Out of the Easy Read Online Free PDF Page B

to her.
    “How bad is it?” she asked, propped against her thick pillows.
    “I’ve seen worse,” I told her. It was true. I had seen much worse, like when the insurance salesman from Florida got so drunk he fell down and hit his head. There was blood everywhere. It looked like someone had slaughtered a hog on the floor. I scrubbed for days and still couldn’t get the stain up. Willie eventually bought a large oriental rug to put over the spot. She even rearranged the furniture. But the stain was still there. Some things just won’t go away, no matter how hard you scrub.
    “So, what do you have?” she asked.
    I picked up the pail. “Well, first, this huge thing.” I pulled an enormous red shoe out of the bucket.
    Willie nodded. “From Kansas City. He paid two bills to dress up in stockings and dance with the girls.”
    “And he left a shoe?” I asked.
    “No, the other one’s under the settee in the parlor. I keep them up in the attic for guys like him. Wipe them off and put them back up there. What else?”
    I pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of the pail. “In Dora’s toilet tank.”
    Willie rolled her eyes.
    I produced a silver cigarette lighter from the bucket. “On Sweety’s bedside table.”
    “Well done. It belongs to an Uptown attorney. What a horse’s ass. Thinks he’s so smart. He doesn’t know the difference between piss and perfume. I’ll have fun returning that to him. Maybe I’ll drop by his house at dinnertime.”
    “And this,” I said. “I found it in the upstairs hallway.” I held up a bullet.
    Willie put out her hand.
    “Did you have one of the bankers here last night?” I asked.
    “This isn’t from a banker’s gun,” said Willie. “It’s for a .38.”
    “How do you know?”
    Willie reached under her pillow and pulled out a gun. With a flick of her wrist she opened the cylinder, slid the bullet in the chamber, and snapped the cylinder back into place. “That’s how I know. Get your mother.”
    “She isn’t here,” I said. “Her bed is empty, and her garter belt isn’t on the chair.”
    “Such a liar. Said she didn’t feel well. She had that sack of trash in my house. I haven’t gotten a report from Frankie. Did anyone see Cincinnati last night?” asked Willie.
    “I don’t know. For a minute I thought he was in the store, but it was only Patrick. He scared the bejesus out of me.”
    “Patrick, hmph. He’s nothing like his father, that’s for sure. How’s Charlie doing?”
    “Talking crazy. I feel so bad for Patrick. I’m going to stop by today,” I told her.
    “Charlie’s not crazy. His brain is a touch soft somewhere—that happens to some people. Happened to Charlie’s dad.” Willie sighed. “But don’t go saying he’s crazy, or he’ll be hauled off to the mental ward at Charity. I won’t let that happen. Not to a good man like Charlie. He took you in when none of us could be bothered. Here,” said Willie, throwing the twenty from Dora’s toilet at me. “Buy him groceries or whatever he needs. Let me know if he wants a girl sent over.”
    I nodded. Charlie had been good to me. One day when I was fourteen, I told Charlie that I hated Mother. “Don’t hate her, Jo,” he told me. “Feel sorry for her. She’s not near as smart as you. She wasn’t born with your compass, so she wanders around, bumping into all sorts of walls. That’s sad.” I understood what he meant, and it made me see Mother differently. But wasn’t there some sort of rule that said parents had to be smarter than their kids? It didn’t seem fair.
    “So what else don’t I know?” said Willie.
    “Evangeline’s flying the red flag, and Dora ripped her velvet gown across the bosom again. I still have rooms to clean, so that’s all I know right now.”
    “Ripped her dress, again? Like watermelons, those things. Okay, Evangeline is off for five days. Tell her to move upstairs to the attic. Have Sadie mend the gown. Now get out. I want to read the paper.”
    I nodded