The Complete Stories of Morley Callaghan - Volume Two by Morley Callaghan

Author:Morley Callaghan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781550963441
Publisher: Exile Editions

She’s Nothing to Me

He was leaving. Ben hardly knew her at all. Her name was Marjorie Wilson and she lived in a one-room apartment. She was small with large, timid and rather desperate eyes. Her clothes were shabby, her shoes were worn out of shape, her brown felt hat looked heavy for the warm days that were coming on. There must have been times, too, when she did not eat, though every morning she went out with the same little smile on her face. If Ben met her coming in in the evening she would stop and say anxiously, “Something will turn up. I’m not really worrying.” When he told her he was going away soon to the country where his uncle had a fine stone place in the hills, she listened with the same patient smile on her face, as if she thought him a nice simple boy. Since she had always lived in the city, she did not imagine she would like the country. She talked to him in the hall, one side of her pale face and the corner of a serious eye showing under the brim of her brown hat.

Often Ben talked about her with Tony Agricola whose apartment was on the same floor. Tony was a big fellow with very broad shoulders, and olive skin and soft, furtive, uneasy eyes who always had money and women friends, even if he did not seem to work. People who knew him used to whisper about how he made his money, and the kind of women he brought into his apartment. But he was always cheerful; he had even offered to get Ben a girl, and he was so compassionate that Ben had let Tony lend him money. They played billiards together and had a drink, and they sat around talking lazily about Marjorie Wilson. There were many nights when Ben lay awake listening to the laughter of women and the loud conversation in Tony’s room, wondering if Marjorie Wilson might ever go in there, too. There were mornings when he heard Tony getting up and moving slowly around the room, and after listening to all these small movements for months Ben felt that he knew Tony’s life.

The night Ben was in his room packing and getting ready to go on his vacation in the morning, he was thinking eagerly of being away from the city and in the country. On the warm nights the room was stuffy and the faded, yellowish paper on the walls made it seem hotter than ever. He was whistling to himself when he heard a faint knock at the door. He opened the door and saw Marjorie Wilson standing there timidly. She had no hat on and her black hair was loose around her face. She looked so very lovely he felt embarrassed. “Hello, Miss Wilson,” he said. “Won’t you come in?”

“Thank you,” she replied, “I just wanted to speak to you for a moment.” She came in but kept on walking across the room instead of sitting down.

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