Found in the Street Read Online Free PDF Page A

Natalia across the street, opening the hatch of her red Toyota. The street’s surface was dark with a light rain that Jack had been unaware of.
    â€œHey!” he shouted, and she looked up. “Be right down!” He saw her wave at him.
    Jack grabbed his keys and ran down. “Hi, darling.” He squeezed her arm in her old fur-collared raincoat, and quickly kissed her cheek. “You tired?” He pulled a suitcase out of the back.
    â€œNo, but it was raining like hell in Pennsylvania.”
    The car fenders were spattered with grimy dirt, Jack noticed. “This too?” He held a duffelbag.
    â€œYes. I’ll take the bookbag.” She locked the car door, then the hatch, after tugging out a burlap bag lumpy with books and bearing a Harvard University insignium.
    Upstairs, it turned out that Natalia was tired, and from what she said, it sounded as if she’d slept only two hours or maybe not at all. She’d seen Louis and some of his friends for dinner somewhere, and then Louis had telephoned in the wee hours.
    â€œI just got sick of it, so I took off pretty early.”
    But by then she was talking about people coming to the house, about a boring lunch at the golf club with her mother’s friends, not about being sick of Louis.
    â€œGet out of those shoes, at least. Relax.”
    She wore white sandals with heels, a summer skirt and a shirt with the tails hanging out. Maybe she hadn’t changed since last evening, Jack thought.
    â€œWant a shower? A drink? There’s plenty of Glenfiddich.”
    â€œYes,” said Natalia, sitting on the sofa, removing her sandals. She lit a Marlboro, and leaned back.
    Jack made a scotch on the rocks in an old-fashioned glass, because Natalia didn’t like tall glasses. He inhaled Natalia’s scent, faint and exciting. Even the whiff of her cigarette smoke was exciting.
    â€œThanks, Jack.” She smiled at him, lips together, her gray-green eyes warm. There were tiny wrinkles under her eyes which make-up could conceal, if she ever bothered. Her eyes were not large, and their upper lids drew a bit over the inner corners. She seldom smiled broadly, unless she laughed, because she was shy about her teeth, which were not as white as she would have liked, though their color was not due to smoking. Her legs were not her best feature either, being just slightly too heavy. What was it that gave her her fantastic sex appeal, and not merely for Jack but for a lot of other people? Maybe her voice, which was full of humor, and intelligence too, though a little husky sometimes, and Natalia cleared her throat more than most people. Jack often thought that on the telephone, Natalia could simply cough, or clear her throat, and he’d know instantly that it was she. He very much hoped that he could put her into the mood of going to bed with him this afternoon before the return of Amelia at probably half past 4.
    â€œHow’s your work going?” Natalia asked.
    â€œOh—tell you about that later. Show you. I’m on the book jackets.” Jack was kneeling in the big armchair, forearms on the chair’s back. He would have loved to leap over, crash onto Natalia, scotch and all, and make love to her on the sofa. “And your mum?”
    â€œOh, mum,” Natalia groaned, looking at the ceiling, and laughed. “Teddie’s coming Sunday. He’ll keep her amused.”
    Teddie was Natalia’s younger half-brother by a second marriage of her mother’s. Natalia’s father was dead, and Teddie’s father was divorced from Natalia’s mother. Teddie was twenty and in college somewhere in California. He had been raised by his father, who had custody.
    Natalia remarked that the apartment looked in good shape. It was not a usual remark from her. Jack sensed that she was worried about something. Halfway through her scotch, she said she wanted a shower, and got up. While she was in the bathroom, Jack put her