Chapter 7
The following morning it started raining again. The wind blew and a fury not much short of a hurricane was released against the area. Within a matter of a few minutes, the streets were young streams, since the street sewerage would not carry off the excess water fast enough.
At the Muzzo Hotel Alice stirred on the bed. Then she rolled over and called Eddie. Not completely sure where she was or what had happened during the course of the last day, she sat slowly upwards in bed.
Drunkenly, she looked round the room. The light was burning. The dresser was piled with bottles of liquor.
"Eddie!" she moaned in a husky tone. "Eddie, you in th' bathroom?"
Weakly she dropped back down on the bed and gave a low curse. Then she summoned enough strength to roll herself over to the edge of the bed. She climbed off the bed to the floor, staggered over to the dresser. There, she paused, lifted a bottle of liquor and took a long pull at it With a tired blow, she twisted her head and looked round the corner of the room until she could see inside the bathroom. No one was in there.
"Wonder where he went?" she sighed drunkenly. " told him I never wanted to git mahself drunk."
She raised the bottle again to her lips and took another drink. Her thirst was somewhat abated. So she staggered over to the window and made a clumsy effort to pull back the blinds. The rain was pouring down, and obscure gloomy weather hung over the area. She could not imagine what time of day it was or even what day it was, nor how long she had been there. She didn't seem to care. All she wanted was Eddie. But he wasn't there. She did not sense that he could have stepped out. She was not as drunk as she had been the past night.
Alice turned away from the window and crossed the room to the phone. She clutched the phone, taking it from the hook. The clerk answered. She inquired if her boy friend had gone out. The clerk stated that he'd left word that he would be right back. That satisfied Alice. So she dropped the receiver, then wobbled back to the bed and sat down. She took another drink, and still another. Then as if she could not resist the temptation, she turned up the bottle and drained it.
Conscious of the empty bottle, she let it drop to the floor, then she curled back upon the bed and fell off to a drunkenly sleep again.
In the afternoon, Alice awakened. She looked round, hoping to see her lover in the bed. She called him again. That was the only thing she could think of or say by now. She kept repeating his name, unable to think or reason.
She managed to get out of the bed. She staggered across the room until she was in the bathroom. Vaguely she was able to sit on the stool. The pressing release of her excess made no impression on her. Then she rose and reentered the bedroom. Still she could hear the rain dripping from the old hotel eaves. She went to the dresser and selected another fifth of whisky. Back on the bed she took a drink, then dropped the bottle and the liquor gurgled out on the bed around her nude body. Alice fell into a drunken sleep again.
The maid came to the room, unlocked the door and looked in at the drunkard woman sprawled on the bed. Then she turned her nose and closed the door. The strong odor of intoxicants repulsed her. She would not have to be bothered with doing that room this particular day.
All night Alice did not stir, not until late the following day. And it was the maid who entered the room to see about her. She removed all the excess whisky, which Alice had not yet touched. Then she went to the bed and shook Alice.
Alice opened her eyes and looked groggily up at the woman. Her voice was dry and husky.
"How'dy, baby," she said. "Get me a drink, will yuh?"
"Honey, you'd better not drink any more," the maid advised her. "I threw all that whisky away. You'll be sick if you don't stop drinkin'."
"Now, what'd you go and do that for?" Alice winced. "I need a drink. Just one little one." She raised her left fingers, reaching for the maid to help her.
"Get up," said the maid. "You've got yourself in a mess. Look at that filthy sheet and bed."
The maid helped her over to a chair and Alice fell into it. She watched groggily as the maid changed the bed.
"Have you seen my man?" Alice asked her, as the maid pulled the filthy sheet from the bed and hauled it over against the door to be taken from the room. "He was here with me. Where'd Eddie go?"
"He's gone, honey. He's deserted you."
"You're kiddin'."
"I wish I was."
"Eddie wouldn't do me that dirty."
"I wish I could agree with you." The maid shook her head disgustedly at the sodden mattress. She turned it over and continued to make up the bed with fresh linen.
"You gonna help me sober up?" Alice asked her. "Will you, please?"
"Sure I will. What can I do for you?"
"Get me somethin'. You know, somethin' to help me sober up. Mah head's hurtin'. I sure would like a drink. Can't you just accommodate me this once?"
"Honey, lie back down, and I'll see what I can do for you."
Alice pulled herself out of the chair, staggered back to the bed and dropped back down. No sooner was she back on the bed, she had fallen into a drunken rest again.
The maid shook her head disgustedly, gathered up all the dirty linen and left the room.
For the next ten hours, Alice found no respite from her ailment. Only the following morning she awakened to find herself again near normal, since she had not had any liquor for the past twenty hours. She had sobered.
Climbing out of the bed, she crossed the room to the dresser and looked hard at her broken features. Her hair was in shambles, her eyes sottish brownishly stained from drinking, her cheeks were hollow, being without food all that time. She was very sick and undernourished. For the first time since she had started the drinking spree with Eddie LaRose, she felt that he had deserted her, left her alone in the room with enough liquor to kill herself. There wasn't a dime on the dresser for her to get a bite to eat He had lied to her, tricked her. She was a fool to have trusted the dirty bastard, she thought. All he wanted from her were his kicks. How right McShane had been. The scoundrel ought to be hung, beaten until he bled to death.
Crushed and heartbroken that Eddie would treat her so cruelly, Alice covered her face and sobbed. Her features melted in her tears, and she felt as though she wanted to die.
Realizing that tears would not mend her broken spirits, she went into the bathroom and ran water to take a bath. She cried all the while she was in the tub, and even when she washed her face and had returned to the room to powder and apply lipstick. While combing her hair she felt nauseated, so she ran into the bathroom and puked. She heaved again and again. After she had relieved herself, she felt much better. Only she still had the hangover. She was ready to go back to the apartment, to Frieta.
While she dressed slowly, she thought about the money which Frieta had. How foolishly ignorant she was not to have suspected all along that Eddie must have been making a try for her daughter. She did not know for sure, but she could not imagine him treating her so horribly unless there was another woman whom he wanted to be with. If it had been some other woman, why on earth didn't he just tell her so. Yet he hadn't. He had tried to murder her, making her commit suicide by drinking herself to death. That had been his ambition. Why? Was he really the one who had given Frieta all the money? Eddie had told her he had won over a thousand dollars gambling. Certainly all this didn't make sense. What was the sonofabitch after? She thought.
As she left the room she realized that she was definitely finished with Eddie. She was going to throw the engagement ring in his face and tell him to go to hell. Funny, how she didn't have enough sense to listen to McShane when he had tried to advise her about the rascal. Eddie had promised her a hundred dollars. Not one penny had he given her, not even for the shellacking she had given him. She was so extremely disgusted and angry at Eddie LaRose until she felt like taking a revolver and killing him. If she just didn't love him so much, she could believe that something must have pulled him away from her.
Downstairs in the lobby, Alice stopped at the desk to inquire about her lover.
The old man looked up at her as she paused before him. He knew very well that the man who had come with her had left her drunk there and deserted her. He forced a silly grin as he reflected over the facts.
"Good mornin'," Alice said. She cast a glimpse outside. It was still raining.
"How'dy, ma'am," the old man spoke quietly. "Still nasty weather, we havin'." He went on.
"So I see," Alice replied. "What time is it?" He turned and looked at a big black-faced electric clock behind the desk.
"Ten A.M.," he said, facing her again. "How many days have I been in this dump?"
"Well, let's see. trout three, I'd reckon. Let me see my book." He fumbled with a long gray ledger book under a shelf on the counter. He ruffled some pages, then looked slowly up at her. "Yep. Three days. You came here on Tuesday evenin'."
"It's Friday, huh?" she asked. "That's correct, ma'am," he grinned. She looked into his eyes, thinking that at his age, which looked to be seventy or more, he ought to be truthful.
"Do you remember the guy who came here with me?" she asked.
"Yes, ma'am. I sure do."
"When was the last time you saw him here with me?"
"Why, that dude never even stayed the night with yuh, so th' boy said when I come down the next mornin'."
"That means he checked out Tuesday night, doesn't it?"
The old man nodded.
"Do I owe you anything?" she asked.
"Nope. Your rents been paid up until today."
"Why, the dirty sonofabitch!" she swore. "Wait'll I get my hands on him. Do you see how dirty he done me? We're supposed to be engaged, too!"
"I wouldn't have guessed it."
"Brother, we're not, any more!" She looked at him a moment, fighting back tears. "Do me a favor, please. Call me a taxi."
He nodded and put the call through for the cab.
Alice ordered the taxi driver to take her back to Kansas to Smiley's tavern. It was pay day. She could at least get her money, but she doubted if she had a job. Smiley didn't take any such foolishness as his waitresses staying off the job and returning whenever they felt like it. The help were required to call if sick. She hadn't called, so she would be fired.
Unfortunately, she was right. She was fired. As she alighted from the cab and entered the tavern, she spied a tall red-haired girl with freckles behind the bar for the morning shift, which was the shift she had worked. The red head told her that Smiley wasn't in, but the cook wanted to see her. In the kitchen, the cook gave her her pay envelope, telling her that Smiley couldn't use her any more. Alice thanked him and left.
Outside, she was about to pay off the taxi driver when Duke Wayne drove up in a new black Buick. He honked the horn at Alice and she ran over to the car just as he opened the door.
"Well, hello, sugar," Duke grinned at her. "You off so early?"
"I'm fired. I don't work at Smiley's any more, honey."
"What's th' matter with you? You look sick. Been drinkin'?"
"You said it. Do I look that lousy?"
"Honest, sugar."
"I'm goin' home and eat somethin'. I haven't tasted a bit for three days. It's a wonder I'm still alive. That goddamn bum who I was engaged to, left me in a hotel room to drink myself to death. Wasn't that dirty?"
"I can't believe it."
"Well, it's true. He wanted to murder me. Why? You're a cop. Why would a guy treat a gal so dirty? Bein' engaged, too."
He frowned angrily. His temper was intensified, upon hearing such hideous news.
"I figure he was done with you. That's why. What other reason?"
"That's what I figured too. Funny, how dumb some gals are when they've had a guy once or twice. He's all they want and need to satisfy them. Then he isn't what they figured, after all." She looked back at the taxi who was waiting for her to pay him. "I owe this cabman. Wait, honey. You gonna drive me home?"
"I sure am. And you just sit tight, Alice. I'll pay the taxi for you. You're real sick. Your eyes are deceiving, if you're not."
"Thanks, Mr. Wayne."
Duke climbed out the car and went back to pay off the taxi driver, while Alice leaned back in the car and closed her eyes to hold back her miserable feeling.
Upon his return to the car, Duke drove off. He told her all about himself. His wife had divorced him six months ago, taken their two children with her. He didn't know where she went, nor had he heard from her. Anyway, he was glad to get rid of her, although he cherished the kids. His wife was completely cold towards him, and they found themselves quarreling every day. A separation was the only means to make each of their lives better.
He told her that he was looking for a nice girl who wanted to make a decent home, and one who wasn't always too afraid she was going to become pregnant every time it happened. His wife had been allergic to sexual gratification, and he could no longer withstand her cold indifferent nature towards the one joy on earth which he found so greatly appetizing.
Alice studied him in a different sense, now. Why hadn't she given him her address earlier. Perhaps all this silly affair with Eddie LaRose could have been avoided. She felt the same way about life as he felt. They were identical, and should make a nice loving couple. She could easily break herself from drinking with the right man to pleasure her every night.
When they reached the apartment she invited him up to the rooms. He took a seat on the divan, while she made some coffee, and saw to it that she had some hot soup to give her body nourishment. Frieta wasn't home, and Alice felt that she would be taking her singing lessons, this being Friday.
Duke was very interesting. He had a hard serious voice, and he was as handsome as sin. He wanted to come to see her, if she decided to break her engagement, and she promised him that he could start right then, for it was already broken.
Alice sat down beside him and he placed his arms about her, snuggling her body close against his. She assumed that he must be starved for love, being separated from his wife all that time. She meant to see if he would be true to her, before she spent any more time with any man. Yet she knew she was weak when the thirst came upon her. It would bother her as soon as she had regained her stamina. She knew that as well as she was seated on the divan.
When Duke was ready to leave, he kissed her at the door. Alice felt her stomach quiver, wishing he had been the one who had occupied her time for the past week instead of Eddie LaRose.
When Duke had left her, she dropped down on the divan and cried harder. But she swore the moment she saw Eddie LaRose she was going to try to kill him!