Pay Dirt Read Online Free PDF Page B

hed been called up for national service in Vietnam. Hed
opted for a radio course so he wouldnt have to fight, but the army barbers had
still cut off all his hair. Hed spent the years since then making up for the
indignity.

    Normally he wore overalls, always
dazzling white Yakkas, great-looking against the tan he kept topped up in the
Lifestyle solarium. But hed discovered, the first time he cruised the La Salle
grounds, what a drag the overalls were, so today it was green Stubbie shorts,
Reeboks and a T-shirt. He also wore Nepalese rings and bracelets, bought cheap
from weekend stalls on the Esplanade.

    He turned the Toyota into the
hospital grounds. Lawns stretched for miles, interrupted by walking paths,
seats, flowerbeds and clumps of European trees. Most visitors turned right,
taking them to the main buildings. Snyder took the left fork, which circled the
hospital perimeter. Staff and visitors rarely ventured where he was going.

    He rolled down his window and
listened. The Toyota echoed off the bluestone wall on his left and the belt of
weeping willows on his right, sounding like a sewing machine. Snyder was
disgusted. The trouble with all the greenhouse shit they bolted to engines
these days was not only loss of power but also loss of a decent exhaust note.

    Then Alice stepped out from the
trees and waved. Snyder looked at his watch: four fifteen. When hed come here
on Monday hed said to her, Ill be back Friday, okay? Friday, quarter past four. Hed said each word slowly and clearly, hoping theyd register
but knowing they mightnt. After all, she was in here because her brains were
scrambled.

    But she had understood him, and here
she was, four-fifteen, waiting for him. He stopped the van where it was
screened from the hospital administration block by trees and watched her
approach. Her hair had been washed this time. It floated free from her head
like bits of spider web in a breeze. Her jaws were busy with chewing gum again.
Hed smelt it on her breath on Monday, Juicy Fruit or something. She looked
doped to the eyeballs again, her skin blotchy, a bit of dribble on her chin.

    Forget the face, Snyder thought. Put
a bag over it. He smiled at her through the glass and opened the passenger
door. Jesus Christ. She was actually blushing and moving her shoulders around
as if she was a teenager getting into her boyfriends car for the first time.
Shed been around, though. She looked to be about thirty. Now and then on
Monday shed almost made sense some of the time.

    Alice, he said.

    Alice got in and shut the door and
slid across the seat and put her tongue in his ear and her hand inside the leg
of his shorts. Snyder was glad he didnt have the overalls on. Did you bring
them? she asked.

    Snyder played with her. Bring what?

    Instantly her arms went around
herself, her mouth turned down and her eyes went ugly with tears. Smokes, she
said. Nice things.

    Oh, that, Snyder said.

    Please.

    Smokings bad for you.

    The mouth opened again and wailed, You
promised.

    Settle down, Snyder muttered. He
managed a smile. Youre not being fair, he said. If I give you nice rings
and nice smokes, you have to give me something in return. Its not fair
otherwise.

    It was amazing how easy it was to
switch her off and on. Shed said on Monday that shed been in La Salle for
fifteen months. Snyder felt the shrinks should have done something for her in
that time, but she was still fucked up. As he talked, he watched her face. A
flooding look of relief and gratitude passed across it, followed by dismay,
followed by a look of lust that was almost enough to turn him right off. Her hands
and tongue started to go all over him as they had on Monday, and he told
himself again, forget the face.

    He showed her the carton of
cigarettes inside the shopping bag in the back of the van. That set her going
again. She climbed over the seat, pulling her pants off, tugging at his hand.
Although he was only with her for fifteen minutes, the atmosphere was so hot
and