Read Online The Girl in White Pajamas by Chris Birdy - Free Book Online Page B

Amanda’s a beautiful girl! Rose wants her to look her best. I saw pictures of her mother. Amanda looks just like her, doesn’t she?”
    Bogie nodded. “I just hope she doesn’t turn out like her.”
    “She’s a good girl, with a good heart. She’ll be fine.”
    “You know she’s pregnant?”
    Trudie nodded.
    Bogie laughed. “Does Herself or Ann have a clue that you and James probably know more about what’s happening in this house than they do?”
    Trudie smiled and shrugged.
    “But she’s so young. He’s so young,” Bogie lamented.
    “And how old was her mother when you married her?”
    “Nineteen.”
    “And how old were you?”
    “Twenty-six.”
    “Isn’t that similar to Amanda and her young man?”
    “I hope not!” Bogie said. “You saw how well that turned out! Besides it’s up in the air whether he’s still her young man.”

14 ALL IN THE FAMILY
    After breakfast, Bogie went next door to the brownstone with one large outside door, a vestibule and two inside doors. As he walked up the stairs, he remembered hurrying down these same steps four years earlier when he was angry with everyone. That day, Amanda had been dilly dallying, and they were going to miss their flight. But more than that, he was concerned about Bailey. She was being touchy and unreasonable. Even through the fury, he thought that everything would work out. It didn’t. It all turned to shit!
    When he noticed there were two holes where the doorbells used to be, he knocked on the downstairs door. Frustrated, he found himself pounding on the glass insert so hard it was rattling in the frame.
    Jeannie McGruder yanked the door open, and Bogie almost gasped.
    Fifteen years earlier Jeannie was treated like a movie star in the Boston Police Department. With her platinum colored hair and 38DD bust she was the sexiest looking rookie on the force. Jeannie was in top physical condition and could outrun any of the guys. Unfortunately, she didn’t run fast enough to get away from Bud McGruder. He pursued her, married her and, in the tradition of his father before him, began to look for new conquests before the ink on the marriage license was dry. After the birth of their beautiful baby girl, Jennifer, Bud swore he’d mend his ways and be a good husband and father. He didn’t, and the marriage turned into a series of bitter alcohol fueled fights. One night, drunk and desperate, Jeannie pulled her service revolver out when he came home with the smell of another woman all over him. She aimed at his arm, but struck the wall next to him. The bullet went through the wall and killed little Jennifer, who was asleep in the next room. Jeannie’s life as a mother, cop and useful member of society ended that day.
    Looking at her now, Bogie had difficulty believing this enormous woman with a bloated face and black slits for eyes was Jeannie.
    “What the fuck?!” She slurred and spit, “Who the fuck?”
    “Hi, Jeannie,” he said a bit shaken.
    Her hand moved to her mouth and she started sobbing when she recognized him. Bogie put his arm around her and led her into the downstairs apartment that he once called home.
    When Bogie was married to his father’s mistress, Olga, they lived here pretending to be a family while Baxter McGruder paid the rent. Bogie and Amanda moved their simple furniture from their Quincy house into this apartment. The cheap furniture was probably out of place in the formal living room, but Bogie didn’t care. The dining room was turned into Amanda’s bedroom and the den into a bedroom for the happy couple and baby Barbara. Bogie never slept in that room and only went in there once to change the crying baby’s diaper when Olga was passed out on the bed. He kept his few belongings in Amanda’s room and slept on the couch. Although they were somewhat crowded with baby paraphernalia placed around the apartment, it was as neat as possible as a result of Bogie’s obsession with order and cleanliness.
    As he looked around this