Spare Change Read Online Free PDF

thinking everything was just as it
should be, then wake to find she’d run off with some agent or songwriter. He
could go out for a newspaper, return and discover her in bed with the elevator
man. Even worse, she could disappear without a trace, slip down some dark alley
and never be heard from again.  Benjamin began to think going to New York, even
if it was only for a vacation, was definitely a bad idea.
    That evening when they sat down to a supper of fried chicken and
dumplings, he told her he’d changed his mind about New York City. “I’ll take
you to Norfolk or Virginia Beach,” he said. “Those are fine vacation spots.”
    “Virginia Beach!” Susanna screamed, “In the dead of winter?”
    “Okay, we’ll go to Norfolk. Shop, eat in fancy restaurants, see a
show.”
    “See a show? Watch another woman who got discovered? Some vacation that
would be!” She pleaded for Benjamin to change his mind, “I’ve got talent,” she
sobbed. “I could be somebody.”  
    “You are somebody,” he answered. “You’re my wife.  It seems like that
ought to be enough for a woman.” 
    “Well it’s not!” Susanna shouted; then she overturned the bowl of
dumplings into his lap and ran crying to the bedroom. Benjamin followed after
her, but she’d slammed the door and twisted the lock. That’s when he decided
that if he was to hold on to his wife, he’d have to trick her into staying
there on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. 
    The next morning, Susanna was sick again. “See what you’ve done,” she
said. “All that talk of canceling our vacation has upset my system.”
    Benjamin, with his eyes averted from her face, answered, “I didn’t say
we’d never go, I just said this wasn’t the right time.” 
    Susanna’s face brightened.
    He watched her from the corner of his eye. “New York winters are bitter
cold,” he said. “I’ve heard tell the temperature drops below zero and the wind
can freeze a person’s tongue if they open their mouth long enough to ask
directions. You think any talent scouts are gonna be out in weather like that?”
    She sat down alongside him and slid her hand onto his thigh. “Can we go
to New York in the spring?” she asked.
    “Late spring, early summer; depends on what needs doing around here.”
He tugged loose the strap of her nightgown, “And…whether or not you’re being a
good girl.” He gathered a rough handful of her breast, but before he could
slide himself into her, Susanna became sick again and went running to the
bathroom.
    Three weeks later, when Doctor Kelly told her she was pregnant with a
baby due to be born the third week of May, Susanna flew into a rage of crying
and hollering, the likes of which the nurses had never seen. Barbara Ann
Taylor, who had snow white hair and thirty years nursing experience, tried to
calm her by saying how a wonderful little baby was well worth all the pain and
suffering of childbirth; that’s when Susanna heaved a tray full of sterilized
instruments across the room. “You think a baby’s so wonderful,” she told
Barbara Ann, “then you can have it!” Susanna begged and pleaded with Doctor
Kelly to do something to get rid of the baby, but of course, he said such a
thing was against the law. “They do it all the time in China,” she sobbed.    
    Benjamin was delighted with the news, not because he was wishing for a
baby, but because it seemed to be just the thing to prevent Susanna from
running off to New York. “No talent scout’s gonna be looking for singers the
size of a milk cow,” he’d said; then he ducked when she hurled a pitcher of
orange juice in his direction. Susanna was always quick to show her anger and
that winter was worse than most. She broke the kitchen window three different
times, smashed an entire set of dishes and flushed her wedding ring down the
toilet.  
    In February, she started to retain water, her feet swelled up to the
size of melons and throbbed if she dared to stand for longer