The Lady Is a Lush, page 4
“I’m too tired,” I said at last, moving away from her.
“Golly, that’s a new one.”
I went to sleep dreaming about Joy.
4
I HAD trouble getting the car on Sunday. Amy had planned to go off someplace with a girl she knew and she was furious. I told her I was going to be interviewed for a new job, that I would be gone all day.
“I just heard about it,” I said.
“What? Why do you need another job? You can make money on this one.”
“Yeah. I met this guy on the run and it may be something better. Hell, you want something better, don’t you?”
“I could do without living on the South Side.”
“So could I and that’s what I’m shooting for. You can go with this girl some other day.”
I had been afraid she would ask to go along but she didn’t. I had given her a hundred bucks on payday and she still had most of that. The bars opened at one on Sunday and she could go to one of them and get herself stinko. I knew this was on her schedule and that she would be broke by Tuesday, but for some reason neither possibility seemed to bother me at all.
I was late getting started and Amy was still running around naked when I left. My guess was that the girl she had been going to take out was a man without a car, and that she had meant to meet him wherever he lived. Or possibly bring him to the apartment. Since our marriage had become what it was, I didn’t care what she did as long as there were no accidents — as long as she was as careful with the next guy as she was with me. I didn’t want to support any bastards.
A year before she had fallen down the stairs, without hurting herself. If she was dead I stood to collect the twenty-five thousand myself.
Funny, I thought as I drove along, that I hadn’t considered that possibility before. I was her next of kin — she had no living blood relatives. I guess I didn’t mean for her really to die — you never wish that on anybody — but the mere idea that there was such a sum to inherit made a nice day seem even better. On the other hand, she was not against my buying a couple of trucks with her dough, strangely enough, the last time I mentioned the deal.
“You might even make us rich,” she had said.
I didn’t think we could become rich but there was every chance of making real money. What if I didn’t love her and she didn’t love me? She could have her fun and I could have mine and we could split the profits down the middle. Hays had done well and I had learned enough about the business to accept the challenge of success or failure. We would not be the first couple to lead separate lives and live together under the same roof.
Highway 64 was busy with people either leaving the city or going to it. I got behind a Sunday driver who thought he was the only person on the road. It took me a mile to pass him and then I began pushing the Ford. Once in a while, when Amy was in the mood, we went on a picnic and there was a collapsible grill in the trunk, some charcoal and my swim trunks. The last time we had gone to a secluded spot where she could swim in her panties and brassiere. We’d had two six packs of beer and had stayed after dark. I had made love to her on the sand and it was one in the morning before we got home.
As I drove I thought about Joy Black and my pulse was far from normal. I had seen her twice since making this date with her, on the way to Canton and on the way back, and she had looked better than ever.
“I could make a fortune if I wasn’t a good girl,” she had told me.
“You probably could.”
“And it’s hard to make the men understand I mean what I say.”
“Just keep on saying no.”
“Don’t think I won’t.”
She had not talked about going back to New York and I hadn’t brought up the subject. I had been telling myself that I ought to forget her, that I was getting a little nuts on the subject. As I slept beside Amy I dreamed about Joy.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Gloria had told me when I finished the run on Friday. She had given me my pay envelope. “It isn’t like you, Chip.”
“I’m still thinking about trying to manage this place.”
“Keep on thinking. And make it yes.”
I knew that as long as I could see Joy I was not going to accept her offer. From my point of view Gloria didn’t need a manager. The men were in her corner one hundred per cent and even Hendershot was bearing down on taking care of the trucks. Still there was always the possibility that anybody who became manager might eventually have a chance of buying into the firm and there was a lot to be said for that.
I don’t know if I felt guilty about not moving into the office with her but I guess I did. She worked late every night, doing her father’s work as well as her own, and in the morning she looked tired. And I knew she was worried about the union demands as each day brought her closer to the moment when the hammer would hit her.
“You’ll make out,” I had assured her. “Wear a tight dress and a big smile and they’ll just renew the old contract.”
But I wasn’t so sure. Unions exist by making successful demands. In the trucking industry there is a lot of raiding between locals and some drivers keep jumping from one to another. Sometimes the competition for members gets rough, and when it does, the union has to deliver. Still, a situation like that is better than the “sweetheart” contracts some unions offer to managements, selling their members down the river. Such a thing hadn’t happened with Hays’ Trucking but it didn’t mean that it couldn’t.
Sunday was a nice day for a drive, but I was sick of driving and wished Joy lived closer to Andersonville. I thought of getting her a job in the city but if I did she was sure to find out I was married and this I didn’t want. At least, not yet.
I was a little early getting to Sammy’s and I decided on a cup of coffee. Sammy was alone in the diner.
“Where’s the truck?” Sammy asked. He pointed to the Ford. “You ain’t hauling steel in that, are you?”
“Day off.” I stirred the coffee he put before me. “I’m seeing Joy.”
“Nice girl.”
“I think so.”
He leaned his elbows on the counter.
“She’s got class, Chip. Anybody who gets her panties is gonna have to stick a ring on her finger first.”
“Probably.”
“She could get plenty if she’d sell it. The boys sit at the counter and their eyes just pop right out of their heads. Hell, I had a girl once who got twenty bucks a trick and she wore falsies.”
I started to pay for the coffee but he said it was on the house.
“Thanks. Which is Joy’s cabin?”
“First one to the left.”
“Okay.”
I went out and walked around to the back. The cabins were about ten by twelve and they all looked the same. I supposed they had been hot stuff when they were originally built, but the new motels along the roads made them look like dumps. However, Sammy was still coining money out of them and I doubted he even bothered changing linens between rentals.
The door to Joy’s cabin was closed and I knocked.
“It’s Chip,” I said.
There was a moment of silence.
“I’m just getting into my suit,” she called. “Wait a sec.”
“Sure.” I grinned. “Need any help?”
She laughed. “No, thanks.”
I lit a cigarette and my hand shook. Take it easy, I told myself. Take it easy, you stupid fool. She likes you — she’s shown that — and if you play it right something fine might come of this. Only you have to play it right. You are not just another married man out for kicks. You’re a man whose marriage is lost beyond all chance of salvage.
I was still smoking when she came out and I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. I had thought that she’d be wearing a bathing suit that would hide as much as possible — instead she came out in a bikini. And “came out” was the expression. There was a narrow band across her breasts and there wasn’t much more down below. The suit was black and it contrasted sharply with her blonde hair.
“Well, cripes,” I said.
She laughed.
“Shock you?”
“Not exactly,” I lied. “But on you it looks good.”
“I used it in one of the plays we had. I was supposed to be a beauty contestant. Somehow it got mixed up with my own things and I packed it. Good thing, too. I haven’t had a chance to get into town and buy a swim suit. But if you think it’s too — ”
“It’s okay. But just in case of accidents, let’s see if Sammy has a beach robe.”
“I wouldn’t go to a crowded beach in this but Sammy says there are some nice private places along the river.” She started to close the door, hesitated. “Do you have a blanket?”
“That’s something I forgot,” I admitted.
“Then I’ll bring one.”
She got a blanket from the cabin and we walked up to the Ford.
“You get in and wait. I’ll go see Sammy.”
Over the years in the kind of business Sammy runs, people are likely to leave almost anything behind. Sammy rummaged in various closets and lockers and finally came up with a white, turkish-cloth robe, not new and only tolerably clean.
“Must have been last summer,” he mused. “Somebody left it in one of the cabins. Never came back for it. Probably a good reason. She must have left here with the wrong guy.”
“Thanks,” I said.
I didn’t know anything about the river and Sammy hadn’t given Joy specific directions, but I found a road along the shore and drove upstream. Most of the signs of flood had disappeared and the water looked inviting. About five miles outside of Fulton I found a little dirt road that led down to it. It looked reasonably private — like what Sammy might have been talking to Joy about. The road ended near a tiny beach with white sand that had a shelf of high rocks on either side. There were no bath houses. The place was exclusive, all right.
“All I have to do is find a place to get into my trunks,” I said. The ground on either side of the road was flat and there weren’t any bushes.
“You can do that in back of the car. I want to walk down to the shore.”
While she walked down to the water I changed in back of the car.
“I tested the water,” Joy said when I joined her. “It’s cold.”
“That’s because of the rain. It won’t be bad after you get in.”
“You first,” she said.
I went in but I took her with me, picking her up and carrying her and I could hardly feel the bikini. The rest of her was all right. She squealed a little as we got deeper into the water and clung to me. She was still clinging to me when we went under.
She was a good swimmer and we had fun. The lake wasn’t very big, but big enough for two people and we horsed around. Some girls look awful after their hair gets wet but she didn’t, any more than she had that first night in the rain.
Her face seemed to get smaller that it actually was, her mouth a bright red slash that was always curved in a smile. Once when we went under I kissed her on the mouth and thought she responded as much as a girl can when she’s holding her breath and under water. However, she said nothing about it when we surfaced, acting as though nothing had happened.
Later we sat on the sand and enjoyed the sun. After we were dry I went up to get the blanket and some beer. The beer was still cold.
“I didn’t bring along glasses,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter. With a stock company you learn to drink beer out of the can.”
“Bet you miss it. Acting,” I said. “You must miss it like the devil.”
“I don’t know. There are other things in life. Some of the stock companies are pretty phony. The one I was with didn’t make enough money to hire people to paint the scenery. We’d rehearse in the morning and paint in the afternoon and then the show folded.”
“Sammy treat you all right?”
“Sammy doesn’t bother me. He may run a shady business in some ways, but he keeps pretty clean. I do my work and he’s satisfied. Some night the cops will close in on him and he’ll have to pay a big fine. He’s got it stashed away, he tells me — he even knows the exact amount. He didn’t hire me for anything except what he pays me for.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have suggested the job to you,” I said.
“I’m glad you did.” Then, seriously, “I’m glad you stopped for me that night, Chip. Honestly I am. I needed a change of scene, a little time and place to think about what to do next.”
After a pause she continued, “You know, I kind of like you.”
“You do? Why?”
“Do I have to have a reason?”
“People sometimes do. I don’t need one.”
She thought about it for a moment.
“It’s hard to put my finger on,” she said.
“Then forget it.”
“About liking you, or having a reason.”
“Either one.”
She smiled. “Let me stick with the reason. When you picked me up that night I’d fought off two guys — you didn’t make a pass.”
“Well — the light was bad.”
This got me some sand in the face.
“Some girls get to the top that way,” I said. “Or try.”
“Not many, Chip. People get there by hard work or because they have some ability. Just because you’re agreeable doesn’t mean you’re good in bed. Those that are, probably don’t need the casting couch anyway. They’re probably as good off it as on it. The law of averages doesn’t stop with sex. If you’ve got talent you’ve got a fifty-fifty chance lying down or standing up.”
We got into the third six-pack and her future plans began to bother me. My tomorrows with Amy had little to do with anything beyond twenty-five thousand dollars. Joy was the kind of girl I wanted.
“Maybe we should eat,” she said after a while. “I’m beginning to feel the beer, Chip.”
I got out the burner and charcoal and some gasoline to get the stuff started. She roasted the hot dogs for us and we ate, sitting on the blanket and watching the sun sink lower in the sky.
“How does going back to New York seem to you now?” I asked, dreading the quesion but knowing that I had to find out.
“I still don’t know if I’ll go.”
Something leaped inside me.
“You’re not sure?”
Her gaze was level.
“I’m not sure of anything.”
I reached for a couple of fresh cans of beer.
“I’d like to help you make up your mind.”
She took the can of beer and wiped the sweat off it.
“Maybe you should,” she confessed.
I had a quick drink.
“You’ve changed my life a lot,” I said.
“Have I?” She seemed pleased.
“More than you know.”
She leaned toward me, her elbows on her knees, her eyes intent on my face.
“How much, Chip?”
I couldn’t let her go on looking like that, expecting an answer, and not do something about it. I threw the beer aside, losing almost the whole can, and grabbed her by the shoulders.
“This much,” I said, pulling her to me.
It was a good kiss, not the kind of a kiss we had had under water. Her mouth was alive under mine and she let out a little sob as it opened and fused with mine.
I pushed her back on the blanket and I don’t know how long we kissed, her breath coming in quick gasps and mine just as irregularly. My hand explored the bikini. She tried to stop me, but I was beyond stopping.
We didn’t leave there until late that night.
And I didn’t make it to work the next day.
Who cares about a job?
5
I MISSED two trips the next week — Gloria had to send a relief driver in my place — and that was not good, either from the standpoint of pay or being on the job when Gloria needed me. The first time was my fault, the second wasn’t but Amy stormed all over me about it anyway.
“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded. “You think you can live off your good looks? You’re not that handsome, Chip.”
She wasn’t fooling me any. She didn’t care about my job as long as she had enough money to buy liquor. And if she didn’t have enough money to buy her own drinks she could always get somebody else to do it for her. I guessed it should have bothered me about what she gave the man afterward but it didn’t. I wasn’t married to a woman but to twenty-five thousand dollars and eventually a business of my own. In my dreams, when that time came, I’d have more money than I knew what to do with. Not that you get rich trucking, but if you can keep your rigs rolling you never want for anything either.
“Funny me getting called for jury duty,” I said to Gloria after I completed my only run for that week. “I’ve never been called before.”
We were lying on the beach about six in the evening — I had been late getting in because of Joy. When I had stopped off at home to change into swim trunks Amy had been gone and so was my car.
“Too bad it’s on the day you have to make a run,” Gloria said. “They don’t pay you much if you serve on a local courtroom jury.”
“Big deal. Whatever it is, they should save it and reduce taxes.”
“I’ll have to put somebody else on the run, Chip.”
“I know that. I asked them at the bridge if they’d take the steel next day but they wouldn’t do that. They work on a schedule and you can’t get them to change it.”
“I know how it is.” Then: “You were late getting in. Anything happen?”
“No, I just took a nap in the cab.”
“Unusual for you, isn’t it?”
“I was tired.”
I was tired all right, but not the way she thought. I had bulled that truck from Canton to Sammy’s Rest and Joy had been expecting me. Sammy hadn’t been busy and had let her off for a couple of hours. We’d gone back to her cabin and the two hours had stretched until Sammy came and knocked on the door, saying that he was rushed. I had helped her dress and then tried to make up the time on the way in.
“Have you thought any more about taking over as manager?”
