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“I’ll bet you did,” Helen said.

“He loved what I gave him.”

“Clara never lacked for boyfriends,” Jack said. “I’m a lucky man. But she’s pretty sick. That’s why you can’t stay. She eats a lot of toast.”

“Oh I could make some toast,” Helen said, standing up from her chair. “Would you like that?”

“If I feel like eatin’ I’ll make my own toast,” Clara said. “And I’m gettin’ ready to go to bed. Make sure you lock the door when you go out.”

Jack grabbed Francis by the arm and pulled him toward the kitchen, but not before Francis readjusted his vision of Clara sitting in the middle of her shit machine, sending up a silent reek from her ruined guts and their sewerage.

o o o

When Jack and Francis came back into the living room Francis was smoking one of Jack’s cigarettes. He dropped it as he reached for the wine, and Helen groaned.

“Everything fallin’ on the floor,” Francis said. “I don’t blame you for throwin’ these bums out if they can’t behave respectable.”

“It’s gettin’ late for me,” Jack said. “I used to get by on two, three hours’ sleep, but no more.”

“I ain’t stayed here in how long now?” Francis asked. “Two weeks, ain’t it?”

“Oh come on, Francis,” Clara said. “You were here not four days ago. And Helen last night. And last Sunday you were here.”

“Sunday we left,” Helen said.

“I flopped here two nights, wasn’t it?” Francis said.

“Six,” Jack said. “Like a week.”

“I beg to differ with you,” Helen said.

“It was over a week,” Jack said.

“I know different,” said Helen.

“From Monday to Sunday.”

“Oh no.”

“It’s a little mixed up,” Francis said.

“He’s got a lot of things mixed up,” Helen said. “I hope you don’t get your food mixed up like that down at the diner.”

“No,” Jack said.

“You know, you’re very insultin’,” Francis said to Helen.

“It was a week,” Jack said.

“You’re a liar,” Helen said.

“Don’t call me a liar because I know so.”

“Haven’t you got any brains at all?” Francis said. “You supposed to be a college woman, you supposed to be this and that.”

“I am a college woman.”

“You know what I thought,” Jack said, “was for you to stay here, Franny, till you get work, till you pick up a little bankroll. You don’t have to give me nothin’.”

“Shake hands on it,” Helen said.

“I don’t know about the proposition now,” Jack said.

“Because I’m a bum,” Francis said.

“No, I wouldn’t put it that way.” Jack poured more wine for Francis.

“I knew he didn’t mean it,” Helen said.

“I’m gonna tell you,” Francis said. “I always thought a lot of Clara.”

“You’re drunk, Francis,” Helen screamed, standing up again. “Stay drunk for the rest of your life. I’m leaving you, Francis. You’re crazy. All you want is to guzzle wine. You’re insane!”

“What’d I say?” Francis asked. “I said I liked Clara.”

“Nothin’ wrong about that,” Jack said.

“I don’t mind about that,” Helen said, sitting down.

“I don’t know what to do with that woman,” Francis said.

“Do you even know if you’re staying here tonight?” Helen asked.

“No, he’s not,” Jack said. “Take him with you when you go.”

“We’re going,” Helen said.

“Clara’s too sick, Francis,” said Jack.

Francis sipped his wine, put it on the table, and struck a tap dancer’s pose.

“How you like these new duds of mine, Clara? You didn’t tell me how swell I look, all dressed up.”

“You look sharp,” Clara said.

“You can’t keep up with Francis.”

“Don’t waste your time, Francis,” Helen said.

“You’re getting very hostile, you know that? Listen, you want to sleep with me in the weeds tonight?”

“I never slept in the weeds,” Helen said.

“Never?” asked Clara.

“No, never,” said Helen.

“Oh yes,” Francis said. “She slept in the coaches with me, and the fields.”

“Never. You made that up, Francis.”

“We been through the valley together,” Francis said.

“Maybe you have,” said Helen. “I’ve never gone that far down and I don’t intend to go that far down.”

“It ain’t far to go. She slept in Finny’s car night before last.”

“That’s the last time. If it came to that, I’d get in touch with my people.”

“You