A Hole in the Universe - Mary McGarry Morris [104]
Their headlights went off. She slapped her leg, and the mosquito flattened in a sticky mess. “C’mon! C’mon!” She ground her knuckles against the concrete step. Maybe they couldn’t see her. She stood up with her hands on her hips to make as big a target of herself as possible. One of these times something bad was going to happen. She was getting in too deep, but her mother owed Feaster all that money from before plus for the crack she needed now, and that wasn’t even counting anything for food or rent. Yesterday the electricity got turned off, but her mother called from a pay phone, crying and saying she had a new baby in the house. It came back on this morning. The sheriff had come by twice already with eviction notices, but they wouldn’t let him in.
Both car doors opened. A runty guy in a shiny black shirt started down the path. Arms folded, the other guy leaned against the car, watching. Halfway along, the runty guy called out and asked if she had something for him. She said she did.
“Bring it here, then.”
“First you gotta give me something.” She came off the path a few feet, then stopped.
“C’mere, then.” He gestured her closer. “Here. You gonna take it?” He held out a brown paper bag.
She grabbed the bag. It wasn’t supposed to be taped up. “Stupid ass,” she muttered, ripping it open. She counted quickly: twenty hundreds. Well, twenty bills; it was hard to tell what they were. She tried to see.
“C’mon! Hurry up!” He kept looking around. “C’mon!”
She pulled the bag from her shorts. The white guy hurried down the path. The Navigator was gone. Polie had taken off. Something was wrong.
“C’mon, give it over! I ain’t got all day!” The runty guy stepped closer. The other guy had a beard and his hair was longer. Fuck! It was the cop who’d chased her and Thurman on their last deal together. His arm went out. Thinking he had a gun, she threw the bag and the beeper in his face and ran toward the Liberty. They were close on her heels now. Cars came at her from both directions as she ran into the street. Men yelling.
“Stop, you little asshole! Stop! Police! Stop! Police! Police!” Holy shit! She had their money. Horns blared. A car braked onto the sidewalk. She opened her fist and flung the money up into the air before darting down the alley behind the Liberty. She ran and she ran, all the way to Gordon’s garage. Hours later, when no one had come, she ran home and fell onto the couch, exhausted and still shaking.
CHAPTER 16
The still morning air was soft with the fragrance of roses. Gordon was spraying the bushes with his baking soda elixir when he saw a long broken cane on Mrs. Jukas’s side. It had been split at the base. Last night Delores had brought a slice of cherry pie over to Mrs. Jukas. Instead of using the walk, Delores must have blundered her way between the bushes. Typical, he thought as he pruned off the perfectly healthy cane. In her slavish need to please, she did more harm than good, he thought, then immediately flushed with guilt and desire for her.
Delores was the first woman he had ever slept with. The experience continued to be both profound and disconcerting. Though he wasn’t naive enough to think he was her first partner, he was sure there hadn’t been many others. She just didn’t seem the type. The sexual aspect of their relationship was far more exhilarating than anything he had ever imagined. He had never felt so much a part of another human being, so vulnerable and yet so strong. But the moment it ended he would be overcome with desolation. She would curve her body to his, wanting to be held, wanting to talk, when all he wanted was for her to leave so he could be alone. As soon as she got home she would call, and he would force himself to answer the phone. She deserved the same unfailing kindness and tenderness she gave, but it just wasn’t in him. Maybe it never had been. Maybe he had achieved nothing and this was all a charade, everything, everything about him. Maybe he would always be a shadow trailing truer, more