Бетти Смит - Maggie-Now

She put out the light and got into bed beside him. She turned him on his side and got her arm under his shoulder, put his head on her breast and her hand on his cheek, pressing his head against her. She was utterly content. He felt like a baby in her arm.

He was up early the next morning and in wonderfully high spirits. She brought him his breakfast on a tray and he made her sit on the bed and share it with him. He told her he was going out to get a job. She gave lfim his thirty dollars back and added twenty of her own and told him to get a suit and shoes and a hat. He refused at first, mentioning the dressing table. She said he could buy that for her out of his first week's pay.

She watched him fondly as he went down the stoop whistling.

[dog] He walked over to Henny Clynne's section. As he approached the super who was indoctrinating this snowfall's crop of "college men," Claude started to whistle: "High Above Cayuga's Waters." He whistled tenderly, nostalgically and with many trills. Henny's ears stood up;

his nostrils quivered. He got the scent of a live one. His little eyes twinkled when he recognised Claude. He was seldom lucky enough to get the same college man two years in succession.

"Graduate from college yet?" he asked Claude.

"Oh, yes, sir. And now, I'm working on my master's…."

He paused and winked at Henny.". . you know what.

And when I get finished with that," he looked around cautiously and dropped his voice to a whisper, "then I'll start on my pee aitch dee."

It sounded vaguely dirty to Henny. He snarled: "Don't get wise with me, college boy."

"Oh, no sir," said Claude eagerly.

Henny heaved a shovel at him. Claude caught it in one hand. He stroked the smooth wood. "Oh, sir," he said, "you don't know how I've dreamed of this. All year, cold and hungry, I dreamed you would put a shovel in my hand

. ." Some of the men started to laugh.

"Fall in, beautiful dreamer," ordered Henny. The men laughed louder. Henny was satisfied. If they had to laugh, let them laugh at his comeback.

". . And I dreamed," continued Claude, "that I gave the shovel back to you, like this." Gently he put the shovel back in Henny's hand.". . And I dreamed I said: 'Stick it , you sadistic son-of-a-bitch!'" Before Henny could recover, Claude was swaggering down the street, hands in pocket, and whistling: "Hail to the victors valiant. Hail. ."

He went to a men's furnishing store and bought a cheap suit, a shirt, a pair of shoes and a hat. While the pants were being shortened, he went to a barbershop down the street and had a haircut and a mustache trim. While sitting in the chair, he read the want ads in the Brooklyn Eagle. He picked out a job for himself and went back to the store and got into his new outfit. The man asked couldn't he interest him in an overcoat. He couldn't.

Claude had a

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khaki wool pullover left over from Maggie-Now's days of knitting for the Red Cross. That, pulled over his shirt, was as good as an overcoat, he thought.

He got home at three that afternoon and Maggie-Now threw her arms around him and told him he looked just grand.

"Just grand! But where are your old clothes?"

"In the store, Miss Practical. I'll pick them up tomorrow.

Your grand husband feels grand because he has a grand job."

"No!" she said ecstatically.

"Floorwalker. In one of Brooklyn's biggest department stores. Basement," he added.

"Where, Claude? Where?"

"Downtown Brooklyn " "Oh!" Her voice fell a Iittle. So he's not going to tell me, she thought. "I see," she said inanely. She turned away from him. He turned on his heel and went out the front door. "Where are you going?" she asked, frightened. The door closed.

It opened almost immediately and he came in with a pasteboard box which he had left on the stoop. It said Gage and Tollner on the cover and it held six pieces of wonderful French pastry.

"For you," he said. "A surprise."

"Oh, Claude, I love you so much!" She was grateful. Her gratitude was mixed with relief. For a second, she had been afraid that he was going to leave her again.

I mustn't question him, she advised herself. Even though a wif e has a right to know where her husband works. But l must take him as he is and just be so glad that I have him back.

"We'll have some right away," she said. "I'll make coffee."

"You will not! You will come to bed with me right away.

Last night, I fell asleep before I had a chance to kiss you good night."

"But. ."

"But what? Don't tell me. ."

"No. Not that. But I jenny will be home from school any minute."

"Let him play outside awhile. It won't hurt him." He locked the door. "Oh, Margaret." He took her into his arms. "It's been such a long time!"

"Such a long, long time," she sighed.

~ 308] She heard Denny try the doorknob. She grew rigid in her husband's embrace. "It's Denny," she whispered.

"Never mind," he said roughly. "He can look out for himself. I come first."

Afterward, she unlocked the door and looked up and down the street. "Nova, sweetheart," Claude said, "stop fussing. You'll make a sissy out of him."

It was nearly six; supper was almost ready. She looked at the clock for the tenth time in five minutes. "I can't help it, Claude," she burst out. "I'm worried about Denny."

"I'll go out and find him, dear," he said.

He found him a couple of blocks away. He was with a gang of boys. They were throb. ing icy snowballs at a Jewish junkman. The man was in a rickety wagon pulled by a starved-looking dirty white horse. He was having a hard time getting the horse to pull the junk wagon through the street as the poor beast skidded from time to time on bits of ice left from the day's snow clearance. The boys were laughing and yelling and calling the junkman dirty names. Claude dispersed the boys, made Denny apologise to the man and say he was sorry, and took his hand and walked him home.

"Now, what devilment was he up to? " asked Maggie-Now crossly. Denny's hand twitched in Claude's.

"He wasn't doing a thing," said Claude. "He was only playing with some other boys."

Denny pressed his hand hard against Claude's hand.

MaggieNow saw the movement and she knew.

"Claude!" she said. It was a syllable of love.

"I have a very foolish name," said Claude to Denny, "and some people make fun of it. But when your sister says it, it sounds like a very fine name."

Denny smiled up at Claude.

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SHE was waiting on the stoop for him when he came from his first day of work. She kissed him, not caring if the neighbors saw, and pulled him into the house, where she kissed him again, this time more lingeringly. Ele was wearing a white carnation in his buttonhole. The flower was only a little bit wilted. She put it on the table in a wineglass full of water.

She had taken pains with this, the first supper the whole family would eat together since her marriage. She had boiled tongue with horseradish sauce and asparagus with hollandaise sauce, and, with the hope of ingratiating herself with her father, candied sweet potatoes, a plain lettuce salad with oil and vinegar dressing, hardcrusted rolls, airy light inside, sweet butter, the pastries from Gage and Tollner, and of course coffee. (Only this time with real cream instead of canned milk.)

Pat came home and, to everyone's astonishment, greeted Claude heartily, I\laggie-Now cheerfully and Denny with fatherly affection. He was so full of good will and kindliness and cheerfulness that he cast a pall over the supper. All worried, thinking he was either sick or drunk.