Chapter 20
The doctor at the hospital told me that all I got out of the deal was a burned mouth. When I came to, I could still taste the awful stuff in my mouth and when they brought me my dinner, I couldn't eat it. The food tasted like it had been cooked in lysol. They let Rosie in to see me that afternoon.
"Did Tom ever come back?" I asked the first thing. Rosie shook her head.
"Lois called him up and tried to explain about your hustling," Rosie answered. "He just said 'I'm sorry' and hung up. Men are funny that way." She paused and looked at me, "How do you feel?"
"I'll be all right now, honest. I've got everything out of my system," I answered and tried to smile at her. "O.K., now tell me the news."
"Same old grind-it never changes," she answered, "Goren, that new fall guy, he's fallen for Micky-that little redhead at Grace's. Goren told Micky's pimp to hit the road and that Micky was his factory now."
"How'd Micky take it?"
"She doesn't care," Rosie shrugged her shoulders. "One pimp is as good as another."
They kept me in the hospital until the next morning before they released me. For some reason, I felt light-hearted and gay. While I was there, I hadn't even minded the nurses and internes peeking into my room and staring at me like I had three heads. I took a taxi home.
There was no doubt in my mind that Tom and I were through. It was all over and somehow, it seemed that it had happened years ago, not yesterday. Rosie was so glad to see me that she grabbed me and kissed me when I walked in on her. She told me that John's lawyer had been trying to get hold of me. I called him long distance and he told me the news. John had pleaded guilty and had thrown himself on the mercy of the court. He had drawn a five to ten year rap.
"Do you want me to start divorce proceedings?" he asked.
"No-no, I changed my mind," I answered and hung up.
I changed my clothes and got ready to face my customers the way I had always done. I felt no different than I had before. The laundry man came and we dickered over how many towels I would need the way we had always done and that was no different. Goren, the punk, came around to collect. He acted tough and snarled at us. I watched him from the window. He went into Grace's and stayed for about an hour.
When he came out, his hat was cocked to one side of his head and he walked with a bigger swagger than usual. A car pulled up beside him and three pimps got out. Goren stopped; his hands hanging slack at his sides. Two of them grabbed him from behind and held his arms while Micky's guy went to work with a pair of brass knuckles. He took his time, carefully placing each blow. Micky sat in her window and quietly watched them. They left Goren lying on the sidewalk; his face a bloody pulp. He lay there for an hour before an ambulance came and took him away.
On this street, you see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil.
Two days later, Thomas dropped by to see me. I was alone and I had waited until he had caught me alone. I locked the door and pulled down all the blinds. He sat down on the sofa, lit a cigarette, and kept looking at me as if he couldn't make up his mind about something.
"I heard you tried to take a fall," he said.
"I'm O.K. now-you don't have to worry about me," I answered. "I'll hold up my end of the bargain."
I meant it too. Suddenly, I was conscious of being up against the wall with Thomas running his finger up and down my bra strap. Soberly, I stared at the wall, wondering what the right thing to say and do was.
"Do you ever do it just for love?" he asked.
"Not any more," I managed to look at him. Something about him scared me, but I didn't know what or why.
"Why?"
"A girl doesn't get hurt that way," I shrugged my shoulders. But I looked up at him and gave him a smile that I knew would make him think I was lying. I saw the look in his eyes and I wasn't scared of him so much. He was just like all the other men who came to me. The only difference was that he was a cop and he owned part interest in the factory. Maybe that was why I was scared of him.
"I've often wondered when you were going to get around to me again," I said.
"Do you want me to?" His breath was loud and heavy.
"Yes, I've been wanting you to," I answered.
He drew me close, kissed me, then lifted me into his arms and carried me into my bedroom the way a man carries a bride over the threshold. I giggled like a school girl.
Thomas was married and had a family. When he was through with me, he would go back to his wife. I wanted it that way. It kept everything simple, no complications. I had learned my lesson. From now on, I was going to keep my loving on a cash basis and I wasn't going to get involved with any damn man.
I fooled Thomas the way that I had fooled the other men. I made him think that I really wanted him and that I enjoyed doing it with him. He wanted to think that and I knew how to make it easy for him to believe it. I didn't put my clothes on afterward. Even though he was through with me, he wanted to have me naked and feel my body with his hands. I put my arms around him, drew my body close to his so he could smell my perfume. We lay there, not moving, our heads on the same pillow.
"Honey, there used to be four of us, but with Bill gone, k leaves only three, right?" I asked. He nodded, "If we could only buy out Jergens, there would only be two of us-right?"
I made Thomas laugh. He pushed me from him and sat up, reaching for the cigarettes on the stand table. He was still chuckling when he lit one.
"Wanda, you are a whore and you really meant it when you said you kept romance on a cash basis," he said. "One way or another, you intend to get paid every time you put out, don't you? You took a trip with me and you had it figured out how you were going to collect for it."
"I didn't mean k that way, honest," I said.
I sat up and put my arms around his neck, but he took them down. My body and my perfume weren't having any effect on him now.
"Don't bother lying to me," Thomas said, but he wasn't angry, "I like you this way. I know where we stand and that I'll make dough off of you."
T want to make a little of that money myself," I answered.
He gave me a surprised look. When he started to stand up, I grabbed him and pulled him back down.
"Wait! There's something I want to explain," I said. He sat down; looking at me. I wondered how I could explain.
"I-I know what you think of me-that I'm pretty heartless or something. But try and look at it from my side, will you? I won't be young and pretty very long and in a few years, the men won't have anything to do with me. I don't mind asking a man to go to bed with me, but I don't want to end up begging them the way some girls have to. Do you understand what I mean?"
Thomas was silent for a moment; puffing thoughtfully on his cigarette.
"I won't double cross Jergens, but I'll see that you get every break that I can," he said slowly. "See you around, Honey."
For some reason, the house seemed awful lonely and empty after he left. I turned up the radio as loud as I could. Thomas could add and divide as well as I could. Guys like Thomas and Jergens were guys that I had to carry on my back in order to stay in business. But Thomas was hungry for money and I knew he would figure it the way I did. Before long, Jergens would be one less that I would have to carry.
I wondered how Thomas would pull it and wished I knew the deal between them. But he'd give Jergens a raw deal and just thinking about that, trying to picture the look on Jergen's face, when it happened, made me feel good.