High Spirits

Author:Duncan, Alice [Duncan, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Five Star/Cengage
Published: 2010-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Billy, Pa, and Sam were having a grand time playing gin rummy, Ma was reading An American Tragedy, Aunt Vi was flipping through a cookbook, and I was playing the piano, softly so as not to disturb anyone, when a knock came at the door.

“Who in the world can that be?” Ma asked, looking up over the rims of her reading spectacles.

I popped up as if I’d been yanked by a puppet master, saying brightly, “I’ll see!”

My heart pounded like crazy, and I prayed it wasn’t Flossie Mosser or anyone else from the Maggiori clan, or ... Good God! Could it be Stacy Kincaid, come to shoot me? Or Mrs. Kincaid, here to tell me never to darken her door again?

All those possibilities and more flashed through my brain, although I altered the one about Mrs. Kincaid. She’d call on the telephone and wail at me.

When I scooped up a hysterical Spike and opened the door, enlightenment didn’t dawn. Utter bewilderment prevailed. I stood there, puzzled, staring at a large man in a dark suit and overcoat with its collar lifted in back and with a dark hat pulled down over his eyes.

“Mrs. Majesty?” His voice was an ebony rumble and reminded me of jagged, velvet-covered rocks and stuff like that.

“Yes?” I said, still puzzled.

“Mr. Maggiori says youse is supposed to come with me.”

“M-Mr. Maggiori?” I stammered, feeling my knees getting weak and my heart sink. I cast a panicky look at the gin-rummy table. Sam nodded at me. The miserable rat! I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, but he only nodded again. Pa and Billy were studying their cards.

“Yeah,” said the man. “Mr. Maggiori’s in the car. Waiting.”

Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. This time when I glanced at Sam, I gritted my teeth and hissed at him, “Sam!” He only nodded again. Darn it!

However, there seemed no salvation for me unless I wanted Maggiori’s goon to toss a bomb into my beloved home, thereby killing my beloved family, so I reluctantly told the man to wait on the porch while I got my coat and hat and handbag. I shot a hateful look at Sam when I put Spike on the floor at Billy’s feet. Sam only smiled benignly.

I ripped my housedress over my head and scrambled into a sober suit, quickly donned stockings and black shoes, pinned a black hat to my head, grabbed my black handbag and coat, and hurried to the front door. Turning and saying, “Be right back,” in as chipper a voice as I could manage, I then scrammed it out of there before anyone could ask me anything.

A long, black car that went darned well with my outfit was parked at the curb in front of our house, and it felt as though I were headed directly to my doom as the big man and I approached it. The big man opened the back door politely, and said, “Mrs. Majesty, Mr. Maggiori.” And, with one last glance back at the house I figured I’d never see again, I slid into the car.

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