Found in the Street Read Online Free PDF Page B

So I said yes, a wallet. He said he had it, and he’d see me in about ten minutes. Downstairs. And there he was, and he wouldn’t take a reward, not a hundred, not even twenty bucks!” Jack slapped the table edge with his fingers and laughed.
    â€œAll the money was in it?”
    â€œYep, and I’d just been to the bank. Over two hundred and he knew—exactly. He’d counted it.’’
    She gave a short laugh. “He must be a born-again Christian.”
    â€œMatter of fact he told me he was an atheist. ‘So naturally I returned your wallet,’ he said. Probably hates churches. Oh, and he’s got a dog named God. Some kind of mixed breed, black and white.”
    â€œDog named God.” She smiled, shaking her head. “Dog spelt backwards, sure.”
    Jack sighed, happy. “Why don’t you conk out for an hour? After that drive—it’ll do you good.”
    But she got up for one more cigarette from the coffee table. “I will.—God, it’s nice to be here!”
    That made Jack even happier, but he said nothing. Slowly, he began to clear the table, letting Natalia do what she wished. She carried a couple of things back to the kitchen, went into the bathroom to brush her teeth, then disappeared into the bedroom, saying:
    â€œSee you. Wake me in an hour if I’m not up.”
    When Jack eased the bedroom door open a little more than an hour later, he found Natalia asleep with the sheet drawn nearly to her shoulders, face down with her profile clear against the pillow, her right hand curled under her chin. It looked an oddly thoughtful pose, and Jack smiled. An art catalog with a glossy white paper cover was splayed near her, with the word ART in big black letters on the front cover. A thick book by Irving Howe lay closed beside her left shoulder.
    Jack folded his arms and leaned against the door jamb, making not a sound, but her closed lids fluttered and opened. “Are you—­possibly in the mood?” he asked.
    She turned over and opened her arms to him, smiling a little. In a trice he had his clothes off, and had slipped in beside her. Our own house, he thought, finally, after three months of Ardmore. He loved the faint scratchiness of the fine blond hair on her thighs, her waist that was smooth and quite round, not flattish before and behind, like most women’s waists. And she kissed him with enthusiasm.
    But at the last, it wasn’t the success Jack had hoped for. Feeling sure she was ready, he had let himself go, he had felt her breath in his ear. And afterward he had known from the way she breathed, that she hadn’t reached a climax. He kissed her breast.
    â€œSorry. Dunno what’s the matter.—’S nothing.’’
    Jack raised his lips from the firm flesh under her breast. “Next time.” He got up.
    But the next hour held a curious heaviness for Jack. He was certainly not sleepy from the glass of wine or from having made love to Natalia, but his feet felt weighted. Amelia was due back. He and Natalia talked about her school on West Twelfth Street, the Sterling Academy for Young People, a name that usually made Natalia lift her lip with an amused and deprecatory smile.
    â€œYou really think it’s good enough, considering what it costs?” Natalia asked in a somewhat irritated way.
    They had been here before. It was a place to park tots and kids up to school-entering age and even up to nine years, and the Sterling Academy presumably taught them something too, like the three R’s. It was within walking distance, and a schoolmarm would walk Amelia home, unless Jack or Natalia rang up and said they would fetch her. For two hundred dollars a week, a five-day week, Amelia got a good lunch too.
    â€œI think you told me the Vernons thought the school’s okay,” Jack said, feeling that he’d said this maybe twice before, “and they come a long way to get here.”
    What was