“I… I don’t know. I need a cigarette.”
“Eddie, tell me.”
“Kathy, leave me alone!” he shouted. He paused. “I’m getting out of here.”
“Down to the car for those cigarettes and… and then I’m going to take a walk.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“I don’t want any company. Leave me alone!” he said, and he opened the door.
“You still haven’t told me where you stand, Eddie. I have to know…”
The door slammed on her words. She stood despondently in the center of the room, listening to his footsteps retreating on the gravel outside. She walked to the door and locked it, and she leaned against it and sighed heavily, and suddenly Sy began singing in the bathroom again. She walked to the window and peered around the edge of the shade, stood there thoughtfully for a moment, turned to lean against the wall, facing the bathroom, studying the closed bathroom door, and then the boy asleep on the bed. When she made her decision, it showed in her face, and it showed in the sudden stiffening of her body. She took one last look at the closed bathroom door and then moved swiftly and purposefully to the sofa bed.
Seizing Jeffs shoulder, she whispered, “Jeff! Wake up, Jeff!”
Jeff popped upright in the bed almost instantly. “What is it?” he said. “What? What?”
“Shhh,” she warned. She waited, watching the bathroom. “Be quiet and do what I tell you to do.” She paused again. “I’m taking you out of here.”
“You’re taking me home?” Jeff asked exuberantly.
“Shhh! For God’s sake, keep your voice down.” She looked at the bathroom door and then the front door. Sy’s voice was raised in song. There was no sound coming from the front yard. “I can’t take you home,” Kathy said, “but I can take you out of here. I’ll leave you off somewhere. Someone will find you. You’ll get home. But you have to help me, and we have to move quickly and quietly. Do you understand?”
Whispering now, Jeff said, “Yes. Are they… are they going to kill me?”
“I don’t know. But we’re not going to give them the chance.”
“Is Eddie your husband?”
“Yes.”
“He’s not so hot,” Jeff said.
“He’s my—”
“But he doesn’t seem as if he would hurt me,” Jeff nodded hastily.
The singing in the bathroom stopped abruptly. Kathy glanced at the closed door sharply. The sound of running water seeped into the silent room.
“You’re pretty,” Jeff said.
“Thank you. Where’s your coat?”
“I don’t have a coat. Only Bobby’s sweater.”
“You’ll need it. It’s very cold out there. Where is it?”
“On the chair there.”
Kathy walked swiftly and silently to the chair. She took the sweater and began pulling it over his head.
“We’ll go straight to the road,” she said. “When we reach the road, we’re going to start running, do you understand?”
“I’m a good runner,” Jeff said.
“All right then, come on.” Quickly she put on her coat and took his hand. Together, they tiptoed to the front door. Kathy unlocked it, turning the lock with all the caution of a safecracker. The tumblers clicked, and she hesitated. Then, slowly, cautiously, she opened the door a crack. The squeak sounded like a gunshot in the silent room. She peeked into the yard and then held out her hand to Jeff again. “Come.”
“Wait!” he said, and he pulled away from her suddenly and darted back into the room.
“What…?”
“My gun!” he said, rushing to the table where the empty shotgun rested. “He gave it to me, didn’t he?”
“Yes—hurry,” she whispered impatiently.
Jeff seized the shotgun by the barrel, swinging it around as it slid off the table, starting to run for the front door simultaneously. The stock of the gun clung to the table, hit an ash tray as Jeff pulled on the barrel. And then the ash tray moved to the edge, caught by the gun’s stock, rushing, tilting, sliding over the edge of the table and dropping leadenly to the floor. The crash filled the room. Scattered pieces of glass ricocheted like fragments of a hand grenade. At the door,
Kathy almost screamed. She brought her hand to her mouth and bit the knuckles. Jeff froze.
“Do you think…?”
“Shhh!” Kathy said.
Silently, they waited. The door to the bathroom remained closed. Quickly, Kathy opened the front door again and peeked out.
“All right, let’s go,” she said, and the bathroom door opened. She did not see the door opening. Looking into the yard, her hand extended behind her, waiting for Jeff, she did not know that Sy had entered the room, stopping in the bathroom doorway, his hands on his hips, instant recognition on his face.
“Hurry, hurry,” she said to Jeff, and she beckoned with her hand and then, when she realized he was not coming to her, turned from the door, starting to say, “Jeff, will you please—” and then spotting Sy, and going pale all at once.
“Well, well,” Sy said. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“I was taking the boy out,” Kathy said.
“Oh, was you now?” His eyes flicked the room. “Where’s Eddie?”
“He went for a walk.”
Sy went quickly to the front door, locking it. “Is that two-bit punk planning a doublecross?”
“No. He didn’t know anything about this. He went to the car for cigarettes.”
“So you figured this was as good a time as any to blow the coop, huh? Boy, leave it to a dame. Lots of curves, and they’re always ready to throw one of them at you. Take off your coat!”
Kathy hesitated.
“Take it off before I rip it off!” Sy shouted.
She took off the coat and tossed it onto the bed.
“The kid, too. He won’t need that sweater. He ain’t going anyplace.” Kathy went to Jeff and helped him to take off the sweater. “Real buddy-buddy, ain’t you? A real nice team, you and the kid.” Sy reached into his pocket and when his hand came into view again a closed switch knife was on the palm. He pressed a stud in the knife’s handle, and the blade flashed into view. Slowly, he walked to where Kathy and the boy stood near the open bed.
“Listen to me, you little bitch,” he said. You try anything like this again, and you’re gonna need plastic surgery, you understand? No matter what your darling Eddie says. And I’ll personally rip this little bastard’s heart out! Now you just remember that! You just remember!”
“I’m not afraid of you, Sy,” she said.
“No, huh?” He lifted the knife so that the blade was close to her throat now. “You better even watch the way you talk to me from now on, honey. You better be real sweet to me, and maybe I’ll forget what you just tried to pull. Real sweet to me from now on.”
With the blade at her throat, Sy moved his free hand down the length of Kathy’s arm, caressing her. She pulled away from him quickly. The doorknob rattled, and Kathy moved toward it.