Of Daughter and Demon Read Online Free PDF Page B

Alice?”
    “Nah, I get my hands on him, I don’t care if
he’s King Kong, I’ll rip his arms off his body and beat him with
‘em.”
    She came over from the window and sat on the
bed. I realize that I’m naked under this one white sheet, and hope
it was her, not Donnie, who undressed me.
    “Who did this to you Harry?”
    “Don’t matter, he’s real dead now.”
    “Yeah, well, he cracked a couple ribs, it
feels like. I taped you up though. And he damn near ripped your ear
off.”
    I reached up and felt the coarse stitching
holding my left ear to that the side side of my head. Real handy,
Fifties Chick is. Used to be a nurse, I believe. Maybe even a doc,
cuz this ain’t the first time she put me back together, and she
always does a good job.
    “Look, someone called downstairs for you,
too,” she said. “A Mr. Dulouz? Cain Dulouz? I ain’t never heard of
him so I just took a message. You know him, Harry?”
    “I know of him. Bobby Johns thinks he might
know something.”
    “He knows something,” Fifties Chick said. “He
knows you got beat pretty good.”
    “Whattaya mean he knows? How could he
know?”
    “I dunno,” she said with a shrug. God she’s
beautiful. “He just asked if you were OK, said he’d call when you
were feeling better.”
    Her fingers ran lightly down the jagged
surface a my mug, down the crooked line a my nose, and with her
sitting there on the bed and smiling at me, I did feel a little
better.
    Then the phone rang.
    “You better lemme take that,” I said, and
Fifties Chick handed me the phone.
    “Yeah?”
    “This Mr. Mitchell?” the voice on the other
end asked.
    “Who’s asking?”
    “Mr. Mitchell, this is Mr. Dulouz, I believe
you’ve been told about me.”
    “I heard a ya, heard you might be able to
help me a little.”
    “I just might be able to, Mr. Mitchell. I
hope we can help each other. I’ll need to talk to you in person, of
course.”
    “Sure, why don’t you come by my bar--hold
on,” I held my hand over the receiver and looked to Fifties Chick.
“What time is it?”
    “It’s only nine o’clock, Harry.”
    “Who’s watchin’ the bar?”
    “Nobody, I locked it up.”
    “You didn’t leave Donnie in there, did
ya?”
    “What, to drink the beer right outta the tap?
No.” That smile again.
    “Mr. Dulouz? Why don’t you come by my bar
later tonight, maybe ‘round twelve?”
    “I look forward to meeting you, Mr.
Mitchell.”
    The phone went dead and I hung my end back up
and tried to sit up. The pain in my ribs was like gettin' punched
by Mikey all over again.
    “Harry, you need to rest.”
    “Nah, I gotta meet the guy...”
    “You got three hours. Let me fix you some
dinner, huh? Just try and go back to sleep a bit and I’ll make sure
you’re up, OK?”
    I wanted to tell her things, Alice, I wanted
to tell her how much I loved her, how she was the only thing left
for a hack like me, and you know what? I think she saw it in my
eyes, Alice, the one that wasn’t swollen shut at least, because she
smiled again and just squeezed my mitts and went downstairs to fire
up the grill.
    I really did fall asleep again, and when she
woke me back up around eleven I felt better. A little better,
anyway, and that’s all I can ask for. I’m lucky to be feeling
anything, lucky Mikey didn’t drive one a my ribs into my lung or
something, so I don’t mind the pain too much, it reminds me I’m
still here and I still got a job to do.
    Fifties Chick handed me a tray of food, had
on it a plate with steak, home fries, and a bowl bowl of clam
chowder, and a couple pieces of that garlic bread she makes, with
two cold bottles of beer on the side. I thanked her and she left me
to eat, and went to open the bar again because she said Donnie was
waiting outside, leaning against the building and singing, and she
knew he wouldn’t shut up till he got another drink and his voice
was murder, so she had to let him in.
    I ate slowly, enjoying every bite, every
mouthful. When