She stomped off to the dressing room. Ralph and I chewed the fat a little. And I began to get a very sweet idea, a plan for giving Miss Danny her comeuppance. I could see that Ralph had fallen for her. He wanted her so bad he could taste it. So with him looking as he did-or could- and Danny being what she was…
I put it up to Ralph, giving him slightly less than the facts about Danny. I said that she not only looked like a nice girl, but she was one. Very nice. The sole support of her family, in fact. So how did that cut any ice? He wasn't going to rape her. He could just take her out, and leave the rest up to her. If she wanted to cut loose okay, and if not the same.
'Well…' He hesitated nervously. 'It just don't somehow seem right, Rags; I mean, fooling a nice little girl like that. I don't like people foolin' me, and-'
'So where's the harm?' I said. 'If she really wants to hang on to it, money won't make any difference to her. If it does make a difference-all the dough you're supposed to have-there's still no harm done. What she loses can't be worth much.'
'Well, yeah,' he said. 'Yeah, but…'
I was afraid he was going to ask why my enthusiasm for the enterprise. But I needn't have worried. He was too absorbed in Danny, so hard hit that he was in kind of a trance. And vaguely, with part of my mind, I wondered about that.
Ralph had seen sexy babes before. Seen them and had them. They were invariably kitchen maids or shop-girls on an outing, but still they had what it took. All that Ralph, being married, was interested in.
'She looks kind of tough,' he murmured absently. 'Awful sweet, kind of, but tough. Like she could be plenty hard-boiled if she took the notion.'
'Oh, well,' I said. 'Think what a hard time, she's had. Supporting an invalid mother and-'
'I bet she knows her way around, don't she?'
'And you'd win,' I said. 'She can take care of herself, Ralph. You won't be taking advantage of her at all.'
'Well…' He squirmed indecisively. 'I-I-What you want me to do?'
He had some good clothes in his car. I told him to get washed and change into them, while I fixed things up with Danny. 'And hurry,' I said, as he hesitated. 'Get back here as fast as you can. You can't keep a high class girl like her waiting.'
He snapped out of it, and hurried away.
I went down to the dressing room.
She was waiting there, sullen and defiant and a little afraid. I hadn't told her she could go to her cottage, so she waited. I looked at her sorrowfully, slowly shaking my head.
'Well, you really tore it that time, sister,' I said. 'You know who that guy was? Just about the richest man in this county. Owns most of the beach property around here. Has a big piece of this pavilion, as a matter of fact.'
'I'll bet!' she said-but a trifle uncertainly. 'Oh, sure.'
'How did Pete Pavlov stack up to you?' I said. 'Hardly a fashion-plate, huh? You just can't figure these local people that way, baby. They keep right on working after they get it. They don't go in for show while they're working.'
She studied my face uncertainly, trying to read it. I took her by the elbow and led her to the window. 'Who does that guy look like down there?' I said; for Ralph was just taking his clothes out of the Mercedes. 'What do you think a buggy like that costs? You think an ordinary janitor would be driving it?'
She stiffened slightly; hell, that Mercedes even bowls me over. Then she shrugged with attempted indifference. So what, she asked. What did it mean to her if he was loaded.
'Just thought you'd like to know,' I said. 'Just thought you might like to meet him. He could do a lot for a gal if he took the notion to.'
'Uh-huh,' she said. 'You just want to help me, I suppose! You're doing
'Suit yourself.' I picked up my shirt and began putting it on. 'It's entirely up to you, baby. You do a little thinking, though, and maybe you'll remember me doing you a favor or two before. It maybe'll occur to you that I can't be any harder on you than I am on myself, and it ain't making me a penny.'
'All right!' she snapped. 'What do you want me to do about it? I've tried to thank you! I've- I've-'
'Never mind,' I said. 'I'm satisfied just to see you get ahead. That's all I've ever wanted.'
I finished buttoning my shirt. I tucked the tails in, studying her out of the corner of my eye.
She was wavering-teetering one way, then the other. Wavering and then convinced, like the stupid moronic tramp she was. There was nothing in her head. Only in her throat.
And you could dump a thousand gallons of vinegar down it, and she'd still expect the next cup to be lemonade.
'Well,' she said. 'He did seem awfully nice. I mean, I couldn't tell what he looked like much, but he acted nice and respectful. And- and he clapped for me.'
'He's a wonderful guy,' I said. 'One of the best.'
'Well… well, I guess I ought to apologize, anyway,' she said. 'I ought to do that, even if he was only a janitor.'
She preceded me up the steps. She started to open the door that leads out to the bandstand, and suddenly I put out my hand.
'Danny. Wait… baby.'
It was the way I said it, the last word. A way I'd never thought I could say it. To her. She froze in her tracks, one foot on one step, the other, the shorts drawn high and tight upon her thighs. Then, her head moved and she looked slowly over her shoulder.
'W-what?' she stammered. 'What did you cal-say?'
'Nothing,' I said. 'I guess I… nothing.'
'Tell me,' she said. 'Tell me what you want, Rags.'
'I want,' I said. 'I want…'
The unobtainable, that was all. The nonexistent. The that which never-would-be. I wanted it and I did not want it, for once achieved there would be nothing left to live for.
'I want you to get your butt out of my face,' I said. 'Fast. Before I kick it off of you.'
4:
BOBBIE ASHTON
I finished at the Thorncastle estate about four-thirty in the afternoon, and Mr. Thorncastle-that fine, democratic fat-bottomed man- paid me off personally.
My bill came to twelve dollars. I looked at him from under my lashes as he paid it, and he added an extra five. Managing to stroke my hand in the process. He is a very juicy-looking character, this Thorncastle. I had some difficulty in getting away from him without kicking him in the groin.
Father was already at the table when I reached home. I washed hastily and joined him, begging his pardon for keeping him waiting. He snatched up his fork. Then he slammed it down, and asked me just how long I intended to keep up this nonsense.
'The yard work?' I said. 'Why, permanently, perhaps. It would seem well suited to my station in life-you know, with so much racial discrimination-and-'
'Stop it!' His face whitened. 'Don't ever let me hear you-'
'-and there's the money,' I said. 'A chance to advance myself financially.'
'Like Ralph Devore, I suppose! Like the town odd-jobs man!'
