U.S.A_ - John Dos Passos [496]
"Check," said Charley.
"When you're in Miami, look up my old friend Homer Cassidy. . . . He's got a nice boat . .
. he'l take you out fishin' . . . I'l write him, Charley. If I could get away I might spend a week down there myself next month.
There's a world of money bein' made down there right now."
"I sure wil , senator, that's mighty nice of you, senator." By the time they got into the Union station Charley and the senator were riding high. They were talking trunklines and connecting lines, airports and realestate. Charley couldn't make out whether he was hiring Senator Planet for the lobbying or whether Senator Planet was hiring him. They parted almost affectionately at the taxistand. Next afternoon he drove down through Virginia. It was a pretty, sunny afternoon. The judastrees were beginning to come out red on the sheltered hil sides. He had two bottles of that good rye whiskey Senator Planet had sent up to the hotel for him. As he drove he began to get sore at Parker the chauffeur. Al the bastard did was get rake-offs on the spare parts and gas and oil. Here he'd charged up eight new tires in the last month, what did he do with tires anyway, eat them? By the time they were crossing the tol bridge into Norfolk Charley was sore as a crab. He had to hold himself in to keep from hauling off and giving the bastard a crack on the sal ow jaw of his smooth flunkey's face. In front of the hotel he blew up.
"Parker, you're fired. Here's your month's wages and your trip back to New York. If I see your face around this town tomorrow I'l have you run in for theft. You know what I'm referrin' to just as wel as I do. You damn chauffeurs think you're too damn smart. I know the whole
-357-racket, see. . . . I have to work for my dough just as hard as you do. Just to prove it I'm goin' to drive myself from now on." He hated the man's smooth unmoving face.
"Very wel , sir," Parker said cool y. "Shal I return you the uniform?"
"You can take the uniform and shove it up your . . ." Charley paused. He was stamping up and down red in the face on the pavement at the hotel entrance in a circle of giggling colored bel boys. "Here, boy, take those bags in and have my car taken around to the garage. . . . Al right, Parker, you have your instructions."
He strode into the hotel and ordered the biggest double suite they had. He registered in his own name. "Mrs. Anderson wil be here directly." Then he cal ed up the other hotels to find out where the hel Margo was. "Hel o, kid," he said when at last it was her voice at the end of the wire. "Come on over. You're Mrs. Anderson and no questions asked. Aw, to hel with 'em; nobody's goin' to dictate to me what I'l do or who I'l see or what I'm goin' to do with my money. I'm through with al that. Come right around. I'm crazy to see you. . . ." When she came in, fol owed by the bel hop with the
bags, she certainly looked prettier than ever. "Wel , Char-ley," she said, when the bel hop had gone out, "this sure is the cream de la cream. . . . You must have hit oil." After she'd run al around the rooms she came back and snuggled up to him. "I bet you been giving
'em hel on the market.""They tried to put somethin' over on me, but it can't be done. Take it from me. . . . Have a drink, Margo. . . . Let's get a little bit cockeyed you and me, Margo. . . . Christ, I was afraid you wouldn't come." She was doing her face in the mirror.
"Me? Why I'm only a pushover," she said in that gruff low tone that made him shiver al up his spine.
"Say, where's Cliff?"
"Our hatchetfaced young friend who was kind enough
-358-to accompany me to the meeting with the lord and master?
He pul ed out on the six o'clock train."
"The hel he did. I had some instructions for him."
"He said you said be in the office Tuesday morning and he'd do it if he had to fly. Say, Charley, if he's a sample of your employees they must worship