Everybody Pays Read Online Free Page B

date.
    But Bonnie wasn’t there again.
    I didn’t know what to do. This was the longest time I hadn’t seen Bonnie since we started dating. I decided I would go home and think about it.
    Where I live is a good place to think. It’s small, just the one room. But there’s plenty of space for my magazines and my radio. I like to read the magazines while I listen to the radio. Sometimes, they talk about what’s in my magazines on the radio. They don’t even know they’re doing it, but I know. I never call the radio shows; I just listen. My landlady says I’m her favorite lodger. Because I’m clean and quiet, I guess. And I always pay the rent on time.
    My landlady says she’ll be sorry when I get married and move out. I mean, this place wouldn’t be enough for two people. I never say anything when she says that, but I thought, she would really like Bonnie. And maybe I’d bring Bonnie around to meet her before I moved out.
    I have money saved. I always saved money, but I didn’t know why, exactly. After I met Bonnie, I knew. It was to buy a house. I always wanted to live in a house. Bonnie said she did. Live in a house, I mean. When she was at home, before she went out to work, on her own. I told her about getting a house, and she said it sounded perfect.
    The more I thought about Bonnie not showing up, the less sense it made. The magazines I have, they’re mostly detective magazines. About crime and stuff like that. I knew things could happen to a girl. Especially a young, pretty girl like Bonnie. She was the kind of girl they usually have on the covers of the magazines I read, so I knew she could be in danger.
    I wanted to investigate. I never did it before, but I knew a lot about it from the magazines. The only thing was, I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t know where she lived, or who her friends were, or anything. Just where she worked. And she wasn’t there anymore.
    My head hurt from trying to think about it. I felt lousy all week. But I went to work every day. I never took a sick day, not in eleven years. It’s a company record. The boss even said so, once. I have a lot of vacation time all stored up, too. So I could have taken time off if I wanted. But I didn’t know how I could use the time, so I just went to work, the way I always do.
    When Thursday came around again, I went back. I didn’t have my hopes up anymore, so I wasn’t even surprised when she wasn’t there. I decided I had to do something, so when one of the other girls finished up front, I waved her over to my table. She asked me if I wanted a dance. I told her I just wanted to talk. She gave me a funny look. Like Bonnie had, that first time. But I put money on the table and she smiled. Then she sat down and talked to me.
    I asked her, did she know what was wrong with Bonnie? Because she hadn’t been there in weeks. The girl I asked, she said she didn’t know anybody named Bonnie. I knew the girl I asked, she had been there for a long time, even longer than Bonnie. So I knew she must have known her, but her face didn’t look like she was lying, so I didn’t know what to do.
    Then I figured it out. Of course! Bonnie was her real name. She only told me about it because we were dating, because we had a relationship. She used another name for work. A stage name, that’s what she called it. Because she was a performer, and they all had stage names. I had a hard time remembering Bonnie’s stage name—it was so long ago. I put more money on the table, and I described Bonnie to this other girl. But she said it didn’t ring a bell. That it could have fit so many of the girls. I didn’t understand this. None of them looked anything like Bonnie.
    I was getting nervous. I didn’t want the other girl to leave, but I couldn’t think of any name but Bonnie. And then it came to me. Tanya. Tanya Towers. That name was a joke, she told me. Bonnie told me, I mean. The other girls called her that because of her . . . chest. So she made it a