“I’ll tell you about Johnny and me. When I can. And if you want to hear.”
“I want to.” I thought I had to. If this was going to work, I had to understand. About her. About him. About the broom. “When you’re ready.”
“As our esteemed principal likes to say, ‘Students, this will be challenging but worthwhile.’”
I laughed.
She butted out her cigarette. “One thing I wonder about. Would Miz Mimi approve of us?”
“I’m pretty sure she would.”
“I think so, too. Drive home safe, my dear. And you better take those.” She was pointing at the paper bag from the Kileen Pharmacy. It was sitting on top of her dresser. “If I had the kind of nosy company who checks the medicine cabinet after they tee-tee, I’d have some explaining to do.”
“Good idea.”
“But keep them handy, honey.”
And she winked.
On the way home, I found myself thinking about those rubbers. Trojan brand… and ribbed for
Thinking about the future is confusing in all sorts of ways.
The following evening I revisited Silent Mike’s establishment. The sign in the door was turned to CLOSED and the place looked empty, but when I knocked, my electronics buddy let me in.
“Right on time, Mr. Doe, right on time,” he said. “Let’s see what you think. Me, I think I outdid myself.”
I stood by the glass case filled with transistor radios and waited while he disappeared into the back room. He returned holding a lamp in each hand. The shades were grimy, as if they had been adjusted by a great many dirty fingers. The base of one was chipped so it stood crooked on the counter: the Leaning Lamp of Pisa. They were perfect, and I told him so. He grinned and put two of the boxed tape recorders next to the lamps. Also a drawstring bag containing several lengths of wire so thin it was almost invisible.
“Want a little tutorial?”
“I think I’ve got it,” I said, and put five twenties down on the counter. I was a little touched when he tried to push one back.
“One-eighty was the price we agreed on.”
“The other twenty is for you to forget I was ever here.”
He considered this for a moment, then put a thumb on the stray twenty and pulled it into the group with its little green friends. “I already did that. Why don’t I consider this a tip?”
As he put the stuff into a brown paper bag, I was struck by simple curiosity and asked him a question.
“Kennedy? I didn’t vote for him, but as long as he doesn’t go taking his orders from the Pope, I think he’ll be okay. The country needs somebody younger. It’s a new age, y’know?”
“If he were to come to Dallas, do you think he’d be all right?”
“Probably. Can’t say for sure, though. On the whole, if I were him, I’d stay north of the Mason-Dixon line.”
I grinned. “Where all is calm, all is bright?”
Silent Mike (Holy Mike) said, “Don’t start.”
There was a rack of pigeonholes for mail and school announcements in the first-floor teachers’ room. On Tuesday morning, during my free period, I found a small sealed envelope in mine.
Dear George—
If you still want to take me to dinner tonight, it will have to be five-ish, because I’ll have early mornings all this week and next, getting ready for the Fall Book Sale. Perhaps we could come back to my place for dessert.
I have poundcake, if you’d like a slice.
“What are you laughing about, Amberson?” Danny Laverty asked. He was correcting themes with a hollow-eyed intensity that suggested hangover. “Tell me, I could use a giggle.”
“Nah,” I said. “Private joke. You wouldn’t get it.”
But
