Reluctantly Alice Read Online Free PDF

stood at the top of the stairs and watched him put on his jacket, then raced to a window to watch him drive away.
    After they went home the next morning, I went to the Melody Inn to put in my three hours. This time Janice Sherman seemed to have undergone a personality change. She must have decided that she wasn’t going to get anywhere being quiet and sad, so she was sparkly and funny instead, sort of like soda water.
    â€œWell, Alice!” she said brightly. Too brightly. “What are we going to do today? Hula with Haydn? Boogie with Beethoven? A little soft shoe with Shostakovich?”
    I stared. I had never heard Janice Sherman say the word “boogie” in my life. I couldn’t even imagine her dancing. She was wearing a pink-and-gray plaid skirt with a pink sweater instead of her usual suit and blouse.
    â€œSometimes,” Janice went on dreamily, “I just feel like closing up shop and flying away on a magic carpet to somefar-off exotic land. Do you ever feel that way—that you’d like to do something wild and daring?”
    If Crystal Harkins or Marilyn had said that, I would have gotten right into the spirit of things. I’d have thought of something wild and fun I’d like to do and told them about it. But listening to Janice Sherman say it, I felt a little sad, because I knew she only wanted me to go back and tell Dad what a fun, exciting person she really was. The most daring thing I’d ever seen Janice do in the few years I’d known her was climb a stepladder.
    That evening, when Dad and I were eating the leftover cashew chicken, I was about to tell him how Elizabeth and Pamela were in love with Lester when Dad said, “Al, do you remember Helen Lake?”
    The name seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it. I shook my head.
    â€œThe woman who owns the beach cottage next to Janice’s?”
    â€œOh, her,” I said. “Yeah?”
    â€œShe’s coming to Washington on a visit, and I’ve invited her and Janice Sherman to a concert.”
    â€œYou’ve already asked them?” I said.
    â€œYes. I wrote Helen a few days ago and mentioned it to Janice this afternoon.”
    I stared at Dad like he had just turned into a gianttoadstool. It was as though Lester had said he was going to marry both Marilyn and Crystal.
    â€œI’ve been wondering if I should have the women here for dinner first—maybe Chinese, like we had last night—or take them both to a restaurant. What do you think, Al?”
    â€œI think you have lost your mind,” I said.
    Dad looked up from his plate. “You don’t think I should bring them here? We’d use the dining room, of course.”
    â€œI don’t think you should take them anywhere, Dad. Not together.”
    Dad paused with his fork in the air. “Why not?”
    I couldn’t believe he was so dense. “Janice Sherman will kill you! Or strangle Helen Lake, one or the other.”
    This time Dad put his fork down. “Why?”
    I stared right into his eyes. “This may come as a surprise to you, Dad, but Janice has been nuts about you ever since you became manager of the Melody Inn.”
    For about ten seconds all you could hear in the kitchen was the hum of the refrigerator.
    â€œYou’re kidding,” said Dad.
    I think that men and boys lack a certain chromosome or something. I mean, things happen right under their noses and they can’t even see it.
    â€œI’m not kidding. Janice has been making eyes at youfor a whole year. Why do you think she let us use her beach house without charging us anything?”
    â€œBecause I’m her boss, Al, that’s all. She’s just trying to stay on good terms with me. That’s all it is.”
    â€œDad, Janice has been depressed ever since we got back from the ocean. She let us use her cottage for a whole week, and what did she get out of it?”
    â€œI brought her that bushel of fresh