“The drugstore. I need nail polish remover.”
“Oh, yes,” he said.
I went out and got into the Thunderbird. As I drove away I saw the lights go on in my bedroom.
If it was nail polish remover Robert was looking for, he’d have little trouble finding it. There was a nearly full bottle with my other cosmetics on the vanity table.
I drove at moderate speeds, arriving at the Flyaway Motel at ten minutes past nine. “I’m Mrs. Clark,” I told the man at the desk “Could you tell me which unit my husband is in?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He checked his register and said, “Six.”
“Thank you.”
Walking across the gravel toward unit 6, I thought it all out again, as it had come to me in a flash of inspiration this afternoon just before I had had my ‘faint’. The idea that I could have Robert’s money without necessarily having to have Robert along with it had never occurred to me before. But now it had, and I liked it. To have Robert’s money without having Robert meant I could have William!
What a combination! William and Robert’s money! My step was light as I approached unit 6.
The nasty man opened the door to my knock. He seemed somewhat nervous. “Come on in, Mrs. Carroll.”
As I went in, I glanced back and saw an automobile just turning into the motel driveway. Was that a Lincoln? A blue Lincoln?
The nasty man shut and locked the door, but I said, “None of that. Unlock that door.”
“Don’t worry about me, lady,” he said, grinning nastily. “All I want from you is your money.” Nevertheless, he unlocked the door again.
“Fine,” I said. I took off my suede jacket.
“Now,” he said, coming across the room, rubbing his hands together, “to get to business.”
“Of course,” I said. I took off my blouse.
He blinked at me. He said, “Hey! What are you doing?”
“Don’t worry about a thing,” I told him, and unzipped my toreadors.
His eyes widened and he waved his hands at me, shouting, “Don’t do that! You got it all wrong, don’t do that!”
“I don’t believe I have it wrong,” I said, and stepped out of the toreadors.
With utter panic and bewilderment, the nasty man said, “But William said you’d—” And stopped.
We both stopped. I stared at the nasty man in sudden comprehension. All at once I understood how it was he had known so much about me, how it had been possible for him to take those pictures.
So William couldn’t live on the amount I gave him willingly. Mother was right, all men are beasts.
As I stood there, trying to get used to this new realization, the door burst open and Robert came bellowing in, waving that huge and ugly pistol of his.
I still wasn’t recovered from my shock. To think, to think I’d been trying to save William from being killed, to think I’d been willing to sacrifice both Robert and the nasty man for William’s sake. And all the time, all the time, William had betrayed me.
But then I did recover from the shock, and fast, because I saw that Robert had stopped his enraged bellowing and was glaring at me. At me. And pointing that filthy pistol at me.
At me.
“Not me!” I cried, and pointed at the nasty man. “Him! Him!”
The first shot buzzed past my ear and smashed the glass over the woodland painting above the bed.
I ran left, I ran right. The nasty man cowered behind the dresser. Robert’s second shot chunked into the wall behind me.
“You lied!” I screamed. “You lied!”
All men are bea—
1968
It
The little joke she played on him created a misunderstanding, brought on a coolness, grew into a quarrel and culminated in an explosion.
WHEN THE ALARM CLOCK woke Ralph Stewart that morning, there was a diaphragm in the bed. Karen’s, of course. Looking at it, Ralph wondered if she knew it was no longer with her. No, probably not. Had the week at her mother’s made her forgetful?
From the kitchen, Karen called, “Ralph! You getting up?”
“Sure, sure,” Ralph said. He sat there, looking at it. She must think it was still with her. When she discovered it was gone, what a moment that would be.
“Ralph! Breakfast is ready and you’re going to be late for work!”
“Sure, sure.” Chuckling to himself, Ralph wrapped it in a Kleenex and tucked it away in the drawer of the night table on Karen’s side. Then he padded off to brush his teeth.
After a week away, Karen was pleased to be back in her own kitchen again, though that wasn’t what made her smile as she waited for Ralph to come in for breakfast. She was imagining the look on Ralph’s face when he’d seen it lying there in the bed. At first she’d thought of peeking around the bedroom doorway to see what he’d do next, but lie might have seen her and that would have spoiled the effect. Besides, it was even better this way, wondering what would be the first thing he’d say when he came through the kitchen door.
He came through the kitchen door. He said, “I’m starved.”
Not a word from him during breakfast. He kissed her goodbye, said, “See you at six,” grabbed his briefcase and ran.
Hadn’t he seen it? She went into the bedroom and looked in the lied and it was gone. That was strange. He had found it, but he hadn’t said a word about it. And he’ll taken it away with him. Karen paled. Could it be? But there was no other explanation. She’ll been away for a week and Ralph must have thought it belonged to somebody else.
Who?
Ralph came into the apartment a little after six with a small smile already tugging at his lips. What would she say?
She said, “Oh, there you are.” Coldly.
Chipper as a cricket, Ralph said, “Anything happen today, lion?”
“Nothing much,” she said. Coldly.
All evening. Ralph waited for her to say something, and she never did. Also, there was a definite chill in the air, a definite chill. Ralph began to feel irritated, both because his joke seemed to have fallen Hat and because Karen was acting very distant, for some reason. At ten o’clock, they had a sudden flare-up over whether to watch the spy show on channel two or the special about the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge on channel four. Voices weren’t raised, but anger quivered in their tones and one or two cutting remarks were exchanged. Ultimately. Ralph went down to the Kozy Korner and watched the spy show there.
When he got home. Karen was already in bed and asleep, or at least appearing to be asleep. Ralph slid between the sheets and lay there a long while, staring at the ceiling. She had never mentioned it. Also, she was acting very cold and distant, for no good reason at all. He’ll been trying to avoid the thought, but as far as he could see, there was only one explanation. She must think she’d lost it somewhere else.
Where?
After Ralph left for work the next morning, slamming the apartment door behind him. Karen sat at the kitchen table and cried for a quarter of an hour. The argument over breakfast had been the most violent of their four years of marriage. Ralph hail said some things—
But one thing in particular, one unforgivable thing in particular. To bring up Howie Youngblood again after all these years, to bring up an incident that had happened when she was very young and innocent, and it had been a college weekend, and she hadn’t even known Ralph then, and she’d told him everything about it even before they were married, and to bring that up now, to throw it in her lace like that, was unforgivable.