I never meant anything more in my life.”
“You don’t see the ghost of any Greek, that’s not it.
Somebody else might see it, but not Mr. Frank Chambers.
No, you want to go away just because you’re a bum, that’s all.
That’s what you were when you came here, and that’s what you are now.
When we go away, and our money’s all gone, then what?”
“What do I care?
We go away, don’t we?”
“That’s it, you don’t care.
We could stay here—”
“I knew it.
That’s what you really mean.
That’s what you’ve meant all along.
That we stay here.”
“And why not?
We’ve got it good.
Why wouldn’t we stay here?
Listen, Frank.
You’ve been trying to make a bum out of me ever since you’ve known me, but you’re not going to do it.
I told you, I’m not a bum.
I want to be something.
We stay here.
We’re not going away.
We take out the beer license.
We amount to something.”
It was late at night, and we were upstairs, half undressed.
She was walking around like she had that time after the arraignment, and talking in the same funny jerks.
“Sure we stay.
We do whatever you say, Cora.
Here, have a drink.”
“I don’t want a drink.”
“Sure you want a drink.
We got to laugh some more about getting the money, haven’t we?”
“We already laughed about it.”
“But we’re going to make more money, aren’t we?
On the beer garden?
We got to put down a couple on that, just for luck.”
“You nut.
All right.
Just for luck.”
That’s the way it went, two or three times a week.
And the tip-off was that every time I would come out of a hangover, I would be having those dreams.
I would be falling, and that crack would be in my ears.
Right after the sentence ran out, she got the telegram her mother was sick.
She got some clothes in a hurry, and I put her on the train, and going back to the parking lot I felt funny, like I was made of gas and would float off somewhere.
I felt free.
For a week, anyway, I wouldn’t have to wrangle, or fight off dreams, or nurse a woman back to a good humor with a bottle of liquor.
On the parking lot a girl was trying to start her car.
It wouldn’t do anything.
She stepped on everything and it was just plain dead.