When I finished, I was knocked out, but it was up there to stay. You could chin yourself on it, if you wanted, it was that solid. There was a fair picture even without the antenna, so we rolled his bed over into place and let him watch some local hillbilly program. He seemed happy.
Outside, she held the ladder while I headed for the roof with the antenna.
“He can have two days to play around,” I said. “Will the doctor be here by then?”
“He comes tomorrow.”
“Good; then Victor can put on an exhibition with the intercoms and get that out of his system. He can have tomorrow and the next day—then I’m coming to fix the condenser.”
“How will I make him think something’s wrong?”
“I’ll show you,” I told her. “You’ll pull the main light switch, and knock everything out.”
She didn’t say anything. I looked at her and got that feeling. She was staring at me, with her eyes hot, her teeth tight together, and her lips parted a little.
She spoke softly. “I want to see you, Jack.”
“Yeah.”
“What will we do?”
“I don’t know.”
It was hell, what she did to me. She was right there, asking for it. And I could have her, only I couldn’t have her. She pushed against the edge of the ladder and said, “Jesus, Jack. What will we do?”
“We’ll have to wait,” I said. “You’ll have to be here when the doctor comes tomorrow. I want to know everything they do and say.”
“All right. But, I can’t wait, Jack. I’m burning up.”
“We’ve got to wait. You think it’s easy for me?”
She just watched me. Her look really got me. I went up the ladder fast, and put up the antenna, a double V, and fixed the lead. Then I came down and went in to see how Victor was making out.
“He’s sleeping,” she said. “He always naps along about now. He’ll sleep for at least fifteen minutes.”
Her eyes were foggy.
“Where’s the fuse box? There’s time to show you.”
I followed her out through the kitchen, watching the way she moved under those tight white shorts. The fuse box was in a utility room off the back of the house. There was a lot of junk in the room; a wicker clothes hamper, electric hot-water heater, washing machine, some garden tools, and an electric lawn mower. There was a big pile of clothes on the floor.
I showed her the switch and told her to pull it the first thing in the morning, three days from now, and then phone me at the store.
I turned on the light in the utility room, then pulled the main switch, to show her how everything went off. Then I turned the juice back on, and turned off the light.
“Jack?”
The utility room door was partially closed. We were in shadow. I turned when she spoke, hearing the way she breathed. It was like being dragged fast through a knot hole. She had peeled off those shorts and she wanted to make sure I knew it.
I held her and she squirmed and panted. “I couldn’t wait, Jack. I couldn’t wait!”
We fell down on the pile of clothes. Right then it started. All through the house, from every room. His voice. Calling. Echoing:
She crouched and began to curse him. I’d never heard anything like it. The language she used would have shamed a drunken Marine.
I got up and hauled her to her feet.
“You’ve got to go in there. Get a move on.”
Her face was flushed, her mouth twitching.
“Hurry up,” I said.
She yanked her shorts on.
“You wait right here,” she said. “I’ll be back!”
She went into the kitchen. I heard her speak to him over the intercom, sweet as syrup, and he came back with some of his bright wit. The refrigerator door slammed and shook the place. I heard her uncap a bottle of coke and pour it into a glass. Then she thundered through the house.
I waited. Nothing. Silence.
I waited a long time, sitting on the pile of clothes.
Finally I went through the house, and looked into the bedroom. She was seated in a chair beside his bed, reading to him.
I said, “Sorry to interrupt. I guess everything’s in order now.”
She looked up at me. Her expression was as if somebody had shot her in the face with salt. “Victor wanted me to read to him,” she said. She turned to him, smiling. “I’ll have to pay Mr. Ruxton, now, Victor.”
“All right,” he said. He said to me, “Thanks for everything you’ve done, Ruxton. Sure appreciate it. Makes things a lot easier, eh?” He laughed and coughed a little.
She came out, fuming.
I said, “You’d better pay me, and I’ll write out a receipt, just in case.”
He had already written out a check, and she had cashed it at the bank, to cover the expense of the installations. She counted out the money in bills, from her purse.
“Wouldn’t he arrange for a joint account?” I said.
She shook her head. “He never went for that. He won’t let anybody take care of him but me. He could afford nurses around the clock, and live in the finest places. He wants it this way. But he writes the checks. Sometimes, when we’ve had little arguments, he’s hinted how I may have it tough now, but I’ll get mine, someday. I honestly think there’s a mean streak in him—he gets enjoyment out of doing things the way he does.”
We were in her bedroom. She was in bad shape.
I said, “Remember, after I fix that condenser, it’s not going to be easy. The units will probably go out, and you’ll have to stick close to his room, so it’ll seem they’re on. You won’t be able to talk back to him—he wouldn’t hear anything. It’s a ticklish part, Shirley. If he catches on, before anything happens, you’ll just have to call me and we’ll go through the whole thing again.”
“I couldn’t stand it.”
“Well, then I was thinking. If you can excite him, some way—help bring on an attack. Think you could swing it?”
“Yes. I’ve seen it happen.”
I took hold of her shoulders. “That’s what you’ll have to do. We’ve got to work fast, once I do that soldering job.”
“I wish he were dead. God, how I wish it.”
“He will be.”
There wasn’t anything in the world now, but us. I held her close and tight and it all started up again. I had never wanted any woman the way I wanted Shirley Angela.
Waiting for her to call the store was a nightmare. Every time the phone rang, I had to grit my teeth to keep from jumping. I thought of a thousand things that could go wrong, but the big one was that she might lose her nerve.
Finally she called on the morning of the third day. I let Pete Stallsworth answer the phone, even though I was practically running standing still.
