Awake Unto Me Read Online Free PDF Page B

space long after the doctor had left. A chill crept up his spine but he shook it off. If someone did get him one day, Kerry would be safe. And even though he never would have thought he’d give a damn about anyone, he realized his daughter could be the only thing he’d ever do right. With a deep sigh, he downed the rest of his whiskey and motioned for another.

Chapter Four
     
    In the Grey Dog Saloon, no pretty waiter girl was more important to a party than Sally Jean Miller. She’d wandered into the place at sixteen after she was abandoned by her father, who had gone off to make his fortune in the Comstock Lode. Her mother had left long before she could remember. Rose gave her a place to stay. And work, of course. At twenty-nine she was still lovely: blond and plump and with a sharp wit, all of which made the customers think of her as a sweet, girl-next-door type, and virtually no one knew Minny was her daughter, they were so close in age.
    It was her smile that gave away her true nature. When she smiled, it didn’t reach her eyes, which were hard, and flat, and soulless. But it didn’t matter to the Grey Dog customers. They wouldn’t care if a girl’s mother died or if her father had abandoned her. Her story didn’t matter, just what little reprieve she could offer from a harsh reality. Sally was starting to drink more, and Rose had chastised her more than once for being drunk and sassy when she was talking up customers, saying it could get her killed. She would pretend to listen, but said she didn’t have much to live for anyway, so she’d drink enough that pretending to be alive didn’t feel like such a giant lie.
    Sally was lazing in bed on a Sunday morning because, although the Barbary Coast deadfalls stayed open all week, the girls weren’t required to work on Sundays since it was the only slow day of the week.
    “Come on, girl, go downstairs and ask Leo for a glass of beer for me.”
    “Leo won’t give me no glass of beer unless I pay for it,” Kerry said irritably. Sally had always ordered her around like an impatient older sister, and usually she just put up with it, but her mind was elsewhere and she had no time for Sally’s nonsense.
    Sally was in her drawers, lying on the rickety single bed with one leg over the other and kicking her foot lazily. “Hey, Kerry-o, what’s the matter?”
    Kerry’s back was to Sally as she pulled out the pieces of wood and added a few to the fire, but she turned around at the sound of Sally’s voice. She was wondering if Jack was going to crimp some men off the Bangor , the whaling ship from Maine, and if she could get in on the action. Since Addison had gone, Jack was crimping more to make money. Ignoring Sally, she turned back to the firewood.
    “Kerry, come over here, girl. Or should I say boy?” Sally giggled.
    Kerry turned around and frowned at Sally. “You can think what you like, Sal,” Kerry said. “I don’t care.”
    “Oh, don’t be so mean. You do care, don’t you? Kerry, I’m sorry I teased you. C’mere and sit down.”
    Sighing loudly, Kerry dumped the rest of the wood in the bin and sat down in the rickety chair next to Sally’s bed.
    “Noooo, girl, sit here next to me.” Sally patted the bed. Kerry glared at her, not sure why the reference to her clothing bothered her. She still wore trousers and a cap and passed as a boy; she’d gotten used to it and it was easier than having the men bother her all the time. But she didn’t know how she thought of herself exactly. She was just who she was and Jack never mentioned anything. She couldn’t make out what Sally was up to, but she decided to find out and sat down on the bed.
    “That’s better.” Sally was smiling and Kerry noticed Sally still had a good set of teeth, even if she only brushed them once in a while. Being this close to Sally when she was in her drawers made Kerry unaccountably nervous, although it never had before.
    “You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”
    “I’m not