'Tell me a little more about what he did for your dad,' I said.
'Money stuff,' Shirley said.
She washed the greens down with more wine.
'What kind?' I said.
'What kind of what?'
'What kind of money stuff,' I said.
I took my first sip of wine. If I drank a lot at lunch, I needed a nap. Shirley didn't seem worried about that.
'He used to pick up money from people,' she said.
'Bring it places, and give it to other people.'
'Bookies?'
'I don't know. I'm a girl. They don't talk about business with girls.'
'Of course not,' I said.
'He carry a lot of money around?'
'Sure. Daddy trusted him like he was his own son.'
'Sure,' I said.
The waitress arrived with our chicken pail lard Shirley poked at it with her fork for a moment, and put the fork down and drank some wine.
'Daddy never had sons of his own, just me.'
'Only child, huh?'
'Yeah, my mom said it was too hard.'
'I'm an only child too,' I said.
Shirley nodded. It didn't seem to make us closer. I drank another small swallow of wine.
'You and Anthony ever have any, ah, little spats?'
'Never, I told you before, he'd stand on his head for me.'
I nodded. She drank the rest of the wine in her glass and reached around to the ice bucket and poured out the remainder of the first bottle.
'Well sure, I know a woman who'd stand on her head for me, unless she was wearing a skirt. But now and then we might disagree about something.'
Shirley laughed loudly. Her face was flushed.
'I bet she wouldn't,' Shirley said between guffaws, 'if she was wearing a dress. I bet she wouldn't.'
She laughed very loudly again.
'Well, luckily, Anthony doesn't wear a skirt,' she said.
'So he can stand on his head whenever he wants.'
'When he stands on his head, do you forgive him?'
She was still giggling.
'Depends how long he stands.' She had trouble saying it because she was giggling so hard.
I laughed along with her. She tried to get it under control by having some more wine, but it only made her more giggly.
'What's the longest you ever made him stand on his head?' I said. Jovial.
'Well, of course he never really stood on his head. But there was the time when I found out about him and the cocktail waitress at The Starlight,' she said.
Her face was bright red now, and she spilled a little of her wine as she drank.
'He paid big for that one,' she said.
'He paid for that big time.'
'I'll bet he did,' I said, bursting with mirth.
'I'll bet he never tried that again.'
'You kidding?' she said, leaning forward toward me over the table.
'Little fink would fuck a snake, you hold it for him.'
'Really?' I said.
'I'm telling you,' she said.
'How you feel about that?'
'I won't hold one for him,' she said. And leaned back in her chair and laughed hard. I had a bite of chicken and glanced around the room. The chic lunch crowd was grimly ignoring her.
