Lust is a Woman by Charles Willeford

Author:Charles Willeford [Willeford, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: hardboiled, Mysteries & Thrillers
Publisher: Automat.Press
Published: 2017-06-09T04:00:00+00:00

TEN

RALPH awakened at ten A.M., and sat on the edge of the bed for fifteen minutes, smoking two cigarettes before he got wearily to his feet and shuffled to the dresser. His headache was mild, but every muscle in his body was sore and tired. He swallowed two dexedrine and three aspirin tablets without water, grimaced at the dry taste in his mouth, and sat on the edge of the bed again. The memory of Hazel crowded his mind with confused images. His remembered thoughts were worse than his scotch hangover.

The dexedrine lifted Ralph’s depression enough for him to take yet another shower, and shave; and then he returned to his room and sprawled on the bed again. The square of sunlight across his bare legs, shining in from the window, brightened the shabby room. In his mind Ralph compared Maria to Hazel, point by point, inch by inch, but this mental torture only increased his self-disgust. I must have been crazy, he thought, to get mixed up with a woman like Hazel.

Lethargically, Ralph dressed, pulling a T-shirt over his bare chest and slipping into a pair of faded khaki shorts. He changed belt and money from the slacks he had worn the night before, shoved his feet into a pair of scuffed loafers, and went downstairs. At the door, Mrs. Hirsch called to him, and he turned to face her with his hand on the knob.

“Mr. Tone,” she said. “Mr. Grant called and asked for you to wait for him. He wants to see you, he said. I didn’t call you to the telephone because I thought you were still asleep.”

“I was. Thanks.” Ralph opened the door and stood for a moment on the front porch, blinking in the bright sunlight.

“You didn’t have any breakfast,” Mrs. Hirsch reminded him from inside the house, chirping through the screen door. “Would you like me to bring you a nice glass of carrot juice?”

“No, thanks,” Ralph replied. “I’m going to take a walk. If Mr. Grant calls again, tell him I’ll be back.”

Ralph walked two blocks to Mom’s Cafe, and ordered coffee and toast. He was unable to eat the toast, but after three cups of coffee, he began to feel human again, and his headache was gone. The beach is the answer, he thought. A few hours in the sun, a few refreshing dips in the water, and I’ll wash Hazel out of my mind. Then I can face Maria with a clear conscience, but if Tommy wants to see me, it’s too much of a drag to make it to the beach and back again before two. Ralph returned to the rooming house, made two piles of dirty laundry, one of his roommate’s and one of his own, wrapped each bundle in a dirty shirt and took them down to his car. He sat on the front steps soaking up sunlight, until the tinkling dinner bell sounded inside for lunch. Ralph didn’t eat any of the boiled vegetables, but managed to swallow two glasses of beet juice and one of celery juice before he returned to his room.

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.