Spare Change Read Online Free PDF Page B

than a half-hour,
which meant she had to quit her job at the furniture store. Although she’d sold
only one maple sofa and three lamps in eighteen months, the manager, who it was
rumored had a weakness for attractive women, had given her five raises. Once
she was no longer working in town, Susanna grew more foul-tempered and quicker
than ever to fly off the handle. “What kind of a career can a singer expect to
have,” she’d scream, “with a kid hanging onto her!”
    The baby was ten days late in coming; and when it finally arrived it
was with a tearing and ripping apart of her flesh. Susanna kicked at the
doctors and screamed profanities that bruised the nurses’ ears. “I can’t stand
it anymore,” she cried, “Get this fucking thing out of me!” 
    Even after Doctor Kelly announced that she had delivered a fine healthy
boy, Susanna continued to call the baby it. “Start it on formula,” she said,
“I’m not about to have my tits look like a litter of pups has been sucking them
dry!” She was in the hospital for three days and not once did she cross over to
the nursery to see the baby. 
    As she was getting dressed to come home, a nurse came into the room and
handed her a copy of the birth certificate. “How can he have a birth
certificate,” Benjamin asked, “he’s not even been named.”
    “He’s got a name,” the nurse answered.
    “He has?” Benjamin picked up the birth certificate and read it. “Shit,
almighty!” he growled, after reading the boy’s name. “You named the kid after
that fucking furniture store!”
    Susanna laughed like a person satisfied with the results of a practical
joke. “Maybe I can sell him,” she said, “like that maple sofa.”
    That’s how it was the boy came to be called Ethan Allen. Once Susanna
came home from the hospital, she ignored the child altogether and spent her
days crying. She’d wake in the morning, then slide right back under the
bedcover and pick up where she’d left off the night before.  “Why me?” she’d
howl, “…why me?” 
    For the first three months of his life, Ethan Allen screamed longer and
harder than did Susanna. It seemed he was always hungry or wet or at times
crying for no apparent reason. Benjamin, despite his rough hands and lack of
tolerance was the one who heated the bottles of formula and changed diapers.
Once the baby had been fed and dried, Benjamin would drop him into his crib and
hurry off to a bunch of soy beans that needed planting. “We’re never going to
New York if you don’t get your ass out of bed and see to this baby,” he’d tell
Susanna; then he’d beat it out the door before she let go of a string of
profanities.
    The first time she held the baby was one morning in late September.  An
early frost had covered the ground and Benjamin fearing the worst, rushed off without
feeding the boy. Ethan Allen howled like a tomcat for three hours, until
Susanna finally went to him. “You gonna keep squalling forever?” she said,
lifting the baby into her arms. The crying stopped immediately. “Ornery little
cuss. Hell bent on getting your way, ain’t you?” She grinned, “Just like your
mama.” After that Susanna found she could tolerate the baby and at times even
love him. “You got eyes like Mama,” she’d coo, then drop him into the crib and
head off to the beauty parlor in town. 
    Benjamin had hoped having a baby would settle Susanna down, make her
forget the nonsense about a singing career. Of course, it didn’t. “When are we
gonna take that trip to New York?” she’d ask, “I’ve heard tell Radio City Music
Hall is hiring some new Rockettes.” Once a thought like that got into her head,
she’d work on her singing for days on end. Ethan Allen would be wanting his
oatmeal, but she’d be dancing atop the coffee table in her panties and a lace
brassiere.
    “You gonna feed this kid?” Benjamin would ask, but she’d keep right on
singing into the bowl of a wooden spoon and gyrating