The Grifters by Jim Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

become what he was. And there was nothing to be done about her, assuming that she wanted anything done, but perhaps it wasn't too late to –
    "You're probably wondering why I was so nosy. Inquisitive, I mean," Lilly said. "Well, it's like this. I don't want to jinx my son by saying that he's going to be all right, but-"
    "Oh, I'm sure he will be, Mrs. Dillon! I-"
    "Don't say it," Lilly said sharply, knocking on the wooden top of the table. "It might bring bad luck. Let's just say that when and if he is able to leave the hospital, I'd like you to go on looking after him for a while. At my apartment, I mean. Do you think you'd like that?"
    Carol nodded eagerly, her eyes shining. She'd already had more than two weeks of steady employment with Mrs. Dillon, more than she'd ever had before. What a wonderful thing it would be to go on working for her and her nice son, indefinitely.
    "Well, that's fine, then," Lilly said. "It's all settled. Now, I've got to run along, but- Yes?"
    "I was just wondering…" Carol hesitated. "I was wondering if-if Mr. Dillon would want me. He is always very kind, but…" She hesitated again, not knowing how to say what she meant without sounding impolite. Lilly said it for her.
    "You mean Roy resents me. He's against anything I do simply because I do it."
    "Oh, no. I did not mean that. Not exactly, anyway. I was just…"
    "Well, it's close enough," Lilly smiled, trying to make her voice light. "But don't worry about it, dear. You're working for me not him. Anything! do for him is for his own good, so it doesn't matter if he's a little resentful at first."
    Carol nodded, a trifle dubiously. Lilly arose from her chair, and began drawing on her gloves.
    "We'll just keep this to ourselves for the time being," she said. "It's just possible that Roy will suggest it himself."
    "Whatever you say," Carol murmured.
    They walked to the door of the cafeteria together. Then Lilly headed toward the lobby entrance, and Carol hurried away toward her patient's room.
    The other nurse left as soon as they had checked the chart together. Roy gave Carol a weakly lazy grin, and told her she looked very bad.
    "You belong in bed, Miss Roberg," he said. "I'll give you part of mine."
    "I do not! " Carol blushed furiously. "You will not! "
    "Oh, but you do. I've seen girls with that look before. Bed is the only thing that will cure 'em."
    Carol giggled unwillingly, feeling very wicked. Roy told her severely that she mustn't laugh about such things. "You'd better behave or I won't kiss you goodnight. Then, you'll be sorry!"
    "I will not! " Carol blushed and wriggled and giggled. "Now, you stop it! "
    Roy stopped the teasing after a minute or two. She was honestly embarrassed by it, he guessed, and he wasn't up to much fun-making himself.
    Suspended from a metal stand on the left side of his bed was a jar of syrupy-looking blood. A tube extended from the upended top of it to a quill-like needle in his arm. On the right side-of the bed, a similar device dripped saline water into the artery of his other arm. The blood and water had been fed into him thus since his arrival in the hospital. Lying constantly on his back with his arms held flat, he ached almost incessantly, his only relief coming when his body and arms became numb. Sometimes he found himself wondering if life was worth such a price. But the wondering was humorous, strictly on the wry side.
    He'd had a long look at death, and he hadn't liked the look of it at all.
    He was very, very glad to be alive.
    Now that he was apparently out of danger, however, he did regret one thing-that it was Lilly who had saved his life. The one person to whom he wished to owe nothing, he now owed everything, a debt he could never repay.
    He could fret and argue the matter in his mind. He could cite his own incredibly tough constitution, an irrestible will to live, as the true source of his survival. The doctors themselves had practically said as much, hadn't they? It was scientifically