Late at Night Read Online Free Page B

talkative, cheery, and demanding. People who didn’t know her, judging her from her profession, figured she had to be a bitch. She was really very sweet, Jerry told them. Too sweet. Maybe that was her problem. Who had ever heard of a gossip columnist with a good heart?
    Her face was heart-shaped, her eyes blue and bright, her mouth small and dainty. She wore her hair short and wavy; still dyed it her original, zesty brown, although friends told her: “You’re getting older now. You’d look more natural if you’d just let it go gray.” Old. Getting old. Older. Not she. She still had far too much to do.
    Jerry helped her put some of her things away, then handed her her makeup kit and let her fix her face at the vanity while he unpacked the few things he’d brought with him in his knapsack. Books. Comb. Hairbrush. Toothbrush. Bare essentials. He traveled light. “I can’t understand how people can go away for an entire weekend with barely the clothes on their back,” Gloria said as she savagely brushed her hair (100 strokes a day). “I packed two whole suitcases and I’m already positive I must have left some—some essential something— behind. Oh, well. That’s men for you.”
    Jerry put the last of his stuff in the bottom drawer, and threw his empty knapsack in the bottom of the walk-in closet. He closed the door, sat back down on the bed in the same spot as before, and waited for Gloria to finish. She did a little something to her lips and eyes, studied herself appraisingly in the mirror, frowned, and swiveled on the satin-covered seat of the vanity. “This is a nice place, isn’t it?” she said cheerily.
    Jerry nodded. “We’ll see.”
    “It won’t be so bad, dear.” She got up, patted his head on the way to the closet, and searched among the hangers for something suitable to change into. “I know Mr. Everson mentioned something about cocktails in the living room in half an hour. Cocktails. Cocktails.” She patted her lower lip with her finger. “What goes with cocktails?”
    As she tried on various outfits, she explained again why she had wanted to come on this trip to Lammerty Island. “I have an interest in things supernatural, did I ever tell you that? Oh, I’m not a fanatic about it, but I have a definite interest. When my niece, Lynn—did I mention she was my niece?”
    Jerry nodded. Why did she always seem to think he hadn’t heard what she was telling him? He knew that Gloria’s late husband had been the brother of Lynn’s father and of the old woman, Gladys Hornbee, who’d left Lynn Lammerty Island, and that Gladys and Gloria had never gotten along.
    “Well, when my niece mentioned that she was going out to the island to look it over, I reminded her of all the stories, and asked if she’d like me along for protection. And I asked you along to protect me. “ She wiggled her body and giggled. “Now isn’t that just lovely? Maybe we’ll even see a ghost or two. I’ve always wanted to go to a haunted island.”
    Jerry smirked. “Some of us have unusual ambitions.”
    “Now, dear,” she scolded. “We’re going to have u wonderful, wonderful time. You won’t miss the bad old city and that silly rock concert you wanted to go to one little bit. Wait and see.”
    She squeezed herself into a black dress with a deep bodice and a flowery pattern, grunting from the endeavor. She turned from side to side, surveying herself in the full-length mirror behind the closet door. She put her hands on her belly, trying to melt the pounds away. “Oh dear, I have put on weight, haven’t I? I’ll have to drop a ton starting Tuesday. Oh well, I suppose this will have to do for now.”
    “Just stay away from signs that say ‘elephant crossing.’ You might be mistaken for someone’s mother.” He knew she was used to his affectionate teasing.
    A pained expression on her face, Gloria suddenly looked upwards and wrung her hands in an exaggerated manner. ” ‘I’m fat,’ ” she quoted. ”