Handsome Harry Read Online Free Page A

lucky he never would’ve run into that no-good Effingham bitch.
    Anyhow, that’s where he’d been, on an Illinois work farm, slopping hogs and shoveling pig shit until about three weeks ago, whenhe was released a few weeks early for good behavior. They took him to the bus station and bought him a ticket to Terre Haute just over the state line and told him Bon Voyage, grifter, and don’t come back.
    Earl figured the filling station shooting in Martinsville was ancient history by then and it was safe to come home, so as soon as he got off the bus in Terre Haute he scouted around for suitable transportation and settled on the Franklin roadster. He was ten miles down the road before it occurred to him that he didn’t have a red cent. The Franklin was already low on fuel and he supposed he’d have to steal a car with a lot more gas in it. Then he thought to take a look in the door pocket and, oh baby, there’s a wallet, and it’s holding 132 bucks. He stopped off in Greencastle and bought himself the spiffy suit and fedora and treated himself to a steak with all the trimmings before swapping license plates with a car parked in an alley. Then he went to Kokomo to visit a certain cathouse he’d heard a lot of good things about, and the place had lived up to its reputation. Since getting back to Indy he’d been working at a lumberyard, but he hadn’t gone by to see my parents and say hello till this morning. Mom gave him the news of my parole and the job at the garage.
    He was in the middle of telling me more about the Kokomo cathouse when my boss, Larkins, stuck his head out the office door and hollered for me to quit flogging the dog and get back to work.
    I went over to the office and told Larkins I was quitting and wanted the pay I had coming. He said I was making a big mistake and would be sorry, but he counted out eleven dollars and handed it to me. He said Mr. Hollis wasn’t going to like this. Hollis was my parole officer. I said to give Hollis my regards, then went back to the roadster and got in and said Let’s go.
     
    I accepted Earl’s offer to let me move in with him, but before going to his place we stopped at my parents’ house so I could get my clothes, and Mom insisted on fixing us lunch. Shedidn’t blame me for breaking parole. She didn’t think it was fair that somebody of my intelligence and charm should have to work in a dirty garage under threat of getting sent back to the reformatory. My mother’s name is Lena. She’s bright and well spoken and doesn’t take guff from anybody, and it’s safe to say she has ever and always been devoutly partisan in disputes involving her Harry.
    My father sat at the table and ate with us and as usual didn’t say much. He’s a man of intelligence and a good egg, but by his own admission he’d never been in a fight, not even as a kid, and he’s always been content to let Mom wear the pants. In all his life he’s probably never said anything more often than Yes dear. His name’s Gilbert. I have a brother too, Fred. Unlike my mother, who nobody could’ve stopped from taking up the spear for me, neither my dad nor my brother got mixed up in any of my misdeeds—I want that understood—and I’ll leave both of them out of this as much as I can.
    I was packing a suitcase in the back room when Hollis pulled into the driveway. I knew Larkins would call him about me quitting and I figured he might show up soon, which was why I’d had Earl park the Franklin out of sight around the corner.
    My mother greeted Hollis at the front door but didn’t invite him in. Earl and I stood out of sight in the hallway and listened as he told her I’d walked off the job and he’d see to it my parole was revoked quicker than she could say King James if I didn’t present myself at his office to talk things over no later than noon tomorrow.
    She affected vast motherly alarm at the news and told him that the minute I showed up or got in touch by telephone she would insist that