Earthly Possessions - Anne Tyler [77]
“Why this here line?” Jake asked me. “This is the longest.”
Of course it was longest. I was going to be leaving soon and I didn’t want events to move too quickly. As if he guessed that, Jake moved in closer behind me. “Charlotte,” he said in my ear.
“Hmm?”
“I don’t want you pulling nothing funny. Understand?”
I nearly laughed. I wondered what he imagined I could do. Leap the teller’s grate in a single bound? Sign my check in some suspicious way? Charlotte Emory, hostage. The teller wouldn’t even raise her eyebrows. She would glance at my signature indifferently, as if I’d stated some natural condition or occupation. Oh, I knew better by now than to count on other people for help. “Don’t be silly,” I said to Jake. He must have seen that I meant it; he dropped back. His nylon jacket rustled. The man in the business suit left, folding a sheaf of bills.
“I’d like to cash a traveler’s check,” I said to the teller. She looked bored. I signed my name with a chained ball-point pen and passed the check through the grate. In return she counted out a hundred dollars in twenties. I counted once more and then gave my place up to a red-headed lady who was dabbing her nose with a Kleenex.
Out on the street, Jake said, “Well, that wasn’t so hard.”
“No,” I said.
“Nothing to it.”
“No.”
We passed a shoestore, darkened now, and then a florist’s where ugly tropical flowers glowed behind glass. We reached the diner—a railroad car surrounded by a picket fence. Through one long, greasy window we saw Mindy with her back to us, her elbows on the counter, twisting idly on her stool so her skirt belled out and swirled. We stood watching as if we had nowhere else to go, no plans in mind at all. Jake gave a sudden, sharp sigh.
“I was fixing to leave her,” he said.
I nodded.
“But I can’t,” he said. “She’s right, you know. I have some ties to her.”
Mindy hoisted a hot dog into the air; she was wiping her face in the crook of her elbow, which from here seemed as delicate as a vine or tendril.
“I’m going to end up married to her, ain’t I, Charlotte.”
“Well, I guess that maybe you are, Jake,” I said.
“I’ve done myself in. Ain’t I? Just going to end up trucking along in that life she wants.”
I looked at him.
“Gold and avocado,” said Jake. “Patricia curtains. Babies. See what I’ve come to? What you staring at?”
“Nothing,” I said. “Here.”
“What’s this?”
It was money, as he could plainly see. Five new twenty-dollar bills. I had to fold his fingers around them. He said, “Charlotte?”
“I’m leaving now,” I told him.
His mouth fell open.
“I can’t stay on forever, Jake. You knew I’d have to go sometime.”
“No, wait,” he said. His voice had turned harsh and raspy.
“Tell Mindy goodbye for me.”
“Charlotte, but … see, I can’t quite manage without you just yet. Understand? I’ve got this pregnant woman on my hands, got all these … Charlotte, it ain’t so bad if you’re with us, you see. You act like you take it all in stride, like this is the way life really does tend to turn out. You mostly wear this little smile. I mean, we know each other, Charlotte. Don’t we?”
“Yes,” I said.
“And anyhow!” he said. He suddenly lifted his chin. He thrust the money in his pocket and stood straighter, teetering slightly from heel to toe. “I don’t know why I’m begging, you can’t leave anyhow. I’ve got your money.”
“You can have it,” I told him.
“Then how would you travel? Just tell me that.”
“Oh well, I’ll … go to Travelers’ Aid,” I said.
“And your medal!”
“What?”
“I guess you want it back, don’t you.”
“Medal? Oh, the—”
“Well, you won’t get it. I aim to keep it.”
“That’s all right,” I said.
I held out my hand. I didn’t want to just walk away without shaking hands. But Jake wouldn’t take it. His chin was still tilted