Read Online Abbeville by Jack Fuller - Free Book Online Page A

the fetid air open. He tried to focus on individual buildings, but they were all a wobbly blur.
    â€œSlow down, please,” he shouted. The driver grumbled but complied. This made Karl’s eyes somewhat more useful, but still he could not tell one tenement from another.
    Suddenly a gang of street urchins surrounded the carriage, forcing it to come to a stop. Hands stretched out to Karl. Cries of “Mister! Mister! Mister!” Then he felt a hand reaching into the pocket of his coat. Somehow he found the agility to seize it.
    The other boys scattered. A policeman across the way cast a wary eye in the direction of the scuffle, as if to determine who was assaulting whom. The boy wriggled and twisted, but Karl’s hand had not lost the strength of the forest.
    â€œI’ll turn you over to that officer there,” he said, which set the boy off again. “Unless you can help me, that is.”
    â€œShit on that,” said the boy. “I don’t do the nasty for nobody.”
    â€œShow me where Luella Grundy lives and I’ll let you go,” said Karl.
    The boy looked at Karl with all the city’s dangerous knowledge in his twelve-year-old eyes.
    â€œGimme a nickel?” he said.
    â€œIf you stick with me until I see her,” Karl said.
    â€œHey, nothin’ doin’,” said the boy. “What if she ain’t there?”
    â€œSo what’ll it be, lad?” said Karl. “Me or the law?”
    The boy squirmed again for a moment, then stopped. Karl helped him into the carriage.
    â€œWhere to now, mister?” said the driver.
    â€œWherever the boy says,” said Karl.
    â€œTwo blocks down, then a block north,” said the boy.
    The driver snapped the horse into action. The policeman watched them pass—man and boy—and shook his head.
    When they reached the place, Karl half recognized it, but in his present state he wasn’t sure. He held out the nickel to draw the boy up the front steps and into the vestibule.
    â€œThis is the difference in the price of a bushel I bought this morning and the one I sold this afternoon,” he said. The boy looked at him as if he were speaking in tongues.
    Luella’s full name was on one of the doors. He had expected to see her father’s. He knocked, heard footsteps, then the door swung open.
    â€œHere,” he said to the boy and flipped a coin into the air. The boy snatched it at the top of its arc and bolted. It was not his fault that Luella was already closing the door.
    â€œPlease,” Karl said. “Hear what I have to say.”
    He found himself speaking to a single eye.
    â€œI had no idea this was going to happen to you,” he said. “I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. I’m a farm boy. I don’t know about these things. All I do know is that you were kind to me. Andthat I liked you. And that I was lonely. And that it seemed possible you were, too.”
    She came into the hall with him, closing the door partway behind her until her back braced against it.
    â€œI’m not mad at you,” she said.
    â€œWhat will you do?”
    â€œFind another job. I have skills, you know.”
    He wasn’t exactly sure just now what he knew and what he didn’t.
    â€œI’m afraid that I have had something to drink,” he confessed.
    â€œI can see that,” she said.
    â€œI was in the pit today,” he said. “Trading. I made a lot of money.”
    â€œThat’s what people do there,” she said. “It’s a very selfish place. Everybody doing things only for themselves.”
    She looked at him in a way that made him feel he was losing her.
    â€œYou do something for me, Luella,” he said.
    â€œAnd you know how to flatter a girl,” she said. “Did you learn that on that farm of yours?”
    â€œI don’t want to be a farmer,” he said.
    She looked at him strangely, almost sad. Then she