He put it on, and I helped him fasten it with the aid of two pieces of cord to bridge the six or seven inch gap between the ends of the straps and the buckles.
“Just in case,” I said, “anything goes wrong about getting off this bucket. in case somebody thinks it’s a smuggler’s cute trick.”
He adjusted his shirt, patted his belly. “This is a damned poor way for an economist to handle money.”
“Just while we’re standing here, sure, it could have been earning twenty-two cents. Your next step is to act like a hostile lady in a supermarket.”
“If I am not the first off, McGee, I shall be no further back than third place.”
“I flipped your art work over the side. Sorry.”
“And the fellow with it?”
“No. He’ll wonder how much of it he dreamed. He never saw my face. But he’ll know it wasn’t Del who roughed him. He got his look at the doll. It put him into shock. I deepened it a little and tucked him into the beddybye. The steward is bribed. The pig buzzes like a bee, and we are a pair of unmitigated, revolving, reprehensible sons of bitches.”
“Revolving?”
“No matter from which direction the object is viewed.”
I opened the door. “Best of luck.”
When I got back, notices were taped to both of the state room doors, in an ornate Italian script. I went in and pushed the inside lock. Her bed was empty, the bathroom door half open, water running.
I tapped on the door. “Darling?”
“It’s all fixed.”
“Come in, dear.”
I went in. The two small bulbs made a dingy light in the small bathroom. She was sitting in the deep narrow little tub, using the shower head off the bracket, taking a sit-down shower. Her hair, gathered together and pinned at the nape of her neck, spilled down her back. Her face was scrubbed clean, a line of suds drying along her jaw. She smiled up at me, a softness in the huge green eyes.
“Morning, lover,” she said.
“Did you hear me say that I”
“Sure. I knew you’d fix it.”
She soaped the washcloth, handed it to me and said, “Do my back, huh?” She reached and got her hair and piled it up on her head, held it there and leaned forward, resting her forehead against her round wet knees.
“There’s women aboard, honest to Betsy, they’re a yard at least across the can, and I just barely fit into this crazy tub. I bet they’re always having to bring a gang of little wops into these cans and yank them loose. Gee, I kept hearing all the noise going on and dropping right back off to sleep. Done, darling? Thanks. Look, take this shower thing and rinse the suds off my back. Then dry me so I can let go of my hair. Honest, my hair is so thick and heavy, if it gets wet it doesn’t dry for hours.”
When I had finished the requests, she shook her hair back, rinsed the washcloth, wrung it out, soaped it again and held it out to me, saying, “You did so good on the back, you get to wash the front too.”
“No time for games, kiddy. Hurry it up.”
“Are you cross? Did you catch a cold? Your voice is Hoarse. you sit there and talk to me?”
“I’m not cross, but I am nervous. If my arrangements don’t work, I’d rather had you dressed and on your feet if some ship’s officers or customs people come hammering at the door.”
“All right, dear,” she said, unexpectedly humble and obedient.
It was quarter to eight, and I went out, spotted the channel buoy and estimated we’d be tied up in thirty minutes. I came across Arturo Taliapeloleoni, gave him a breakfast order and let him make another bill disappear. He brought it ten minutes later. I hustled her into the bathroom and took the tray from him at the door while he tried to peer around me without seeming to do so. With a conspirator’s grimace, he left.
She squeaked with delight at the breakfast tray, especially at the carafe of brandy I’d ordered for the coffee. After she sat down and had taken the first sip of the iced juice, she tilted her head to the side and said, “Hey, we’re slowing down now.”