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whiskey, too.  It will relax us and make it easier to talk. Actually, Mr.
Conductor, make them doubles.
 Ruby, I thought we were friends.
182 Beverly Sims
 Why, honey, do you say such a thing? She giggled.  It is not
just anyone I allow to hide in my closet and watch me do& well, all
those things. But seriously, of course we are friends. Why would you
doubt it?
 Quite simply, because you disappeared without more than a
small note. No explanation, really, or information. I wanted to find
you, but you were gone. I went to your room. There was nothing
there. Your landlord said only that you had moved on and would tell
me nothing, either. Why, Ruby? Nothing could be so bad you could
not share it with me.
Ruby hesitated before lifting her veil. The scars were still fresh
enough to be brilliant red. Her cuts crisscrossed her face. Lucretia
counted nine.  If you think these are bad, Lulu, wait until you see the
rest of my body.
Lucretia kept her eyes on her friend s face before moving to make
direct eye contact.  Did you think I would not take care of you? That I
would abandon you? Oh, my God, Ruby, how did you stand the pain?
Who did this? Tell me what happened.
Ruby dropped the veil back in place.  It was just another john, but
a new one. I was having a drink at the Cattle Club when he
approached me. We talked for a while and he was quite gentlemanly.
He agreed to my price, even promising a little more for something
special he wanted. This was not the first time someone wanted
 something special and always before it was something like licking
cream off my tits or sucking my toes. You know, that kind of thing.
 This guy wanted to tie me up. That was all right too, a lot of men
want that. Makes them feel dominant or such. Anyway, he tied me,
naked, naturally, to my bed, and stuffed my mouth with my
underwear. By that time, I began to worry, but it was too late. He
pulled a knife from his jacket and slowly, without a word, began to
cut me. One of my neighbors saw him leave and noticed the blood on
his clothes, so she peeked inside. That is all I will say about that part
of it.
The Major s Wife 183
 When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed, in unbearable pain.
They gave me drugs and treated me like a baby, but it still hurt. I
wanted to die and begged them to give me something, but they
refused. Later, I found out I had been there for two weeks. That is
when I sent you the note. I knew you would wonder. However, that
was not the worst of it. The drug they gave me was laudanum, so
when they stopped treating me with it& well, getting over it was
worse than the cuts. It took several really bad weeks more to get past
that. Again, there is nothing more I will say about that.
Lucretia listened to her friend, never taking her eyes away from
Ruby s veil. Tears slid down her pink cheeks and soaked her dress
bodice. Finally, Lulu stood up and bent to embrace her wounded
friend. She held her so tightly that Ruby nearly cried out from the
pressure on her scars.
 Ruby, I love you. Please let me take care of you. You are all I
have in the world.
 No, Lulu, let us take care of each other. Now, drink your
whiskey so I can order us another and we will talk of better things.
She laughed.  If we can think of any.
They rode in silence for a time, watching the barren land rush by.
Now and then, they crossed a river with trees and houses nearby.
Horses, cattle, and buffalo ran freely and an occasional cowboy raised
his hat in a salute as the train passed. Maybe it was not a salute,
exactly, but a wave of indignation, as many ranchers disliked the
railroad and tolerated it only because it helped move their cattle to
market.
Lucretia s money made the trip bearable because they had their
own sleeping room with benches that made into beds, with storage for
their luggage above and room service for their meals, if they chose.
Even then, they felt the cold until the conductor came with a small
woodstove that slowly warmed the room.
Ruby finally spoke.  After I recovered enough to leave the
hospital, I had no money left and no way to earn any. I tried to get
184 Beverly Sims
jobs& bartending, hotel maid, washing dishes, scrubbing chamber
pots, anything, but my scars and the veil always got me only a  not
hiring.
 A scarred whore attracts no customers. Once in a while I might
be lucky and some man got excited about having a mysterious veiled
female, but that would end immediately once he saw my body. Even
in the dark, they could feel my scars. I only had one customer who
actually liked it and he came to me several times a week. He paid me
well enough to cover what little I ate and the tiny room I found. I
could have subsisted on that until the night he wanted to add to my
scars.
 I had no choice but to run. I had no friends anymore. The only
place I could think of was to run to you. I was waiting at the depot for
the wagon that was supposed to run daily from there to the fort. I
planned to send you a note. If you did not answer, well, truthfully, I
had decided to just walk in front of the next train.
Once again, Lucretia hugged her friend.  How could you think I
would not want you? That is so silly.
 It was not just you involved. What would your husband think of
an old, scarred whore as your friend? What about Aunt Liz?
 None of that matters a whit now, Ruby.
 Yes, it matters to me. Tell me.
 I honestly do not know. It would not have made any difference,
anyway. You are my friend and that is all that counts. Truthfully, I
think Liz would have no problem with it, other than that I watched the
things you did. Jeffrey, on the other hand, already knew about it. I [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]