Handsome Harry (4 page)

You won’t shoot
me,
she said, which I guess meant because she was a woman. I didn’t know if she had nerve or was plain foolish. What did she think Earl would do if she locked me in?

I pointed the .38 at her and cocked it. If you’ve never heard a revolver cock inside a bank vault, let me assure you that it is a very serious sound. I said Don’t bet your life on it, honey. Now get in here.

She took her hands off the door and came in. I wondered what she looked like without the glasses and her hair down and her clothes off. My money would’ve been on very nice.

I asked where the cash was and she pulled open a drawer filled with packets of greenbacks so new that a smell rose off them like some fresh-baked treat. I laughed and I handed her the bag and said to put it all in.

Let’s
go,
brother, Earl called out.

I came out of the cage with the pillowcase wrapped snugly around the money and tucked under my arm like a football. The citizens were all exactly as before, their eyes still on Earl’s revolver. The power of the gun—
wooo.

Earl was as charged up as I was. If I hear an alarm go off, he said loudly, I swear to Jesus I’ll run right back in here and shoot all you goddamn Hoosiers. Starting with
you,
fatso!

He wagged his pistol at Mr. Pinstripes, who shook his head and made all sorts of jittery gestures to let us know he wouldn’t dream of giving the alarm.

We slipped our pistols under our coats and went out and headed for the car at a quick walk. I whispered Easy does it, easy does it, and Earl whispered back I know, man, I know—and then said What the hell’s
this?

Directly behind the Lincoln, blocking it in, stood an idling Templar coupe. The driver was leaning out his window and gabbing with the driver of a pickup truck facing the other way. A pair of locals chewing the fat in the middle of the street and in no hurry about it because there was no waiting traffic behind either of them.

As we got to the Lincoln, Earl said Hey you! Move it!

The driver of the Templar turned to squint at us through the passenger window. Say now, mister, he said, you could try asking a little more polite.

I slid behind the wheel and cranked up the motor as Earl took out his piece and pointed it at him and said How’s
this
for polite, you stupid hick! Now
move it!

Their eyes got
this
big and the other driver hunched down behind the wheel and his truck went rumbling off. But the guy in the Templar was so rattled the car bucked hard and stalled.

Oh God, mister, the guy shouts, don’t shoot! And puts his hands up.

I said
move
that fucken thing! Earl yells. But the guy’s too scared to do anything except put his hands higher and beg Don’t shoot me,
please
don’t shoot!

Watch out, I said to Earl. I yanked the gearshift into reverse and gunned the Lincoln backward and—
pow!
—I sent the little coupe screeching sideways farther into the street, its windshield falling apart and the driver’s hat flying off. But it was still partially blocking us in, so I pulled forward again, put it into reverse once more, and
pow!
—I rammed the Templar even harder, spinning it halfway around and out of our way. The little car’s side was demolished and the driver wasn’t in sight.

Earl hopped in as I wheeled the Lincoln around. People were flocking out to the sidewalks to see what all the crashing was about. I stomped on the gas pedal and we tore off down the street as the bank alarm started sounding.

Why, that fat sorry bastard, Earl said, glaring back toward the bank. Then we flew past the city limit sign without any cars behind us and we were both laughing like hell.

We weren’t laughing two hours later when we were back in the apartment and found out the money was mostly small bills. The take came to $2,285—more than either of us had ever had our hands on,
to be sure, but there was no denying Miss Blue Eyes had pulled a fast one on us. We read all about it in the next day’s paper. Her name was Helen Something-or-other and the report hailed her as a fast-thinking heroine who had outfoxed the robbers by foisting the small bills on us and saving the rest of the cash in the vault. More than four thousand bucks.

Earl was so furious he wanted to go back to Marion and fix her wagon. For days afterward he muttered about that no-good crooked bitch. Not me. I admired her pluck—not to mention those sexy eyes and sweet curves. Ten to one she ended up marrying some banker and they bought a nice house and had a bunch of kids and she lost her figure and every day of her life is the same as every other day and will be until she’s too old for it to make any difference anymore. But I’ll bet you anything that every now and then she remembers staring down the barrel of my pistol and how her breath went deeper than it ever did in her life and how her blood sped up and she had absolutely no idea what would happen next.

I
bought a four-year-old Buick in good condition and went to the best haberdashery in town and got myself a new wardrobe, including three custom-tailored suits and a pair of Italian shoes. And then one evening I drove over to the Copper Kettle Café where Mary was waiting tables.

I hadn’t seen her since she’d quit her job with the old couple. She was busy taking an order and didn’t notice me when I came in and took a booth at the rear of the room. I held a menu so she couldn’t see my face until she came to the booth and said, What’s yours, mister?

I lowered the menu and smiled big. How’s the caviar in this place, I said.

Well now, she said, look at
you.

I said I happened to be in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop
in for a bite before taking in a movie. She asked what I was going to see and I said there was a Chaplin playing a few blocks away. Say, I said—as if the idea had just come to me—would she like to go to the flicker with me when she got off work?

She gave me a strange look, then said no, which I never expected. And which surprised me with how much it irked. Then she smiled and for a second I thought she’d seen the disappointment on my face, but she said what she’d really like to do was go to the carnival over at the river fairgrounds. She guessed I wasn’t really dressed for a carnival, though, in my nice suit and all.

I told her my clothes were no problem. What time did she get off work. I said I’d already asked Earl if he minded if I took her out and he said no.

She said it was a good thing Earl didn’t mind, because even though he was her big brother and she liked him a lot he wasn’t her keeper and did not tell her what she could and could not do. She gave me that funny look again and said How old are
you,
anyway? You never said.

Twenty-one, I said—that too risky for you?

She laughed and said Oh brother, you really think I’m a sap for a
dare?

Actually, I said, Earl told me your momma might not like the idea of you going out with an older guy.

Actually, she said, she wouldn’t.

I said it seemed to me that anybody who worked at a grown-up job and was helping to support her family like she was doing was entitled to make her own decisions.

She said men were always encouraging girls to make their own decisions as long as the decision might involve taking off clothes.

Nice talk, I said. What kind of a guy you take me for?

She waggled her brow and said she wasn’t sure. Then said there was no need to worry about her mother because she was working nights at the tire factory and didn’t have to know about me. As for
her little sister Margo, the girl was devoted to her and knew how to keep her mouth shut.

And so, when she got off work an hour later, we went to the carnival.

I hadn’t realized how short she was until we were walking out to the car—the top of her head didn’t reach my shoulder. It was a cool clear night, perfect for being outdoors. She was crazy for the rides, the wilder the better. She claimed she’d been on scarier roller coasters than this one, but she was pleased with the Whip, which had arms that bobbed up and down even as they swung round and round and the seats at the end of them spun constantly. Her favorite was the Bullet, which looked like two rocket ships, one at either end of a long whirling arm that first wheeled in one direction and then in the other, while the rocket you were belted into spun like a top. The first time we went on the Bullet all the change fell out of my pockets and went pinging all over the rocket. It was all I could do to keep from heaving up my supper, but she loved every minute of it, ya-hooing and laughing and clutching tight to my arm. Her stomach was a bottomless cast-iron wonder. I didn’t see how somebody so small could eat so much. She put away a spool of cotton candy and a bag of popcorn, a foot-long hot dog with the works, a candied apple as big as a softball—and never showed a sign of queasiness, not even after our third ride on the Bullet. I was feeling green around the gills by then and close to losing my supper. She must’ve noticed and taken pity on me because when I asked if she wanted to go on the Bullet again she said no, she’d had enough of whirling upside down. I was silently thankful when she suggested the Ferris wheel. We gently rode it round and round, rising high above the blaze of fairway lights and seeing way off into the shadowy countryside under the pale bright moon. I held her close and she snuggled against me and we were at the very top of the turn when the wheel made its first stop to begin letting off passengers. She said This is really nice, and put her hand to my face and kissed me. In a minute we got our tongues into it.
When I put my hand on her breast she put her hand over mine and held it there. She wasn’t wearing a brassiere and I felt her nipple stiffen under my thumb. I figured I had a sure thing and couldn’t wait for us to get back to the car.

The Buick was parked at the edge of the lot, in the shadows of the trees. As soon as we were inside it I drew her to me and kissed her again. She helped me unbutton her blouse. There was enough light from the fairgrounds for me to see the freckles on her breasts like a sprinkling of cinnamon. I put my mouth to her nipple and she made a sound like a cat purr. She didn’t object when I ran my hand under her skirt and stroked her legs and bottom. But when I tried to lay her down on the seat she pushed me away and said Whoa there, mister.

She said she was a virgin and intended to stay that way until her wedding night. I said she could’ve fooled me. She said she wasn’t trying to fool anybody but she meant what she said about waiting.

Well hell, I said.

She snugged up to me again and kissed me and put my hand inside her blouse. Don’t you like what we’re doing, she said. Don’t you think it’s fun?

Sure, I said, it’s just…well….

Oh, she said. She slid her hand up my thigh and closed it around the erection bulging in my pants. My breath hissed through my teeth. I could see her grinning in the dim light.

She unbuttoned my fly. Goodness, she said, and stroked me gently.

Then she bent and took me in her mouth. I was stunned breathless. I felt it building fast and tried to pull away, but she moaned and held me with both hands and I shot off. She attended to me a while longer, then sat up and kissed me.

I’ve done a fella with my hand, she said, but not this. This was my very first time, I want you to know.

I said it was truly grand and thank you very much—and we both laughed.

That’s how it went every time we got together. Sometimes we went to the movies, sometimes we went dancing—her arms up high around my neck, her head against my chest. From across the room, we probably looked like a daddy dancing with his daughter, but after our first few turns I quit being self-conscious about it, and I don’t think she ever was. Whatever we’d do for fun on our dates, we always ended the evening with our clothes off, either in the car or, if we knew Earl wouldn’t be back for a while, in the apartment. She’d let me do anything except put it in. She liked me to rub it on her breasts, on her bare ass, she loved squeezing it between her thighs. We were on my sofa the first time I used my tongue on her and she was so loud I was afraid the old couple would call the police.

Somewhere along in there she said she loved me, and I guess I said it back, since saying so is a good way to keep a girl in the right mood. But she was serious about not doing the full deed until she got married, and marriage was a subject I preferred to avoid. And so, whenever I got worked up to the boiling point, she’d always finish me with her mouth.

It was swell, of course, and I had no complaints. But as marvelous as these intimate attentions were, they weren’t always enough. Sometimes a man has to get laid full and proper.

For that particular pleasure I had Sandra Deloro.

We’d met in a movie house one evening. She came up beside me at the concession stand and remarked in a lovely Southern accent that it was a shame everything on the shelves was so bad for a person’s teeth. She was lean and remarkably tall for a girl, only a few inches shorter than me, with a black pageboy and eyes as pale green as a Tom Collins. Her clothes were expensive but the only jewelry she wore was a little gold crucifix on a fine necklace. I figured she was slumming. She said she loved adventure movies like the one showing that night,
The Thief of Baghdad.
She was alone, so I asked if she’d like to sit with me and she said sure. Fifteen minutes after the houselights darkened we were kissing and I had a hand under her dress. Her perfume was
some exotic thing that might’ve come from jungle flowers. Half an hour into the movie we left for her apartment.

It was large and extravagantly furnished and there was a framed picture on her dresser of an earnest-looking young guy in an army uniform, but she didn’t tell me his name and I didn’t ask. She might never have asked mine if I hadn’t volunteered it. She had smooth honey-colored skin and she was strong and went at sex like it was a wrestling match.

Beyond her name she told me nothing about herself except that she wasn’t married, she didn’t have to work for a living, and she spent most of her time in Indianapolis even though she owned a country estate on the Ohio River, just this side of Louisville. She’d inherited the place a year ago when her parents were killed in a car crash. She said we should spend a few days in it sometime and I said all right. We’d been together several times since then, and for the most part we hardly talked. It was a fine arrangement.