All Backs Were Turned Read Online Free Page B

from the stout man, but he didn’t walk away yet. For a moment he stood there, not looking at the sitting man, and finally said, “Give me an advance. I need money for gas. I’ll pay you when I come back for the winter.”
    â€œDon’t you want my dentures too, Dov?” the stout man asked, but he reached into his pocket.
    A while later he watched the two men cross the street and climb into the jeep, and for the first time he noticed how much they resembled each other. “This is how it had to be,” he said aloud to himself. “That’s why I came here. To give him my jeep and my money, knowing he’ll waste it all.”
    â€œWill you pay the bill, sir?” the waiter asked.
    The stout man turned to him. “Why do you bother to ask? Has the big guy who was here ever paid you?”
    â€œThere was a time when he settled his bills,” the waiter said, adjusting his dirty cummerbund. He had a huge nose and a thin, tragic face. “She brought him down.”
    â€œYes,” the stout man said. “She did.”

T HEY ENTERED THE ROOM AND CLOSED THE DOOR. I T was difficult to breathe; even though they had walked a very short distance and climbed only one flight of stairs, they were both sweating profusely. Dov dropped his wet shirt to the stone floor. Outside somebody was singing in a high, shrill voice; whenever a bus roared past, the noise drowned out the song, but then it rose again.
    â€œIt’ll be like this until morning,” Israel said. He threw himself on one of the beds, first tossing the blanket covering it to the floor.
    â€œIs that the beggar on the corner of Ben Yehuda Street?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œThe blind one?”
    â€œYes.”
    Somebody knocked on the door.
    â€œCome in,” Dov said.
    A man slipped into the room; it was the desk clerk. He held a towel in his hand and every five seconds or so he’d wipe his face and arms with it.
    â€œWhat do you want, Harry?” Dov asked.
    â€œYou left something in the shower yesterday, Dov,” the man said. “Something you often use. Here, I brought them.”
    Dov turned slowly in his direction and took the two leather wrist straps the man held out to him; they were old and dark with sweat. He looked at them for a moment and then gave them back.
    â€œI won’t be needing them again,” he said. “I’ve found myself an easy job.”
    â€œYou didn’t use them for work,” the desk clerk said.
    â€œI told you, I won’t need them,” Dov said. “You can keep them or throw them away.”
    â€œNo,” Israel said, holding out his hand to the desk clerk. “Hand them over. I’ll take them.”
    â€œBut Dov said I could have them,” the desk clerk said.
    â€œListen, Harry,” Israel said, “the guy who was staying here before us left something behind. I’ll give it to you if you give me the wrist straps.” He reached under his pillow, pulled out a shirt and showed it to the desk clerk.
    â€œOkay,” the man said. He grabbed the shirt and gave Israel the leather straps. But he didn’t leave yet. His gaze wandered around the room, and when he saw their canvas bag standing in the corner, he pointed to it and asked, “Is that all you have? The two of you?”
    â€œWhenever I have to carry it, I wish we had even less,” Dov said.
    â€œWe also have a jeep,” Israel said. He pulled the clerk’s towel out of his grasp and wiped his own face and shoulders with it before giving it back. “Now go away, we want to get some sleep. Hang that shirt in your closet together with all the other stuff you took from guests who couldn’t pay their bills.”
    â€œI will,” the desk clerk said, reluctantly moving toward the door. “So now you have a jeep and that bag. Good night.”
    â€œGood night, Harry,” Dov said.
    When the desk clerk left, Dov propped himself on