Читать книгу The Catch Of Texas - Lass Small, Lass Small - Страница 8

Two

How interesting it was for Geri Jones to listen to the men speak and tease and laugh. They acted as if they had no other way to spend their time. What did they do?

So she inquired.

Their jobs were odd. She asked, “How did you find them?”

They shrugged and looked at each other. One man painted traffic signs. One was an electrician who strung new wires where they were needed. Another was in construction and altered buildings that were unsound.

All of them adjusted things. They knew how and it wasn’t difficult. And they knew how to read the drawings and help in the building of a building.

She asked, “How’d you know to do that?”

Some of them shrugged and one said, “It was logical.”

She asked, “How did you know what to do?”

It was Mark Goode who listened and replied, “How it was, wasn’t working, so we figured how to change it so that it would work.”

Geri was amazed. Anyone who could do something like that was clever.

Jack Smith told her, “We have lots of help on such things. There’re men who draw and figure and decide.”

“Who?” she asked.

“Guys that can figure out why it isn’t working. They can be desk people or people who do that kind of thing and knew it was crooked at the time they put it in. Some ideas for buildings are really dumb.”

She watched the speakers seriously and suggested, “Do any of you ask about things you know are wrong?”

“Yeah,” one of the older men said. “But the one that designed it doesn’t allow us to comment.”

Geri asked, “So you figure then what you’d have done if you’d drawn the layout?”

“Naw. They could be right. It’s when we find they’re wrong, and nothing really works right, that we figure how to save it. Some things don’t save. They’re empty and dead.”

“Ahhhhh, ” she said softly. She was thinking and considering. The apartments where she lived were somewhat that way. Some of the places were without good views. It was almost as if they’d been slapped in place and left that way.

One of the older men told her, “The place you live?”

Now how did he know where she lived? So she just looked at the man.

Easily he went on, “Some of the apartments were redone. We had to change them. The people who’d moved in didn’t understand outside walls that nobody could look out of.”

She nodded as she said, “Ahhhh.”

The older man who was called George said, “We put in the windows.”

So she asked, “How about an outside porch?”

George shook his head. “No support below. With the windows, you get to see out. That’s as good as we could do.”

She laughed. “It’s perfect! Thank you.”

And another of the men, John, told her,

“You should have heard the people complaining because they couldn’t see out. That’s when we finally got to put in the extra windows.”

Geri told him, “It was brilliant. How long ago did they finally agree to allow you all to put in the missing windows?”

“Some years ago. The people that were to move in there objected to not being able to see out the walls. Other people just didn’t move in. So the ones in charge of that place called us back. And we charged them double.”

They all laughed.

She smiled at them until they were silent, then she said, “It was worth it.”

They smiled at her.

With subtle élan, she said, “They charge me three times as much because there are the windows.”

The older man waited for the laughter to soften, then he told her, “We’ll talk to them and straighten them out.”

They all laughed, including her.

The older man looked at her and smiled gently. But he was silent.

She said softly, “Just having those windows is worth your work.”

He smiled, but he was still silent.

She thought she’d offended him with her laughter.

So it was only three days later that the receptionist of Geri’s development called to Geri as she went by. The woman told Geri, “We are startled because we’ve been overcharging you for rent!” The woman smiled. “You get a refund.”

And the money was counted out and then recounted as Geri was paid!

She gave half of it to Frank and asked that he pass it on to the man who had made the windows.

Frank asked her, “You sure? It’s your money. George was paid to cut out those windows. He didn’t lose any cash at all.”

“But he told me why I was being charged extra. Those windows had been paid for a long time ago by the people who lived there.”

“Yeah.” Frank was thoughtful. “I’ll give him the money again.”

“Thank you.”

Frank watched her. “I don’t understand you all the time.”

“I’m a woman. I can roar.”

He watched her. His eyes sparkled. He licked his lips. He told her, “You’re special.”

So Geri went home to find a large basket of flowers at her door. It was from George. He wrote, “You got dinner coming from me and my wife either Friday or Saturday. Let me know.” His phone number was at the bottom.

She called and told the answering machine, “This is Geri. I shall be delighted to take you and your wife to dinner. Let me know when. I’ll drive.”

When the time came, it was Frank who drove to fetch her, and they went to pick up George and his wife, Martha. Geri told Frank, “I hadn’t planned to feed you, too. You eat like a horse.”

Frank replied, “Horses eat grass and stuff like that. I eat steaks.”

“So you’re the one who uses up all the money!”

“Yep. Get adjusted.”

She laughed. She looked at Frank and watched his smile. She settled down and enjoyed the evening.

George had brought Martha along so that she would do the talking, and he need not. However, it wasn’t long before George broke in and told stories that were really funny, and they all laughed. He was a great storyteller and the stories were simply hilarious.

They ate and laughed until late that night...the four of them. Then they went back to Geri’s apartment so that Martha could see out Geri’s precious windows facing the river.

It was lovely. They all stood at the windows and looked beyond the tops of the trees to the TEXAS water that moved in the moonlight. It was special. The night was also. The four of them laughed and snacked the tiny little things Geri had put out for them, and they had beer.

There was laughter and hilarious talk that was wickedly off base. The men were astonished the women were amused by such things! The men protested and exclaimed and were so shocked!

The women’s amusement caused tears to run. Geri had to find tissues. She shared with Martha and they laughed some more in the exchange. The women were exhausted from all the hilarity and they told the men they had to be serious and cut out the humor!

The men nodded seriously, all concerned, but they slid their eyes to each other. And they told more humorous stories about friends who worked with them

It was late when Frank suggested they take George and Martha to their home. Geri laughed that she would leave her own place to see the others home.

But George said, “Frank’ll take us by the place we’re working on and let you see where we are.”

Geri blinked. It was late. She had to get up early for work. She put on a sweater and went with them down to the car. She had no idea why in the world she had done such a dumb thing! Geri decided it was because Martha was there, and it was the courteous thing to see to it that she got home okay. Yeah.

Geri was amazed at the construction site. George was a genius.

But then George mentioned that it had been Frank who figured out how they would fix some of the amazing things that they had done in that house. One was a table that could be collapsed just so. Another was a window wall that gave the illusion of being outside—in spite of the wall.

How people figured to do things was an endless amazement to Geri. So when she and Frank returned to her house, she commented on how much she loved looking out the windows.

He smiled at her. She had pleased him.

So, Frank had been the one who’d designed her windows. It might have been George who had put them in, but it had been Frank who had done most of the work. He was a doer.

Geri smiled at him.

He reached for her and she gasped and jumped back. She told him, “Do you know what time it is?”

“Mine.”

“No. I have to get up in the morning and go to work!”

“I have to be at the place we’re now working about seven. Without holding you, I’ll be hyper and restless and difficult.”

Standing on the sofa, supposedly out of reach, she tilted her head back and said, “I shall be worn out and dragging.”

Frank told her, “Women are strange.”

“Peculiar?”

Frank nodded. “Different. We’re boggled by women.”

So she asked, “Oh? And just how many women do you know?”

“My mother, my sisters, my cousins. They’re all strange and different just like y—all the other women.”

She laughed. He’d slid around blaming her so quickly that it amused her.

He said, “My God. How am I going to behave and leave you be while I want you against me and in my hands?”

“Control.” She was logical and then said, “Hustle up and leave. I’ve got to get to bed and sleep!”

Frank said, “Oh.” He’d thought the bed reasoning was a different thing altogether. She meant to sleep? Women! How did God ever do this to another man?

Geri pulled on Frank’s sleeve so that he got to the door, and she opened it. He looked at her as if he was a zombie.

She told him, “Good night. Your car is out yonder, right over thataway.” She pointed.

He nodded, not paying any attention to her chattering at all.

Geri took his arm and pulled him out the apartment’s door, then she stepped back, closed the door and leaned against it as her body went furiously, cruelly berserk.

It was a while before she heard his steps go slowly down the stairs. Was he a zombie or was he thoughtfully careful? The light was on. He could see.

She fought opening the door and looking out to be sure he was all right. If she did that, she’d ruin everything. She’d take him to bed.

And she began to remember all the things her mother had told her before she left home and got her own apartment. Her mother was opposed to her daughter going out to live in an isolated apartment.

Her mom was right.

Geri went to the partial window in her bedroom and looked down into the parking lot.

His car was there. Where was he?

Geri stretched to look around, worried. She was just about ready to run down to see if Frank had tripped when he walked slowly into the moonlight, his hands deep in his pockets.

He was all right. But he moved so slowly! Was he ill? She thought she ought to run down and see if she should take him to the—He stopped again, pushed his hands down deeper in his pants pockets, as he leaned his head back.

Was he going to howl at the moon? Dogs did it easily. Would he?

She watched. She was different than she’d ever been in all her life. Why should she be interested in Frank. Would he howl? How would she respond to that? Would she be shocked? Or would she open the half window and howl back?

Surely not.

Frank stood, looking up at the moon. He had no idea Geri was watching him through a window. Finally he moved and went over to his car. He got into it and sat there as if he didn’t have a key.

Geri smiled. He would come ba—

The car’s engine started. It throbbed just like her heart. Frank moved the car easily and slowly. He carefully went out of the lot and on down the exit road out of sight by the trees.

He was gone.

He’d been there with her.

She moved her hands on her body. She wished they were his hands. She breathed. She put her hands to her face in agony. She paced. She went into the bathroom and stripped. Then she got into the shower and stood as the water came down on her body. She moved her head. Her hair didn’t need water.

She was disgruntled. She was alone. She could have been in bed with him right that minute!

No.

What she needed was a good run, then to go to bed and sleep!

So Geri turned off the shower and got out. She dried herself roughly, then put on her silken red runner outfit. She locked the door as she went out...and she had the key.

That had become automatic. She’d forgotten the keys so many times that she’d taught herself to have one along. She got really ticked with having another made.

The crew wouldn’t give her a key. They figured if they gave her one, she’d just lose it. This way, she was more careful. Annoyed, but more careful.

So she ran around the apartments a while in the moonlight and irritated the evening crew who watched what was going on. They mentioned that she ought to go to bed and quit running around that late at night.

So she told them to hush! She had a problem, and she was trying to solve it. She needed them to leave her be!

That scared the liver out of them, and they had to watch her to be sure she wasn’t snatched or didn’t fall and break a leg.

When she called “Good night!” cheerfully, they were indignant. She was their worst person at the place. They never knew what the hell she’d do next. They watched her, frowning, just waiting for her to go to her own place.

She did. They communicated by transmitters in their shirt pockets. “She’s in her place.”

And the others said a really snide, “Glory be.” They mumbled it in throat-squeezing, muscle-tight irritation.

Upstairs, in the apartment, Geri stripped the sweaty, hot, red silk off her body. Then after she showered again, she crawled into bed and went right to sleep. To sleep—perchance to dream?

Naw. She slept, out cold, a deep sleep.

On her way home the next evening, on her car phone, Geri called her friends at their offices. They were a tad later leaving than she. So she asked Margaret Buckman, Marian Terse and Dorothy Oswald to come to dinner that night or the next.

The three said, “Tonight” and hung up. That meant they probably wouldn’t bring any food along but expected to be fed. Okay. So she’d do that.

Geri went to the grocery and spoke to all the people who worked there, plus all those shopping. She didn’t actually know them all, but her grandfather had been in politics and he always spoke to everybody, and she had the same habit.

It was interesting that some people didn’t look up at all, or they looked at the stranger with some startled indignation.

Geri never noticed. She was always in a hurry. That’s the way her grandfather had been, and she simply felt the need to speak...as he did. He was very fragile and amused. He smiled always. That was a cheerful thing to do, and so Geri did it, too. It was the way of the family.

Her mother thought it was nice that Geri copied her grandfather. Geri’s daddy thought she was a tad odd. He told his brothers that his daughter was a whole lot like her mother’s people.

His brothers nodded. They never said anything. They just agreed.

So Geri went to her apartment with all the goodies for supper. She sorted out things and put some into the oven and some into the refrigerator.

She set the table and had everything ready when her three friends arrived, already caught up in a marvelously complicated discussion in which they included Geri. They all talked and listened and laughed. They washed their hands and settled down to eat.

They told Geri that they’d found a cat on their way over that had been lost. She was skinny and big-eyed. The three women had dogs, so they’d brought the cat to Geri.

Geri looked at the rather tacky animal and frowned. “I’m supposed to keep this creature?”

And the other three were startled that Geri was surprised. Margaret told Geri. “You’re to find a place for the cat.”

“Oh.”

And it was Marian who said, “Feed her right.”

Dorothy commented, “Don’t bring in a dog for a while.”

Indignant, Geri objected, “I haven’t had a dog.”

“—yet.” All three said it at the same time and laughed.

Geri mentioned, “We’re not allowed to have dogs and cats here.”

“Well—” they were entirely logical “—see to it that you get her a home right away.”

The next day, Geri asked Paul if he knew of anyone who would like a cat.

Paul said, “Give her to the pound. You can tell your friends that she has a good place to be. They’ll never know.”

Soberly Geri looked at Paul. She listened to his words, said, “Thank you” and left. He called to her but she didn’t respond.

She went to see Frank. He was pulling out roots at a job site. He was so pleased to see her. He listened to her tell about the cat. He nodded. “I know an old woman who likes cats. She has a couple. She’ll find somebody to take a good cat.”

Geri told Frank, “She needs help. She’s skinny and has been abandoned.”

“I’ll fix her up with some food. Don’t worry. It’s easy.” Then he asked, “You okay?”

She smiled. A tear came out of her eye.

He was alarmed. “What’s going on? Who’s pushing you? Tell me. I can handle it.”

“I don’t have any problems...now. If you can find the cat a place, you’ve solved my problem.”

He watched her seriously. He said, “I get a kiss.”

She tilted her head several times quite sassily and she felt in her pockets. She looked in her purse. She said, “I had some kisses ar—”

So he kissed her.

There were cheers and claps and hoo-hahs and guys who hollered, “Me next!”

Nothing seemed to reach Frank, but the guys hollering made Geri laugh and blush scarlet!

Frank told her soberly, “They’re young. They don’t know about love...yet. They will.”