"Will it work on her?" he whispered.
Johnny knew what he meant. He looked up suddenly. All at once it seemed to him that he'd never really seen Jennie. She was one of the cherries and usually he paid no attention to them.
She had left her Coke and was over looking at the magazines.
He liked the way the thin summer dress clung to her.
He never knew she had such big ones.
No wonder Mike Halloran kept her on the leash.
Suddenly, he put his hand in his pocket and took out the little piece of paper and emptied the pinch of powder into her glass.
Jennie took a magazine from the rack and went back to the fountain.
Johnny looked down at her glass.
Some traces of powder were still floating on top.
He took it and put in another squirt of sirup, then held the glass under the soda spigot while he stirred vigorously.
He put the drink down in front of her and looked up at the clock.
"Kind of late for you to be out, isn't it?"
"It's Saturday night," Jennie answered. "It was so hot in the apartment, I thought I'd come down for some air." She put a nickel on the counter and took a straw from the glass container.
Johnny anxiously watched her sip the drink.
"Is it all right?"
"A little sweet, maybe."
"I’ll put a little more soda in it," Johnny said quickly. "How's that?"
She sipped at it.
"Fine now.
Thanks."
He picked up the nickel, went back to the cash register and rang it up.
"I saw what you did," Andy whispered.
"Shut up."
Jennie was turning the pages of the magazine slowly as she sipped her drink.
Her glass was half empty when the druggist came back into the store.
"Everything O.K., Johnny?"
"O.K., Doc."
"Thanks, Johnny. Want a Coke?"
"No, thanks, Doc.
See you tomorrow."
"What did you go an' do that for?" Andy asked, when they came out onto the street. "Now we won't never know if it worked."
"We'll know," Johnny said, turning to look through the window.
Jennie had finished her drink and was climbing down from the stool.
She put the magazine back on the rack and started for the door.
Johnny moved over to intercept her.
"Going home, Jennie?"
She stopped and smiled at him. "I thought I'd go down to the park. Maybe there's a cool breeze coming in from the bay."
"Mind if we come along?" Johnny asked.
"We're not doin' anything."
She wondered what made Johnny ask to walk with her all of a sudden.
He'd never seemed interested in her before.
It was almost ten o'clock when Tom Denton came out of the saloon across from the car barn.
He was drunk. Sad, weeping, unhappy drunk.
He stared across the street at the car barn.
Old Two-twelve was in there.
His old car.
But she wasn't his car any more. She'd never be his car any more.
She was somebody else's car now.
The tears began to roll down his cheeks. He was a failure. No car, no job, not even a wife to come home to. Right now she was probably sitting in a corner of the church, praying. Didn't she understand a man had to have more than a prayer when he got into bed?