Chapter Nine
I
A band of sunlight coming through the chink in the blind woke me. I
stretched, yawning, then lifting my head, I looked at the bedside clock. The
time was twenty minutes past six. Lola had gone. It took me a few minutes to
realise that she had spent the night with me.
There’s no need for us to be enemies she had said, but she hadn’t fooled me
and she wasn’t going to fool me. I was sure all she thought about and all she
planned for was to persuade me to open the safe. She was now attempting to
break down my resistance by this new intimacy, hoping she would be able to
influence me to change my mind and open the safe.
This was going to be a one-sided bargain. The safe was going to remain
closed.
I slid off the bed, shaved, showered and dressed. I was curious to see what
her attitude was going to be towards me this morning.
I went to the lunch room. The screen door stood open, and there was an
appetising smell of ham grilling coming from the kitchen.
I walked around the counter and tentatively pushed at the kitchen door, half
expecting to find it locked, but it swung open.
I walked in.
Lola, wearing her neat white overall, was breaking an egg into the fry pan.
She looked over her shoulder at me. “Hello, I was beginning to wonder if you were going to sleep all day,” she said.
I came up behind her and slid my arms around her, pulling her against me. I
kssed the side of her neck.
“Hey! hey! Your eggs will be spoiled,” but she leaned against me, her face
against mine.
“Are they for me?”
“Who else do you imagine they’re for?” She twisted out of my grip and faced
me. Then she smiled. “Hello, lover! Any regrets?”
“No regrets.”
“Surprised?”
“Knocked for a loop.”
She came up to me and slid her arms around my neck, her green eyes glittering. Kssing her was an experience. Her body pressed hard against
mine, her fingers moved through my hair.
“Who’s spoiling the eggs now?” I said.
She moved away. “Come on and eat then.”
I watched her dish up the eggs and slide the ham onto a plate.
“Pour the coffee,” she said, putting the plate on the table.
We sat opposite each other. She took a cigarette from the pack and lit it.
“I guess I’ve been pretty mean to you ever since you came,” she said, staring
at me. “But I have had a change of heart. I realised we couldn’t go on living
the way we have been living. Besides, you’re attractive and it’s been a long
time since I’ve lived near an attractive man. Do you want to move into the
bungalow?”
I hesitated for a moment, but only for a moment. In that moment a picture of
Jenson came into my mind but I pushed it out fast as I looked at her.
“Yes,” I said. “You’re attractive too, you know.”
She smiled. “I’m not so lousy. Are you going to forget how mean I’ve been
to you?”
“Yes. The moment I saw you, I wanted you.”
A truck pulled up by the pumps and the driver sounded his horn.
“I’ll fix it,” she said. “You finish your breakfast.”
As she went past me, she touched my shoulder in that intimate way women in
love have, then she went out to the waiting truck.
I finished my breakfast, my mind busy.
I told myself I had to watch out. This is an act, I said to myself, so watch it,
but already I was beginning to wish it wasn’t an act.
I was running hot water over my breakfast plate when she came back into the
kitchen.
“I’ll do it.” she said.
“It’s done.” I put the plate in the rack and turned to face her. She moved close
to me. I put my hands on her hips, feeling hard flesh alive under my fingers.
“Any ideas about Ricks yet? He’ll be out here tonight.”
“He doesn’t worry me. I’ll give him some money: ten dollars will be enough.
He won’t make trouble if he gets some money and we can afford it.”
“Don’t be too sure. He’s dangerous. Once you start giving him money, he’ll
keep coming back for more.”
She shook her head.
“I’ve handled him before. I can handle him now. You leave him to me.”
“Just watch out. He could make trouble.”
“I’ll watch out.”
The hot wind now had died out. It was cooler. By ten o’clock more traffic
was coming through from Oakland. For the rest of the day we were both kept
busy.
I found myself enjoying working with Lola. Whenever I went into the kitchen
to load up a tray for a waiting customer, we fooled around together, kissing
and fondling each other. I enjoyed it a lot, and maybe she did, but I still
wasn’t that far gone not to be pretty sure this change of heart, as she called it,
was an act.
Around seven o’clock, the traffic suddenly fell away and there was a respite.
I went into the kitchen and stood around, watching Lola prepare a dozen or so
veal cutlets for the evening’s menu.
“Instead of devouring me with your eyes, how about peeling some potatoes?”
she said.
“Who cares about potatoes?”
I slid my arms around her.
She tried to break free, but I held her. We were wrestling the way lovers do,
when I heard the kitchen door creak open. I let go of her and moved away
from her fast, but not fast enough.
We both looked towards the kitchen door.
Ricks was standing in the doorway, watching us. There was that sly,
poisonous grin on his thin face that told me he had seen what had been going
on.
I cur.sed myself for being such a careless fool for I had known he was coming out this evening.
I looked at Lola.
She was completely unperturbed: her face was expressionless; her eyebrows
slightly raised.
I knew I was the giveaway. I wasn’t able to control the guilt nor the fear that
was showing on my face.
“I didn’t mean to butt in,” Ricks said and showed his yellow teeth in a
sneering smile. “I said I’d call—remember?”
I just stood there, scared and sweating. No words came.
“Hello, George,” Lola said indifferently. “What do you want?”
The small, sly eyes shifted from her to me and from me to her.
“Didn’t this fella tell you I’d be looking in? Have you heard from Carl yet?”
She shook her head, still completely unperturbed.
“I don’t expect to hear from him until he gets back. He’s pretty busy.”
“Did this fella tell you about my pension papers?”
“What about them?”
“I want Carl to sign them.”
“Any lawyer or bank manager will sign them for you.”
He squinted at her, scowling.
“That’s where you are wrong. If I go to anyone but Carl my pension could
get held up. Then what would I have to live on? Carl’s always done it for
me.”
Lola shrugged indifferently.
“I don’t know where he is. He’s moving around. You’ll have to wait.”
Ricks shifted from one foot to the other. I could see he wasn’t at ease with
Lola. Her steady, indifferent stare seemed to confuse him.
“Maybe I’d better write to the Arizona police,” he said. “My pension papers
are important.”
He was watching her closely, but he didn’t get any change out of her.
“Perhaps the police won’t think so,” she said. “Please yourself. I couldn’t
care less who you write to.
Carl may not be in Arizona for all I know. He said
he was going on to Colorado before making up his mind.” She leaned her
hips against the table and began fiddling with her hair the way women do.
With her arms up, her bre@sts lifted and she looked provocatively se.nsual.
“Don’t fuss, George, for heaven’s sake. Take your papers to a bank. If you’re
that hard up, I can lend you something.”
It was casually and beautifully done. I wished she had handled him from the
start. I saw now that in my clumsy way I had only succeeded in arousing his
suspicions. Her approach left him in two minds.
“How much?” He looked eagerly at her. “How much would you lend me?”
“Don’t get so worked up,” she said, her tone contemptuous. “I’ll let you have
ten dollars.”
His face fell.
“That wouldn’t help much. I’ve got expenses like everyone else. How about
twenty dollars?”
“Always the big mouth, George,” she said. “You never miss out on a chance,
do you?” She walked past him into the lunch room and I heard her open the
cash register. The ping of the bell as the drawer slid open made him point like a gun dog.
She came back with three five dollar bills in her hand.
“Here . . .” She thrust the bills at him. “That’s all you’re getting so don’t
come here scrounging anymore. Carl doesn’t want you here, and you know
it.”
He grabbed the money, putting it hurriedly into his hip pocket.
“You’re a hard woman, Lola,” he said. “I’m mighty thankful I’m not your
husband. I reckon Carl will regret taking you as a wife before long.”
“Who cares what you think?” she said and laughed scornfully. “Go away and
don’t come back pestering me,”
“Two’s company and three’s a crowd, huh?” He looked from her to me. “You
two watch out.
Carl won’t like what’s going around here.”
Lola looked at me.
“Kick the scrounger out. I’ve had enough of him.”
As I started towards Ricks, he turned and bolted out of the kitchen. Neither of
us moved until we heard his car drive away, then with a grimace, Lola went
back to trimming the cutlets.
“He saw us,” I said.
“Who cares? I told you I could handle him.”
“He’ll be back for more money.”
She began placing the cutlets on a dish.
“Oh, quit worrying. I can handle him.”
II
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