"It's a girl," she says. "It's a girl.
I borrowed some money from a girl.
I've got to pay it back.
Jason, give it to me.
Please.
I'll do anything.
I've got to have it.
Mother will pay you.
I'll write to her to pay you and that I wont ever ask her for anything again.
You can see the letter.
Please, Jason.
I've got to have it."
"Tell me what you want with it, and I'll see about it," I says. "Tell me." She just stood there, with her hands working against her dress. "All right," I says. "If ten dollars is too little for you, I'll just take it home to Mother, and you know what'll happen to it then.
Of course, if you're so rich you dont need ten dollars--"
She stood there, looking at the floor, kind of mumbling to herself.
"She said she would send me some money.
She said she sends money here and you say she dont send any.
She said she's sent a lot of money here.
She says it's for me.
That it's for me to have some of it.
And you say we haven't got any money."
"You know as much about that as I do," I says. "You've seen what happens to those checks."
"Yes," she says, looking at the floor. "Ten dollars," she says. "Ten dollars."
"And you'd better thank your stars it's ten dollars," I says. "Here," I says.
I put the money order face down on the desk, holding my hand on it. "Sign it."
"Will you let me see it?" she says. "I just want to look at it.
Whatever it says, I wont ask for but ten dollars.
You can have the rest.
I just want to see it."
"Not after the way you've acted," I says.
"You've got to learn one thing, and that is that when I tell you to do something, you've got it to do.
You sign your name on that line."
She took the pen, but instead of signing it she just stood there with her head bent and the pen shaking in her hand.
Just like her mother.
"Oh, God," she says, "oh, God."
"Yes," I says. "That's one thing you'll have to learn if you never learn anything else.
Sign it now, and get on out of here."
She signed it.
"Where's the money?" she says.
I took the order and blotted it and put it in my pocket.
Then I gave her the ten dollars.
"Now you go on back to school this afternoon, you hear?" I says.
She didn't answer. She crumpled the bill up in her hand like it was a rag or something and went on out the front door just as Earl came in.
A customer came in with him and they stopped up front.
I gathered up the things and put on my hat and went up front.
"Been much busy?" Earl says.
"Not much," I says.
He looked out the door.
"That your car over yonder?" he says. "Better not try to go out home to dinner.
We'll likely have another rush just before the show opens.