The Criminal by Jim Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

around her shoulders, instead of wearing it like anyone with some sense would, and the sleeves kept getting in the way when she tried to get the cigarettes and matches out of her blouse pockets.
    "Well, Bobbie!" she said, finally, kind of pouting like it was my fault. "Aren't you going to help me?" So I said she was crazy again, but I got the stuff out of her pockets and she sort of stuck herself out so I could get to 'em, and gosh. I mean, well, it was the craziest feeling, me fumbling around in that goofy-looking blouse and her all arched out at me and-and everything.
    I took a cigarette and she took one, and I held a match for us. I threw the cigarettes and matches back in her lap.
    "Well," I said, "I got to be moving on pretty quick. I've got plenty of things to do today."
    "Mmm?" she said, settling back on one elbow.
    "Going out to the golf links," I said. "Pick myself up a few fast bucks."
    "Mmm?" she blew out smoke, lazy-like. "So that's where you go when you play hooky so much."
    "I don't always," I said. "I get a few bucks ahead, I go into town. I saved up almost ten bucks once, and boy did I have myself a time! I ate lunch there in the station restaurant and then I went to the penny arcade and a shooting gallery and another restaurant and all to heck around."
    "Mmm," she said, "you awful bad boy, you."
    "Well, heck," I said. "It doesn't sound like much fun, but it was."
    She squeezed her cigarette out and lay back, one arm folded under her head. She smiled at me and kind of patted the ground at her side, so I lay back, too. It was a lot more comfortable that way, and I guess I'd kind of been wanting to see her. I guess I'd kind of missed her. I don't mean I liked her or anything like that, but you get used to someone, they're always around and then suddenly they aren't, and you can't help missing them.
    We just sort of lay there, and, well, somehow or another her hand was in mine, but it didn't mean anything. I mean, it really didn't. Why, gosh, she'd always been tagging around after me as far back as I could remember and I'd hold onto her hand to keep her from falling or to help her over something, and maybe we hadn't held hands in a long time, but it seemed natural enough, like it ought to be, you know. Just there by ourselves, lying there and talking, it was all right.
    "Bobbie…" she said.
    "Yeah?" I said.
    "Do you remember how we used to play together all day and then when I had to go home or you had to go home, we'd… we'd kiss each other good-bye." –
    "Heck," I said. "Yeah, I guess so."
    "How long ago has it been, Bobbie? Since you kissed me."
    "How do I know?" I said. "For gosh sake, Josie!"
    "Well," she said. "If you're going to get mad every time I say anything, maybe I'd better go."
    "Go ahead," I said. "You're the one that's mad. All I said was I didn't remember."
    "You are too mad," she said. "I can always tell when you are."
    "And I guess I don't know when I am," I said. "That's pretty rich, that is."
    "You can't look me in the eye and say you're not mad," she said.
    "I could if I wanted to," I said. "For gosh sake, Josie, why do you got to keep jabbering and fussing about-"
    "You can't do it," she said. "I dare you to."
    Well, I wasn't taking any dare from her, not any crazy old girl like that. So I rolled over, sort of, and looked at her and said I wasn't mad. I said it a couple of times, looking right at her, almost, but of course that wasn't good enough for her.
    "You're mad all right," she said. "I can tell. If you weren't, well, you know what you'd do."
    "For gosh sake, Josie," I said.
    "Well, you would," she said. "Oh, B-Bobbie, what's the matter w-with-"
    And, then, I hadn't done a darned thing, not a doggone thing, but she began to cry. She kind of cried, but not too much, and she sort of held her arms out, so, well, you know. I kissed her, and she kissed me, and she kept her arms around me when I started to move away.
    I could feel her like I had when I'd got the cigarettes and matches,