brokeââIâll wait.â
She watched him walk down to the corner and disappear.
The following afternoon she went to see a two forty-five showing of the movie Can-Can and wept through the entire show. A man across the aisle kept glancing at her, then up to the screen puzzled, as if asking, âAre we watching the same film?â
She wept through several weeks, stunned to realize that Nathan didnât seem to notice. No. That wasnât true. Heâd noticed. After a week or two he even said something.
âYou upset about something?â
âJust ⦠I donât know,â sheâd muttered as she scrambled eggs over the stove.
And that was it.
Although, now that she thought about it, she realized that Nathan began to stay out of the house more and more, until he barely seemed to come in at all.
She spent three months in this half-crying, half-furious state, and finally decided that she couldnât live like this anymore.
Okay, heâd lied to her once, but she would, against her better judgment, give Arthur MacGregor another chance. Because it was human nature to err, and no one should be thrown away because of one mistake, and because she couldnât bear the thought that sheâd never have him again. He had insisted that he was going to find something honest to do, and even though she read every report of every robbery in the newspapers, sheâd find some way of trusting him. The fact that his name hadnât come up in any of the news media she took as a sign that maybe he was back at work as a locksmith.
She would track him down and tell him straight out that yes, he had her, and her son, but that if he ever pulled another stunt like that, sheâd kill him. And she was not kidding.
So she hired a baby-sitter for the following afternoon, when she knew Nathan would be out of the house anyway, and decided to start on Rivington Street, at the hotel where he had a room â¦
She lay in bed all that night thinking about it and thinking about it, only pretending to be asleep when Nathan got in around five. She was surprised at how much she ached to have Arthur again.
And at one the next day Nathan was sitting at the table reading the paper and she turned around with a plate of breakfast and dropped it on the floor.
There was Arthur MacGregorâs face staring back at her. The headline in the Daily News read: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN ?
And his ensuing robbery spree confirmed that she had been absolutely right not to go with him. She felt for the flash of a moment that she had made the right decision and she was victorious.
And then it broke her insides.
And she hated it that Arthurâd forced her to face the fact that she didnât love Nathan, and she hated even more that, as it turned out, he had been right about him.
After those first couple of years the gambling did get worse, or maybe she just focused in on it more, but whatever, they were in a constant state of poverty, until at last he lost his share of the club and wound up as a waiter in a steak house on Fourteenth Street. Dottie got a job working as a secretary for a small company in Brooklyn that supplied parts for typewriters. And that was all right; the money was at least steady, and there was enough from his paycheck even after he paid his weekly into the shylock for them to get by.
So sheâd kept everything to herself over the years, and often she would think back on it. Toward the end of Nathanâs life four years ago, sheâd begun to surround herself with memories of those hot afternoons with Arthur, even though she knew sheâd never see him again, or maybe he wasnât even still alive.
And now, of all the fences Teresa knew, this was the number Dottie had to be given?
Was God trying to drive her crazy?
She turned off the light and walked back over to the couch.
Well, hell could freeze over before sheâd call Arthur MacGregor for anything.
CHAPTER
She watched him walk down to the corner and disappear.
The following afternoon she went to see a two forty-five showing of the movie Can-Can and wept through the entire show. A man across the aisle kept glancing at her, then up to the screen puzzled, as if asking, âAre we watching the same film?â
She wept through several weeks, stunned to realize that Nathan didnât seem to notice. No. That wasnât true. Heâd noticed. After a week or two he even said something.
âYou upset about something?â
âJust ⦠I donât know,â sheâd muttered as she scrambled eggs over the stove.
And that was it.
Although, now that she thought about it, she realized that Nathan began to stay out of the house more and more, until he barely seemed to come in at all.
She spent three months in this half-crying, half-furious state, and finally decided that she couldnât live like this anymore.
Okay, heâd lied to her once, but she would, against her better judgment, give Arthur MacGregor another chance. Because it was human nature to err, and no one should be thrown away because of one mistake, and because she couldnât bear the thought that sheâd never have him again. He had insisted that he was going to find something honest to do, and even though she read every report of every robbery in the newspapers, sheâd find some way of trusting him. The fact that his name hadnât come up in any of the news media she took as a sign that maybe he was back at work as a locksmith.
She would track him down and tell him straight out that yes, he had her, and her son, but that if he ever pulled another stunt like that, sheâd kill him. And she was not kidding.
So she hired a baby-sitter for the following afternoon, when she knew Nathan would be out of the house anyway, and decided to start on Rivington Street, at the hotel where he had a room â¦
She lay in bed all that night thinking about it and thinking about it, only pretending to be asleep when Nathan got in around five. She was surprised at how much she ached to have Arthur again.
And at one the next day Nathan was sitting at the table reading the paper and she turned around with a plate of breakfast and dropped it on the floor.
There was Arthur MacGregorâs face staring back at her. The headline in the Daily News read: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN ?
And his ensuing robbery spree confirmed that she had been absolutely right not to go with him. She felt for the flash of a moment that she had made the right decision and she was victorious.
And then it broke her insides.
And she hated it that Arthurâd forced her to face the fact that she didnât love Nathan, and she hated even more that, as it turned out, he had been right about him.
After those first couple of years the gambling did get worse, or maybe she just focused in on it more, but whatever, they were in a constant state of poverty, until at last he lost his share of the club and wound up as a waiter in a steak house on Fourteenth Street. Dottie got a job working as a secretary for a small company in Brooklyn that supplied parts for typewriters. And that was all right; the money was at least steady, and there was enough from his paycheck even after he paid his weekly into the shylock for them to get by.
So sheâd kept everything to herself over the years, and often she would think back on it. Toward the end of Nathanâs life four years ago, sheâd begun to surround herself with memories of those hot afternoons with Arthur, even though she knew sheâd never see him again, or maybe he wasnât even still alive.
And now, of all the fences Teresa knew, this was the number Dottie had to be given?
Was God trying to drive her crazy?
She turned off the light and walked back over to the couch.
Well, hell could freeze over before sheâd call Arthur MacGregor for anything.
CHAPTER
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