Killdozer! Read Online Free

hook and turned to her palsied spouse. “Things have come to a pretty pass,” she shrieked, “when total strangers can walk up to me and tell me about your goings-on! You—”
    Along about then she began to repeat herself, and my interest dwindled. I pushed my way through the crowd that had collected, and went back to Maria. She sat with her head bowed, and I really don’t think she knew I had returned until I was seated and spoke to her.
    “Maria—”
    “Oh, Eddie—” with a bright, phony smile, “did you get it fixed up all right?”
    “Yeh.” I sat looking at her somberly. “You did, too.”
    “What?” all innocence.
    “Fixed something up all right. I hate to pry, Mazie, but you just caused a hell of a stink over there. What was the idea of tipping that woman off that her husband was daddying some sugar over the phone? How did you know what he was up to in the first place? And why the devil did you tell me you didn’t know those people?”
    She was a little panicked. Her eyes went wide, and she reached over and clutched my wrist. She didn’t know it, but her touch on my arm clinched any argument, forever and ever. As long as she held me that way, looked at me that way, she was right; I was wrong. “Please don’t be angry, Eddie. I hoped you hadn’t noticed. No, I didn’t lie to you. I never saw them before. How did I know what was going on? I just—knew, Eddie. Please believe me—please don’t catechize me! Will you forget it—just this once? I’ll try not to let it happen again! Truly I will, Eddie!”
    I tried to grin those bright tear-stars out of her eyes. I put one fist under her chin, punched it gently, shaking my head. “Sure, Maria. Sure. Heck—it was nothing. Skip it.”
    Why I hadn’t sense enough to tie the incident up with her theory of possession, I’ll never know.
    The fourth time I saw her I proposed. That was three hours after the third time, which was one day after the second time, which was fivesolid weeks after the first time. Yes, it took five weeks for me to persuade her to entrust herself to me for an evening after that occasion in the little bar off the Avenue. Twice she almost cried over the phone, and after that she laughed it off; and when she had run out of reasons for not seeing me she broke down and confessed that it was because she was afraid she would embarrass me the same way again. I had to tell her that in the first place I hadn’t been embarrassed and in the second place I didn’t give a damn about its happening again; I just wanted to see her. It wasn’t until I threatened to walk out of a window at the studio that she finally made that second date. Eighty-seven floors is a long way, and I meant what I said.
    She always insisted on going to places where we’d be more or less alone, whether it was in a hansom cab in Central Park or a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. That suited me so well I didn’t bother to wonder about it. But she’d go to any lengths to avoid being with me and strangers at the same time. So it was there in the park, at four o’clock in the afternoon on the day I’d rolled out of bed early to take her to lunch, that I proposed. It was easy. I just held both her hands and felt afraid to look into her eyes when I said,
    “Hey. We got to get married.”
    And she smiled her very own smile and nodded. I kissed her. When a passing cop grinningly broke it up, she straightened her hat, parted the back of my hand and shook her head. “I wouldn’t marry you, Eddie,” she said quietly. My blood turned to salt water and began to ooze coldly out of my pores. I didn’t have to ask her to say it again because she did. Then she stood up. “Let’s get out of here, Eddie.” One of my arms went up and yanked her back down on the bench. I stared woodenly at some kids who were feeding the ducks down on the lake.”
    “For a minute I was scared,” I said. My voice hurt me. “I thought you said you wouldn’t marry me.”
    “I did,