What Longarm really wanted, but knew better than to hope for, was an ashtray. He settled for unlatching the shutter over the unglazed window—Hugo hadn’t spent extra for foolishness like glass—with the intention of dropping his ashes and cigar butt outside. Damned if he figured to go to sleep though without one more smoke.
It didn’t take any time at all for the house to go silent once everyone settled down. Before Longarm was halfway through his cheroot he could hear loud snoring from the direction of the Schultzes’ bedroom.
A few seconds later he heard the telltale creak of wooden ladder rungs as one of the girls came back down from the loft. Making a trip to the outhouse, Longarm figured. Then he realized he was mistaken as his bedroom door was drawn slowly open.
He could see the pale, ghostly shape of a nightdress as the girl stepped inside and quietly pushed the door closed behind her.
Longarm’s eyes hadn’t quite adjusted to the dark yet so it took him a few seconds to see that it was the oldest girl who’d come in uninvited and unannounced … unwanted, too, for that matter.
Her name was Trudy and she was the same one who’d been trying to fatten him like a hog for the slaughter all during supper.
Longarm guessed Trudy to be all of thirteen, maybe fourteen tops. She had dirty blond hair done up in plaits that were coiled and pinned to the sides of her head. The girl had a long face and prominent teeth so that she reminded Longarm of a mule he’d once been forced to plow with when he was about the same age this girlchild was now. Come to think of it, when Trudy turned around and bent over the stove, her butt looked kind of reminiscent of that same mule.
Good mule. The pity was that Longarm didn’t all that much care for mules.
Nor for thirteen-year-old kids no matter how infatuated and breathless they might be.
“Mr. Short.”
“Evenin’, Trudy. Forget something in your room that you need?” he suggested.
“No, I …”
“You’re a good cook.”
“Thank you.” It was too dark for him to see her blush, but he could tell by the way she wrung her hands and turned her shoulders that she would be blushing hot as a coal-fired stove on a January night. “You and your sisters and ma been mighty nice t’ me. I’m grateful.”
“I … Mr. Short …?”
“Yes, Trudy?”
“I… I think you’re the most fine and handsome gentleman I ever did see.”
“Why, Trudy, that’s real sweet of you t’ say a thing like that. I appreciate it. I got t’ tell you, child, that you’re a mighty pretty girl too.”
“Do you really think so?”
“I do, Trudy. I surely do.”
“I think … I think …” She let out a ragged, wrenching sob and galloped across the small room to throw herself into his arms and plant a wet, inexpert kiss square on his mouth. Longarm barely had time to snatch his cigar aside or she likely would’ve impaled her left nostril on the lighted end of it en route to his face. “I think you’re just wonderful, Mr. Short.” She kissed him again, with vigor if not with skill, and only winced a little bit when his whiskers sandpapered her skin.
“Mm, I sure didn’t expect nothing like this, Trudy,” he told her once he had the use of his lips back. Dam girl was breathing so heavy he thought she might be having some sort of climax all by herself there. That made him kinda jealous. But only a very little.
“I can’t help myself, Mr. Short. You’re just about the most handsome and wonderful man I ever did see.”
“Why thank you, Trudy. An’ you’re a right fine figure of a woman too. You, uh, are a woman already, aren’t you?”
“I … what do you mean, Mr. Short?”
“I mean you’re old enough to have your monthly time good an’ regular, aren’t you?”
She pulled back and gave him a quizzical look. “Not regular every month, no, but I’ve had my bleeding twice now already.” She hesitated but couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Why’d you want to know that, Mr. Short?”
“Excuse me for jumpin’ the gun here, Trudy, but I kinda got the idea … I mean, what with you comin’ in here t’ my bedroom in the middle o’ the night an’ everything, all pretty an’ sweet smellin’ in that nightdress … I kinda got the idea that you was sweet on me.”
“Oh, I am, Mr. Short. I really am powerful sweet on you.”
“An’ I feel the same, Trudy. Pretty as you are I just can’t help myself. So naturally I have t’ think, well, if we was to get together an’ get married, we’d likely be havin’ kids of our own on the way right away. If you’re started havin’ your monthlies, that is. You know how it is. Quick as a man an’ woman start doin’ that together the woman is sure to get her belly all swole up with kids, one poppin’ out right after another. Next thing you know you’ll have a clothesline full o’ diapers an’ a yard full of babies crawlin’ in the dirt. But you won’t have t’ worry none. I make five dollars a week playing ball, some weeks ten dollars, an’ I’ll be home two weeks every three months or so. Long enough t’ get you knocked up again so you won’t be gettin’ in no trouble while I’m away.” He chuckled a bit and let some cigar smoke trickle out of his mouth so that it kind of accidentally wound up inside her nose.
Trudy coughed and pulled back a little way.
“Yep,” Longarm said, “you sure are one fine-looking girl. Excuse me. Woman. You aren’t no little girl any more. Or won’t be after t’night, will you?” He chucked her gently under the chin and dropped his hand to her lap where he began—rather clumsily—to grope her crotch.
