Moonshine: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

maintaining the lifestyle, despite her pittance of a factory salary. She twisted the caps on bottles of holy water, which would have driven me to bloody suicide, but did not seem to bother her all that much. She had perfected, she informed me, the art of screwing tops while simultaneously reading about other people screwing.
    She glanced up. "I told you not to teach on a new moon. Did they chase you out of the building? Or did you just roll around in the gutter for fun?"
    "Definitely fun," I said, leaning against the door to catch my breath.
    "Mother Mary!" she said, when I dropped my coat and she saw the mud now drying on my posterior. "Are you sure you wouldn't prefer the factory?"
    I unbuttoned the skirt and kicked it off into the space between our beds. "After today, I'll think about it."
    She smiled sympathetically. "Well, I know what will cheer you up. This auteur"--she paused and glanced again at the cover of her novel--"ah, Verity Lovelace, has quite a way with the risque euphemism."
    My shirt joined my skirt on the floor and I pulled out a robe from the top of my trunk.
    "Better than 'dew-filled love chasm'?" I asked as I unfastened the hooks of my brassiere.
    "Oh, you can't imagine. Here." She flipped to a page whose corner she had folded down. " 'Her anus was a perfection of unblemished beauty, its youthful folds ruddy as an apple, with a delicate budding cherry at its center.' "
    I unfastened the last clip and took a deep, unconstricted breath. "Oh, my," I said, grinning at her. "Don't tell me he pops her cherry?"
    Aileen giggled and rolled over on her stomach. "It's terribly shocking. And rather messy, if you trust Madame Lovelace."
    "Aileen, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were interested."
    She waved her hand airily. "Oh, who's to say? With the right man, anything could interest me."
    "If Mrs. Brodsky doesn't get to him first." Aileen groaned. "She's like your mother away from home," I teased.
    "My mother, God rest her soul, wasn't a bloody parole officer."
    Our landlady doted on Aileen and had taken a forceful interest in her affairs. She considered me the corrupting influence, of course. There were times when I was tempted to show her Aileen's novel collection. I tied my robe and picked up a terry cloth. "Any hot water left?"
    "Not unless you want to heat it yourself. Mr. Brodsky is here, after all."
    I grimaced. "Of course. Well, let me know if you come across any other gems."
    Aileen gave me a wide-eyed look of conspiratorial understanding. I walked back through the dimly lit hall to the bathroom. The water ran into the claw-footed porcelain tub lukewarm at first, and then frigid. My schedule meant I was frequently forced to take cold baths, but I still scowled at the ceiling that separated me from Mr. Brodsky. I was sure he didn't have to struggle to wash his hair in water only slightly warmer than an icy puddle. Of course, he also had to satisfy the no-doubt terrifying appetite of Mrs . Brodsky. I bet she scrubbed him herself. With steel wool. After a precise two and a half minutes, I leapt out of the tub and quickly dried my prickling skin with the terry cloth. Wet, my hair brushed the tops of my shoulders, but it always dried to a frizzy halo of loose curls that I rarely had the time to tame. Mama's hair is a beautiful shade of strawberry blond, and hangs straight as a pin to the backs of her thighs. But I have hair like Daddy. Of course.
    When I got back to the room, Aileen had turned down the lamp and was lying upside down on her bed, staring at the ceiling. The hose lay discarded on the floor beside her. I pulled on a cotton nightgown, a gift from Mama on my twelfth birthday, and sunk onto my bed. It might be a lumpy mattress, but it felt like a little corner of heaven after days like this.
    "Anything good happen?" I asked.
    "They are doing it in the dining car of the Oriental Express."
    I thought about it. "Does that sound uncomfortable to you?"
    "I think it sounds uncomfortable to Verity