Miami Blues Read Online Free PDF Page B

he got back into the habit. Otherwise, when he got back to prison, he would have to go through all of that painful withdrawal business again.
    Susan, still in her work clothes, arrived a few minutes after five. She waved from the door and then joined him at the table-for-two against the wall. She ducked her head and sat under an ominous hanging basket containing a drooping mass of ferns. She was obviously pleased to see Freddy.
    "You forgot the suitcase," Freddy said, "but I gave it to Pablo. The clothes are in the bag under the table."
    "I didn't really forget. I just thought better of it. A lot of employees know what I do in the hotel, and they don't like me. They don't like any of us girls, because of the money we make. So if a maid saw me with the suitcase, she'd call the security office and say that I stole it from a guest or something. Then, when I told the security officer the truth, he'd still check with you, and he'd find out that you didn't have any other luggage. That could make some trouble for you. What I think, when you left your wife, is that you took the wrong suitcase. You took hers instead of your own. Isn't that right?"
    "Something like that. That's interesting, Susan. I didn't think you could figure out something that complicated."
    "I wasn't always a thoughtful person. When I was in high school in Okeechobee, all I thought about was having a good time. But at Miami-Dade, the teachers want us to use our minds."
    "Where's Okeechobee?"
    "It's up by the lake, when you drive north to Disney World."
    "What lake?"
    "Lake Okeechobee!" Susan laughed. "It's the biggest lake in the whole South. Everybody gets their water down here from Lake Okeechobee."
    "I'm from California. I don't know shit about Florida."
    "I don't know shit about California, either. So I guess we're even."
    "Lake Tahoe's a pretty good-size lake in California. Have you heard of Tahoe?"
    "I've heard of it, but I don't know where it is."
    "Part of it's in Nevada, and the rest is in California. On the Nevada side, you can gamble in the casinos."
    "You can't gamble in Florida, except on horses, race track and trotters, on dogs, and jai alai. Oh, yes, you can gamble on cockfighting and dogfighting, too, if you know where to go. But all other forms of gambling, the governor says, are immoral."
    "Is the governor a Jesuit?"
    "That's a Catholic, isn't it?"
    "An educated Catholic, the way it was explained to me."
    "No, he's a Protestant. It would be a waste of money for a Catholic to run for office down here."
    "Tell me about Okeechobee, and tell me why you came to Miami."
    "It's a lot hotter up there than it is here, for one thing. And it rains more, too, because of the lake. It's a little town, not big like Miami, but there's lots to do, like bowling and going juking, or fishing and swimming. If you don't like country, you wouldn't like Okeechobee. If a girl doesn't get married, there isn't much future there, and nobody ever asked me to get married. I did the cooking for my daddy and my brother, but that didn't stop me from getting pregnant. That's why I came to Miami, really, to get me an abortion. My father said it was a disgrace to get pregnant that way, and he told me not to come back--"
    "The _Reader's Digest_ said about forty percent of the girls who get pregnant aren't married. What's he so uptight about?"
    "My brother, Marty, had a big fight with him about that. He told daddy it's the Lord's right to punish people, and that daddy didn't have any right to sit in judgment on me. So the upshot of all that was that Marty had to go with me, and he was told not to come back either. Daddy doesn't believe in much of anything, and Marty's really religious, you see."
    "So you both came down to Miami?"
    She nodded. "On the bus. Marty and me are really close. We were born only ten months apart, and he's always taken my side against daddy."
    The waitress interrupted. "You want more tea, or d'you want to order now?"
    "I'll have the Circe Salad," Susan said. "I