Read Online Too Darn Hot by Sandra Scoppettone - Free Book Online

of them and it wasn’t something you could ask her about. She also went heavy on the makeup and wore mismatched clothes. Checks with stripes or polka dots, yellow with purple.
    I took a closer look at her fan. “Where’d ya get that, Dolores?”
    “World’s Fair.” She spread it out completely and held it open for me to see.
    It said: 1904 WORLD’S FAIR. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION, ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.
    “I guess ya missed that one, didn’t ya?” She gave me one of her big smiles, and a wink.
    “I went to the one here in 1939.”
    “Yeah. That was a beauty, too. But for me, bubele, the one in St. Louis was the best. Oh, the lights on the water at night.”
    No one knew how old Dolores was but I figured she musta been somewhere in her thirties when she went to the fair. Who did she go with? I wanted to ask but I had to get ready for my date.
    “I’d like to hear all about it sometime, but I need to get dressed.”
    “Ya got a date with that nice detective goy boy?”
    “Yeah.”
    “When are ya gettin married?”
    “Married?” Even the word gave me the jimjams.
    “Ya heard a the institution, ain’tcha?”
    “I’m not sure I’ll ever get married.”
    “Ha. Ya say that now. But wait.”
    “For what?”
    She nodded over and over like she had a special secret.
    “I gotta go, Dolores.” I hoped she wouldn’t still be sitting out there when Johnny arrived. I was afraid she’d grill him about marriage.
    “You go. Dress nice.”
    “I will.” I went through the front door and into the vestibule. There wasn’t much in my mailbox except a few bills. I opened the inside door and went to my apartment.
    Zachary came sidling up to me, mewing. He was only a few months old. After Cedric died I waited over a year before getting Zach. He was a black cat with a white diamond on his forehead.
    I leaned down and petted him. “Yer gonna eat in a minute.”
    My place was basically two big rooms with a small kitchen between them. The WC was off the kitchen. The apartment had been the parlor floor of a town house once upon a time. The living room had high ceilings with ornate moldings around them and carved cherubs in the corners. Two large windows looked over the street, and I’d hung red velvet draperies that I closed at night.
    It was a big room. I’d put two sofas in there and three easy chairs, with a table folded up against a wall that I used for dinner company. Mahogany bookcases lined one wall and were beginning to strain at the seams. The right front corner was empty cause I was saving my pennies for the piano I was gonna put there. I could itch a mean ivory and I had pretty good pipes, too. You wouldn’t say I rivaled Billie Holiday, but who did?
    I’d been nervous about telling Johnny what the empty space was waiting for, but he didn’t laugh or think it was silly. Far from it. He was always trying to get me to sing. I told him I would when I got the piano. Well, maybe.
    I put down Zachary’s food.
    Then I got the long-distance operator and gave her the Ladds’ number. There was no answer. I was relieved. Telling parents their son was missing wasn’t any can a corn. I’d try again the next day cause I knew I’d be getting home too late from my date to call then.
    Now it was time to take a bath and change clothes.
    Johnny and I didn’t stay to see the second picture. We both loved
This Is the Army.
George Murphy was one of my favorites and I liked the way Frances Langford sang.
    Holding hands, we walked from the Loews on Second Avenue. Johnny had a big hand and I had a small one. He was always saying he was afraid mine would get lost in his.
    He was tall and lanky and had a long face with deep-set brown blinkers, a regular nose, and a full mouth—not one of those slits a lotta men have. All in all he was a good-looking guy. But that wasn’t his main attraction for me. Not that I had anything against handsome men.
    What I liked most about him was his kindness. Some detectives, like Powell,