The Seducer by Fletcher Flora

Author:Fletcher Flora [Flora, Fletcher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4405-3990-9
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2012-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

11

BUDDY WALKED UPSTAIRS to Maggie’s efficiency apartment, so-called, and knocked on the door. He had not seen her now for quite a long time, although he had tried, and he had been feeling, as a consequence, extremely depressed.

As always during such dark episodes, nothing he saw or touched or did was securely related to reality. He moved with a gaseous sensation of lightness, and he had difficulty, at times, in focusing his eyes properly. His humor was ugly. His potential was dangerous.

He was not anticipating a warm welcome. On the contrary, he was expecting curses and threats, and this expectation was based soundly on something that had happened more than a week ago, and what had happened was a fight, a real Donnybrook, between him and old Cannon. The fight had been Buddy’s fault, of course, although he had not actually planned it, and had known immediately after it was over that it was a bad mistake.

Motivated by his hatred for the man who was stealing his girl, he had merely waited for Brad at a place along the route the latter usually took home from the campus, and he had originally intended no more than to stand and hate and wish his adversary the worst of luck, a kind of irrational catharsis, but then at the last moment, in compulsive violence, he had stepped onto the sidewalk and blocked the way with glowering belligerence. Brad had stopped and taken a half-step backward, not in fear, for he was no physical coward, but in surprise. He had never seen Buddy and did not know him, but he had instantly a conviction of his identity.

“I want to talk to you, ” Buddy said.

“Yes?” Brad said.

“You don’t know me, do you?”

“We’ve never met, but I think you may be Buddy Jensen.”

“I suppose Maggie’s told you about me.”

“You mean Miss McCall? She’s mentioned you, I believe, but we really haven’t discussed you at length. Miss McCall and I are only casually acquainted, you know.”

“Like hell you are!”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean that you’re a hell of a lot more than casual acquaintances, that’s what I mean, and I’m warning you to let her alone if you don’t want trouble.”

“As a matter of academic interest, suppose Miss McCall and I were as well acquainted as you seem to believe. And suppose that I refused to abandon her merely because you demanded it. Why would you do?”

“I’d beat your God-damn face in, that’s what I’d do.”

“In that case, you’d better begin beating as a matter of principal, for I’d pay absolutely no attention to you in this imaginary situation, or in any real one that I could possibly think of.”

“Maybe you think I won’t do it.”

“I think you may try, but I doubt that you’ll succeed.”

It had never occurred to Buddy that old Cannon would display such calm courage, even contempt, and he was so blindly enraged that he leaped forward and swung wildly and took a stiff blow in the face for his carelessness.

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