Charley Read Online Free PDF Page A

restaurant. Wilma was a female version of Ronnie. She had been with Jimmy Brewster almost from the beginning. Some people had rumored that she and Jimmy were having an affair during the last years of his wife’s life. No one ever confirmed it, but Jimmy and Wilma were as close as any couple ever was. When Randle and I started dating, Wilma assumed the role of chief chaperone and mothered us to death. And we loved her for it.
    After a long pause, I pulled myself together. “I’ll be out in a minute, Wilma, just finishing up.”
    I grabbed my favorite body lotion; the one that gave my body a soft vanilla-scented silkiness. “Pick me something sexy to wear.”
    Wilma wasn’t there to help me dress, she never had before. Wilma was there to talk about tonight and her message would be the same as Ronnie’s had been earlier. Wrapped in a towel, I stepped into the domain of Mama Wilma.
    “I hope you picked out the pastel pink wrap-around shirt and the white silk blouse.”
    “I thought that would be your choice, I’ll get them in a minute. Come over here; let’s get your hair dried.”
    As Wilma brushed the tangles out of my hair, I could tell she was trying hard to be casual, but it was obvious she had other things on her mind.
    “Wilma, Ronnie has already talked to me about tonight, but I suspect you have something to say, don’t you?” I teased. “You’re not going to be like my mom, are you? One time, she forbade me to leave the house because she didn’t approve of a boy I wanted to see. You’re not going to lock me in, are you? I can leave the apartment, can’t I?”
    Wilma reached for the hair dryer and continued to brush my damp hair. “Be serious, girl, we’re just concerned for you.”
    “I know. But this is something I need to do.”
    “What do you need to do, honey?”
    “I need to get on with my life; I’m mired down. When Randle and I married, we had such high dreams. When he got involved with that damn Leonard Martin and got himself killed, my life fell apart. You knew I was pregnant when he was killed. Did you know we had just found out it was a boy? We were going to name him Jimmy.”
    I hate losing control, but I couldn’t keep the tears from damping my eyes. “And three weeks later, I lost our baby! Wilma, in three weeks, I buried my husband and our baby and our dreams. Everything good in my life was gone, just gone.”
    I almost couldn’t get the words out between the sobs.
    “There, there, child everything will be okay.”
    “My life is dead now, I have the Bar and you and Ronnie, but I go to bed in that huge condo and don’t have anyone to hold me. I get up and there’s no one to eat breakfast with. I don’t have anyone to tell me I’m pretty or I’m sexy. I can’t let my guard down with anyone. I don’t have anyone I can build a future with.”
    I leaned on Wilma’s shoulder and hugged her tight. “Wilma, I’m thirty-two and I’m dead … dead and alone.”
    “What about that young lawyer you’re seeing? Terry something or other isn’t it? He seems nice.”
    “Terry Weldon. He is nice Wilma, but I need a man I can depend on, who can make decisions, who can take charge. I need someone who is affectionate and who needs me. I know it sounds stupid, but he’s always asking me what I want. Sometimes, I wish he would tell me what he wants. Terry is just too nice, too clinging; he always seems to be holding back something. And on top of that, he’s lousy in bed.”
    I laughed a little through the tears.
    “We’re just good friends. I know everyone else in town and they know me. My best friend from high school, Bobby Wagner, is married to my best girlfriend, Debbie Wilson. Everyone else is either married or moved away or gay. There’s just me. Confident, successful and, dammit, I’m alone, all alone! Wilma, when the Bar closes I either come up here, or go back to the condo, and I shower and put on an old ragged shirt and panties and I climb into the bed, a King sized bed