James Cain - The Postman Always Rings Twice

“Is a nice, hey?”

“Swell. It’s all there, right on the line.”

“Of course, is a not done yet. I fix’m up red, a white, a blue, fix’m up fine. Look.”

He showed me where he had put the fancy stuff on a couple of the pages. He had inked in the curlycues, and then colored it with red, white, and blue. Over the naturalization certificate, he had a couple of American flags, and an eagle, and over the Greek Army picture he had crossed Greek flags, and another eagle, and over his wedding certificate he had a couple of turtle doves on a twig. He hadn’t figured out yet what to put over the other stuff, but I said over the clippings he could put a cat with red, white, and blue fire coming out of its tail, and he thought that was pretty good. He didn’t get it, though, when I said he could have a buzzard over the Los Angeles County license, holding a couple of auctioneer’s flags that said Sale Today, and it didn’t look like it would really be worth while to try to explain it to him. But I got it, at last, why he was all dressed up, and not carrying out the chow like he used to, and acted so important. This Greek had had a fracture of the skull, and a thing like that don’t happen to a dumb cluck like him every day. He was like a wop that opens a drug store. Soon as he gets that thing that says Pharmacist, with a red seal on it, a wop puts on a gray suit, with black edges on the vest, and is so important he can’t even take time to mix the pills, and wouldn’t even touch a chocolate ice-cream soda. This Greek was all dressed up for the same reason. A big thing had happened in his life.

It was pretty near supper time when I got her alone. He went up to wash, and the two of us were left in the kitchen.

“You been thinking about me, Cora?”

“Sure. I wouldn’t forget you all that quick.”

“I thought about you a lot. How are you?”

“Me? I’m all right.”

“I called you up a couple of times, but he answered and I was afraid to talk to him. I made some money.”

“Well, gee, I’m glad you’re getting along good.”

“I made it, but then I lost it. I thought we could use it to get started with, but then I lost it.”

“I declare, I don’t know where the money goes.”

“You sure you think about me, Cora?”

“Sure I do.”

“You don’t act like it.”

“Seems to me I’m acting all right.”

“Have you got a kiss for me?”

“We’ll be having supper pretty soon. You better get ready, if you’ve got any washing to do.”

That’s the way it went. That’s the way it went all evening. The Greek got out some of his sweet wine, and sang a bunch of songs, and we sat around, and so far as she was concerned, I might just as well have been just a guy that used to work there, only she couldn’t quite remember his name. It was the worst flop of a homecoming you ever saw in your life.

When it came to go to bed, I let them go up, and then I went outside to try and figure out whether to stay there and see if I couldn’t get going with her again, or blow and try to forget her. I walked quite a way off, and I don’t know how long it was, or how far away I was, but after a while I could hear a row going on in the place. I went back, and when I got close I could hear some of what they were saying. She was yelling like hell and saying I had to leave. He was mumbling something, probably that he wanted me to stay and go back to work. He was trying to shut her up, but I could tell she was yelling so I would hear it. If I had been in my room, where she thought I was, I could have heard it plain enough, and even where I was I could hear plenty.

Then all of a sudden it stopped. I slipped in the kitchen, and stood there listening. But I couldn’t hear anything, because I was all shook up, and all I could get was the sound of my own heart, going bump-bump, bump-bump, bump-bump, like that. I thought that was a funny way for my heart to sound, and then all of a sudden I knew there was two hearts in that kitchen, and that was why it sounded so funny.

I snapped on the light.

She was standing there, in a red kimono, as pale as milk, staring at me, with a long thin knife in her hand. I reached out and took it away from her. When she spoke, it was in a whisper that sounded like a snake licking its tongue in and out.

“Why did you have to come back?”

“I had to, that’s all.”

“No you didn’t. I could have gone through with it. I was getting so I could forget you. And now you have to come back. God damn you, you have to come back!”

“Go through with what?”

“What he’s making that scrapbook for. It’s to show to his children! And now he wants one. He wants one right away.”

“Well, why didn’t you come with me?”

“Come with you for what? To sleep in box cars? Why would I come with you? Tell me that.”

I couldn’t say anything. I thought about my $250, but what good was it telling her that I had some money yesterday, but today I lost it playing one ball in the side?

“You’re no good. I know that. You’re just no good. Then why don’t you go away and let me alone instead of coming back here again? Why don’t you leave me be?”

“Listen. Stall him on this kid stuff just a little while. Stall him, and we’ll see if we can’t figure something out. I’m not much good, but I love you, Cora. I swear it.”

“You swear it, and what do you do? He’s taking me to Santa Barbara, so I’ll say I’ll have the child, and you — you’re going right along with us. You’re going to stay at the same hotel with us! You’re going right along in the car. You’re—”

She stopped, and we stood there looking at each other. The three of us in the car, we knew what that meant. Little by little we were nearer, until we were touching.

“Oh, my God, Frank, isn’t there any other way out for us than that?”

“Well. You were going to stick a knife in him just now.”

“No. That was for me, Frank. Not him.”

“Cora, it’s in the cards. We’ve tried every other way out.”

“I can’t have no greasy Greek child, Frank. I can’t, that’s all. The only one I can have a child by is you. I wish you were some good. You’re smart, but you’re no good.”

“I’m no good, but I love you.”

“Yes, and I love you.”

“Stall him. Just this one night.”

“All right, Frank. Just this one night.”

“Feeling good, ain’t they?”

“Too good to suit me.”

“So you don’t let them get hold of that wheel, Miss. They’ll be all right.”

“I hope so. I’ve got no business out with a pair of drunks, I know that. But what could I do? I told them I wouldn’t go with them, but then they started to go off by themselves.”

“They’d break their necks.”

“That’s it. So I drove myself. It was all I knew to do.”

“It keeps you guessing, sometimes, to know what to do. One sixty for the gas. Is the oil O.K.?”

“I think so.”

“Thanks, Miss. Goodnight.”

She got in, and took the wheel again, and me and the Greek kept on singing, and we went on. It was all part of the play. I had to be drunk, because that other time had cured me of this idea we could pull a perfect murder. This was going to be such a lousy murder it wouldn’t even be a murder. It was going to be just a regular road accident, with guys drunk, and booze in the car, and all the rest of it. Of course, when I started to put it down, the Greek had to have some too, so he was just like I wanted him. We stopped for gas so there would be a witness that she was sober, and didn’t want to be with us anyhow, because she was driving, and it wouldn’t do for her to be drunk. Before that, we had had a piece of luck. Just before we closed up, about nine o’clock, a guy stopped by for something to eat, and stood there in the road and watched us when we shoved off. He saw the whole show. He saw me try to start, and stall a couple of times. He heard the argument between me and Cora, about how I was too drunk to drive. He saw her get out, and heard her say she wasn’t going. He saw me try to drive off, just me and the Greek. He saw her when she made us get out, and switched the seats, so I was behind, and the Greek up front, and then he saw her take the wheel and do the driving herself. His name was Jeff Parker and he raised rabbits at Encino. Cora got his card when she said she might try rabbits in the lunchroom, to see how they’d go. We knew right where to find him, whenever we’d need him.