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."Matchmaking, at your age, Ann?""No.She said she worked a couple years in a flying act, and she saw there was no girl in your act andwondered if you wanted one, that was all.If you were interested."Mario said, "I thought she looked kind of professional for a web act.""Oh, so you are interested?" Little Ann teased."No.Not really.""You're mean, Mario," Little Ann said, giggling."The best-looking man with the show, and you don'thave a steady girl, or anything."Twisting his face into a purposely droll grimace, Mario teased, "Don't you know I'm waiting for you togrow up, sweetheart?""Oh, you!" Little Ann giggled, turning poppy-red.Tommy hoisted the tied-up laundry and said brusquely, "We going to take this to town, or you want tostay here talking it up with Mario?""I want to stay here talking it up—" Abruptly Little Ann realized Tommy was not teasing."Sure, I'mready.Let's go." She opened the door for Tommy to maneuver the bundle of laundry out.As they put itinto the back seat of the Santelli car, she said, "Are you jealous, or something? Can't I kid around withMario if I want to? He's old enough to be my father , almost!""Oh, nuts! I don't care who you kid around with.And he isn't either; he's only about twenty-three, that'sall." He got into the car, rolling down the window against the steamy heat, and backed the car around.He felt grumpy, and didn't know why.Watching Mario flirting with Little Ann—for that was what theyhad been doing, and he knew it—had somehow made him deeply uncomfortable."Oh, good," said Little Ann as they turned into the gravel lot outside the sign WASHATERIA, "it's oneof those new kind with automatic machines and dryers.They're kind of fun."Two hefty women in housedresses stared as the two youngsters came in.Tommy paid no attention; hewas used to being stared at."Let me help, Tommy.""Okay, if you want to.The towels go in one machine and the practice tights and stuff in the other one.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlAnd the robes have to be done in another machine all by themselves because the color will run—and setthe water for cold, not hot."Little Ann giggled again."Hey, I ought to be telling you all that— I'm the girl!"They worked in silence, loading the machines.One of the women, staring at them curiously, asked, "Youyoung people are new in town, aren't you? Are you with the oil-field people out at the edge of town?""No, ma'am," said Little Ann politely, "we're with the circus.""Are you—do you take part in the performance?""Yes, we're both in different acts.""My, how interesting!" The woman withdrew, reluctantly, to tend her own machines, assuring them shewould watch for them during the performance.Tommy whispered, "These doggone hick towns.Look, she's still staring.""It's my darn hair," said Little Ann, pouting.Her hair was, Tommy remembered from a couple of yearsago, normally a rather mousy brown, but when she went into the act Margot had, as a matter of course,begun bleaching it until it was platinum blonde."When I was in high school last year, you should've heardthem.Nice girls don't bleach their hair, and all that; just the same, a lot of them started doing it, too.Mother says it makes people look at me.It sure does.""Let 'em look.I think it's pretty." Tommy suddenly thought of Stella and wondered if her hair had beennaturally blonde or if she bleached it, too."There's a soda machine over there.Want a bottle?"They drank from the bottles, listening to the clothes sloshing in the machines.Tommy wondered what hehad been worrying about.This seemed perfectly natural, like the old days."Did you like California, Tommy?""Yeah, it was nice.Only it seemed funny to have palm trees around, and no snow even at Christmas.""Mother said, once, that Lucia Santelli was probably the finest woman flyer in the world.Is she one ofthe same family? Did you meet her?""Sure, she's Mario's mother," Tommy said."I heard she broke her back.Is she awfully crippled?""No, you can hardly tell.Just sometimes she moves kind of slow, that's all.She helped Mario's brotherJohnny with his act." They started talking about the Santellis while they loaded the clothes into the dryers."Watch it and don't put the tights in," Tommy warned."They're wool, so they'll shrink.""There's a girl in the web act wears silk tights, like a ballet dancer.She says wool makes her break out ina rash.I think she just wants to show off her legs," Little Ann said."I guess wool makes a lot of people break out in a rash," Tommy said."Mario's sister—Liss—wearsGenerated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlsilk tights, but she was a ballet dancer for a while.""She isn't in the act now?""No, she got married and had a baby," Tommy said."Well, so did my mother.And yours," Little Ann argued."But her husband isn't with the show," Tommy said."I think circus people should only marry circus people.""Well, I guess they mostly do." Tommy did not want to discuss it."Listen, Angelo said I could take thecar Sunday.If there's a good movie, want to go see it?""Love it," Little Ann said.Then, suspiciously, "Did my mother ask you to ask me?""Heck, no! Why'd she do a thing like that?""Because I was saying just the other day how I never saw you anymore, and right away you ask me, andI don't need to have my mother fix up dates for me!""Nobody fixed it up.Angelo was bawling me out because he said the other kids in the show would bethinking I was stuck up, and then he said I could take the car if I wanted to take somebody out.""Okay, then, I'd love to go.Unless it's a Western—I don't like Westerns.Look, that dryer's stopped.Want me to help you fold the clothes?"Sunday evening, just as it was beginning to get dark, Tommy called for Little Ann at the trailer.The faintquiet light around the lot, closed down for Sunday, made him uneasy; he was used to the brilliant lights ofperformances, and to the end of his life, dimness troubled and frightened him in a way he could never putinto words.Little Ann was wearing a pink dress with shiny white scrolls at the neck, and white wedge-heeledsandals.He held the car door open for her for the first time."You look cute, Little Ann.Watch your fingers," he added automatically before slamming the door.She still had babyish dimples when she smiled."I wish people would just call me Ann.There isn't anyBig Ann with the show anymore, and it sounds goofy.""I'll try to remember.But I been calling you that since we were about six.Listen, the movie in town is aWestern, but five, six miles out the highway there's one of those new drive-in places—where you sit inyour car and watch the show on a big screen up front, and you get a speaker for your car [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]