Red's Hot Cowboy by Carolyn Brown Page B

her too. She’s been living on crackers for three days. Call me sometimes and let me know how she’s doin’.”
    Pearl set the phone down and looked up to see Lucy munching on a saltine cracker that she’d taken from her purse. “Is your husband going to chase you down and cause trouble?”
    “My husband thinks I’m dead. I fixed it that way. I took his truck and left him a note.” She looked Pearl straight in the eye and didn’t blink.
    “Okay, do you have a social security card?”
    “Yes, ma’am, I do. It’s still in my name, Lucinda Fontaine. I never changed it because he wouldn’t let me do no work outside of the house. He lived by the old ways that said a man was the head of the house and the woman obeyed him. It was the way we was both raised up.”
    “What was your married name?”
    “Molly Brooks.”
    Pearl frowned.
    “My name is Molly Lucinda Fontaine Brooks. He wouldn’t call me Lucy because he hated them old television reruns with Lucy and Desi.” She swallowed hard and went on, “I’m makin’ a clean start so I want to be Lucy, not Molly. I ain’t never again goin’ to be Molly.”
    “Okay then, Lucy Fontaine, have you ever done any work at a motel?”
    “No, ma’am. All I did was some waitress work and a little cooking for the café when the fry cook called in sick. And that was twelve years ago when I was just sixteen. But I can learn right fast. You show me one time how you want it done and I’ll learn it.”
    Hire her right now before she changes her mind. You can date if someone is here to watch the lobby. And having someone help cleaning rooms would be an added bonus. You just won the lottery. Don’t tear up the check.
    Pearl didn’t even argue with the voice in her head. “Here’s the deal I can offer. I’ll pay you minimum wage and give you a room to live in as long as you want it. After thirty days we’ll sit down and decide if you want to stay. If we are both happy, I’ll give you a raise. I got one question. Are you sure your husband thinks you are dead?”
    “Cleet ain’t too smart but I fixed it so there wasn’t no doubt. I waited ’til a day when he rode with his daddy to work and took his truck to the river in the middle of the mornin’. I left it in the middle of the river bridge with my good purse settin’ on the seat. I left my best shoes and my coat on the bridge. I ate a candy bar and was so nervous that I puked it up, but I was careful to do that over the side of the bridge. Then I crawled up on the railin’ with my messy hands so there’d be fingerprints.”
    She hesitated and then went on. “Then I walked five miles to the next town. Bus comes through there once a week after the station closes. You got to buy your ticket ahead of time but I begged the driver to let me buy one from him to Memphis. If he hadn’t of done it I’d have kept on walkin’ but he did. I reckon he put the money in his pocket but I really don’t care. When I got to Memphis I counted out what I had left and got another ticket to Little Rock. From there I made it to Dallas, but I was almost out of money so I asked the man how far I could get on what I had left. That took me to Gainesville and I started walkin’ west and that lady picked me up on the side of the road right outside of town. That’s a lot of words but I reckon if you’re goin’ to hire me then you oughta have the whole thing.”
    Pearl was amazed. “Why didn’t you leave sooner if he beat you?”
    “Wife is supposed to be good. Momma said that if I was good I wouldn’t get them whoopin’s. Took me five years to save the money and to figure out that some men is just plain mean and it don’t matter how good a woman is they’re goin’ to beat on them. Savin’ the money had to be slow or he’d have found out and he had to think I was dead so he wouldn’t come after me so I had to plan it down to the last thing.”
    Pearl opened the gate at the end of the counter. “Get your things and I’ll take