The Garden of Last Days Read Online Free Page B

Through the plywood walls of the club, Michael Bolton was singing how he can’t live anymore and there was also the music of The Lion King , African drums and the high-throated wail of some talking, singing animal. April could hear the deep voice of the actor who played Mufasa, the sweet way he was talking to his son, Simba. And she wanted to get dressed quickly and go see Franny. Maybe she could sit with her a few minutes while her daughter ate.
    On the floor of her locker was a zippered vinyl pouch she bought at Walgreen’s in the school supplies section. It was supposed to hold pencils and pens but she liked that it was purple and she stuck her money into it and was zipping it shut when the door opened and Louis walked in, Zeke pulling the door shut behind him.
    Louis had wiry red hair and pink freckled skin and spent as much time on his boat as possible. Tonight he was wearing his aquamarine contacts that went with his Tommy Bahama silk shirt and pleated pants. On his freckled wrist was a turquoise and silver watchband and a silver bracelet, and any other man dressed like this would look elegant, but Louis was too petty to look that way, too convinced everybody’s actions were designed to rob him. He stood there staring at her. She dropped her money pouch into her locker and began stepping into her T-back.
    “What’s with the act tonight, Spring?”
    “Ask Tina.”
    “I’m asking you.”
    She could feel his stare as she pulled up her G-string, and it was always like being naked again when Louis looked at you. Out in the club Michael Bolton was really screaming now, the way he did, and the house was loud and happy for Wendy’s act. From Tina’s office came another Disney song, and April just hoped Louis wouldn’t notice and go back there.
    “Her rotation got changed. I don’t know, I guess she didn’t have time to call me.” She cupped herself into her T-back and snapped the front snaps. She picked her blouse up off the floor, turned it right side out, found the armholes. “I didn’t have time to get ready.”
    “Know how much I pay for liability, Spring? Do you?”
    April pulled her garter halfway up her thigh, then stepped into the other one, a frayed yellow floral she’d been meaning to replace for a while now, and she stayed quiet because with Louis any answer was the wrong answer if it didn’t come from him first, so you waited.
    “Will you look at me when I’m talking to you, please?”
    She turned to him, saw his watery, aquamarine eyes move from her bare ass to her face. Donna turned a page of her book lightly, quietly.
    “More than you make in a month, easy. I don’t care what your fucking problem is. Next time you leave the shoes on , all right? Just leave ’em on and shake your tits or I’ll find somebody else because there’s always somebody else. All right ?”
    “Yes.” She stepped into her skirt, cinched it snugly over her hips. Louis was done now, though he wasn’t moving. She could hear The Lion King and so must he, her heart thumping against her ribs, not because Louis cared about Tina babysitting but because he was Louis and she couldn’t have him even seeing Franny, looking at her with his fake eyes, sizing her up.
    He started walking toward Tina’s office.
    “Louis, my kid’s in there and she finally calmed down.” She smiledat him. It was her nightworld smile and it knew when to come and maybe even Louis believed it; he didn’t smile back but his face changed; now he was a man in front of a woman, his insurance policies back in a drawer for now. He jiggled the change in his pocket.
    “Since when do you have a kid?”
    “Three years. She just turned three.” These were dayworld words and she couldn’t smile through them and had to look away. She grabbed her brush and makeup.
    “What, you think I’ll spook her?”
    “Not on purpose.” She moved past him to the makeup mirror, let her bare arm touch his, and she hoped he’d do what he did, turn to watch her lean