In For a Penny by Lawrence Block

Author:Lawrence Block [Block, Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 2940012859167
Goodreads: 12640527
Publisher: Lawrence Block
Published: 2011-07-10T00:00:00+00:00

It was always a problem when it rained. Going to work he could catch a bus, although he it wasn’t terribly convenient. But coming home he didn’t have the option, because traffic was one-way the wrong way.

So he walked home on Eighth Avenue, and he didn’t turn left at Twenty-second Street, and didn’t fall apart when he drew even with the Rose of Singapore. He breezed on by, bought his beer and cigarettes at the deli, and went home to watch television. But he turned the set off again after a few minutes and spent the hours until bedtime at the window, looking out at the rain, nursing the beers, smoking the cigarettes, and thinking long thoughts.

The next two nights were clear and mild, but he chose Eighth Avenue anyway. He wasn’t uneasy, not going to work, not coming home, either. Then came the weekend, and then on Monday he took Eighth again, and this time on the way home he found himself on the west side of the street, the same side as the bar.

The door was open. Music, strident and bluesy, poured through it, along with all the sounds and smells you’d expect.

He walked right on by.

You’re over it, he thought. He went home and didn’t even turn on the TV, just sat and smoked and sipped his two longneck bottles of Bud.

Same story Tuesday, same story Wednesday.

Thursday night, steps from the tavern’s open door, he thought, Why drag this out?

He walked in, found a stool at the bar. “Double scotch,” he told the barmaid. “Straight up, beer chaser.”

He’d tossed off the shot and was working on the beer when a woman slid onto the stool beside him. She put a cigarette between bright red lips, and he scratched a match and lit it for her.

Their eyes met, and he felt something click.

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