in full light.

"Oh God, Rollie!" she said, startled.

"What?"

"Your face, all around the jaw line and here," she told him, touching his cheeks and forehead, "you’re covered in welts."

He stood up and looked in the mirror, "Whoa, looks like I’ve been stung by bees or something…"

"They’re getting worse! We better get you over to the emergency room. I don’t like how fast they are coming up," Angie warned him, as she walked up to the front of the van, taking the driver’s seat.

"This is weird, you don’t think it has anything to do with Czewt’s wacko curse thing, do you?" she asked him, as she pulled the van out of park.

"Nah! Get real, Ange! I bet it is the paste from the mask. I noticed Mira was having some time with it too."

"Yeah, she didn’t have welts all over her face, Rollie," Angie retorted as they headed out into traffic.

"Okay, be motherly…I sorta like it," he said and grinned as she did not return his smile. Angie only looked increasingly worried as she looked at his face in the night lights of the city that flashed into the van.

Angie had called on Dr. Ramon again in the emergency room, who quickly brought in Dr. Terzis after taking a smear from one of the raised welts that he aspirated on Rollie’s cheek.

In the ensuing two hours since arriving, Rollie’s face had swollen, turned extremely bright red and over fifty welts had enlarged to over a centimeter apiece. They had tried steroids IV, topical preparations, and still, they enlarged and burned. They had given Rollie a sedative and Angie sat by his bedside in the E.R., pacing at times and then sitting. She had called Mira a dozen times, to no avail and figured that Mira had not suffered the same consequence as Rollie.

Finally, Dr. Terzis walked into their berth, Rollie dozing as Angie jumped to her feet. Dr. Ramon was behind him, smiling.

"Oh, Mrs. Tyler, we meet again! I must say- you two have been keeping me hopping in the lab- yes!" he told her, shaking her hand, and stepping over to Rollie.

"Ummm, yes- quite interesting, actually. Again, another, rather antiquated toxin was found in the aspiration smear that Dr. Ramon took of one of the welts."

"He’s going to be okay, right?" Angie asked, folding her arms across her chest as he patted Rollie on the shoulder.

"Oh yes, he should be fine in less than 24 hours. The welts will dissipate soon, I should say. And then, he’ll be his handsome self again, right?" Dr. Terzis said, smiling at her.

"But you said there was a toxin?" Angie asked, touching Rollie’s hand as he mumbled in his sedation.

"Actually, it is like a resin toxin. It rapidly oxidizes once the welts open and then dissipates, leaving no trace," Dr. Terzis said, almost admiringly.

"What was it? How did he get it?" Angie asked, confused.

"Why, it is Cannabinol- I should say, in layman’s terms- Hashish Indica. The sample I have was almost 100 percent pure. You can’t get that in the United States. I would say, to have this type of toxin, it would have to have been made fresh and in India."

"What?" Angie asked, incredulously, "You mean he has, like marijuana or something on his face?"

"No, Hashish Indica, pure, my dear. It is the resin of the Hemp plant, sieved fresh and still in resin form. The Indians use it for quite a few things besides making the drug Hash or something like that. It’s medicinal purposes are wide ranged and quite interesting."

"Okay, whatever…" Angie said, rolling her eyes, "But, how did he get it?"

"You said he had a mask on his face. Could you bring it to me?" Dr. Terzis asked, smiling.

"Sure, I’ll bring you everything he used tonight, be right back!" she told them, and after seeing that Rollie was sleeping soundly, ran out to the van.

Angie reappeared, carrying a box with the mask, the paste, the towel Rollie had used, even the bottled water she had been drinking and that he had finished. Dr. Terzis clucked over the items in the box, muttering to himself, his elderly head dipping every now and then, as he would pull up something, and look at it.

"I shall take these down to the lab. You two have a very fascinating lifestyle, you know," he told her, smiling as she smiled back, shaking her head. Dr. Ramon took Rollie’s vitals and turned to Angie;

"He’ll sleep most of the night. As you can see, the welts are starting to disappear. I have taken out the IV. I will get some attendants to assist you to your van. Unfortunately, we are at capacity here and need the bed. I hope that Dr. Terzis can help you with what really happened here. You two have certainly had some interesting medical situations."

"But? You’re sure he will be all right?" Angie asked, a little unnerved that Rollie had to leave so soon, and was sleeping so soundly.

"Yes, just let him sleep at home. His vitals are fine. The medication given to him here has done it’s job."

Angie bit her lip. She had been trying to formulate in her mind what could have happened. She decided that once she got Rollie in bed at home, she was going to go back over the videotape of the entire time in the Expo while Rollie and Mira were there.

Assisted by the attendants, Rollie was walking slowly along with Angie’s help to the van. She sat him down in the passenger seat, strapped him in as he slumped to one side and asked the two attendants; "now how am I getting him up some stairs into a bed?" They both shrugged.

"Wonderful! Medical care today!" she remarked, shutting the door with a slam and pulled out of the E.R. parking lot. She placed a call to Mira again, and then tried Frank to no avail. By the time she got back to the loft, Rollie was semi-awake. He was carrying on a decent conversation with her.

"Sorry, love," he told her as she pulled the van in and parked, "I didn’t mean to worry you."

Angie looked over at him trying to smile for him. His face was a mass of beefy, red welts and his jaw line was almost nonexistent. He looked like one of the monsters he had created for Ectoplasmic Ranger.

"Come on, let’s get you inside!" she told him, getting out of her seat and opening the van door on his side. She unfastened his seatbelt and he put his arms around her shoulders as she pulled him up, his weight against her making her stumble slightly back against the dashboard.

"Come on, Rollie- help me out here!" she told him, as he tried to straighten up and together, they got out of the van and to the door of the loft. Once inside, Bluey alerted, she quickly told him to light the place and lock the door. The phone was ringing inside and she told Bluey to put it on speaker.

"Hello? Rollie? It was Mira calling, her voice sounding depressed.

"Mira? It’s Angie- we’ve been trying to call you for the past three hours. There’s been a development here."

"Yeah, well here too!" Mira said, her voice flat, "we got no case. We tested the patch or what was left of it and it’s zilch, nada, nothing there- just inert material."

"Oh, sorry!" Angie told her, sitting Rollie down on the couch, breathing hard. He instantly just laid down and started to sleep as Angie took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"What happened there?" Mira asked, hearing Angie’s sigh.

Angie told her the whole story and Mira was very interested. She was particularly interested in the findings that Dr. Terzis had found on the smear. She told Angie that she would like to talk to the doctor as well in the morning.

"You’ll find him very interesting," Angie told her, laughing.

"Sounds like it, well- tell Rollie thanks for his help tonight, you TOO! I forgot earlier. I’m like that, you know."

"It’s okay, Mira! We’ll talk again in the morning." Angie told her back.

"Bye then!" Mira concluded and hung up.

"Did you hear that?" Angie told Rollie, knowing he hadn’t heard a thing as he snored slightly on the couch. She grabbed a blanket and a pillow from upstairs. She covered him and raised his head carefully, putting the pillow under his head. Kneeling beside the couch, she kissed his lips.

"What do we have ourselves into this time, Rollie Tyler?" she murmured to him, stroking his hair. Exhausted, she sat on the floor beside the couch, leaning her head against the edge of the cushion near Rollie’s head. She decided that this is where she was spending the night. She felt secure hearing him breath in and out, evenly. She wondered how it would be when she would have to sleep alone, without him beside her. A single tear released down her cheek, which she quickly rubbed away.

"What a baby!" she told herself, out loud, and then felt Rollie’s hand come down over her shoulder and rest there. With that comfort, she relaxed and soon fell asleep.