Jimmy was already working on the front of the house when we left to take Laura back to the brothel. We both waved at him and tried to smile but neither of us was in the mood to stop and discuss the weather. We drove in silence, having discussed our schedules. She knew I would begin classes the following Tuesday and I knew she was headed for Reno although, unlike my subjects which she had memorized, I did not know what she would be doing hour to hour. I did not want to know.
She gave me a peck on the cheek and hopped out of the car as soon as I made the stop at the corner where we always parted. Watching her scurry down the street I could not help thinking, we’ve got to get her some new clothes that fit.
Parting was becoming more difficult each time I dropped Laura off. I took solace in the fact that she had extended our time together to four days and the next time would be longer. She was to have the surgery on Friday, the 26th. We had agreed that she would take off two days before the appointment in order to get some rest and, although it was not mentioned, to make the transition from Tess to Laura.
We had never spoken of her quitting the business entirely. I had thought of it, dreamed of it but had never considered bringing it up. It was a boundary too personal to cross. We never spoke about what went on inside the big house or what took place on her “dates.” I never asked, “is Polly still there?” or “when did Kelley join you?” The subject was taboo. Besides, those things didn’t matter.
Painting was going much faster than the prep work had gone. I joined Jimmy, working on a short ladder while he worked from the roof line down. By lunchtime we had one coat of paint on the front of the house and were working on the driveway side when Sylvia drove by and pulled into her driveway.
She must have seen that we were climbing down from our ladders. As she approached I noticed that her hair hung loosely, covering her ears. Silently, I applauded her effort to be less plain.
“Come in and have some lunch with us,” I offered Sylvia, “We’re just having sandwiches but we bought two more chairs so you won’t have to sit on my lap.”
“Okay R., I’ll take you up on that. I wanted to discuss the paint colors anyway.”
Jimmy was amused at our banter but the reference to sitting on my lap went over his head of course.
“Just what is it you do?” I asked Sylvia as she took over the kitchen duties.
She turned, her brow wrinkled, “I’m the librarian, come down and visit us sometime. Maybe you’ll learn something, college boy.”
I began sleeping in the second bedroom, thinking that if Lacy came into the house I wanted to give her the correct impression. Also, Sylvia was making it a habit of popping in whenever the mood stuck her although she knew Laura’s and my sleeping arrangements.
We finished putting the second coat of paint on our house on Wednesday morning and had time to hang the shutters.
I settled up with Jimmy, writing him a check. He looked at the check and then at me. “I didn’t expect this much,” he said, a wistful look on his face. “You worked right along with me. I owe you for your time.”
“Forget it buddy, you taught me a lot about painting. Tell you what, you can pay me for helping you out from now on when I can spare the time, okay?”
We moved the ladders to Sylvia’s house and Jimmy put me to work with a wire brush. At quitting time I reminded him about the sign. Sylvia had said he could post a sign advertising his work on her front lawn.
“Tell you what Randy, my wife is not so good on the phone. If I put my number on the sign she wouldn’t....you know what I mean? She would just fuck things up, know what I mean?”
“I’ll tell you what, let’s get you an answering machine. You can call them back when you get home at night. How does that sound?”
Jimmy looked down at his paint covered shoes and kicked the grass where we were standing. When he looked up he had that same wistful look on his face, “I don’t talk on the phone so good either,” he admitted.
“Well I can’t do it Jimmy, I would like to but I’ll be in school most of the time and anyway, I can’t have the telephone ringing while I’m trying to study.”
“You could get the answer machine,” he said excitedly. “You can call them back whenever you want, you can talk to the people Randy.” He was almost pleading.
“I’ll have to talk to Laura about it,” I said, buying some time to think it over.
“I’ll get the sign ready,” Jimmy said shaking my hand and smiling. It was only the second time I had seen him smile.
That night I called Lacy to set up a date for Friday night. “Have you talked to Laura, how is she?” she wanted to know.
“Oh yes, nearly every day,” I said, thinking that the answering machine would be perfect for taking Laura’s calls. Just to hear her say she was okay or to tell me when she would call again so I could be there to talk to her.
“Is it okay with her? Us going out?”
“Sure, she suggested it, remember?”
“Then why didn’t you call before? It’s Wednesday and I haven’t heard from you,” she whined.
My god, I thought, a possessive woman, why didn’t I see this coming?
“I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve been helping the painter, I’m not used to manual labor. I conk out early every night.”
“Are you going to conk out Friday night?”
“No, I’ll tell Jimmy to take it easy on me that day, I’ll be wide awake as long as you don’t keep me out too long. I have to work on Saturday.”
Laura was receptive to the telephone answering machine, especially when I mentioned the bonus of my being able to hear that she was okay even if I was not there to talk to her.
“We need to get a washing machine too, I’m tired of going to the laundromat,” I said.
“Okay, you buy it. I don’t need to pick it out. I don’t do laundry.”
“And we need to get you some clothes that fit,” I added.
“Okay, you take care of that too,” she kidded me, sounding tired.
I told her of my upcoming date with Lacy on Friday night and could tell by her voice that the news was met with approval.
“Do you trust Jimmy?”
“Sure, do you mean trust him to do the work if I line it up? Or trust him to paint the inside of our house when we aren’t here?” We had postponed doing the inside of our house until later. Laura was undecided as to how she wanted it to look.
“Yes, that’s what I mean but it’s more than that. This old house could use a coat of paint. I was wondering if we could trust him to, you know, be discrete.”
I didn’t like the idea of taking the chance that Jimmy find out about Laura working in the brothel. She must have anticipated my concern.
“I won’t be here, we’ll have him do it while I’m at home recuperating,” she said.
On Friday I told Jimmy I had to have the afternoon off, saying, “you’re working me too hard,” to which he looked wounded.
“Just kidding, I’ve got a date tonight and I want to be fresh if you know what I mean. I’m going to buy the answering machine. You can put our phone number on the sign.”
Jimmy brightened and I told him I would be ready for a full day’s work on Saturday.
“What do you want to do?” I asked Lacy when I picked her up. She was ready to go when I got there for which I was grateful. I didn’t have to listen to Jack go on about how busy he was although he did manage to tell me he had two guys working for him.
“Don’t you have anything planned?”
“We could drive into town and see what’s going on. Go to a bar or just walk around and window shop.” I was remembering how Laura and I used to spend an evening, walking around after the stores closed and check out the display windows.
“I’m not old enough to go to a bar, but if you want to go to Phoenix that’s fine,” Lacy said. At least she wasn’t whining that I had nothing planned. I really didn’t know her well enough to know what she liked to do. Walking and talking was my plan to find out something about her.
“You look nice,” I said, seeing that she had dressed to be seen, probably thinking we would be going to a movie theater again. The pleated dress she had on was sleeveless. She beamed, smiling at me as we pulled away from the curb, heading for the city.
“Hope you don’t get chilled in the night air,” I said as we peered into a store window. Mannequins dressed in black evening gowns showed off the fall fashions.
“Can I count on you to keep me warm?” Lacy stood next to me, near enough for me to feel her bare arm, sending a little trickle of warmth through me.
I took her hand and led her to the next store window where all sorts of leather items were on display. Looking down at her shoes, no wonder she seemed tall next to me; she was wearing high heels. Laura never wore high heels when we walked around the city. Laura was shorter than Lacy anyway. Laura was smaller. Laura would be next to me, so close we could not be pried apart. Laura would.....Damnit, this isn’t Laura, this is not an R & R.
