The Postman Always Rings Twice / Почтальон всегда звонит дважды. Джеймс Кейн
he gave a funny grunt[61] and stooped down. There was the cat, laying on its back with all four feet in the air.
“Ain't that a shame? Killed her deader than hell.”[62]
He shot the flashlight up under the porch roof, and along the stepladder. “That's it, all right. Remember? We were looking at her. She stepped off the ladder on to your fuse box, and it killed her deader than hell. Well, I'll be going along[63]. I guess that straightens us out. Had to check up, you know.”
“That's right.”
“So long. So long, Miss.”
“So long.”
Chapter 5
We didn't do anything about the cat, the fuse box, or anything else. We went to bed, and she cracked up. She cried, and then got a chill so she was trembling all over, and it was a couple of hours before I could get her quiet. She lay in my arms a while, then, and we began to talk.
“Never again, Frank.”
“That's right. Never again.”
“We must have been crazy. It was my fault.”
“Mine too.”
“No, it was my fault. I was the one that thought it up. You didn't want to. Next time I'll listen to you, Frank. You're smart. You're not dumb like I am.”
“Except there won't be any next time.”
“That's right. Never again.”
“Even if we had gone through with it they would have guessed it[64]. They always guess it. Because look how quick that cop knew something was wrong. Soon as he saw me standing there he knew it.”
“I guess I'm not really a hell cat, Frank. If I was, I wouldn't have got so scared, Frank.”
“I was scared plenty, myself.”
“You know what I wanted when the lights went out? Just you, Frank. I wasn't any hell cat at all, then. I was just a little girl, afraid of the dark.”
“I was there, wasn't I?”
“I loved you for it. If it hadn't been for you, I don't know what would have happened to us.”
“Pretty good, wasn't it?[65] About how he slipped?”
“And he believed it.”
“You got to have something to tell, that's it. It should be as near the truth as you can get it. I know them. I've dealt with them, plenty.”
“I guess I really don't want to be a hell cat.”
“You're my baby.”
“That's it, just your dumb baby. All right, Frank. I'll listen to you, from now on. You be the brains, and I'll work. And I work good. We'll get along[66].”
“Sure we will.”
“Now shall we go to sleep?”
“You think you can sleep all right?”
“It's the first time we ever slept together, Frank.”
“You like it?”
“It's grand, just grand.”
“Kiss me goodnight.”
“It's so sweet to be able to kiss you goodnight.”
Next morning, the telephone waked us up. She answered it, and when she came up her eyes were shining. “Frank, guess what?”
“What?”
“His skull is fractured[67].”
“Bad?”
“No, but they're keeping him there. They want him there for a week, maybe. We can sleep together again, tonight.”
“Come here.”
“Not now. We've got to get up. We've got to open the place up.”
“Come here, before I kick you.”
“You nut.”
It was a happy week, all right. In the afternoon, she would drive in to the hospital, but the rest of the time we were together. We kept the place open all the time, and made plenty of money. Then one day, we both went in, and after she came out of the hospital, we went to the beach. They gave her a yellow suit and a red cap, and when she came out I didn't know her at first. She looked like a little girl. It was the first time I ever really saw how young she was. We played in the sand, and then we swam way out and let the waves rock us. We lay there, face to face, and held hands under water. I looked up at the sky. It was all you could see. I thought about God.
“Frank.”
“Yes?”
“He's coming home tomorrow. You know what that means?”
“I know.”
“I got to sleep with him, stead of you.”
“But when he gets here we're going to be gone.”
“I was hoping you'd say that.”
“Just you and me and the road, Cora.”
“Just you and me and the road.”
“Just a couple of tramps.”
“Just a couple of gypsies, but we'll be together.”
“That's it. We'll be together.”
Next morning, we packed up. I had bought a suit, and I put that on. She put her things in a hatbox and handed it to me. “Put that in the car, will you?”
“The car?”
“Aren't we taking the car?”
“We are if you want to spend the first night in jail. Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.”
“Oh.”
We started out. It was two miles to the bus stop, and we had to walk it. Every time a car went by, we would stand there with our hand stuck out but none of them stopped. A man alone can get a ride, and a woman alone, if she's fool enough to take it, but a man and a woman together don't have much luck. After about twenty had gone by, she stopped. We had gone about a quarter of a mile.
“Frank, I can't.”
“What's the matter?”
“This is it.”
“This is what?”[68]
“The road.”
“You're crazy. You're tired, that's all. Look. You wait here, and I'll get somebody to drive us in to the city. That's what we should do anyhow. Then we'll be all right.”
“No, it's not that. I'm not tired. I can't, that's all.”
“Don't you want to be with me, Cora?”
“You know I do.”
“We can't go back, you know. We can't start up again, like it was before. You know that. You've got to come.”
“I told you I wasn't really a bum, Frank. I don't feel like no gypsy. I feel ashamed, that I'm out here asking for a ride.”
“I told you. We're getting a car in to the city.”
“And then what?”
“Then we're there. Then we get going.”
“No we don't. We spend one night in a hotel, and then we start looking for a job. And living in a dump.”
“Isn't that a dump? What you just left?”
“It's
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