Twenty Grand Read Online Free PDF Page B

chains on his neck and worked at the dog track, but that other than that, he seemed nice. He’d told her she looked a bit like this Italian film star, one people used to tell her she looked like sometimes. She brushed a hand through her hair and repeated the star’s name. I’d never heard it before. She added that the woman had been in a famous Western with Charles Bronson once, and I pretended to know who Charles Bronson was.
    Good luck on the date, I said.
    She thanked me. Then she shoved her stuff in her purse and asked me if I was working in the bar. I said I was. Whatever Boris had told me, she said, it wasn’t true. I apologized, but before I could finish, she said to forget it. I was just a kid, she said, anyway. I didn’t decide shit.
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    W ITHOUT ANY SHIFTS in common, the twins and I barely talked. I wandered through their house during dinner hours, when the twins were at the restaurant, feeling like a thief or a guest. I looked through their closets, tried on their clothes, and ate tiny bites of their food. Then I smoked cigarettes and watched TV, until it was time for me to leave for the restaurant, and for them to come home and watch TV.
    In mid-July the twins drove to the mall in the southern part of the state, near the college, and spent a few thousand dollars on clothes for the fall. When they got home, they brought the clothes to their room, laid them out on their beds, and told me to come see. I particularly admired one sweater, a gray cashmere one with a soft turtleneck, and I was rubbing the fabric between my fingers, pretending the sweater was about to go over my head, when I saw the price tag.
    I said something stupid.
    Jean looked annoyed. She explained that the clothes were an investment because they could wear them to work at their internships. She added that it was worth it to spend money on clothes you loved. If you wear a two-hundred-dollar sweater ten times, Jean said, that’s twenty bucks a wear. But if you buy a crappy sweater for forty dollars and you only wear it once, that’s forty bucks a wear. So expensive sweaters are cheaper than crappy ones.
    I fingered the sweater. Its incredible loveliness reminded me I didn’t have tuition money for the fall. I wasn’t good at college—the social part, the academic part, any of it—but I wanted to go back.
    Hey, I said. Did you ever ask your dad about reducing the rent?
    The twins looked at each other.
    Now is not a good time, Jean said.
    Timing is everything, Jessica said.
    We didn’t want to tell you this, Jean said, but our dad’s stocks are not doing well.
    He got bum advice.
    That’s why he didn’t stay up here this summer, because he really needs to concentrate on his stocks.
    Nothing is certain, Jessica said.
    We’re not getting our new car this summer, Jean said. That’s certain.
    We’ve been cutting corners, Jessica said.
    We’re working hard, Jean said. We’re really shopping for bargains.
    Jessica took the sweater from me and held it against her breasts. Worrying about money is awful. I can’t wait until we’re bankers! We’re going to help people invest!
    Jean tapped my shoulder. There’s no better way to help people, she said, than to help them invest.
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    I ASKED Boris to give me more shifts, and he said that as a favor, he’d let me work dinners again. One night dinner was slow, and the twins, Dina, and I spent most of the night on the back step smoking cigarettes. We worked up a good feeling talking about how hard the work at the restaurant was. When the good feeling wore out, the twins stared pensively into the dark. Eventually, Jessica touched Dina’s hair.
    I can’t believe you’ve been waitressing fifteen years, she said.
    Dina said it wasn’t bad.
    It’s kind of bad, Jessica said. I mean, we only get two dollars and twenty-five cents an hour.
    Plus tips, Dina said.
    Yeah, Jean said. But we have to sing happy