Джеймс М. Кейн
The Postman Always Rings Twice / Почтальон всегда звонит дважды

© Шитова Л. Ф., адаптация, сокращение, словарь, 2023

© ООО «ИД «Антология», 2023

Chapter 1

They threw me off the hay truck about noon. I had got into it the night before, at the border, and as soon as I got there, I went to sleep. I needed much of that, after three weeks in Mexico, and I was still getting it when they pulled off to one side to let the engine cool. Then they saw a foot sticking out and threw me off. I tried some joke, but all I got was a cigarette and I hiked down the road to find something to eat.

That was when I saw this Twin Oaks Tavern. It was nothing but a roadside sandwich joint, like a million others in California. There was a lunchroom part, and over that a house part, where they lived, and off to one side a filling station. I went in there in a hurry and began looking down the road. When the Greek came up, I asked if a guy had been by in a Cadillac. He was to meet me here, I said, and we were to have lunch. Not today, said the Greek. He layed a place at one of the tables and asked me what I was going to have. I said orange juice, corn flakes, fried eggs and bacon, and coffee. Pretty soon he came out with the orange juice and the corn flakes.

“Hold on[1], now. One thing I got to tell you. If this guy don't come, you'll have to trust me for it. He was to pay for it, and I'm kind of short, myself[2].”

“Hokay.”

I saw he was on[3], and stopped talking about the guy in the Cadillac. Pretty soon I saw he wanted something.

“What you do, what kind of work, hey?”

“Oh, one thing and another. Why?”[4]

“How old you?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Young fellow, hey? I could use young fellow right now. In my business.”

“Nice place you got here.”

“Air. Is a nice. No fog, like in a Los Angeles. All a time nice a clear.”

“Must be good at night.”

“Sleep fine. You understand automobile? Fix'm up?”

“Sure. I'm a born mechanic.”

He told me some more about the air, and how healthy he's been since he bought this place, and how he can't figure it out, why his help won't stay with him.

“Hey? You think you like it here?”

By that time I had finished the coffee, and lit the cigar he gave me. “I tell you how it is. I got a couple of other propositions, that's my trouble. But I'll think about it.”

Then I saw her. She had been in the kitchen, but she came in to gather up my dishes. Except for the figure, she really wasn't any raving beauty[5], but her lips stuck out in a way that made me want to kiss them hard.

“Meet my wife.”

She didn't look at me and just went out with the dishes. I nodded at the Greek, and that was all. I left, then, but in five minutes I was back, to leave a message for the guy in the Cadillac. A half hour later, I was in the filling station, fixing flats[6].

“What's your name, hey?”

“Frank Chambers.”

“Nick Papadakis, mine.”

We shook hands, and he went. In a minute I heard him singing. He had a good voice.

Chapter 2

Soon a guy came along that was furious because somebody had pasted a sticker on his wind wing[7]. I had to go in the kitchen to clean it for him.

“You got a cloth? That I can put to this thing?”

“That's not what you meant.”

“Sure it is.”

“You think I'm Mex.”

“Nothing like it.”

“Yes, you do. You're not the first one. Well, get this. I'm just as white as you are, see? I may have dark hair and look a little that way, but I'm just as white as you are.”

“Why, you don't look Mex.”

“I'm telling you. I'm just as white as you are.”

“No, you don't look even a little bit Mex. Those Mexican women, they all got big hips and legs and breasts up under their chin and yellow skin and hair that looks like it had bacon fat on it. You don't look like that. You're small, and got nice white skin, and your hair is soft and curly, even if it is black. Only thing you've got that's Mex is your teeth. They all got white teeth, you've got to hand that to them[8].”

“My name was Smith before I was married. That don't sound much like a Mex, does it?”

“Not much.”

“What's more, I don't even come from around here.

I come from Iowa[9].”

“Smith, hey. What's your first name?”

“Cora. You can call me that, if you want to.”

I knew for certain, that her Greek husband made her feel she wasn't white, and she was even afraid I would begin calling her Mrs. Papadakis.

“Cora. Sure. And how about calling me Frank?”

She came over and began helping me with the wind wing. She was so close I could smell her. I said it right close to her ear, almost in a whisper. “How come you married this Greek[10], anyway?”

She jumped like I had cut her with a whip. “Is that any of your business?”

“Yeah. Plenty.”[11]

“Here's your wind wing.”

“Thanks.”

I went out. I had what I wanted. From now on, it would be business between her and me. She might not say yes, but she wouldn't stop me. She knew what I meant.

That night at supper, the Greek got sore at her for not giving me more fried potatoes. He wanted me to like it there, and not walk out on him like the others had.

“Give a man something to eat.”

“They're right on the stove. Can't he help himself?”

“It's all right. I'm not ready yet.”

We sat at the kitchen table, he at one end, she at the other, and me in the middle. I didn't look at her. But I could see her dress. It was one of these white nurse uniforms[12], like they all wear, whether they work in a dentist's office or a bakeshop. It had been clean in the morning, but it was a little bit dirty now. I could smell her.

“Well for heaven's sake[13].”

She got up to get the potatoes. Her dress fell open for a second, so I could see her leg. When she gave me the potatoes, I couldn't eat. “Well there now. After all that, and now he doesn't want them.”

“Hokay. But he have'm, if he want'm[14].”

“I'm not hungry. I ate a big lunch.”

He acted like he had won a great victory, and now he would forgive her. “She is a all right. She is my little white bird. She is my little white dove.”

He winked and went upstairs. She and I sat there, and didn't say a word. When he came down he had a big bottle and a guitar. He poured some out of the bottle, but it was sweet Greek wine, and made me sick to my stomach. He started to sing. He had a tenor voice, not one of these little tenors like you hear on the radio, but a big tenor, and on the high notes he put in a sob like on a Caruso record[15]. But I couldn't listen to him now. I was feeling worse by the minute.

He saw my face and took me outside. “Out in a air, you feel better.”

“'S all right. I'll be all right.”

“Sit down. Keep quiet.”

“Go ahead in. I just ate too much lunch. I'll be all right.”

He went in, and I threw up. It was like hell the lunch[16], or the potatoes, or the wine. I wanted that woman so bad[17] I couldn't even keep anything on my stomach.

Next morning the sign was blown down. About the middle of the night it had started to blow, and by morning it was a windstorm that took the sign with it.

I kept tinkering with the sign, and he would come out and watch me. “How did you get this sign anyway?”

“Was here when I buy the place. Why?”

“It's lousy all right. I wonder you do any business at all.”

I went to gas up a car[18], and left him to think that over. When I got back he was still looking at it. Three of the lights were broken.

“Put in new lights, hang'm up, will be all right.”

“You're the boss.”

“What's a matter with it?”

“Well, it's out of date[19]. Nobody has bulb signs any more. They got Neon signs. They show up better. Then, what does it say? Twin Oaks, that's all. The Tavern part, it's not in lights. Well, Twin Oaks don't make me hungry. It don't make me want to stop and get something to eat.”

“Fix'm up, will be hokay.”

“Why don't you get a new sign?”

“I'm busy.”

But pretty soon he was back, with a piece of paper. He had drawn a new sign for himself, and colored it up with red, white, and blue. It said Twin Oaks Tavern, and N. Papadakis.

“Swell[20].”

I fixed up the words, so they were spelled right.

“Nick, why do we hang up the old sign at all? Why don't you go to the city today and get this new sign made? It's a beauty, believe me it is. And it's important.”

“I do it. By golly[21], I go.”

Los Angeles was about twenty miles away, and right after lunch, he went. Soon as he was gone, I locked the front door. I took a plate that a guy had left, and went on back in the kitchen with it. She was there.

“Here's a plate that was out there.”

“Oh, thanks.”

I put it down. The fork in her hand was rattling like a tambourine.

“I was going to go, but I started some things cooking and I thought I better not.”

“I got plenty to do, myself.”

“You feeling better?”

“I'm all right.”

“What's that?”

Somebody was out front, knocking on the door. “Sounds like somebody trying to get in.”

“Is the door locked, Frank?”

“I must have locked it.”

She looked at me, and got pale. Then she went into the lunchroom, but in a minute she was back.

“They went away.”

“I don't know why I locked it.”

“I forgot to unlock it.”

She started for the lunchroom again, but I stopped her. “Let's – leave it locked.”

“Nobody can get in if it's locked. I got some cooking to do. I'll wash up this plate.”

I took her in my arms and pressed my mouth hard against hers… “Bite me! Bite me!”

I bit her. I sunk my teeth into her lips so deep I could feel the blood flow into my mouth. It was running down her neck when I carried her upstairs.

Chapter 3

For two days after that I was dead, but the Greek was sore at me because I hadn't fixed the swing door[22] that led from the lunchroom into the kitchen. She told him it swung back and hit her in the mouth. She had to tell him something. Her mouth was all swelled up where I had bit it. So he said it was my fault that I hadn't fixed it.

But the real reason he was sore at me was over the sign. He had fallen for it so hard[23] he was afraid I would say it was my idea, stead of his. When it was ready I hung it up. It had on it all that he had drawn on the paper – a Greek flag and an American flag, and hands shaking hands[24], and Satisfaction Guaranteed. It was all in red, white, and blue Neon letters, and I waited until dark to turn on the light[25]. When I snapped the switch, it lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Well, I've seen many a sign in my time, but never one like that. I got to hand it to you, Nick.”

“By golly. By golly.”

We shook hands. We were friends again.

Next day I was alone with her for a minute.

“How are you, Cora?”

“Lousy.”

From then on, I began to smell her again.

One day the Greek heard there was a guy up the road undercutting him on gas[26]. He jumped in the car to go see about it. I was in my room when he drove off, and I rushed to the kitchen. But she was already there, standing in the door.

I went over and looked at her mouth. The swelling was all gone, but you could still see the tooth marks, little blue lines on both lips. I touched them with my fingers. They were soft and damp. I kissed them, but not hard. They were little soft kisses. I had never thought about them before. She stayed until the Greek came back, about an hour. We didn't do anything. We just lay on the bed. She kept rumpling my hair, and looking up at the ceiling, like she was thinking.

“You like blueberry pie?”

“I don't know. Yeah. I guess so.”

“I'll make you some.”

“Look out, Frank. You'll break a spring leaf.”

“To hell with the spring leaf.”

We were going into a little eucalyptus grove beside the road. The Greek had sent us down to the market to take back some steaks he said were lousy, and on the way back it had got dark. I drove the car in there, but when I was in among the trees I stopped. Her arms were around me before I even cut the lights. We did plenty. After a while we just sat there. “I can't go on like this, Frank.”

“Me neither[27].”

“I can't stand it. And I've got to get drunk with you, Frank. You know what I mean? Drunk.”

“I know.”

“And I hate that Greek.”

“Why did you marry him? You never did tell me that.”

“I haven't told you anything.”

“We haven't wasted any time on talk.”

“I was working in a hash house. You spend two years in a Los Angeles hash house and you'll take the first guy that's got a gold watch.”

“When did you leave Iowa?”

“Three years ago. I won a beauty contest. I won a high school beauty contest, in Des Moines[28]. That's where I lived. The prize was a trip to Hollywood. And two weeks later I was in the hash house.”

“Did you get in movies?”

“They gave me a test. It was all right in the face. But they talk, now.[29] And when I began to talk, up there on the screen, they knew me for what I was[30], and so did I. A cheap Des Moines trollop, that had as much chance in pictures as a monkey has. Not as much. A monkey, anyway, can make you laugh. All I did was make you sick[31].”

“And then?”

“Then two years of guys pinching your leg and leaving nickel tips[32] and asking how about a little party tonight. I went on some of them parties, Frank.”

“And then?”

“You know what I mean about them parties?”

“I know.”

“Then he came along. I took him and meant to stay by him. But I can't stand it anymore. God, do I look like a little white bird?”

“To me, you look more like a hell cat.”

“That's one thing about you. I don't have to fool you all the time. And you're clean. You're not greasy. Frank, do you have any idea what that means?”

“I can kind of imagine.”

“I don't think so. He makes me sick at the stomach when he touches me. I'm not really such a hell cat, Frank. I just can't stand it anymore.”

“Cora, how about you and me going away?”

“I've thought about it. A lot.”

“We'll leave this Greek and go away.”

“Where to?”

“Anywhere. What do we care?”[33]

“Anywhere. You know where that is?”

“All over[34]. Anywhere we choose.”

“No it's not. It's the hash house.”

“I'm not talking about the hash house. I'm talking about the road. It's fun, Cora. And nobody knows it better than I do. Isn't that what we want? Just to be a pair of tramps, like we really are?”

“You were a fine tramp. You didn't even have socks.”

“You liked me.”

“I loved you. I would love you without even a shirt. I would love you specially without a shirt, so I could feel how nice and hard your shoulders are.”

“Fighting railroad detectives developed the muscles.”

“And you're hard all over. Big and tall and hard. And your hair is light. You're not a little soft greasy guy with black hair that he puts bay rum[35] on every night.”

“That must be a nice smell.”

“But it won't do, Frank[36]. That road, it don't lead anywhere but to the hash house. The hash house for me, and some job like it for you. A lousy parking lot job, where you wear a smock. I'd cry if I saw you in a smock, Frank.”

“Well?”

She sat there a long time, holding my hand in both of hers. “Frank, do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Do you love me so much that not anything matters?”

“Yes.”

“There's one way.”

“Did you say you weren't really a hell cat?”

“I said it, and I mean it. I'm not what you think I am, Frank. I want to work and be something, that's all. But you can't do it without love. Do you know that, Frank? Well, I've made one mistake. And I've got to be a hell cat, just once, to fix it.[37] But I'm not really a hell cat, Frank.”

“They hang you for that.”

“Not if you do it right. You're smart, Frank. You'll think of a way. Don't worry. I'm not the first woman that had to turn hell cat to get out of a mess[38].”

“He never did anything to me. He's all right.”

“The hell he's all right. He stinks, I tell you. He's greasy and he stinks. And do you think I'm going to let you wear a smock, with Service Auto Parts[39] printed on the back, Thank-U Call Again[40], while he has four suits and a dozen silk shirts? Isn't that business half mine? Don't I cook? Don't I cook good? Don't you do your part?”

“You talk like it was all right[41].”

“Who's going to know if it's all right or not, but you and me?”

“You and me.”

“That's it, Frank. That's all that matters[42], isn't it? Not you and me and the road, or anything else but you and me.”

“You must be a hell cat, though.”

“That's what we're going to do. Kiss me, Frank. On the mouth.”

I kissed her. Her eyes were shining up at me like two blue stars.

Chapter 4

“Got any hot water?”

“What's the matter with the bathroom?”[43]

“Nick's in there.”

“Oh. I'll give you some out of the kettle.”

It was about ten o'clock at night, and we had closed up, and the Greek was in the bathroom, doing his Saturday night wash. I was to take the water up to my room, get ready to shave, and then remember I had left the car out. I was to go outside, and give her one on the horn[44] if somebody came. She was to wait till she heard him in the tub, go in for a towel, and hit him from behind with a blackjack I had made for her out of a sugar bag filled with ball bearings. At first, I was to do it, but we figured he wouldn't pay any attention to her[45] if she went in there, where if I said I was after my razor, he might get out of the tub or something and help me look. Then she was to hold him under until he drowned. Then she was to leave the water running a little bit, and step out the window to the porch roof, and come down the stepladder I had put there, to the ground. She was to hand me the blackjack, and go back to the kitchen. I was to put the ball bearings back in the box, throw the bag away, put the car in, and go up to my room and start to shave. She would wait till the water began dripping down in the kitchen, and call me. We would break the door down, find him, and call the doctor.

In the end, we figured it would look like he had slipped in the tub, knocked himself out, and then drowned. I got the idea from a piece in the paper where a guy had said that most accidents happen right in people's own bathtubs.

“Be careful of it. It's hot.”

“Thanks.”

It was in a saucepan, and I took it up in my room, set it on the bureau, and laid my shaving stuff out[46]. I went down and out to the car, and took a seat in it so I could see the road and the bathroom window, both. The Greek was singing. I looked in the kitchen. She was still there.

A truck and a trailer swung around the bend. I fingered the horn. Sometimes those truckmen stopped for something to eat, and they were the kind that would beat on the door till you opened up. But they went on. A couple more cars went by. They didn't stop. I looked in the kitchen again, and she wasn't there. A light went on in the bedroom.

Then, all of a sudden, I saw something move by the porch. I almost hit the horn, but then I saw it was a cat. It was just a gray cat, but it shook me up. A cat was the last thing I wanted to see then. I couldn't see it for a minute, and then there it was again, smelling around the stepladder. I didn't want to blow the horn[47], because it wasn't anything but a cat, but I didn't want it around that stepladder. I got out of the car, went back there, and shooed it away.

I got halfway back to the car, when it came back, and started up the ladder. I shooed it away again, and then stood there for a little bit, looking to see if it was coming back.

A state cop[48] came around the bend. He saw me standing there, cut his motor, and came wheeling in, before I could move. When he stopped he was between me and the car. I couldn't blow the horn.

“Taking it easy?”[49]

“Just came out to put the car away.”

“That your car?”

“Belongs to this guy I work for.”

“O.K. Just checking up.”

He looked around, and then he saw something. “I'll be damned. Look at that.”

“Look at what?”

“Goddam cat, going up that stepladder.”

“Ha.”

“I love a cat.”

He pulled on his gloves and went. Soon as he was out of sight[50] I reached for the horn. I was too late. There was a flash of fire from the porch, and every light in the place went out. Inside, Cora was screaming with an awful sound in her voice. “Frank! Frank! Something has happened!”

I ran in the kitchen, but it was black dark in there and I didn't have any matches in my pocket, and I had to feel my way. We met on the stairs, she going down, and me going up. She screamed again.

“Keep quiet, for God's sake keep quiet! Did you do it?”

“Yes, but the lights went out, and I haven't held him under yet!”

“We got to bring him to![51] There was a state cop out there, and he saw that stepladder!”

“Phone for the doctor!”

“You phone, and I'll get him out of there!”

I went in the bathroom, and over to the tub. He was laying there in the water, but his head wasn't under. I tried to lift him. I had a hell of a time. He was slippery with soap, and I had to stand in the water before I could raise him at all. All the time I could hear her down there, talking to the operator. They didn't give her a doctor. They gave her the police.

I got him up, and laid him over the edge of the tub, and then got out myself, and dragged him in the bedroom and laid him on the bed. She came up, then, and we found matches, and got a candle lit. Then we went to work on him. I packed his head in wet towels, while she rubbed his hands and feet.

“They're sending an ambulance.”

“All right. Did he see you do it?”

“I don't know.”

“Were you behind him?”

“I think so. But then the lights went out, and I don't know what happened. What did you do to the lights?”

“Nothing. The fuse popped[52].”

“Frank. He'd better not come to[53].”

“He's got to come to. If he dies, we're sunk.[54] I tell you, that cop saw the stepladder. If he dies, then they'll know.”

“But suppose he saw me? What's he going to say when he comes to?”

“Maybe he didn't. We just got to tell him a story, that's all. You were in here, and the lights popped, and you heard him slip and fall, and he didn't answer when you spoke to him. Then you called me, that's all. No matter[55] what he says, you got to stick to it. If he saw anything, it was just his imagination, that's all.”

“Why don't they hurry with that ambulance?”

“It'll be here.”

Soon as the ambulance came, they put him on a stretcher and shoved him in. She rode with him. I followed along in the car. Halfway to Glendale, a state cop met us and rode on ahead. They went seventy miles an hour, and I couldn't keep up. They were lifting him out when I got to the hospital, and the state cop was giving orders. When he saw me he gave a start[56] and stared at me. It was the same cop.

They took him in, put him on a table, and wheeled him in an operating room. Cora and myself sat out in the hall. Pretty soon a nurse came and sat down with us. Then the cop came, and he had a sergeant with him. They kept looking at me. Cora was telling the nurse how it happened. “I was in there, in the bathroom I mean, getting a towel, and then the lights went out just like somebody had shot a gun off. Oh my, they made a terrible noise. I heard him fall. He had been standing up, getting ready to turn on the shower. I spoke to him, and he didn't say anything, and it was all dark, and I couldn't see anything, and I didn't know what had happened. I mean I thought he had been electrocuted or something. So then Frank heard me screaming, and he came, and got him out, and then I called up for the ambulance, and I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't come quick like they did.”

“They always hurry on a late call.”

“I'm so afraid he's hurt bad.”

“I don't think so. They're taking X-Rays[57] in there now.

But I don't think he's hurt bad.”

“Oh my, I hope not.”

The cops never said a word. They just sat there and looked at us.

They wheeled him out, and his head was covered with bandages. They took him up and put him in a room. We all went in there and sat down. Somebody said something, and the nurse made them keep quiet. A doctor came and took a look, and went out. We sat there a hell of a while. Then the nurse went over and looked at him.

“I think he's coming to now.”

Cora looked at me, and I looked away quick. The cops leaned forward, to hear what he said. He opened his eyes.

“You feel better now?”

He didn't say anything and neither did anybody else. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. “Don't you know your wife? Here she is. Aren't you ashamed of yourself, falling in the bathtub like a little boy, just because the lights went out. Your wife is mad at you. Aren't you going to speak to her?”

He strained to say something, but couldn't say it. The nurse went over and fanned him. Cora took hold of his hand and patted it. He lay back for a few minutes, with his eyes closed, and then his mouth began to move again and he looked at the nurse.

“Was a all go dark.”

When the nurse said he had to be quiet, I took Cora down, and put her in the car. We no sooner started out than the cop was back there[58], following us on his motorcycle.

“He suspicions us, Frank.”

“It's the same one. He knew there was something wrong, soon as he saw me standing there, keeping watch[59]. He still thinks so.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I don't know. It all depends on that stepladder, whether he guesses what it's there for. What did you do with that slung-shot?”

“I still got it here, in the pocket of my dress.”

“God Almighty, if they had arrested you back there, and searched you, we'd have been sunk.”

I gave her my knife to cut the string off the bag, and take the bearings out. Then I told her to raise the back seat, and put the bag under it. It would look like a rag.

“You stay back there, now, and keep an eye on that cop. I'm going to throw these bearings into the bushes one at a time, and you've got to watch if he notices anything.”

She watched, and I drove with my left hand, throwing the ball bearings one every couple of minutes out the window.

“Did he turn his head?”

“No.”

I let the rest go[60]. He never noticed it.

We got out to the place, and it was still dark. When I pulled in, the cop went past, and was there ahead of me. “I'm taking a look at that fuse box, buddy.”

“Sure. I'm taking a look myself.”

We all three went there, and he turned on a flashlight. Right away, he gave a funny grunt[61] and stooped down. There was the cat, laying on its back with all four feet in the air.

“Ain't that a shame? Killed her deader than hell.”[62]

He shot the flashlight up under the porch roof, and along the stepladder. “That's it, all right. Remember? We were looking at her. She stepped off the ladder on to your fuse box, and it killed her deader than hell. Well, I'll be going along[63]. I guess that straightens us out. Had to check up, you know.”

“That's right.”

“So long. So long, Miss.”

“So long.”

Chapter 5

We didn't do anything about the cat, the fuse box, or anything else. We went to bed, and she cracked up. She cried, and then got a chill so she was trembling all over, and it was a couple of hours before I could get her quiet. She lay in my arms a while, then, and we began to talk.

“Never again, Frank.”

“That's right. Never again.”

“We must have been crazy. It was my fault.”

“Mine too.”

“No, it was my fault. I was the one that thought it up. You didn't want to. Next time I'll listen to you, Frank. You're smart. You're not dumb like I am.”

“Except there won't be any next time.”

“That's right. Never again.”

“Even if we had gone through with it they would have guessed it[64]. They always guess it. Because look how quick that cop knew something was wrong. Soon as he saw me standing there he knew it.”

“I guess I'm not really a hell cat, Frank. If I was, I wouldn't have got so scared, Frank.”

“I was scared plenty, myself.”

“You know what I wanted when the lights went out? Just you, Frank. I wasn't any hell cat at all, then. I was just a little girl, afraid of the dark.”

“I was there, wasn't I?”

“I loved you for it. If it hadn't been for you, I don't know what would have happened to us.”

“Pretty good, wasn't it?[65] About how he slipped?”

“And he believed it.”

“You got to have something to tell, that's it. It should be as near the truth as you can get it. I know them. I've dealt with them, plenty.”

“I guess I really don't want to be a hell cat.”

“You're my baby.”

“That's it, just your dumb baby. All right, Frank. I'll listen to you, from now on. You be the brains, and I'll work. And I work good. We'll get along[66].”

“Sure we will.”

“Now shall we go to sleep?”

“You think you can sleep all right?”

“It's the first time we ever slept together, Frank.”

“You like it?”

“It's grand, just grand.”

“Kiss me goodnight.”

“It's so sweet to be able to kiss you goodnight.”

Next morning, the telephone waked us up. She answered it, and when she came up her eyes were shining. “Frank, guess what?”

“What?”

“His skull is fractured[67].”

“Bad?”

“No, but they're keeping him there. They want him there for a week, maybe. We can sleep together again, tonight.”

“Come here.”

“Not now. We've got to get up. We've got to open the place up.”

“Come here, before I kick you.”

“You nut.”

It was a happy week, all right. In the afternoon, she would drive in to the hospital, but the rest of the time we were together. We kept the place open all the time, and made plenty of money. Then one day, we both went in, and after she came out of the hospital, we went to the beach. They gave her a yellow suit and a red cap, and when she came out I didn't know her at first. She looked like a little girl. It was the first time I ever really saw how young she was. We played in the sand, and then we swam way out and let the waves rock us. We lay there, face to face, and held hands under water. I looked up at the sky. It was all you could see. I thought about God.

“Frank.”

“Yes?”

“He's coming home tomorrow. You know what that means?”

“I know.”

“I got to sleep with him, stead of you.”

“But when he gets here we're going to be gone.”

“I was hoping you'd say that.”

“Just you and me and the road, Cora.”

“Just you and me and the road.”

“Just a couple of tramps.”

“Just a couple of gypsies, but we'll be together.”

“That's it. We'll be together.”

Next morning, we packed up. I had bought a suit, and I put that on. She put her things in a hatbox and handed it to me. “Put that in the car, will you?”

“The car?”

“Aren't we taking the car?”

“We are if you want to spend the first night in jail. Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.”

“Oh.”

We started out. It was two miles to the bus stop, and we had to walk it. Every time a car went by, we would stand there with our hand stuck out but none of them stopped. A man alone can get a ride, and a woman alone, if she's fool enough to take it, but a man and a woman together don't have much luck. After about twenty had gone by, she stopped. We had gone about a quarter of a mile.

“Frank, I can't.”

“What's the matter?”

“This is it.”

“This is what?”[68]

“The road.”

“You're crazy. You're tired, that's all. Look. You wait here, and I'll get somebody to drive us in to the city. That's what we should do anyhow. Then we'll be all right.”

“No, it's not that. I'm not tired. I can't, that's all.”

“Don't you want to be with me, Cora?”

“You know I do.”

“We can't go back, you know. We can't start up again, like it was before. You know that. You've got to come.”

“I told you I wasn't really a bum, Frank. I don't feel like no gypsy. I feel ashamed, that I'm out here asking for a ride.”

“I told you. We're getting a car in to the city.”

“And then what?”

“Then we're there. Then we get going.”

“No we don't. We spend one night in a hotel, and then we start looking for a job. And living in a dump.”

“Isn't that a dump? What you just left?”

“It's different, Frank. I can't go on. Goodbye.”

“Will you listen to me a minute?”

“Goodbye, Frank. I'm going back.”

She kept tugging at the hatbox. I tried to hold on to it, to carry it back for her, but she got it. She started back with it. She had looked nice when she started out, with a little blue suit and blue hat, but now she looked all battered, and her shoes were dusty, and she couldn't even walk right, from crying. All of a sudden, I found out I was crying too.

Chapter 6

I caught a ride to San Bernardino[69]. It's a railroad town, and I was going to hop a freight east[70]. But I didn't do it. I ran into a guy in a poolroom who turned out to be a sucker, but he had a friend that could really play. The only trouble with him was, he couldn't play good enough. I hung around with the pair of them a couple of weeks, and took $250 off them, all they had, and then I had to beat it out of town quick[71].

I caught a truck for Mexicali[72], and then I got to thinking about my $250, and how with that much money we could go to the beach and sell hot dogs or something until we made enough to start something bigger. So I dropped off, and caught a ride back to Glendale. I began hanging around the market where they bought their stuff, hoping I would bump into her. I even called her up a couple of times, but the Greek answered and I had to make out it was a wrong number.

In between walking around the market, I hung around a poolroom, about a block down the street. One day a guy was practicing shots alone on one of the tables. You could tell he was new at it from the way he held his cue. I began practicing shots on the next table. I figured if $250 was enough for a hot dog stand, $350 would make us sitting pretty[73].

“How you say to a little one ball in the side?”

“I never played that game much.”

“Nothing to it. Just the one ball in the side pocket.”

“Anyhow, you look too good for me.”

“Me? I'm just a punk.”

“Oh well. If it's just a friendly game.”

We started to play, and I let him take three or four, just to feel good. I kept shaking my head, like I couldn't understand it.

“Too good for you, hey. Well, that's a joke. But I swear, I'm really better than this. How you say we put $1 on it, just to make it lively?”

“Oh well. I can't lose much at a dollar.”

We made it $1 a game, and I let him take four or five, maybe more. I shot like I was pretty nervous, and in between shots I would wipe off my hand with a handkerchief, like I must be sweating.

“Well, it looks like I'm not doing so good. How about making it $5, so I can get my money back, and then we'll go have a drink?”

“Oh well. It's just a friendly game, and I don't want your money. Sure. We'll make it $5, and then we'll quit.”

I let him take four or five more, and from the way I was acting, you would have thought I had heart failure or something else.

“Look. I can see when I'm out of my class all right, but let's make it $25, and then we'll go have that drink.”

“That's pretty high for me.”

“What the hell? You're playing on my money, aren't you?”

“Oh well. All right. Make it $25.”

Then was when I really started to shoot. I made shots that Hoppe[74] couldn't make. I had my cue working so the ball just floated around the table. He miscued, he put the one ball in the wrong pocket[75]. And when I walked out of there, he had my $250 and a $3 watch that I had bought to keep track[76] of when Cora might be driving in to the market. Oh, I was good all right. The only trouble was I wasn't quite good enough.

“Hey, Frank!”

It was the Greek, running across the street at me.

“Well Frank, you old son a gun[77], where you been, why you run away from me just a time I hurt my head I need you most?”

We shook hands. He still had a bandage around his head and a funny look in his eyes, but he was all dressed up in a new suit, and had a black hat on the side of his head, and a purple necktie, and brown shoes, and his gold watch chain hung across his vest, and a big cigar in his hand.

“Well, Nick! How you feeling, boy?”

“Me, I feel fine, but why you run out on me? I sore as hell at you, you old son a gun.”

“Well, you know me, Nick. I stay put a while[78], and then I got to ramble.”

“You pick one hell of a time to ramble. What you do, hey? Come on, you don't do nothing, you old son a gun, I know you.”

“You alone?”

“Sure I'm alone. Me a Cora never get to go out together now, one go, other have to stay.”

“Well then, let's walk over.”

It took him an hour to buy the steaks, he was so busy telling me how his skull was fractured, how the docs never saw a fracture like it, what a hell of a time he's had with his help, how he's had two guys since I left and he fired one the day after he hired him, and the other one ran away after three days and took the inside of the cash register with him, and how he'd give anything to have me back.

“Frank, I tell you what. We go to Santa Barbara tomorrow, me a Cora. Hell boy, we got to step out a little, hey? We go see a fiesta there, and you come with us. You like that, Frank? You come with us, we talk about you come back a work for me. You like a fiesta a Santa Barbara?”

“Well, I hear it's good.”

“Is a girls, is a music, is a dance in streets, is swell. Come on, Frank, what you say?”

“Well, I don't know.”

“Cora be sore as hell at me if I see you and no bring you out. Maybe she treat you snotty, but she think you fine fellow, Frank. Come on, we all three go. We have a hell of a time[79].”

“O.K. If she's willing, it's a go.”

There were eight or ten people in the lunchroom when we got there, and she was back in the kitchen, washing dishes as fast as she could, to get enough plates to serve them.

“Hey Cora, look. Look who I bring.”

“Well for heaven's sake. Where did he come from?”[80]

“I see'm today a Glendale. He go to Santa Barbara with us.”

“Hello, Cora. How you been?”

“You're quite a stranger around here[81].”

She wiped her hands quick, and shook hands[82], but her hand was soapy. She went out with an order, and me and the Greek sat down. He generally helped her with the orders, but he wanted to show me something, and he let her do it all alone. It was a big scrapbook, and in the front of it he had pasted his naturalization certificate, and then his wedding certificate, and then his license to do business in Los Angeles County, and then a picture of himself in the Greek Army, and then a picture of him and Cora the day they got married, and then all the clippings about his accident. Those clippings in the regular papers, if you ask me, were more about the cat, but anyway they had his name in them, and how he had been brought to the Glendale Hospital. Then came the X-Rays. There were about a half dozen of them, because they took a new picture every day to see how he was getting along. After the X-Rays came all the hospital bills. That rap on the conk[83] cost him $322, believe it or not.

“Is a nice, hey?”

“Swell. It's all there.”

I got it, at last, why he was all dressed up, and acted so important. This Greek had had a fracture of the skull, and a thing like that don't happen to a dumb cluck like him every day. A big thing had happened in his life.

It was pretty near supper time when I got her alone. He went up to wash, and the two of us were left in the kitchen.

“You been thinking about me, Cora?”

“Sure. I wouldn't forget you all that quick.”

“I thought about you a lot. How are you?”

“Me? I'm all right.”

“I called you up a couple of times, but he answered and I was afraid to talk to him. I made some money.”

“Well, I'm glad you're getting along good.”

“I made it, but then I lost it. I thought we could use it to get started with, but then I lost it.

“You sure you think about me, Cora?”

“Sure I do.”

“You don't act like it.”

“Seems to me I'm acting all right.”

“Have you got a kiss for me?”

“We'll be having supper pretty soon. You better get ready.”

That's the way it went all evening. The Greek got out some of his sweet wine, and sang several songs, and we sat around, and so far as she was concerned, I might just as well have been just a guy that used to work there, only she couldn't quite remember his name. It was the worst flop of a homecoming you ever saw in your life.

When it came to go to bed, I let them go up, and then I went outside to try and figure out whether to stay there and see if I couldn't get going with her again, or stop it and try to forget her. I walked quite a way off, and I don't know how long it was, or how far away I was, but after a while I could hear a row going on in the place. I went back, and when I got close I could hear some of what they were saying. She was yelling like hell and saying I had to leave. He was mumbling something, probably that he wanted me to stay and go back to work. He was trying to shut her up, but I could tell she was yelling so I would hear it.

Then all of a sudden it stopped. I went into the kitchen, and stood there listening. But I couldn't hear anything, because I was all shook up, and all I could get was the sound of my own heart, going bump-bump, like that. I thought that was a funny way for my heart to sound, and then all of a sudden I knew there was two hearts in that kitchen, and that was why it sounded so funny.

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Примечания

1

Подожди/Постой

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2

у меня плохо с деньгами

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3

Я понял, что он врубился

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4

А что?

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5

она не была ослепительной красавицей

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6

меняя спущенные колёса

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7

поворотное окно

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8

надо отдать им должное

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9

Айова, американский штат.

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10

Чего это ты вышла замуж за этого грека

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11

Ещё как!

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12

сестринский халат

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13

Да ради бога

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14

(искаж.) he has them, if he wants them

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15

он вставлял рыдание, как на пластинке Карузо

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16

Чёрта с два это было из-за обеда

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17

так сильно

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18

заправить машину

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19

старомодно

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20

Круто

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21

Ей-богу

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22

распашная дверь

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23

Он так на неё запал

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24

рукопожатие

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25

включить свет

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26

торгующий дешёвым бензином

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27

Я тоже

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28

Де Мойн, штат Айова.

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29

Но ведь актёры теперь говорят.

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30

они поняли, с кем имеют дело

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31

А от меня только тошнило

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32

копеечные чаевые

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33

Какая нам разница?

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34

Везде

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35

мужской лосьон

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36

Но из этого ничего не выйдет, Фрэнк

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37

И мне придётся хоть раз да стать ведьмой, чтобы исправить её.

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38

которой пришлось стать ведьмой, чтобы вырваться на свободу

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39

Обслуживание. Запчасти

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40

Спасибо. До встречи

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41

Можно подумать, что так и надо

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42

Только это имеет значение / важно

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43

А что, ванной нет?

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44

просигналить

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45

он не обратит на неё внимания

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46

разложил бритвенные принадлежности

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47

сигналить

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48

Дорожный патруль

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49

Отдыхаете?

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50

Как только он исчез из вида

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51

Надо привести его в чувство!

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52

Выбило пробки

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53

Лучше бы он не приходил в себя

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54

Если он умрёт, нам крышка.

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55

Не в ажно

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56

он вздрогнул

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57

Они делают рентген

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58

Как только мы тронулись, сзади оказался полицейский

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59

как только он увидел, что я стою там на стрёме

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60

Я выбросил остальные

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61

он странно хмыкнул

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62

Как жаль! Убило её наповал.

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63

Пожалуй, я поеду

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64

Даже если бы мы провернули это, они бы догадались

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65

Здорово придумал, верно? / Здорово вышло, да?

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66

Мы справимся

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67

У него череп проломлен

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68

– Всё.

– Что всё?

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69

Я поймал попутку до Сен-Бернардино

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70

я собирался залезть в товарняк, идущий на восток

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71

и тогда мне пришлось быстро валить из города

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72

Мехикали, мексиканский город на границе со штатом Калифорния.

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73

350 долларов уже будет кругленькой суммой

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74

Вилли Хопп, звезда американского бильярда.

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75

загонял шар не в ту лузу

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76

следить, не упустить

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77

сукин сын

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78

Я недолго остаюсь на одном месте

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79

Мы здорово проведём время

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80

Откуда он взялся?

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81

Вас давно не было здесь видно

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82

и мы пожали руки

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83

Этот удар по черепушке

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