Charles Willeford_Hoke Moseley 03 by Sideswipe

Author:Sideswipe [Sideswipe]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780307490940
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 1987-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

11

At seven-thirty that Sunday evening, Hoke and Aileen ate one roast beef sandwich apiece and decided to save the other two for Monday’s lunch. Hoke wasn’t hungry, and neither was Aileen, but they chewed methodically through the sandwiches, washing them down with tall glasses of iced tea. Aileen wanted something sweet afterwards, and Hoke told her to eat one of the mangoes, suggesting that she either eat it over the kitchen sink or take it into the shower—preferably the latter—because it was so ripe.

Aileen took the mango into the bathroom, closed the door, and moments later the shower was running full force. Hoke cleared the table, rinsed the plates and glasses, and put them on the sideboard. Because the water was running at the sink and in the bathroom, he didn’t hear the first knock, but when he turned off the faucet, he heard a very loud pounding at the front door. Hoke opened the door, trying to hold back his rage. There was no need for anyone to bang so hard. Louis Farnsworth, the salad man at the Sheraton Hotel, was at the door. Hoke would have said something sharp to him, but there was a woman standing there too.

Farnsworth was a thin man with a pot belly. He wore his white pants above the pot, and it looked as if he had a bowling ball below his belt. His hair was gray and thinning, and he had a sour expression on his lined face. The young woman behind Farnsworth was shorter than he was, but she outweighed him by sixty or seventy pounds. Her face was round, and her cheeks were so fleshy they sagged almost to her lips. Her puckered mouth was a small round O, and she stood there blinking pale blue eyes. She—or someone—had plucked away most of her eyebrows. She had given herself—or someone had—a home permanent that didn’t take, and her brownish hair had frizzed up all over her head. A port-wine-colored birthmark covered most of the left side of her face, including the left eyelid. Her heavy breasts inside her white T-shirt sagged nearly to her waist, and she wore a waitress’s brown mini-skirt with a skimpy red apron.

“You didn’t have to break the door down,” Hoke said.

“I’m sorry,” Farnsworth said. “I guess you didn’t hear me knock the first time. I knew you was in there because I could hear the water running.”

“Okay—what can I do for you, Mr. Farnsworth?”

“I need me another key. This here’s Dolly Turner. She’s just come down from Yeehaw Junction, and she’s got herself a dishwashing job at the hotel. Until she gets a couple of paychecks and can rent her own place, she’s gonna bunk in with me. So I need us another key.”

“Why can’t you both use the same key?”

“We’re on different shifts, that’s why. What’s the big problem about a second key?”

“No problem.” Hoke went into the kitchen and opened the drawer where he kept his books and the extra keys. “You’re 204,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.