Part 11 (1/2)
”B-R-O-O-M?”.
”No, with an E”
”Oh,” she said, as though the ”E” made a difference. The table was still again.
”You come here often?” Roger asked.
”First time,” Molly said.
”Me, too.”
”You live in the neighborhood?”
”No,” Roger said. ”I'm from upstate.”
”I'm from Sacramento,” Molly said. ”California.”
”No kidding?”
”That's right,” she said, and smiled. She isn't even pretty when she smiles, Roger thought. Her teeth are too long for her mouth and her lower lip has marks on it from her bite.
”You're a long way from home,” he said.
”Don't I know it,” she answered.
The waiter came to the table with their drinks. They were silent while he put them down. When he walked away, Roger lifted his gla.s.s and extended it toward her.
”Well,” he said, ”here's to strangers in the city.”
”Well, I'm not really a stranger,” she said. ”I've been here a week already.” But she drank to his toast anyway.
”What brought you here?” he asked.
”I don't know.” She shrugged. ”Opportunity.”
”Is there?”
”Not so far. I haven't been able to get a job yet.”
”What kind of work are you looking for?”
”Secretarial. I went to a business school on the Coast. I take very good shorthand, and I type sixty words a minute.”
”You ought to be able to get a job easy,” Roger said.
”You think so?” she asked.
”Sure.”
”I'm not very pretty,” she said flatly.
”What?”
”I'm not very pretty,” she said again. She was staring at the fresh whiskey sour, her fingers toying again with the cherry. ”Men want their secretaries to be pretty.” She shrugged. ”That's what I've found, anyway.”
”I don't see what difference it makes,” Roger said.
”It makes a lot of difference.”
”Well, I guess it depends on how you look at it. I don't have a secretary, but I certainly wouldn't mind hiring someone who looked like you. There's nothing wrong with your looks, Molly.”
”Well, thanks,” she said, and laughed in embarra.s.sment, without really believing him.
”How'd your folks feel about you coming all the way East?” he asked.
”I don't have any folks.”
”Oh, I'm sorry to hear that,” he said.
”They both died when I was nineteen. My father died of cancer, and then my mother died six months afterwards. Everybody says it was of a broken heart. Do you think people can die of a broken heart?”
”I don't know,” Roger said. ”I suppose it's possible.”
”Maybe,” Molly said, and shrugged. ”Anyway, I'm all alone in the world.”
”You must have relatives,” Roger said.
”I think my mother had a brother in Arizona, but he doesn't even know I exist.”
”How come?”
”Oh, my father had an argument with him long before I was born, about a deed or something he said belonged to my mother, I don't know, something to do with land in Arizona. Anyway, my uncle hauled my father into court, and it was a big mess, and my father lost, and everybody stopped speaking to each other right then and there. I don't even know his name. My uncle's, I mean. He doesn't know mine, either.”
”That's a shame,” Roger said.
”Who cares? I mean, who needs relatives?”
”Well, it's nice to have a family.”
”Mmm, yeah, well,” Molly said.
They were silent. Roger sipped at his beer.
”Yep, I've been all alone since I was nineteen,” Molly said.
”How old are you now?” he asked.
”Thirty-three,” she answered unflinchingly. ”Decided it was time for a change, figured I'd come East and look around for a better job. So far, I haven't found a G.o.dd.a.m.n thing.”
”You'll find something,” Roger a.s.sured her.