I'll Call Every Monday

by Orrie Hitt

  “Where you’re going,” I said, “you won’t be needing any clothes.”

  Her low, intimate laugh caused me to quicken my steps.

  CHAPTER XVII

  BY THE TIME WE REACHED THE CABIN the sun was descending behind a distant hill, throwing a red glow across the valley. We stood together on the porch, which hung out over the edge of the cliff into space, watching the changing scene.

  “I’d like to be up at the lake now,” I said. “I’ll bet the sun sets the water on fire up there.”

  She put her arm around me.

  “I guess I know where we’re going to live.”

  I looked down at her hopefully.

  “If you want to, Irene.”

  “I want you,” she said.

  Presently I went in and made a couple of drinks and carried them out there. I pulled the chairs around so that we could sit close and see the night drop down from the hills into the valley.

  “I think I might care for it at the lake,” she said. “I could always take a trip, or something like that, if I got tired of it.”

  “We could work something out.”

  “Anyway, we don’t have to worry about it yet. We can’t do anything about it right now.”

  “I don’t know why not.” The ice rattled in her glass.

  “Well, I thought we had to wait until — you know.”

  “No,” I said, “we don’t. I’ve been talking with the bank about it. They think it’s a good idea.”

  “It’ll take an awful lot of money,” she said.

  “I have a little,” I said. “A few thousand. And I don’t need such a big car. I could sell this one and get a smaller one and have some money left over. I could use that to buy half of Mrs. Walters’ interest. Then, together, we can borrow a pretty substantial sum from the bank. It wouldn’t be enough to take us as far as we want to go, but it would be a big start.”

  We had a couple of more drinks and the night folded in around us.

  “You should get my bags,” she said.

  “I’d forgotten them.” I stood up. “We can have dinner down at the hotel and bring them up after.”

  “I can’t go in there,” she said her words running together quick and tight. “He’s peddled my picture around there so many times that some guy will walk over and ask me to take my clothes off. You see how I’ve lived, Nicky? You see?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I see.”

  She came into my arms and clung there.

  “You go get the things,” she said. “And dinner, if you want. I’ll find something to eat inside. And then I’ll go to bed. To wait for you, darling.”

  “I won’t be gone long,” I said.

  Every line of her body pressed against me as we kissed. My hand crept around toward her breasts and she pulled away, laughing. “You know where to find me,” she said.

  I gave her a slap across the buttocks and went down the steps. I glanced back and saw that she had turned on the lights in the living room. She waved at me and blew a kiss.

  I reached the car and unlocked the trunk and took the bags out. Then I put them back in the trunk and locked it again. I walked across the lawn toward the hotel.

  Johnson was working the desk.

  “Sally?” he said. “Hell, I don’t know where you’d find her. She isn’t on the desk any more.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “Damn poor help you find for me,” he said. “Throws the job right back into my lap in the middle of the season.”

  “When did she leave?” I wanted to know.

  “Oh, she hasn’t left. Just switched jobs. She’s singing with the band every night now, and doing mighty good at it. More than likely she’s doing me more good out there in the casino than she would in here on the desk.”

  A couple came in, got their key, and slowly climbed the stairs.

  “She works afternoons, too,” Johnson said. “Posing for that screwball artist that hangs around here. She hadn’t ought to be playing around with a guy like that, but who am I to tell her?”

  I watched Johnson’s eyes follow the red-headed waitress across the lobby.

  “That’s a piece of goods,” he said, leering at her. “She smiles as though she shares your opinion.”

  “You are right, Mr. Weaver. I take good care of her.” The girl gave a swing of her hips and went around a corner and out of sight.

  “Look,” I said. “I want to see Sally. How about finding her?”

  “Try her room.” He squinted down at the register. “Two-nine. Top of the stairs and left. She stays in the hotel now.”

  “Thanks.”

  “I think she’s in.”

  “Thanks,” I said again, as the stairs creaked under my weight. Twenty-nine was down at the end of the hall, a corner room. I rapped the knuckles of my good hand on the wood and waited. “Who is it?” she wanted to know from the other side. “Nicky.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t sound happy about it. “I’ve got to see you.”

  “Just a second.”

  I heard her walk across the room and then come back. The key turned in the lock.

  “Well,” she said, standing there. “Where’s the accordion?”

  “The-what?”

  “Accordion. Didn’t you come for a lesson?”

  I pushed on past her.

  “I came to give you one,” I said.

  She closed the door and stood up against it, studying me. Her dark hair was a trifle longer than it had been, sweeping far down over her shoulders. There was plenty of make-up on her face and she looked like a wild, beautiful picture in the soft yellow light from the bed lamp. She wore a loose-fitting red robe that parted just below her knees.

  “All right,” she said and came over and sat down on the bed. “Start with the lesson.”

  “I hear you’ve got another job?”

  “With the band.”

  “Or should I say two jobs?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “That reminds me,” she said. “What right do you think you had to butt in that day up along the brook?”

  “That was just the start,” I said.

  “I don’t follow you, Nicky. You run too fast.”

  I sat down beside her. The bed dipped down and we couldn’t stay apart.

  And then I told her. I told her what kind of a bastard Shep was and how he’d fixed the dressing room so he could take those pictures. I told her what he was going to do with those pictures and I saw her face twist out of shape. I wanted to stay away from her but I couldn’t. She was crying and she needed me and I had cut her apart.

  “You didn’t know, did you, Sally?”

  “Oh, no!”

  She buried her face on my shoulder and her tears were hot on my neck.

  “I’ll get them back,” I said. “I only wanted you to know.” She stared up at me and the pain left her eyes. “You’re so good, Nicky!”

  She put her head back on my shoulder, crying some more but not quite so hard. I put my arms around her and my hands went up and down her back, soothing her. My hands went some more. I started to sweat. I tried it again with my hands and knew I was right. She didn’t have anything on underneath.

  “You’ve got to get squared away,” I told her. “You’ve got to work tonight.”

  “The band doesn’t play tonight,” she said. She sat up, smiling at me, her eyes red but the tears gone. “But I rehearse. For my dance.”

  “I didn’t know you danced,” I said. “Oh, some. But not this way before.”

  “How is that?”

  She looked down at the floor and jiggled one slipper on the ends of her toes.

  “Nicky,” she said, “you’re going to think I’m terrible. But I’ve got a good job with the band and this dance will help us when we get out of here and on the road.” She laughed and kicked the slipper up in the air. “Remember when I quit that gin-mill because they wanted me to wear different dresses?”

  “Yes.”

  “This goes a little further than that, Nicky
.” I made a guess that the bandleader had been giving her a good spiel.

  “You won’t be the only one,” I said. Her face brightened.

  “That’s right, Nicky. It isn’t really — bad. I just don’t wear much at the end.”

  “You see them on the streets like that, too.’

  “You could have the best voice in the world,” she said, “and if you weren’t good-looking you couldn’t get a dime out of it.”

  “I agree.”

  “So I have to give them something with the voice.” I looked her over. She had plenty to give. “That’s why I’m so worried about those pictures,” she said. “If I ever got any place at all, they could do me a lot of harm.”

  “I’ll get them back, Sally.”

  Our eyes met and held. She took a deep breath, throwing her breasts at me.

  “Promise, Nicky?”

  This was my day for promises.

  “Sure.”

  She arose quickly and swept over the floor. When she turned to me her face was radiant and pink.

  “Would you like to see it?” she asked me. “Would you like to see my dance, Nicky?”

  Irene was up there in the cabin waiting for me — but what was I supposed to say?

  “If you want to, Sally.”

  “I want to find out what you think about it.”

  Her body started to sway back and forth. The robe shook and the part got higher.

  “Of course I don’t have any music,” she told me, gaining speed. “And I don’t want to sing out loud because of the other guests. But you’ll get the idea.”

  Her lips moved and I knew that she was beating out the time for herself. She kicked off her other slipper and I heard the whisp of her bare feet on the rug. Her dancing steps, slow and calculated, took her across the room, brought her back. I could see by her face that she was throwing herself deeper into the dance. Then she started to whirl and her body trembled, trying to let itself loose. The robe flared out and I could see her white thighs flashing at every turn.

  “Then the music dies down,” she said slowly, as though it were some line she was repeating. Her eyes were half-closed. “They keep it that way, low and soft, while I get out of the dress. Then the music rises again, increasing in tempo, as I get down to bra and panties and go into the last of the dance.”

  Her hands came down across her breasts, brushing at the cloth, lingering a moment and then drifting away. Her hands returned, faster and more deft this time, teasing at the bow on her robe.

  “I take my time at it,” she murmured.

  The beads of sweat stood out on my forehead, watching her moving body, her trembling hands. I had the feeling that she was out in front of a crowd, and not in this room, living the moment that she hoped would become hers.

  Carefully she untied the bow and the robe sagged apart. The sweat ran down my face and dripped onto my shirt. My lips were dry and my throat ached as I watched her twist her body from side to side and let the robe slide to the floor.

  Her mouth moved faster, increasing the time of her steps, and her body swayed. Her naked body swayed there in front of me, coming closer as she moved in my direction, her breasts shaking and pointing their hard nipples straight at me.

  “Jesus Christ!” I breathed.

  For just a moment she remained poised in front of the bed. I could see her breasts growing big as she took in the air, her little stomach sucking in to nothing at all. Her legs tensed and she started the bumps and grinds, slow at first but gaining speed rapidly. The room shook with the fury of her passion and the walls slammed in on me. I reached out and grabbed her. She was still shaking when I brought her down on the bed beside me.

  She opened her mouth to say something, but my lips were there first, my tongue seeking and finding hers. For a brief moment she hesitated, then her arms crept around my neck, straining me to her.

  “You gave me an idea all right,” I said, after I’d kissed her several times more.

  She turned her head away.

  “I forgot,” she said in a small voice. “I wanted to show you and I forgot I didn’t have anything on.”

  I looked down at her warm, naked body lying there beside me.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, and reached over and shut off the bed light.

  “Don’t do that, Nicky.”

  “Why not?” I laughed shakily. “It’s hot in here.”

  She didn’t say anything. I sat up on the edge of the bed and took off my shirt. I waited. She still didn’t say anything, so I got out of the rest of my stuff.

  “You can tell me no, Sally.”

  I sat there with nothing on, locked in the silence of the room. At last she moved and came toward me, her hands touching my body, her lips seeking mine.

  “I won’t tell you no,” she said softly.

  The heat of our bodies fused together there on that bed. Our lips molded into one piece of flesh and fought to get closer. Our hands fumbled and grasped wildly for the delight of the moment.

  “Nicky!” she whispered. “Nicky, do you remember that night in the cabin?”

  “Yes.”

  “And what I said?” I kissed her my answer. “Nicky, be careful.”

  “Yes, Sally.”

  “I wouldn’t want one now, Nicky.”

  “Neither would I.”

  I felt her stiffen.

  “Nicky, do you love me?”

  I tried to kiss that one away. She whimpered and her voice was unsteady.

  “You don’t, do you?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. Then, “I wouldn’t lie to you, Sally.”

  “Even at a time like this?”

  “Even at a time like this.” She kissed me again. “You’re a good man, Nicky.”

  I thought of Irene waiting for me up there in the bedroom, of the fifty thousand dollar insurance policy on her husband’s life. “I don’t know,” I said.

  “Well, I think so.” Her kiss was longer, warmer this time. “I wanted you to love me, Nicky.”

  We lay there quiet for a moment. From down on the porch voices drifted up through the open window and in a room near-by a radio murmured.

  “You think my dance will go over?” she wanted to know.

  “Yeah, if they don’t try all of your customers for mental rape.”

  With a little laugh she came to me, every inch of her alive and demanding.

  “I won’t dance that way for anyone else,” she said, her mouth against mine. “That was for you, Nicky. Because I’m yours. You were the first and I belong to you. Always. Any time. If you want me, Nick.”

  “You’re driving me nuts,” I said.

  My hand slid down over the edge of the bed, to the floor, finding my clothes.

  “Kiss me again,” she said. I did.

  “Maybe we should pull down the shade.”

  “Yeah,” I said.

  I got out of bed and went over to the window. I pulled the shade down. I could hear her crying. It didn’t take me very long to get my clothes back on.

  It was a good thing that Irene was asleep when I reached the cabin.

  A man always cries alone.

  CHAPTER XVIII

  SATURDAY NIGHT WE HAD A COUPLE OF hard thundershowers, and the next morning it was cool and a dark gray sky hung low overhead. “Do you love your Irene, Nicky?”

  I looked at her face against the white pillow. Even so early in the day her skin glowed soft and smooth. I grinned and got my hands down under the sheet, going after her. She squealed and slipped out of the bed. The black negligee didn’t conceal a thing.

  “You don’t have to prove it again,” she said, laughing, as she went into the bathroom and closed the door.

  I lay back, listening to the water run through the pipes, thinking about the last few days — and nights. She’d been plenty sore at me on the morning after that session with Sally. Of course I’d spun her a yarn a yard wide, but she hadn’t gone for the flat-tire deal. She’d kept herself out of the bed and on the davenport
for a couple of nights after that. Then she’d cooled off and we’d made up for lost time. We’d been in bed since seven the night before, talking, listening to the rain on the roof, and doing other things.

  The water stopped running in the bathroom and I got out of bed and put on my robe. I went over and looked out of the window.

  “We can’t go out to the lake today,” she said, coming up and standing beside me.

  “It’s stopped raining.”

  “Well, maybe it has.”

  “The sun’s coming out.”

  She leaned forward and glanced up at the sky. She had on black panties and a black net bra that cupped gently at her breasts. If she hadn’t gone over and slid into her dress just then we’d have been in that room for the rest of the day.

  “That’s some sun,” she said. “About as big as a half dollar ten miles off.”

  “I’ll be your shining light,” I said.

  She sat down at the vanity and began brushing her hair.

  “Nicky,” she called to me as I went into the bathroom. “Do you know what tomorrow is?”

  “Monday,” I said. “Collection day on the debit. The best day in the week. The day you told me to call on you.”

  “And the next day, Nicky?”

  I took the toothbrush out of my mouth.

  “Say, what is this?”

  “The next day will be Tuesday,” she said. “The day Shep gets back from New York.”

  I looked at my face in the mirror and decided that I wouldn’t bother shaving.

  “That suits me,” I said. “That suits me fine.”

  I put on my shorts and pants and T shirt that hugged my skin. She stopped brushing her hair as I came out and hung up the robe.

  “How are we going to tell him, Nicky?”

  “You’re going to tell him, Irene.”

  She laid the comb down and got up, facing me.

  “How do you mean that, Nicky?”

  “Just what I said. You’re going to tell him that you’re through, that you want a divorce. You can tell him about me or you can let it ride. Use your own judgment on that.”

  “But I thought you were going to tell him, Nicky?”

  I went to her and put my hands on her shoulders. Her eyes grew wide as she looked up at me. I bent and touched my lips to her mouth.