“We’ve been through this before. I told you over the phone I didn’t want any more of it.”
“Let’s drop it, Virdo,” Lathrop said. “He can eat breakfast and come back later. We’ll talk over the money situation then. I think he’ll find he can do real well with me.”
“I ain’t bitching about my salary.”
“I’m not a hard man to deal with. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” Lathrop said.
“He can walk out that door anytime he takes a mind to,” Hunnicut said.
“You ain’t in no rush to get me out. You made a lot of green off me.”
“I pushed you up to the top. You didn’t know how to button your pants till I taught you.”
“Let’s stop this,” Lathrop said. “Go eat breakfast, J.P. Have one of those pork chops.”
Lathrop walked to the door with him and opened it.
“We can straighten out whatever differences we have,” he said. “We talk the same language. I’m a country boy myself.”
“You talk pretty smooth to be from the country.”
“I’ve been with these city folks too long.”
Lathrop closed the door after J.P. and went back to finish his coffee.
“When did you start soft-gloving people?” Hunnicut said.
“I’m an old fellow now.”
“The best way to handle J.P. is to walk all over him,” he said, his face big and sweating.
“He’ll do as I tell him, just as you do, Virdo, and I don’t think any more needs to be said about it.”
Hunnicut’s eyes flicked away from Lathrop’s face. He wanted to say something to regain his pride, but the words wouldn’t come and he sat silent in his chair.
J.P. had breakfast in the dining room, and then asked at the desk for April’s room number. He had to get her to contact Doc Elgin. He took the elevator to the fourth floor and walked down the hallway to her room. She was in bed. She pulled the sheet up to her chin and told him to kiss her. Her mouth tasted bad.
“It’s a long time for a girl to be alone,” she said.
“I heard about Troy.”
“For God’s sake, don’t bring up Troy. That’s all anybody talks about. Everyone feels so sorry for Troy. I wish you’d seen him the last night he was here. He broke in my room and tried to climb all over me. The hotel dick had to drag him out of the room.”
“How long was he taking it?”
“What do you want to talk about him for? You haven’t seen me for seven weeks and all you’ve got on your mind is Troy.”
“I take a personal interest.”
“Troy was an ass.”
“I’m on it, too. I found out in Nashville.”
“Rot.”
“I had to hunt all over town to find a pusher.”
“Benzedrine is baby food.”
“My nerves was like piano wire. I thought I was going to come apart.”
April chewed on a hangnail and looked out the window.
“Listen to me,” he said.
“I’m listening.”
“I got a habit.”
“Fly away with the snowbirds.”
“I ain’t on cocaine.”
“The snowbirds stay high in the sky. They don’t worry about the habit.” She bit off the hangnail and took it off her tongue with her fingers.
“Call Elgin. I need some pills.”
“He comes around on Sunday.”
“I need him now. I took my last pills on the train.”
“You can have some of my stuff.”
“I don’t want no cocaine.”
“You don’t have to take it in the arm. Put a little powder under your tongue.”
“Call Elgin.”
She picked up the telephone from the bedtable and dialed a number. She chewed on another fingernail while she talked to Doc Elgin.
“He’ll be over in a little while,” she said. “He has some other people to see.”
“He wouldn’t hurry if I was going to jump through a window.”
“Doc is better than a regular pusher. He don’t cut his stuff.”
“Seth told me something about you and him.”
“I know what you’re thinking, and you can shut up right now. I pay him cash like everybody else,” she said. “He don’t come near me.”
She sat up in bed and fixed the pillow behind her. She held the sheet up to her shoulders with one hand.
“How much does your habit cost a week?” J.P. said.
“I pay for it.”
“That ain’t what I asked.”
“He gives me a special rate. I bring him customers sometime.”
“Like me and Troy?”
“I didn’t twist your arm.”
“How did Troy start on it?”
“He was burning maryjane before I met him.”
“I almost feel sorry for the poor bastard.”
“Feel sorry for yourself. You’ve got a one-way ticket to the same place he’s in.”
“There’s cures. I’ve heard about them. There’s a place in Kentucky.”
“Don’t believe it. There isn’t any cure.”
“I heard about this place. They say you can go there for a while and come out clean.”
“I took a cure once. I got out of the hospital and two weeks later I was popping it again.”
“Some people have kicked it.”
“Learn it now, J.P. You bought a one-way ticket. First you break down all the veins in one arm and you start on the other one. Then the veins in both arms are flat, and you take it in the legs. When your legs are gone you take it in the stomach, and by that time you’re finished.”
He ran his hand through his hair. “I ain’t on snow. I ain’t past them pills yet.”
“The habit grows. Soon you’ll have to use something stronger. You can’t kick it.”
She smoothed the sheet against her.
“Put your mind on something else. It’s no good to think about it,” she said. “Come sit here.”
He sat on the side of the bed.
“That’s better,” she said.
“Nothing is better.”
“Wouldn’t you like to do nice things?”
“I don’t feel like it this morning.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t give a damn for doing anything right now,” he said.
“Did you do any running around in Nashville?”
“No.”
“You like girls too much for that”
“All right. I whored the whole time.”
“Don’t be like that.”
“I got too much on my mind.”
“It don’t help to think about it.”
“I feel like hell.”
“Pull down the shade and get in bed.” She dropped the sheet from her shoulders and uncovered herself.
“People can see you through the window.”
“Pull down the shade if you don’t want them to.”
He went to the window and dropped the shade.
“Do you always sleep like that?” he said.
“Doc Elgin says bedclothes cuts off your circulation.”
“Put the sheet over you.”
“Don’t you like me?”
“You ain’t got to act like a two-dollar whore.”
“You need a benny bad,” she said. “Do nice things to April. It will keep your mind off it till Doc comes.”
J.P. wiped his face with his hand. He was beginning to perspire. He wished Elgin would get here. They made love in the half-light of the room. He could feel his heart click inside him from the strain. He was sweating heavily now, and his muscles began to stiffen.
“When is Elgin going to get here?” he said.
“He’ll be along.”
“Phone him again.”
She called Elgin; there was no answer.
“Is there any place else you can call him?” he said.
“He makes deliveries all over town.”
“Phone him one more time.”
“He’s not there.”