Functions out of the message path?

[Arthur Urban]

Is there a way to call a function in an object out of the message path? 
I'm surprised that there is no syntax for something like the following:

call DoSpecialCalculation( valueA, valueB ) of fld "Test"

and have the return value placed in the variable "it". Or even:

call into myLocalVar DoSpecialCalculation( valueA, valueB ) of fld "Test"

or better yet:

put DoSpecialCalculation( valueA, valueB ) of fld "Test" into myLocalVar

Thanx for any help!