When Everything's Said & Done Read Online Free Page A

you’re about the only one,” Cora replied. “Nope. I can’t wear nobody’s uniform. I’ve got to be free to wear whatever I please, whenever it pleases me.” She wriggled her shoulders suggestively.
    “Don’t do that.”
    “Don’t do what?”
    “You know. Act like that.”
    “Like what, Warren? Like those girls I see you mess ing around with after school? You seem to like it when they do it.”
    “Well, that’s different. They’re not you.” He paused. “You’re special.”
    “I am?” Cora looked at him.
    “Yeah. You are.”
    “And how’s that?”
    “You don’t have to do the things that girls con sciously do to get a guy’s attention. Just the way you are naturally gets his attention.”
    “Is that right?” Cora smiled.
    “Yeah, it’s right.” Warren leaned forward. “And you know it, too.”
    “No, I don’t.” Cora sighed. “You know, it’s so con fusing. Some days I want to be like Sheila Frazier or some of those other sexy women I see in the movies. Then on other days I feel like I felt today, full of hell and wanting to take it out on folks who like dishing it out but can’t really take it.”
    “I think everybody feels like that sometimes,” War ren said.
    “Everybody except for Annette.” Cora laughed, then she sighed again. “We’ve had some good times around here, haven’t we?”
    “Mmm-hmm.”
    “It was always you and me playing tricks on Brenda and Annette. It’s funny how things that made them crazy didn’t bother me a bit.”
    “Yeah. You were a good partner, Cora. I’m going to miss you.”
    Cora patted her thighs and eased up off the steps. “I’m going to miss you, too, Warren. For the first time I realize I’m going to miss a lot of things around here.”
    Nebia’s Story...
    Nebia coughed. “Cora’s thoughts and desires were like an underground stream, powerful enough to cut their way but still needing a place to surface.”
    “What d’ya mean. Miss Nebia?” Sheila asked.
    “She had so much going on inside her, things that a lot of young people don’t give a second thought to. Cora didn’t want to think about them but they were there vying for her attention. She couldn’t see that War ren cared for her in a special way. And even if she had seen it, it wouldn’t have mattered because she was on a journey of self-discovery that wouldn’t allow anybody in besides her family or me.”
    “So did Warren go off to boot camp?” Cynthia had to know.
    “Yes, he did. And Brenda went to college and got a degree in sociology, and Cora went her own way traveling and living in different cities, making a living off of her paintings and flowers. She would take an odd job here and there if it suited her. But basically she lived as she wanted. Somehow she managed to do that even if it meant staying with a man that took her fancy, or living in one of those communes that were still plentiful back in the seventies.”
    “You mean Cora would live with a man just so that she could have a place to sleep?” Erica asked with dis approval.
    “No-o...” Nebia drew the sound out long and deep. “She had to fancy him. Cora had to want him as bad as he wanted her, but for Cora there always came a time when enough was enough, and she would leave.”
    “So she would live with him, have sex with him, then leave whenever she got ready?”
    “That’s about it.”
    “M-mmm. I don’t know about that,” Erica said. “She sounds like a mighty loose woman to me.”
    “Well, those were the choices that Cora made. And she seemed to be happy. But things changed when Michael Dawson moved into this building and started living in the efficiency upstairs.”
    “Is that the man that messed up everything?” Cynthia asked.
    “I wouldn’t say that,” Nebia replied. “It was cer tainly not his intention. But life has a strange way of unfolding at times. It might have been simpler if Michael had never come to this area when he was looking for a job. Or maybe if he and Brenda