A Savage Wisdom by German Norman

Author:German, Norman [German, Norman]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Norman German
Published: 2009-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

November–December 1938

Herald was as kind to Annie as ever, and she felt defenseless in her love for him. He had good looks and money and class. He was intriguing and mysterious and cast a spell over everyone he met. There was a kind of power about him that made her forgive his faults both large and small.

“There’s nothing to it,” he told her. “All you have to do is go out with the man.”

“Don’t you even care about me?” Annie countered for the third time. They sat in Herald’s front room discussing the transaction.

“Of course, I care. This doesn’t change a thing between you and me, Annie. I’m trying to give you a freedom very few people have, especially in these times. Contrary to what you think, money doesn’t put a curse on everything it touches.”

“So I go out with him and . . .”

“Have a good time.”

“And he gives me fifty dollars.”

“No. I give you the fifty dollars.”

“Why you?”

“Because it’s crass the other way.”

Annie mentally walked herself through an evening with a stranger.

“What if I don’t like him?”

“You still have to be with him for the evening. That’s what they’re paying for, a pretty girl to escort around. It makes them look good. And feel good.”

“And that’s it. He picks me up and takes me home, and that’s it?”

“He doesn’t even pick you up. You meet him at a restaurant. It’s the easiest money you’ll ever make. Hell, there’s people in this country who sweat a month from dawn till dark for that kind of jack. If you take advantage of your looks, you’re sitting on a gold mine. Don’t be a fool, Annie. Try it just once, and I promise you’ll like it, but if you don’t, you’ll never have to do it again.”

The two sat quietly in the room. Annie observed dust motes spinning in a shaft of sunlight.

“I’ve got a friend in the lumber business who comes into town every few weeks. He’s a nice fellow and he won’t pressure you. In fact, you know him. That’ll make the first time easy.”

Annie looked at Nevers apprehensively. There weren’t many men she had met in New Orleans she wanted to spend an evening with.

“Here,” Herald said, pulling a snapshot from the inside of his coat.

Annie saw a balding man in his mid-thirties striking a pose against a column in front of City Hall. He wore a two­-tone pullover sweater and baggy gabardine slacks.

“Why, that’s Arkie Burk,” she exclaimed.

“See,” Nevers said. “Totally harmless.”

“Does he know I’ll be his . . .”

“Friend. They’re called friends. You’re working this up in your imagination into something it’s not. And, no, he doesn’t know he’ll be with you.”

“Can I have a couple of days to think about it?”

Nevers shook his head from side to side as if he couldn’t believe anyone would reject such an offer.

“Take a week. Take a year. The world’s not going to stop spinning if Annie Beatrice turns down a gold mine.”

* * *

What Annie wanted to do was talk with Nausica about the arrangement.

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