Torch Song by Kate Wilhelm Read Free Book Online

Habit, maybe? The only guy I felt safe around, maybe? I met a girl who makes jewelry. She showed me some pieces she was taking to show her husband. He’s in for life. Anyway, it was neat stuff, earrings, necklaces, things like that. She gave me these,” she said, fingering an earring. “I told her she could sell jewelry like that and she said no way. She had three kids, a full-time job, and lived up by Saranac Lake. She never even saw New York City. So I bet her I could sell it. I took a few pieces down to SoHo and sold them, and she gave me twenty-five percent. It was like fate gave me a break. If I hadn’t been going to see Pete, I never would have met her, and others like her. I’m a jewelry rep—can you believe it?”
    Constance nodded, but before she spoke, Marla faced her and said angrily, “You want to know what a bind is? Let me tell you. It’s when you have a sick kid and no money and have to get a job, but if you leave him to work, the state will take him away and put him in an institution so he’ll get the kind of care he needs. That kind of care would kill him. That’s a bind.”
    â€œThe state pays for his medical care, doesn’t it?” Constance said, not so much a question as a statement of fact.
    â€œThey have to. They did it to him; they take care of him. Someone like Roy an hour or two a day, and respite care. You know what respite care is? I get a day and a half off each week. At first, I wouldn’t leave even that much. They were just looking for an excuse to take him away from me, claim I was neglecting him, something like that.” Her cheeks flared as she spoke rapidly. “I fainted a couple of times and the doctor said it was stress, that I needed to get away now and then and that no one could hold it against me. It was my right. If I got sick, they’d take him in a hurry, and if I didn’t have some time off, I’d get sick. Sheila showed up with her jewelry about then and I was in business. I take my respite days all at once, five, six days in a row, make my rounds, take the jewelry down to New York, and next month do it again. Nathan hates it, but I figure he can put up with someone like Roy for a few days if it means I get to keep him with me the rest of the time. And it does.”
    â€œThat’s a terrible burden to shoulder alone,” Constance said. “Why didn’t Pete tell you where the money was, help out that way?”
    Marla went to the hallway and cocked her head, listening. No sound came from upstairs. “He knew they’d be watching for me to come up with money,” she said scornfully. “That would really have been stupid.” She stayed by the hall door now, still listening.
    â€œI suppose so,” Constance said. “It just seems so unfair. Did he think you’d get back together when he got out?”
    â€œYeah,” Marla said after a moment. “He thought so, and I guess I did, too. He said he had a few things he had to take care of first, and we had to be cool, not lead anyone to the money, just wait for the right time and then take off for Spain. We talked like that, and it was like having a dream over and over. You know? You hate to wake up because it’s such a good dream. I used to take Nathan’s pictures to show him, and I told him how Nathan was getting along. Pete knew all about him. But when he walked in and took one look, he said we’d have to put him in a hospital or an institution. We had a fight. I kicked him out and he stayed out. I guess he got the money and went to Spain or somewhere like that.”
    Constance shook her head. “We think he’s still hanging around. How did he get here from Attica? He got out on the tenth and came here on the twelfth. Where was he those two days?”
    â€œHe didn’t say,” Marla said coldly. “He called me from the bus station in Tuxedo Park, and as soon as Roy got here, I went over and