Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw Read Free Book Online

coloured folk around. Imagine that, being sent to maybe the one hospital in the United States that’s in a town without any coloured folk. We drank a couple of beers that we got in the market and we took the bus upriver a bit, because we heard there was a coloured family up at the Landing. Turned, out it was just an old man from South Carolina, living all by himself in an old house on the river, with all his family gone and forgotten. We gave him some beer and told him lies about how brave we were in the war, and said we’d come back fishin’ on our next pass. Fishin’!’
    ‘I’m sure,’ Gretchen said, looking at her watch, ‘that when you get out of the hospital for good and go back home you’ll find a beautiful girl and be very happy again.’ Her voice sounded prissy and false and nervous all at the same time and she was ashamed of herself, but she knew she had to get out of that room. ‘It’s awfully late, Arnold …’ She started to get
    off the table, but he held her arm in his hand, not hard, but firmly.
    It ain’t all that late, Miss Jordache,’ Arnold said. ‘To tell you the truth, I been waiting for just such an occasion, all alone like this.’ ‘I have to catch a bus, Arnold, I…’ ‘Wilson and me, we’ve been discussing you.’ Arnold didn’t let go of her arm. ‘And we decided on our next pass, that’s this Saturday, we would like to invite you to spend the day with us.’
    That’s very kind of you and Wilson,’ Gretchen said. She had difficulty trying to keep her voice normal. ‘But I’m terribly busy on Saturdays.’
    ‘We figured it wouldn’t do to be seen in the company of two black boys,’ Arnold went on, his voice flat, neither menacing nor inviting, ‘being as how this is your town and they’re not used to seeing things like that around here, and we’re only enlisted men… ‘ That really has nothing to do with …’ ‘You take the bus up to the Landing at twelve-thirty,’ Arnold continued, as though there had been no interruption. ‘Well go earlier and give that old man five bucks to buy himself a bottle of whiskey and go to the show and we’ll fix up a nice meal for the three of us in his house. You turn left direcdy at the bus stop and walk on about a quarter of a mile down to the river and it’s the only house there, sitting real pretty on the bank, with nobody around to snoop or make a fuss, just the three of us, all folksy and friendly.’
    ‘I’m going home now, Arnold,’ Gretchen said loudly. She knew she would be ashamed to call out, but she tried to make him think she was ready to shout for help.
    ‘A good meal, a couple of nice long drinks,’ Arnold said, whispering, smiling, holding her. ‘We been away a long time, Miss Jordache.’
    ‘I’m going to yell,’ Gretchen said, finding it hard to speak. How could he do it - be so polite and friendly in one breath and then … She despised herself for her ignorance of the human race.
    ‘We have a high opinion of you, Miss Jordache, Wilson and me. Ever since I first laid eyes on you I can’t think about anybody else. And Wilson says it’s the same with him …’
    ‘You’re both crazy. If I tell the Colonel…’ Gretchen wanted to pull her arm away, but if anybody happened to come in and saw them struggling, the explanations would be painful.
    ‘As I said, our opinion is high,’ Arnold said, ‘and we’re willing to pay for it. We got a lot of back pay accumulated, Wilson and me, and I been particularly lucky in the crap game in the ward. Listen careful, Miss Jordache. We got eight hundred dollars between us and you’re welcome to it. Just for one little afternoon on the river…’ He took his hand off her arm and, unexpectedly, jumped down from the table, landing lightly on his good foot. He started limping out, his big body made clumsy by the floating maroon bathrobe. He turned at the door. ‘No need to say yes or no this minute, Miss Jordache,’ he said politely. Think on it.