There weren’t any good reasons. He reminded himself that he had even contemplated slipping out and going to a movie by himself. Why pay the hotel twelve dollars for the privilege of seeing a movie? He could go to the movies at home with Ellie.
He didn’t have to tell anyone he was checking out. If any of the fellows did see him in the lobby and asked any questions, he could tell them he’d had a message from home.
His little girl was ill. An emergency. And anyway, why did he have to explain himself to a bunch of drunks?
He’d check out right away and have plenty of time to pick up the earrings for Ellie. Then he’d go on to the station and have time to stop on the way at some cheap restaurant and get some supper before boarding the train, and avoid the high prices they charged in the dining car.
And if he was hungry again by the time he got home to Sunray Beach, Ellie could fix him a snack. It would be fun slipping down to the kitchen about midnight with Sissy sound asleep, and maybe both of them having a drink together first, and then some scrambled eggs or something.
Ellie with her black hair braided and wound around her head like she did at night, and her black eyes sparkling with excitement and happiness on account of the earrings and about his coming home unexpectedly and ahead of time.
Ellie in her bare feet and her pink nightgown, and the clean, little-girl look of her unrouged face just wakened out of a sound sleep.
Suddenly he wanted to see Ellie real bad. It was as though it had been years since he had seen her. He picked up the telephone and asked for the cashier’s desk, and said: “This is Mr. Blake in Six-ten. I’m checking out at once. Please get my bill ready and send a boy up to get my bag.”
Then he hung up and started tossing things into his suitcase so it’d be ready when the boy came for it.
2
Marvin Blake was waiting impatiently at the cashier’s wicket for change from the three twenties he had shoved across the counter with his room-key when he heard his name being called loudly from behind him. He turned his head and saw Hal Jackson and Joe Wallis weaving across the lobby with their arms linked together, grinning widely and somewhat fatuously.
They were partners in an automobile agency in Moonray Beach, about thirty miles south of Sunray on the coast, and they were competitors of Marvin’s. They were both good fellows and he had known them for years, and he knew they would demand explanations from him if they realized he was checking out before the end of the convention.
They were both pretty well plastered at this early hour in the afternoon, bumping into people and making loud remarks to each other about the pretty women they passed. Not lewd remarks or really offensive. Just what they considered good clean fun, and everyone who saw their delegate badges just smiled or shrugged their shoulders and passed them off for just what they were-a couple of typical small-town businessmen winding up a four-day convention away from home.
They had already seen Marvin standing there and he knew he couldn’t avoid an encounter with them, so he was relieved when the cashier pushed back a receipted hotel bill with some one-dollar bills and silver and he was able to slide it into his pocket before they reached him, so they didn’t realize he had just paid his bill.
“Marv, old man!” Hal Jackson bellowed, pounding him on the shoulder and almost falling flat on his face in the process. “Whatcha doing here, huh? Run out of mazuma already and stocking up for the night? Trying to talk this sucker into cashing a check for you? Tell you what, Mister.” He leaned past Marvin, supporting himself with an arm about his shoulder, and blew whiskey-laden fumes in the cashier’s face. “Take a tip from me and don’t cash any checks signed Marvin Blake. A dead-beat, that’s what he is. A no-good dead-beat from Sunray Beach.”
The cashier smiled as politely as he could and pointedly looked past them at some other people waiting to check out, and Marvin pulled the two men aside and Joe Wallis suggested they all go into the bar for a drink, and where did Marv dig up that redhead he had seen him with last night?
And Hal laughed uproariously and nudged Marvin in the ribs and warned him in a loud voice: “Wait’ll we see Ellie again, by golly. Just you wait, Marv old boy. Will we give Ellie an earful?”
“That is,” put in Joe with a broad wink, “unless Marv agrees to share the redhead with his old pals tonight. How’s about it, Marv? That’s all we ask from a buddy. Just an ittsy-bittsy share. Anybody can see with half an eye that redhead’s got plenty of stuff to spread around.”
Blushing, Marvin Blake shushed them as best he could, conscious of the knowing and superior smiles of strangers around them, and he finally persuaded them to go upstairs to their fourth floor suite by telling them he had a date to meet the redhead and would bring her right up to their suite for a drink and to get acquainted.
The bellboy was waiting with his suitcase near the door, and Marvin waited until Hal and Joe disappeared inside an elevator before he tipped the boy and took his bag and slipped out of the hotel without being noticed by anyone else.
He stepped quickly into the gift shop next door and set his suitcase inside and asked the lady clerk to let him see the pair of earrings displayed in the window.
She had another pair just like them in stock, and she set them out on the counter in a square white box with cushiony velvet underneath them.
Close up, they were even prettier than they had looked in the window, and Marvin told her he’d take them and would she wrap them as a gift, please.
She said she would be pleased to, and asked if he would care to enclose a card. He hadn’t thought about that, but as soon as she mentioned it he knew Ellie would be pleased if he did, so he asked if she had one he could write on.
She had an assortment to choose from, and wanted to know if it was for an anniversary or birthday gift, or what, and Marvin felt silly when he had to admit it wasn’t any special occasion but just for his wife as a souvenir of his trip to Miami.
She gave him a plain white card with an envelope to match, and Marvin puckered up his forehead and thought hard for a moment, and then wrote firmly: “For my very best girl with love from Marvin.” He sealed it in the envelope and the saleslady wrapped the box up in green and white striped paper and tied it with a white ribbon, and he paid her for it happily.
He slid the box into his inside breast pocket and it pressed against his chest and felt warm and good there as he picked up his suitcase and strode out onto the street again. It was less than a dozen blocks to the railway station and he had lots of time to kill before his train left, so he decided to walk and save taxi fare.
Actually, when he looked at his hotel bill and the change he’d received from the cashier he had discovered that the bill was several dollars more than he had anticipated, and he tried to think back as he walked down the street with his suitcase to see how he had mentally miscalculated what the bill would be.
Three days made thirty-six dollars for the room, but he hadn’t thought to add the tax onto that. There had been three breakfasts for an average of about a dollar each, and three lunches for four-fifty or maybe five dollars. But there was only one dinner charged on the hotel bill. That was Tuesday night. But now he remembered that Tom Brent and a girl had stopped by his table at dinner and he’d ordered them a drink and had one himself to keep them company, and so that ran the dinner bill pretty high.
Oh, he was sure the hotel hadn’t made a mistake, even if the total bill was fifty-four dollars and sixteen cents, and he couldn’t help grinning as he walked along and thought how he had practically beat them out of another twelve bucks by checking out at four o’clock.