The Big Bounce

There wasn’t anything to see. There wouldn’t be, either, Ryan was sure of that. Not when you were expecting something. Like the carpet cleaning job, expecting to see the broads going around without any clothes on. They moved along the beachfront from one house to the next. They saw people playing gin, people reading, people watching television, people eating, people drinking, people talking, and more people drinking.

“Maybe we’ll catch somebody in bed,” Nancy said.

“If they’re in bed, they’ll have the lights off.”

“Not everybody.”

“Would you like somebody watching you?”

“I’ve never thought of it,” Nancy said.

They saw people playing bridge and people sitting, not doing anything. They saw a woman alone, reading, and Nancy drew her fingernail down the screen. The woman jumped visibly and sat staring at the window, afraid to move.

When they were in the trees again, Ryan said, “That was fun. Maybe we can find some old lady with heart trouble.”

Ryan didn’t recognize the brown house when they came to it. If they had come up from the beach, he would have, even in the dark. He knew the house was along here, but he wasn’t looking for it and by the time they were across the side yard and to the porch, he was too close to the house to recognize it.

They moved around the far side, past dark windows, and came to the back porch and he still didn’t recognize the house. He was watching Nancy now as she walked out to the garage and looked in.

As she reached him she said, “There’s no car in the garage, but let’s go in anyway.”

Both the front and back doors were locked, but it was still easy. They went in through a living room window off the porch after Ryan poked a hole in the screen with a stick and flicked open the latch; Ryan first and then Nancy. She followed him to the front hall and stood close while he checked the back door, opening it and closing it quietly, feeling better now with a way to go out on three sides of the house.

The light, throwing a shadow on the wall, startled him, turning him from the door.

Nancy had opened the refrigerator.

“Beer?” She was hunched over, looking in, offering him a can of beer behind her back. “They don’t have a whole lot to offer.”

“They didn’t know we were coming,” Ryan said. He popped open the top and took a good swallow of the beer.

“Salad dressing, mustard, milk, pickles, jelly, mustard-they’ve got enough mustard, God-four jars, and catsup-two, three-they must live on mustard and catsup.”

“Maybe they had a party.”

As he said it, moving toward the doorway to the hall, he knew where they were and was sure of it even before he stepped into the hall and saw the stairway on the right and the faint outside light coming from the two windows on the landing.

“Kitchens aren’t much,” Nancy said. She was behind him now. “I like bedrooms the best.”

It was funny being here. At first, realizing where he was gave him an uneasy, on-guard feeling, as if something were wrong. But it was all right. So it was the same house. It could be the one next door or down the beach; it was a house. Going into it again didn’t mean a thing. Right? And Leon Woody would say, “Right, man, it don’t mean anything. You just walk in the same house and don’t know it.” But kidding. He wouldn’t really mean it.

They went up the stairs holding the rail, Ryan still in front. At the top he stopped a moment to listen, then went into the first bedroom on the right, the one where he and Billy Ruiz had found the men’s clothes. The room was familiar: the window over the back porch, the dresser, the twin beds, the night table where he had put his cigar. He remembered now that he must have left the cigar in the ashtray and he moved between the beds to see if it was still there, not expecting to find it but curious. Nancy went past him to the dresser and began going through the drawers.

Ryan sat on the bed, sipping his beer, watching her. She had opened a drawer and was feeling inside, closing it gently now and opening the next drawer to dig her hands under the clothes and feeling around in there thoroughly. “You see, what she does she goes through everything to make sure no valuables are hidden anywhere.” And Leon Woody would say, “Yeah, the valuables. Say, man, did you tell her about dumping the drawers on the floor to get at all them valuables?”

No, he didn’t tell her about that. He finished the beer and went through the bath to the adjoining bedroom, the one the women had used Sunday, and checked the tops of the dresser and the chest of drawers. There were two more bedrooms across the hall. He looked into each but saw nothing worth taking, not a hundred and fifty miles from Detroit without a car. He thought of something then and went back through the second bedroom to the bath and opened the medicine cabinet. The Jade East was still there. He rubbed a few drops of the lotion between his palms, then over his jaw, staring at the mirror but barely making out his reflection in the darkness.

He went into the bedroom where he had left Nancy-not hearing a sound in the room and not seeing her at first because he expected to see her standing by the dresser or by the closet. He looked toward the door and as his gaze shifted he saw the movement on the bed, in the bed, that’s where she was, in bed with the spread pulled up to her chin. She was watching him, waiting for him to find her, watching him now as he came around between the twin beds and sat down on the empty one.

“I give up,” Ryan said. “What’re you doing?”

“Waiting for you,” she said, giving him the look with her dark hair on the white pillow. “Guess if I have any clothes on.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Guess.”

He began to nod then, slowly. “You would, wouldn’t you?”

“You’re right,” Nancy said. “Know what you win?”

“Listen, I know a better place.”

“Where?”

“My room.”

“Nope. Right here.”

“Why?”

“I don’t think it’s ever been done before.”

“I believe it and I’ll tell you why,” Ryan said.

“In other people’s houses after you’ve sneaked in. That’s the new game.”

“I’ve heard it’s not as much fun, listening for somebody to walk in.”

Nancy smiled. “Wouldn’t that be good? Can you see the look on their face?”

“Just tell me why,” Ryan said. “Okay?”

“Why. That’s all you say. You know, Jackie, you’re really sort of a drag. I thought you might be fun, but I don’t know-”

“Move over.”

“First you have to take off your clothes. It’s a rule.”

“Shoes?”

“Everything.”

He began unbuttoning his shirt and pulling out the tails, standing close to the bed now and looking down at her.

“Everything,” Nancy said.

“In a minute.” Ryan eased down next to her and her hands held the spread tightly up under her chin.

“Not till everything’s off.”

He leaned in closer, placing his hands on the pillow so that she was looking directly up at him now, between his arms.

She sniffed. “What’s that?”

“Nice?”

“You put too much on.”

“You want to talk or what?”