Kiss of Noir Read Online Free PDF Page B

as he bent over, slapping his left knee.
    “How’s this?” Cleo handed him a slip with a figure. I studied the man. Unless he had a ring in his pocket, he didn’t have anything to pawn. Stub frowned at the number. “Now, Mr. Cleo, you know I don’t have much learning, is that a three?” He poked at the paper with his left index finger.
    “Yep. And it wouldn’t hurt you to get reading specs. Here, look at it now.” Cleo removed his own glasses from his shirt pocket, unfolded them, and helped slip them on Stub’s face.
    Stub grimaced and pinched his eyes to slits. “Yessir! Yessir, I sure do see it now, good and clear.” He glanced at me, and Stub’s eyes were so magnified by the glasses, they looked like bloodshot blue ping-pong balls. Startled, I stepped back.
    “That is more than generous, Mr. Cleo. That will do nicely. I sure do appreciate it.”
    “I know, Stub,” Cleo said as he gently removed the glasses and replaced them.
    “I can get the money,” I said. I set my dusting tools on the counter and banged on the register. I was desperate to know what Stub was pawning.
    In horror, I watched as Cleo flipped up the right sleeve of Stub’s shirt, unfastened his artificial arm and removed it, putting the limb somewhere in the back. I stood at the open register, my mouth gaping.
    “Look at him!” Stub pointed at me with his shoulder stump. “You sure shocked the shit out of him!”
    “I’m a woman,” I replied, grinning. Stub quit smiling and looked me up and down. “Sure shocked the shit out of you too, huh?”
    Stub laughed. “Gimme my money. I gotta go shopping.”
    “How you going to pay it back this time, Stub?” Drew asked. “You’re a genius for finding and stretching a penny.”
    “Like I always do. Sell my blood for some of it. What’s it to you, old fart?” Stub shrugged the shrug of people so overloaded with big problems that every detail of life seemed miniscule and inconsequential.
    “Here you go, Stub. You take good care now and we’ll see you soon,” Cleo said.
    “Thank you, sir.” Stub raised a limp salute. “Bye, y’all!” he said with a toothy smile.
    “Bye,” we responded.
    Drew shook his head. “That’s sad. That is so sad. Vietnam, you know.”
    Cleo dropped his eyes. “Yep. Served well and turned into a poverty-stricken, drug-addled, drunken swamp rat with more medical problems than all three of us together.” Cleo snorted. “The government.”
    “My man,” Drew sang softly, mournfully.
    “That’s some shit,” I said, watching Stub limp down the block.
    “Well, we do what we can.” Cleo sighed, sitting again. “Smoke?” He held a hand-rolled cigarette to me and I accepted with relief. “Let’s play.” Cleo stirred the bones.
    “I ain’t got no scratch left!” I exclaimed, having been skillfully distracted from Stub. “You took it all.”
    “We’ll play for nothing. Just practice,” Cleo purred.
    I laughed. “All right, you crafty old fart.”

Chapter Nine
     
    The rain was falling in heavy sheets. The store was empty. Ellis was at the other shop with an appointment.
    I sat at the table with Cleo and Drew, playing dominoes. I was fussy and bored. I never won this game and the rain made me restless.
    “C’mon, what you got, N?” Drew nudged me out of my petulant reverie.
    “Play ’em if you got ’em, my sister, but don’t show your panties all at once,” Cleo muttered.
    “Sweet, why you talk that smack all the time? All these years I never know what you’re saying. Some voodoo?” Drew asked.
    Cleo just smiled wide, his gold tooth glittering. I slapped a domino onto the end of the crooked black avenue they had already created.
    “Oh, too slow, too slow.” Cleo grinned. “I bump.”
    “My man! You won again!” Drew shook his head.
    “Play without me this time,” I snapped.
    “How you ever going to learn if you don’t play?” Cleo asked.
    “I ain’t learning shit but how to lose my money to you, and I could have done