The Postman Always Rings Twice - James M. Cain [12]
Then all of a sudden it stopped. I slipped in the kitchen, and stood there listening. But I couldn't hear anything, because I was all shook up, and all I could get was the sound of my own heart, going bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump, like that. I thought that was a funny way for my heart to sound, and then all of a sudden I knew there was two hearts in that kitchen, and that was why it sounded so funny.
I snapped on the light.
She was standing there, in a red kimono, as pale as milk, staring at me, with a long thin knife in her hand. I reached out and took it away from her. When she spoke, it was in a whisper that sounded like a snake licking its tongue in and out.
"Why did you have to come back?"
"I had to, that's all."
"No you didn't. I could have gone through with it. I was getting so I could forget you. And now you have to come back. God damn you, you have to come back!"
"Go through with what?"
"What he's making that scrapbook for. _It's to show to his children!_ And now he wants one. He wants one right away."
"Well, why didn't you come with me?"
"Come with you for what? To sleep in box cars? Why would I come with you? Tell me that."
I couldn't say anything. I thought about my $250, but what good was it telling her that I had some money yesterday, but today I lost it playing one ball in the side?
"You're no good. I know that. You're just no good. Then why don't you go away and let me alone instead of coming back here again? Why don't you leave me be?"
"Listen. Stall him on this kid stuff just a little while. Stall him, and we'll see if we can't figure something out. I'm not much good, but I love you, Cora. I swear it."
"You swear it, and what do you do? He's taking me to Santa Barbara, so I'll say I'll have the child, and you--you're going right along with us. You're going to stay at the same hotel with us! You're going right along in the car. You're--"
She stopped, and we stood there looking at each other. The three of us in the car, we knew what that meant. Little by little we were nearer, until we were touching.
"Oh, my God, Frank, isn't there any other way out for us than that?"
"Well. You were going to stick a knife in him just now."
"No. That was for me, Frank. Not him."
"Cora, it's in the cards. We've tried every other way out."
"I can't have no greasy Greek child, Frank. I can't, that's all. The only one I can have a child by is you. I wish you were some good. You're smart, but you're no good."
"I'm no good, but I love you."
"Yes, and I love you."
"Stall him. Just this one night."
"All right, Frank. Just this one night."
CHAPTER 7
"There a long, long trail a-winding
Into the land of my dreams,
Where the nightingale is singing
And the white moon beams.
"There a long, long night of waiting
Until my dreams all come true,
Till the day when I'll be going down
That long, long trail with you."
"Feeling good, ain't they?"
"Too good to suit me."
"So you don't let them get hold of that wheel, Miss. They'll be all right."
"I hope so. I've got no business out with a pair of drunks, I know that. But what could I do? I told them I wouldn't go with them, but then they started to go off by themselves."
"They'd break their necks."
"That's it. So I drove myself. It was all I knew to do."
"It keeps you guessing, sometimes, to know what to do. One sixty for the gas. Is the oil O.K.?"
"I think so."
"Thanks, Miss. Goodnight."
She got in, and took the wheel again, and me and the Greek kept on singing, and we went on. It was all part of the play. I had to be drunk, because that other time had cured me of this idea we could pull a perfect murder. This was going to be such a lousy murder it wouldn't even be a murder. It was going to be just a regular road accident, with guys drunk, and booze in the car, and all the rest of it. Of course, when I started to put it down, the Greek had to have some too, so he was just like I wanted him. We stopped for gas so there would be a witness that she was sober, and didn't want to be with us anyhow, because