Sheba, page 6
“I doubt it.”
“He hasn’t sold a car in a week.”
“Possibly he hasn’t gotten the breaks.”
“Nonsense. You make your own breaks in this business. Did that Dixon walk in and hand you a sale on a silver platter? Did this fellow Gordon? You’re damn right they didn’t. They came in here with the hunger for a new car in their eyes and you helped them satisfy their lust. It’s a disease as great as a man chasing after a woman. Do you follow me?”
“A little.”
“Sheldon.”
“Sheldon.”
“You just bet you do. They have the yen and you have to show them how to meet it. It’s as simple as that. Somehow, Gregg is slipping in this. I think he spends too much time with the other half of my family.”
Sheba was shocked speechless.
“Didn’t you know?”
“No.”
“Don’t lie. Everybody knows. She has her life to live and I have mine. The only trouble is I pay for both of them. She married me for my money and since she’s got it she wouldn’t let go if somebody burned her hand with a blowtorch.”
He kept talking about his wife, how she was never home and how she didn’t understand him.
“I like a little fun,” he said. “Don’t you?”
“Sometimes.”
“A few drinks, a couple of dances and just talk.”
“Of course.”
“Could I interest you?”
“Not today.”
“But tomorrow?”
“We’ll see.”
His glance moved over her body. “Think it over,” he said.
“I will.”
“Sheldon.”
“Sheldon.”
He found a cigar and fumbled for a match.
“You have to give and take in this business,” he said. “You’ll find that out. You give a little and you can take what you want.”
“I see.”
“But you don’t see. I can tell you don’t see. There’s a fortune to be made here, Sheba, and it can be yours.”
“I said I would do my best.”
“And I said your best wasn’t always enough. More money is made in bars than on the job. Just remember that.”
“I will.”
He let her go shortly after that but there was no mistaking about what he meant. He wanted her as badly as the next man. Every man she knew wanted her.
6
MR. Wise gave her the rest of the afternoon off and she searched for a room. After three stops she found one on the East Side of Mayville, a nice front room with a huge, soft bed and a full-length mirror on one door.
“Fifteen a week,” the woman said.
It was a lot more than she had been paying or had thought of paying, but she felt that she could afford it now.
“It’s fine,” Sheba said.
“And you have your own bath. See?”
“Better yet.”
The woman turned at the door.
“If you want friends up,” she said, “it’s all right with me. Just keep the noise down.”
“I haven’t any girl friends.”
“Who said anything about girl friends? I’m talking about men. All of my roomers are girls and most of them have men friends. I don’t insist they meet in the living room or hide in the back seat of a car. If the men want to stay all night it’s no concern of mine. I charge enough for my rooms. A lot of girls pick up a few bucks on the side. That’s up to them. Who am I to tell them what to do?”
The woman went out, closing the door behind her, and Sheba glanced at herself in the mirror. Did she look as though she were that kind of a girl? Did she look as though she would take men for hire? It was crazy, that’s what it was. Probably the woman did it herself and she thought everybody else was the same.
After cashing the check, Sheba had bought a new dress, a red sheath and she put that on. Maybe it wasn’t exactly an office dress, but if it would help her sell cars she would wear it day and night. She laughed, thinking about it. Sex sold anything, anything at all. If a man was handsome he used that to his advantage. If a girl was pretty and had a good body why shouldn’t she do the same thing?
“Dress sexily,” Gregg had told her. “What are you hiding it for? The women will envy you and the men will love you. What more do you want?”
She knew what she wanted. She wanted money. She wanted money to pay off her debts and to buy new clothes and to buy a big car. She wanted money so she would never have to be dependent on a man. Never. A man took from a girl the one thing that she had, the one thing that was all glory, and what did he give in return? He gave her a smile and a knowing look just as Gregg had given her a smile and a knowing look. You can be had again and again, the look said. What was right about that, or fair? She had drunk too much that night and hadn’t known what she was doing. Well, from now on she would not drink. She would keep her head clear, her mind alert; and she might tease them, but she would never let them get too far.
Even Mr. Wise had suggested something to her, in a veiled sort of way. But she wouldn’t. She simply wouldn’t. She needed the job, needed the money but if it became a choice between the two she knew which choice she would make.
She left the house at four and drove downtown to Old Reliable. Mr. Wise had said she could use the demonstrator and that was very kind of him. But she didn’t want to be obligated to him. She would, later that night, take a taxi out to the farm and pick up her Studebaker. She could have the car fixed and she could use that.
Mr. Loven was in his office and the girl at the reception desk let her go right on in.
“Well, well,” Mr. Loven said. “You’re doing all right, Miss Irons. Did you know that?”
“I know I’ve sold two cars.”
“In as many days. At that rate you’ll soon have the loan paid up and from then on out it will all be gravy.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
“You did? Well, sit down.”
She sat down, thought of crossing her legs and decided against it. Mr. Loven was seeing plenty as it was and there was no reason to show him more.
“I don’t want you to pay me for getting you these contracts,” she said.
“You don’t? Why not?”
“Because it’s a form of loading, or whatever it is they call it, and Mr. Wise would be mad at me if he knew. So would the customers.”
“You should have thought about that before.”
“I didn’t know anything about it before.”
“Did you think Old Reliable would pay you fifty bucks out of its own funds?”
“I guess I did.”
“How silly can you get?”
“Pretty silly, I guess.”
Mr. Loven got up from his desk and came around to where he could get a better look at her. At that moment she was almost sorry that she had worn the sheath.
“You’re just a country kid,” he said.
“I don’t deny it.”
“You’re a country kid and you’re getting into something big and you don’t have sense enough to realize it.”
“What I make from the cars is enough for me.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Let me tell you something,” he said. “You’ll never make enough. Nobody ever does. If you make a thousand bucks you need two. That’s why people like us are in business. If these people don’t lose their money one way they’ll lose it another.”
“I’d rather pay you,” Sheba insisted. “I can give you the hundred right now.”
“But it’s already been taken off your account.”
“Then change it.”
He shook his head. “Why should I go to all that trouble? We made a deal and I’m keeping my end of it. You keep yours. If I cut you loose now you’ll only drift to some other finance company. You’ve found out how easy it is to make money this way and you aren’t going to stop. If you don’t place the loans with me you’ll place them with somebody else. I don’t intend for that to happen. Old Reliable is in the business of lending money and we’re just as good as any of the others.”
“What if I went to another company now?” she inquired.
“Then I’d go to Mr. Wise and tell him about our arrangements.”
“You wouldn’t!”
“I would. This isn’t a charitable organization. It’s money from start to finish and the more loans I make the more I make for myself. You can’t hate a man for keeping what belongs to him.”
She saw it now. It had been a neat and clever trap. She would have to continue doing business with Old Reliable. There didn’t seem to be any way around it.
“Let these two go,” she said. “But don’t pay me on any other contracts.”
“I’ll pay you on all of them.”
“Why?”
“Because I know a lever when I’ve got one in my hands and I plan on using it.”
“I see.”
“You make money and I make money. What’s wrong with that?”
She could argue or plead with him, but she knew it wouldn’t do any good. He had her just where he wanted her and he was keeping her there.
“You’re lucky I’m not asking for something else,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. You weren’t born yesterday, honey. I’m a human being and when I look at you I have human feelings. Follow me now?”
She followed him. He could force her to do anything and she wouldn’t be able to stop him or help herself in any way. In that instant she loathed him. He was an animal, a fat and revolting animal. Like all the rest of the men she knew, she thought.
“I’d never do that,” she managed.
“Wouldn’t you?”
“No!”
He shrugged.
“Some day we might find out,” he said. “Right now I’m pretty busy in that department.”
Sheba remembered the girl in the front office and she wondered if this was the girl.
“Thanks for nothing,” she said, getting up.
She walked to the door, knowing that he was inspecting every inch of her body.
“Your father was in today,” Mr. Loven said. “Was he?”
“Yes, and he had quite a deal on. He should have been a financial expert or a Wall Street broker.”
“What did he want?”
“Money. What else?”
“Don’t give it to him.”
“Am I that crazy?” Mr. Loven laughed. “But he had a pretty good gimmick. He wanted me to lend him enough to pay off the back payments and then, in turn, relend the money to him. He said he was going into the eel business.”
“He’d be better off if he got a job.”
“That’s what I told him. Eels bring about sixty-five cents a pound but it isn’t a long season and what would he do after that?”
“The same as he’s doing now. Starve.”
“He even had a co-signer.”
“He did?”
“A Mort Gaines. The only thing he didn’t know was that Gaines owes us sixty dollars that we’ve never been able to collect.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t lend either one of them the right time of the day.”
Mr. Loven followed her to the door and told her to keep up the good work at Wise Motors.
“With your equipment you can make a fortune,” he said. “For both of us.”
“We’ll see.”
“Just don’t get any ideas, that’s all.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t.”
“You’d better not — or your little old world will come crashing down around you.”
She ate dinner in a small restaurant and she had a drink to steady her nerves. How had she ever gotten into such a mess? And how would she get out of it?
“Another drink, miss?”
“No, thanks.”
After she left the restaurant she drove to the rooming house and parked the demonstrator at the rear of the building. She still had to pay for the ticket of the night before and she didn’t intend to get another one.
Inside the house she used the phone in the hall and called a cab. While she was doing this a redheaded girl stood nearby, waiting.
“You new here?” the redhead asked after she had hung up.
“Yes.”
“I’m Monica.”
“Glad to know you. I’m Sheba.”
“You work here in town?”
“At Wise Motors.”
“That’s that big garage?”
“Yes.”
“I wish I had a job,” the redhead said. “A steady one.”
“Where do you work?”
“In the coat factory, but it’s the off season and there isn’t anything doing, not even in the office. It’s a good thing I’ve got a steady who’s working or I’d have to sell it to the highest bidder.”
“No girl would do that.”
“Are you kidding? The hunger in the old belly doesn’t know anything about chastity.”
The redhead was still talking about the factory and how bad things were when the cab arrived.
“I’ll see you,” Sheba said.
“Sure. Some night we’ll get a bottle and kick up a storm. Marty’s got a friend and I think he would go for you. We can get the old lady in on it. She used to be a stripper and you oughta see her when she’s high. She goes down to panties and bra — once she went all the way — and she sets the boys on fire. My steady lost a day’s work because of it.”
The cab driver was an elderly man who wore thick glasses and who drove with a great deal of care.
“Didn’t I drive you before?” he asked.
“You may have.”
“Picked you up at Wise Motors?”
“That would be right.”
“I like that Blazer,” he said, turning on the highway. “I could use another car.”
“Why don’t you get one?”
“On what?”
“It’s easier than you think,” she said. “I could work out a deal for you.”
“You could?”
“Easily.”
He was quiet for a moment.
“Maybe I’ll see you,” he said.
The fare was a dollar and she gave him a dollar tip, thinking that it was a good investment. The car he had wasn’t much good and even though he might not be able to go for a new Blazer she might be able to swing him over to a cheaper model.
Her car was parked in front of the house and it was obvious that somebody had used it. Her father hated to drive but he hated to walk more and she suspected that it might have been he.
She walked up the steps, across the porch and into the house.
“Who the hell is that?” her father asked from the kitchen.
“Sheba.”
“What’d I tell you?” Luke said. “She got what she wanted and now she’s back home.”
“You shut up,” her mother yelled. “You just shut up!”
Sheba entered the kitchen. They were all seated at the table and drinking coffee. Her father was stripped bare to the waist. Her mother objected to Hap sitting around that way but he never paid any attention to her objections. Every time she told him about it he said wouldn’t she look funny sitting around the same way?
“I came for the car,” she said.
Her father burped loudly. “Is that all?” he asked.
“That’s all.”
Luke snickered. “You get a room and everything else that goes with it, Sis?”
She ignored him.
“You stay away from Mr. Loven,” she told her father. “I’m not signing any more notes.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“He wouldn’t give you the money unless I did.”
“I’m working,” Luke said. “Climbing a bunch of damned trees with a saw in one hand, a prayer in the other. You think I couldn’t get some money if I showed him that?”
“I doubt it.”
“Why not?”
“Because you never keep a job. I’ll give you a month and you’ll be right back where you started from.”
Luke pushed his coffee cup aside.
“Pipe the dress,” he said. “It sure shows off that shape of yours.”
“Luke!” his mother said. “Don’t you dare talk that way.”
“Aw, hell. She gives me a month and I give her six. Six months from now she won’t be able to get into that dress.”
“I don’t know why not,” her father said.
“No dame can get into a dress like that when she’s expecting a kid,” Luke pointed out. “And somebody’ll have her by that time. You just see if they don’t.”
“Shut up!” Sheba screamed. “Shut your rotten mouth!”
She didn’t stay long after that and when she walked outside her mother followed.
“Sheba, do you have a few dollars?”
“What for?”
“Groceries. Luke won’t get paid until next week and I doubt if he’ll get home with any of it. And your father isn’t any help. All he does is sit around and worry about that eel rack. You’d think putting an eel rack in the river was the only thing he could do.”
She gave her mother twenty dollars.
“Don’t let them have any of it,” Sheba warned. “If you do, I’ll never give you any again.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
The car started easily enough but as she drove out of the lane she hit a chug hole and she knew that the other U bolt had broken in front. She could hear it break and grind, and when she reached the highway she could hardly steer the car. About a mile down the road she had to pull over to the side and stop.
“Damn!” she exclaimed.
There was no use fooling with the car, so she got out and started to walk.
The road was dark and in the distance a dog howled. Several cars passed her but none of them stopped. She walked on the left side of the road, facing traffic, and the tiny stones hurt her feet.
It seemed hours later when a car coming toward her slowed and halted.
“Hey!”
It was Fred Call.
“Oh, hello,” she said.
He opened the door on the right side of the car.
“What are you doing out here?”
“My car broke down.”
“Well, get in.”
She didn’t want to ride with him but it was a long walk to town. She got in.
