“What’s the matter?
Won’t it go?”
“They left the ignition on when they parked it, and now the battery’s run out.” “Then it’s up to them.
They’ve got to charge it for you.”
“Yes, but I’ve got to get home.”
“I’ll take you home.”
“You’re awfully friendly.”
“I’m the friendliest guy in the world.”
“You don’t even know where I live.”
“I don’t care.”
“It’s pretty far.
It’s in the country.”
“The further the better.
Wherever it is, it’s right on my way.”
“You make it hard for a nice girl to say no.”
“Well then, if it’s so hard, don’t say it.”
She was a light-haired girl, maybe a little older than I was, and not bad on looks.
But what got me was how friendly she was, and how she wasn’t any more afraid of what I might do to her than if I was a kid or something.
She knew her way around all right, you could see that.
And what finished it was when I found out she didn’t know who I was.
We told our names on the way out, and to her mine didn’t mean a thing.
Boy oh boy what a relief that was.
One person in the world that wasn’t asking me to sit down to the table a minute, and then telling me to give them the lowdown on that case where they said the Greek was murdered.
I looked at her, and I felt the same way I had walking away from the train, like I was made of gas, and would float out from behind the wheel.
“So your name is Madge Allen, hey?”
“Well, it’s really Kramer, but I took my own name again after my husband died.”
“Well listen Madge Allen, or Kramer, or whatever you want to call it, I’ve got a little proposition to make you.”
“Yes?”
“What do you say we turn this thing around, point her south, and you and me take a little trip for about a week?”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that?”
“Why not?”
“Oh, I just couldn’t, that’s all.”
“You like me?”
“Sure I like you.”
“Well, I like you.
What’s stopping us?”
She started to say something, didn’t say it, and then laughed.
“I own up.
I’d like to, all right.
And if it’s something I’m supposed not to do, why that don’t mean a thing to me.
But I can’t.
It’s on account of the cats.”
“Cats?”
“We’ve got a lot of cats.
And I’m the one that takes care of them.
That’s why I had to get home.”
“Well, they got pet farms, haven’t they?
We’ll call one up, and tell them to come over and get them.”
That struck her funny.
“I’d like to see a pet farm’s face when it saw them.