[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
worried about cirrhosis. Gary Santo arranged the group with himself in the
middle and, at his left, first Mary Smith and then me at the end, and with
Halda and Burns in that order at his right.
Mary Smith was at that daring outer limit where style becomes comedy. There
was more eye makeup, and the mouth more frosted. She wore a gray sweater with
a great deal of complex stitchery and welts and seams. It came down to within
six inches of her knees. Showing under the sweater was two inches of blue
tweed skirt. Below the skirt were sheer blue stockings that were a perfect
match for shoes with stubby heels and high, stiff tongues. On her head was a
wide-brimmed hat shaped much like the hats the novilleros wear in the
bullring. It was of a stiff eggshell fabric in a coarse weave. She had it
perched aslant on the gloss of the brown-auburn spill of hair, with a white
thong under her chin, a blue wooden thong bead at the corner of her little
jaw. The sweater sleeves came midway down her forearms. Her gloves and purse
matched the eggshell hat When she pulled her gloves off, she uncovered nails
painted a thick, pearly, opalescent white.
She sat bolt upright like a bright and obedient child and smiled at me with
wide eyes and careful mouth, and told Santo she would have the regular, which
turned out to be a straight shot of Wild Turkey with water, no ice, on the
side. When she got it, she went at it with frequent little sippings, each of
which must have been three or four drops by volume.
Santo turned finally, after some in-group jokes and conversation I couldn't
follow, and faced me across Mary Smith, his back squarely toward the kraut
lady.
"Our little Poo Bear here gives you a good mark, MCGee."
"Poo Bear Smith?" I asked.
"It's an office thing," she said. "I have this instinct or something. He says
what about this one and I say Poo. And that one, and I say Poo. Then the next
one I say okay for brownie points."
"She's got a nose for it. Questions, McGee. If I go for it, if I like the
flavor of it, how much do you have to know?"
"The day you start and how much you are going to spring for altogether."
"Have you taken a position in it?"
"About the same way porcupines make love, but I'm nowhere near as far in as I
want to be. It's been moving in a narrow range and I've been buying on the
downs."
"Will you need to know my orders?"
"No. I'll have a man tape-watching it."
Page 77
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"There's one place where we have to be coordinated on it, and that's getting
off it."
"As carefully as we get on, I hope."
"And the last thing, of course, is the name of it."
"Right here?"
"The other two can't hear, and Mary is the best you've ever seen at keeping
her mouth shut. About anything."
"Fletcher Industries. American Exchange."
"Want to brief me a little?"
"Why should I? It's a duplication of effort If your people can't see why it's
as good as it is, you need new people."
"You have your full complete share of mouth, McGee."
"Have you gotten too accustomed to total humility on all sides, Santo?"
"Hush, now!" said Mary Smith. "You both hush. You're both right. Don't you two
go all ballsy and wicked when you're going to be helping each other."
Santo threw his head back and laughed his boyish laugh. "Her biggest trouble
is making sense. By Wednesday... that will be..."
"The tenth," said Mary Smith.
"... phone her and she'll have the Yes or No on it, and give you a probable
figure."
"Will do," I said.
He smiled down into her face. He said to her, "I think I like your new friend,
Mary. I think he's maybe brought us another winner." He took out his bill
clip, slipped some bills out of it, and put them quickly into her purse. "I'm
so sure, here's an advance on your bonus. Use it to take him to where the
steaks are."
She looked at her watch. "Yes, you'd better start moving it, Gary. Ben will be
out there with your luggage. Kiss Bonnie Bea for me."
He made the smallest of gestures and people came on the run to pull the table
away, hand him the check for signature, bow the three of them out and away.
We went up the beach in her little red car to what she called one of "her"
places, a little bar dark as pockets. Once we were sitting across a very low
and narrow little table from each other, so that we had to hunch over it in
intimate arrangement, she figuratively rolled up her sleeves and went to work.
She had awaited the pass, and for once there hadn't been one.
She had put the strange hat aside. She shook out her gleaming hair. A stray
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
