Nick grinned without taking his eyes off the road. "It’s a catwalk on an oil derrick."
"And what’s the thing on it?"
"Now, I can’t tell you that. You’ll just have to watch...and listen."
Tracy returned his smile, but inwardly she was gritting her teeth. What one wouldn’t do for love. She disliked horror stories, and it was obvious that both "Three Skeleton Key" and "The Thing on the Fourble Board" were in that genre. If it weren’t that Nick had starring roles in both of them, you couldn’t have paid her to watch them. Even if they were only radio. Or in this case, a few guys standing in front of microphones, reading from scripts, in front of an appreciative audience.
Tracy now started to mimic Orson Welles’ voice as well, trying to take her vocal register way down. Soon she was mimicking everyone who had a speaking role in each of the episodes, repeating their lines just after they said them, and often as not talking over the next person’s lines. It was driving Nick crazy, but he too thought, "What one doesn’t do for love."
Nick had been to the Hotel Waverly before, so when they reached the outskirts of Frederick he took the appropriate exits and within minutes they pulled into the hotel parking lot. It was jam-packed, as was the adjacent street. Tracy smiled inwardly. It seemed like Nick’s fans were going to be out in force today. "I don’t see any place to park," Tracy observed. "Oh, I’m not going to park here. I’m just going to drop you off. There’s another parking lot down the block reserved for guests of the convention."
Nick drove to a far corner of the parking lot to let her out.
He gave her a kiss and said cheerfully, "Enjoy yourself, Blondie."
Tracy popped a set of false caps over her own teeth – not only giving her a slightly bucktooth appearance but also altering the shape of her mouth and jaw, and said, "I will."
Normally she didn’t go to quite this extreme in her off-screen exercises, but since this hotel's meeting rooms and ballroom - all reserved for the convention - were bound to be full of fans of The Coldest Equations she had thought it best to bring along a bit more insurance to make sure there could be no possibility of her being recognized.
She waited until Nick's car was heading back toward the entrance of the parking lot before she began her long, slow walk to the entrance of the hotel. Nick drove out of this parking lot and along the street to one that was reserved. A parking attendant there gave him an astonished look and then asked for his autograph, which Nick obligingly gave.
Stragglers were walking along the sidewalk toward the hotel, and Nick wondered if they were all going there to attend the OTR convention. He walked briskly so that he overtook everyone and left them behind. Occasionally he’d hear a sharp intake of breath as if someone had recognized him. He entered the hotel lobby and saw the large placards advertising the convention. On one of them his headshot was prominently displayed, along with the announcement that he, Nicholas Belfour, was the Special Guest Star who would be appearing in the re-enactments of the classic radio episodes "Three Skeleton Key" and "The Thing on the Fourble Board." Nick stopped by one of the red-shirted convention Gofers and asked for directions to the "green room," where the convention’s guests always gathered before heading out to their various meeting rooms or autograph tables.
The Gofer looked up at Nick, a light of recognition showed in his eyes, and in a squeaky voice he gave directions. Nick gave the kid a thrill by shaking his hand and then carried on to his destination.
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