Spare Change Read Online Free PDF Page A

a fancy dress he
special ordered from Sears, after that it was a imitation sapphire ring, then
it was some perfume and lacy lingerie. Once, when he came home with a
ruby-colored satin nightgown, she threw it back into his face. “I don’t want
this crap,” she screamed, “I want to go to New York City!”
    Had she asked for a simple thing such as the moon or all the stars in
the heavens, Benjamin would have turned himself inside out to get it for her—but
as for going to New York, such a thing was not possible. Susanna was a woman
who would be blinded by the bright lights of Broadway. She would be drawn away
from him just as a moth is drawn from the safety of darkness to the brilliance
of a flame. She’d spend her days tromping from audition to audition, allowing
men with fat cigars and hairy hands to paw her beautiful body. In time, her face
would take on the tawdriness of the city and the song in her throat would sound
bitter as the croaking of a frog. 
    It seemed to Benjamin that Susanna should understand the pitfalls of
such a life, but instead of being grateful for the way he looked after her, she
screamed at him, threw tantrums, heaved heavy glass pitchers at his head, and
set her lips into a pout. “I’m suffocating out here!” she’d shout. “There’s no
excitement, nothing to do but watch those damned soybeans grow!” 
    When she finally turned her back on him in bed and curled herself into
a ball so he couldn’t touch her breasts or find his way inside of her body, he
agreed to take her to New York City. “Just for a vacation,” he said. “After the
winter harvest, we’ll go for a three-week vacation.”  
    Throughout that entire fall, Susanna danced from room to room singing
songs into the bowl of a wooden spoon. She’d stand on the front porch and belt
out Boogie-woogie Bugle Boy to an audience of sunflowers, or climb atop
the kitchen table and take bow after bow. “I’m good as any of those Andrews
Sisters,” she’d say, “I just need to get discovered!” In the middle of planting
a row of soy beans Benjamin would come to the house for a drink of water and
there she’d be, wriggling through the living room in a brassiere and panties.
“You think Maxine Andrews can do this?” she’d ask; then she’d shake and shimmy
till every inch of flesh on her body was quivering. She’d start in a standing
position, but before she was done she’d be down on her knees with her back
arched in a way that caused her bosoms to bust loose of the brassiere.
Afterwards, she’d throw her arms around Benjamin’s neck and kiss him with such
passion that it brought about love-making.
    Mid-morning on a Wednesday in early November Benjamin got to thinking
about Susanna in her red lace brassiere, so he stopped working on the tractor
and went looking for her. Instead of singing into a spoon, she was in the
bathroom with her head hanging over the toilet. “Those pork chops we had last
night must’ve been spoiled,” she groaned.  
    Benjamin dipped a washcloth in cold water and held it to her head. “I
don’t see how that’s possible,” he said, “I ate a plateful and I’m feeling
fine.  Matter-of-fact, I was thinking you might want to slip on that lacy
brassiere…”
    “Asshole!” she said; then went back to puking in the toilet bowl.  
    By afternoon Susanna was feeling fine, so she raised the window and
hollered for Benjamin to come back into the house. When he walked through the
door, there she was atop the kitchen table, wearing a pair of red high heel
pumps and a little bitty apron tied around her waist—not another stitch. “You
still in the mood?” she asked, then slid down and wrapped her legs around his
neck. 
    That’s how it was with her; Benjamin never knew from minute to minute
whether she’d be crawling up the leg of his pants or jumping down his throat.
Why, just the thought of such a woman in New York City scared him to pieces.
Anything could happen. He could fall asleep