Three Women by March Hastings Read Free Book Online Page A

generous tip to the cabbie yesterday. Every penny she earned was tightly accounted for. Doctor bills were things to be dreaded. They could cut a hole into your life that sometimes took years to repair. Nothing to worry about, the doctor said. Well, there was plenty to worry about.
    She put her lunch money into a pocket and went to the drugstore. Luckily, the pills cost only a couple of dollars. But there weren't many in the small glass vial. If Pa needed a new supply every day, she would have to start taking sandwiches to work.
    She came back upstairs glumly, trying to muster a smile as she entered the apartment. Her mother was just coming out of the bedroom, the weight of her concern obvious in the dark pockets under her eyes.
    Paula said, "It'll be okay. At least we don't have any babies to worry about. Mike's sixteen. It won't hurt him to take a job for a while."
    "You're a good girl." The tone of her mother's voice made Paula feel that she herself was a baby with good intentions, but one who didn't really understand.
    This wasn't the time to convince Ma about Mike. She dropped the subject and got a glass of water to take with the pills to Pa.
    Limp with nausea and pain, her father lay beneath the covers. You could tell the pain was bad from the way his fingers were twisted. He looked small and shriveled.
    What little of his strength she could remember had long ago been drained. Nothing inside the white skin, crepe-like over pale blue veins. She unwrapped the bottle and tried not to look at him. Tried not to think how things would be if Pa died.
    She helped him sit up. She put two pills directly into his mouth rather than go through the agony of watching those weakened fingers struggle. He sipped enough water to get them down and gasped for breath.
    "They'll put you to sleep," she comforted.
    He was too ill to attempt a smile and she wished she could rush from the room to escape the nightmare of her father's sickness. But instead, she tucked the covers around his shoulders and asked if there were anything he wanted. The brown eyes, dull with their misery, closed to say no. Paula switched out the lights and went back into the kitchen.
    Her heart turned over to see her mother sitting helplessly at the table, staring into space.
    "He's going to sleep," Paula said. "Maybe I'd better get Mike for supper." She had to keep things going. Life had to keep on going, no matter what happened. And besides, she couldn't really believe that Pa was going to die. You get used to having a person around and it's just not conceivable that all of a sudden he would stop being there. Sure, he'd be sick for a while. Plenty sick. But he would get better. He had to.
    Even so, Paula knew that it was her duty to take charge. Her job alone would have to support them all. Her strength alone would hold the family together. She felt terribly little and she wanted Ma to tell her everything would be all right. But Ma was sitting there, worn out and exhausted from the years of constant struggle.
    "If you can get supper started," Paula repeated, "I'll be back with Mike just as soon as I find him."
    Once again, she got her coat and left the house. She had to ignore the knot of aching nerves in her head. Her neck even ached with the tension. Actually, she didn't know where Mike would be. Maybe over at one of the other boy's homes. She got out in the street, undecided which way to go. But she had to do something, had to keep moving. She couldn't just stand there and be defeated without any kind of fight. So she went first to the corner candy store, hoping some of the boys might be hanging around.
    She looked inside but the stools were empty. It was after six o'clock and everybody was probably home eating supper, just as she would be if things were as they always were.
    Maybe she should go to the clubhouse. It was half a dozen blocks down the street at the Lennox Settlement. She looked into the pingpong room and asked some of the kids, but nobody had seen Mike.