The Postman Always Rings Twice / Почтальон всегда звонит дважды

© Шитова Л. Ф., адаптация, сокращение, словарь, 2023

© ООО «ИД «Антология», 2023

Chapter 1

They threw me off the hay truck about noon. I had got into it the night before, at the border, and as soon as I got there, I went to sleep. I needed much of that, after three weeks in Mexico, and I was still getting it when they pulled off to one side to let the engine cool. Then they saw a foot sticking out and threw me off. I tried some joke, but all I got was a cigarette and I hiked down the road to find something to eat.

That was when I saw this Twin Oaks Tavern. It was nothing but a roadside sandwich joint, like a million others in California. There was a lunchroom part, and over that a house part, where they lived, and off to one side a filling station. I went in there in a hurry and began looking down the road. When the Greek came up, I asked if a guy had been by in a Cadillac. He was to meet me here, I said, and we were to have lunch. Not today, said the Greek. He layed a place at one of the tables and asked me what I was going to have. I said orange juice, corn flakes, fried eggs and bacon, and coffee. Pretty soon he came out with the orange juice and the corn flakes.

“Hold on[1], now. One thing I got to tell you. If this guy don't come, you'll have to trust me for it. He was to pay for it, and I'm kind of short, myself[2].”

“Hokay.”

I saw he was on[3], and stopped talking about the guy in the Cadillac. Pretty soon I saw he wanted something.

“What you do, what kind of work, hey?”

“Oh, one thing and another. Why?”[4]

“How old you?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Young fellow, hey? I could use young fellow right now. In my business.”

“Nice place you got here.”

“Air. Is a nice. No fog, like in a Los Angeles. All a time nice a clear.”

“Must be good at night.”

“Sleep fine. You understand automobile? Fix'm up?”

“Sure. I'm a born mechanic.”

He told me some more about the air, and how healthy he's been since he bought this place, and how he can't figure it out, why his help won't stay with him.

“Hey? You think you like it here?”

By that time I had finished the coffee, and lit the cigar he gave me. “I tell you how it is. I got a couple of other propositions, that's my trouble. But I'll think about it.”

Then I saw her. She had been in the kitchen, but she came in to gather up my dishes. Except for the figure, she really wasn't any raving beauty[5], but her lips stuck out in a way that made me want to kiss them hard.

“Meet my wife.”

She didn't look at me and just went out with the dishes. I nodded at the Greek, and that was all. I left, then, but in five minutes I was back, to leave a message for the guy in the Cadillac. A half hour later, I was in the filling station, fixing flats[6].

“What's your name, hey?”

“Frank Chambers.”

“Nick Papadakis, mine.”

We shook hands, and he went. In a minute I heard him singing. He had a good voice.

Chapter 2

Soon a guy came along that was furious because somebody had pasted a sticker on his wind wing[7]. I had to go in the kitchen to clean it for him.

“You got a cloth? That I can put to this thing?”

“That's not what you meant.”

“Sure it is.”

“You think I'm Mex.”

“Nothing like it.”

“Yes, you do. You're not the first one. Well, get this. I'm just as white as you are, see? I may have dark hair and look a little that way, but I'm just as white as you are.”

“Why, you don't look Mex.”

“I'm telling you. I'm just as white as you are.”

“No, you don't look even a little bit Mex. Those Mexican women, they all got big hips and legs and breasts up under their chin and yellow skin and hair that looks like it had bacon fat on it. You don't look like that. You're small, and got nice white skin, and your hair is soft and curly, even if it is black. Only thing you've got that's Mex is your teeth. They all got white teeth, you've got to hand that to them[8].”

“My name was Smith before I was married. That don't sound much like a Mex, does it?”

“Not much.”

“What's more, I don't even come from around here.

I come from Iowa[9].”

“Smith, hey. What's your first name?”

“Cora. You can call me that, if you want to.”

I knew for certain, that her Greek husband made her feel she wasn't white, and she was even afraid I would begin calling her Mrs. Papadakis.

“Cora. Sure. And how about calling me Frank?”

She came over and began helping me with the wind wing. She was so close I could smell her. I said it right close to her ear, almost in a whisper. “How come you married this Greek[10], anyway?”

She jumped like I had cut her with a whip. “Is that any of your business?”

“Yeah. Plenty.”[11]

“Here's your wind wing.”

“Thanks.”

I went out. I had what I wanted. From now on, it would be business between her and me. She might not say yes, but she wouldn't stop me. She knew what I meant.

That night at supper, the Greek got sore at her for not giving me more fried potatoes. He wanted me to like it there, and not walk out on him like the others had.

“Give a man something to eat.”

“They're right on the stove. Can't he help himself?”

“It's all right. I'm not ready yet.”

We sat at the kitchen table, he at one end, she at the other, and me in the middle. I didn't look at her. But I could see her dress. It was one of these white nurse uniforms[12], like they all wear, whether they work in a dentist's office or a bakeshop. It had been clean in the morning, but it was a little bit dirty now. I could smell her.

“Well for heaven's sake[13].”

She got up to get the potatoes. Her dress fell open for a second, so I could see her leg. When she gave me the potatoes, I couldn't eat. “Well there now. After all that, and now he doesn't want them.”

“Hokay. But he have'm, if he want'm[14].”

“I'm not hungry. I ate a big lunch.”

He acted like he had won a great victory, and now he would forgive her. “She is a all right. She is my little white bird. She is my little white dove.”

He winked and went upstairs. She and I sat there, and didn't say a word. When he came down he had a big bottle and a guitar. He poured some out of the bottle, but it was sweet Greek wine, and made me sick to my stomach. He started to sing. He had a tenor voice, not one of these little tenors like you hear on the radio, but a big tenor, and on the high notes he put in a sob like on a Caruso record[15]. But I couldn't listen to him now. I was feeling worse by the minute.

He saw my face and took me outside. “Out in a air, you feel better.”

“'S all right. I'll be all right.”

“Sit down. Keep quiet.”

“Go ahead in. I just ate too much lunch. I'll be all right.”

He went in, and I threw up. It was like hell the lunch[16], or the potatoes, or the wine. I wanted that woman so bad[17] I couldn't even keep anything on my stomach.

Next morning the sign was blown down. About the middle of the night it had started to blow, and by morning it was a windstorm that took the sign with it.

I kept tinkering with the sign, and he would come out and watch me. “How did you get this sign anyway?”

“Was here when I buy the place. Why?”

“It's lousy all right. I wonder you do any business at all.”

I went to gas up a car[18], and left him to think that over. When I got back he was still looking at it. Three of the lights were broken.

“Put in new lights, hang'm up, will be all right.”

“You're the boss.”

“What's a matter with it?”

“Well, it's out of date[19]. Nobody has bulb signs any more. They got Neon signs. They show up better. Then, what does it say? Twin Oaks, that's all. The Tavern part, it's not in lights. Well, Twin Oaks don't make me hungry. It don't make me want to stop and get something to eat.”

“Fix'm up, will be hokay.”

“Why don't you get a new sign?”

“I'm busy.”

But pretty soon he was back, with a piece of paper. He had drawn a new sign for himself, and colored it up with red, white, and blue. It said Twin Oaks Tavern, and N. Papadakis.

“Swell[20].”

I fixed up the words, so they were spelled right.

“Nick, why do we hang up the old sign at all? Why don't you go to the city today and get this new sign made? It's a beauty, believe me it is. And it's important.”

“I do it. By golly[21], I go.”

Los Angeles was about twenty miles away, and right after lunch, he went. Soon as he was gone, I locked the front door. I took a plate that a guy had left, and went on back in the kitchen with it. She was there.

“Here's a plate that was out there.”

“Oh, thanks.”

I put it down. The fork in her hand was rattling like a tambourine.

“I was going to go, but I started some things cooking and I thought I better not.”

“I got plenty to do, myself.”

“You feeling better?”

“I'm all right.”

“What's that?”

Somebody was out front, knocking on the door. “Sounds like somebody trying to get in.”

“Is the door locked, Frank?”

“I must have locked it.”

She looked at me, and got pale. Then she went into the lunchroom, but in a minute she was back.

“They went away.”

“I don't know why I locked it.”

“I forgot to unlock it.”

She started for the lunchroom again, but I stopped her. “Let's – leave it locked.”

“Nobody can get in if it's locked. I got some cooking to do. I'll wash up this plate.”

I took her in my arms and pressed my mouth hard against hers… “Bite me! Bite me!”

I bit her. I sunk my teeth into her lips so deep I could feel the blood flow into my mouth. It was running down her neck when I carried her upstairs.

Chapter 3

For two days after that I was dead, but the Greek was sore at me because I hadn't fixed the swing door[22] that led from the lunchroom into the kitchen. She told him it swung back and hit her in the mouth. She had to tell him something. Her mouth was all swelled up where I had bit it. So he said it was my fault that I hadn't fixed it.

But the real reason he was sore at me was over the sign. He had fallen for it so hard[23] he was afraid I would say it was my idea, stead of his. When it was ready I hung it up. It had on it all that he had drawn on the paper – a Greek flag and an American flag, and hands shaking hands[24], and Satisfaction Guaranteed. It was all in red, white, and blue Neon letters, and I waited until dark to turn on the light[25]. When I snapped the switch, it lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Well, I've seen many a sign in my time, but never one like that. I got to hand it to you, Nick.”

“By golly. By golly.”

We shook hands. We were friends again.

Next day I was alone with her for a minute.

“How are you, Cora?”

“Lousy.”

From then on, I began to smell her again.

One day the Greek heard there was a guy up the road undercutting him on gas[26]. He jumped in the car to go see about it. I was in my room when he drove off, and I rushed to the kitchen. But she was already there, standing in the door.

I went over and looked at her mouth. The swelling was all gone, but you could still see the tooth marks, little blue lines on both lips. I touched them with my fingers. They were soft and damp. I kissed them, but not hard. They were little soft kisses. I had never thought about them before. She stayed until the Greek came back, about an hour. We didn't do anything. We just lay on the bed. She kept rumpling my hair, and looking up at the ceiling, like she was thinking.

“You like blueberry pie?”

“I don't know. Yeah. I guess so.”

“I'll make you some.”

“Look out, Frank. You'll break a spring leaf.”

“To hell with the spring leaf.”

We were going into a little eucalyptus grove beside the road. The Greek had sent us down to the market to take back some steaks he said were lousy, and on the way back it had got dark. I drove the car in there, but when I was in among the trees I stopped. Her arms were around me before I even cut the lights. We did plenty. After a while we just sat there. “I can't go on like this, Frank.”

“Me neither[27].”

“I can't stand it. And I've got to get drunk with you, Frank. You know what I mean? Drunk.”

“I know.”

“And I hate that Greek.”

“Why did you marry him? You never did tell me that.”

“I haven't told you anything.”

“We haven't wasted any time on talk.”

“I was working in a hash house. You spend two years in a Los Angeles hash house and you'll take the first guy that's got a gold watch.”

“When did you leave Iowa?”

“Three years ago. I won a beauty contest. I won a high school beauty contest, in Des Moines[28]. That's where I lived. The prize was a trip to Hollywood. And two weeks later I was in the hash house.”

“Did you get in movies?”

“They gave me a test. It was all right in the face. But they talk, now.[29] And when I began to talk, up there on the screen, they knew me for what I was[30], and so did I. A cheap Des Moines trollop, that had as much chance in pictures as a monkey has. Not as much. A monkey, anyway, can make you laugh. All I did was make you sick[31].”

“And then?”

“Then two years of guys pinching your leg and leaving nickel tips[32] and asking how about a little party tonight. I went on some of them parties, Frank.”

“And then?”

“You know what I mean about them parties?”

“I know.”

“Then he came along. I took him and meant to stay by him. But I can't stand it anymore. God, do I look like a little white bird?”

“To me, you look more like a hell cat.”

“That's one thing about you. I don't have to fool you all the time. And you're clean. You're not greasy. Frank, do you have any idea what that means?”

“I can kind of imagine.”

“I don't think so. He makes me sick at the stomach when he touches me. I'm not really such a hell cat, Frank. I just can't stand it anymore.”

“Cora, how about you and me going away?”

“I've thought about it. A lot.”

“We'll leave this Greek and go away.”

“Where to?”

“Anywhere. What do we care?”[33]

“Anywhere. You know where that is?”

“All over[34]. Anywhere we choose.”

“No it's not. It's the hash house.”

“I'm not talking about the hash house. I'm talking about the road. It's fun, Cora. And nobody knows it better than I do. Isn't that what we want? Just to be a pair of tramps, like we really are?”

“You were a fine tramp. You didn't even have socks.”

“You liked me.”

“I loved you. I would love you without even a shirt. I would love you specially without a shirt, so I could feel how nice and hard your shoulders are.”

“Fighting railroad detectives developed the muscles.”

“And you're hard all over. Big and tall and hard. And your hair is light. You're not a little soft greasy guy with black hair that he puts bay rum[35] on every night.”

“That must be a nice smell.”

“But it won't do, Frank[36]. That road, it don't lead anywhere but to the hash house. The hash house for me, and some job like it for you. A lousy parking lot job, where you wear a smock. I'd cry if I saw you in a smock, Frank.”

“Well?”

She sat there a long time, holding my hand in both of hers. “Frank, do you love me?”

“Yes.”

“Do you love me so much that not anything matters?”

“Yes.”

“There's one way.”

“Did you say you weren't really a hell cat?”

“I said it, and I mean it. I'm not what you think I am, Frank. I want to work and be something, that's all. But you can't do it without love. Do you know that, Frank? Well, I've made one mistake. And I've got to be a hell cat, just once, to fix it.[37] But I'm not really a hell cat, Frank.”

“They hang you for that.”

“Not if you do it right. You're smart, Frank. You'll think of a way. Don't worry. I'm not the first woman that had to turn hell cat to get out of a mess[38].”

“He never did anything to me. He's all right.”

“The hell he's all right. He stinks, I tell you. He's greasy and he stinks. And do you think I'm going to let you wear a smock, with Service Auto Parts[39] printed on the back, Thank-U Call Again[40], while he has four suits and a dozen silk shirts? Isn't that business half mine? Don't I cook? Don't I cook good? Don't you do your part?”

“You talk like it was all right[41].”

“Who's going to know if it's all right or not, but you and me?”

“You and me.”

“That's it, Frank. That's all that matters[42], isn't it? Not you and me and the road, or anything else but you and me.”

“You must be a hell cat, though.”

“That's what we're going to do. Kiss me, Frank. On the mouth.”

I kissed her. Her eyes were shining up at me like two blue stars.

Chapter 4

“Got any hot water?”

“What's the matter with the bathroom?”[43]

“Nick's in there.”

“Oh. I'll give you some out of the kettle.”

It was about ten o'clock at night, and we had closed up, and the Greek was in the bathroom, doing his Saturday night wash. I was to take the water up to my room, get ready to shave, and then remember I had left the car out. I was to go outside, and give her one on the horn[44] if somebody came. She was to wait till she heard him in the tub, go in for a towel, and hit him from behind with a blackjack I had made for her out of a sugar bag filled with ball bearings. At first, I was to do it, but we figured he wouldn't pay any attention to her[45] if she went in there, where if I said I was after my razor, he might get out of the tub or something and help me look. Then she was to hold him under until he drowned. Then she was to leave the water running a little bit, and step out the window to the porch roof, and come down the stepladder I had put there, to the ground. She was to hand me the blackjack, and go back to the kitchen. I was to put the ball bearings back in the box, throw the bag away, put the car in, and go up to my room and start to shave. She would wait till the water began dripping down in the kitchen, and call me. We would break the door down, find him, and call the doctor.

In the end, we figured it would look like he had slipped in the tub, knocked himself out, and then drowned. I got the idea from a piece in the paper where a guy had said that most accidents happen right in people's own bathtubs.

“Be careful of it. It's hot.”

“Thanks.”

It was in a saucepan, and I took it up in my room, set it on the bureau, and laid my shaving stuff out[46]. I went down and out to the car, and took a seat in it so I could see the road and the bathroom window, both. The Greek was singing. I looked in the kitchen. She was still there.

A truck and a trailer swung around the bend. I fingered the horn. Sometimes those truckmen stopped for something to eat, and they were the kind that would beat on the door till you opened up. But they went on. A couple more cars went by. They didn't stop. I looked in the kitchen again, and she wasn't there. A light went on in the bedroom.

Then, all of a sudden, I saw something move by the porch. I almost hit the horn, but then I saw it was a cat. It was just a gray cat, but it shook me up. A cat was the last thing I wanted to see then. I couldn't see it for a minute, and then there it was again, smelling around the stepladder. I didn't want to blow the horn[47], because it wasn't anything but a cat, but I didn't want it around that stepladder. I got out of the car, went back there, and shooed it away.

I got halfway back to the car, when it came back, and started up the ladder. I shooed it away again, and then stood there for a little bit, looking to see if it was coming back.

A state cop[48] came around the bend. He saw me standing there, cut his motor, and came wheeling in, before I could move. When he stopped he was between me and the car. I couldn't blow the horn.

“Taking it easy?”[49]

“Just came out to put the car away.”

“That your car?”

“Belongs to this guy I work for.”

“O.K. Just checking up.”

He looked around, and then he saw something. “I'll be damned. Look at that.”

“Look at what?”

“Goddam cat, going up that stepladder.”

“Ha.”

“I love a cat.”

He pulled on his gloves and went. Soon as he was out of sight[50] I reached for the horn. I was too late. There was a flash of fire from the porch, and every light in the place went out. Inside, Cora was screaming with an awful sound in her voice. “Frank! Frank! Something has happened!”

I ran in the kitchen, but it was black dark in there and I didn't have any matches in my pocket, and I had to feel my way. We met on the stairs, she going down, and me going up. She screamed again.

“Keep quiet, for God's sake keep quiet! Did you do it?”

“Yes, but the lights went out, and I haven't held him under yet!”

“We got to bring him to![51] There was a state cop out there, and he saw that stepladder!”

“Phone for the doctor!”

“You phone, and I'll get him out of there!”

I went in the bathroom, and over to the tub. He was laying there in the water, but his head wasn't under. I tried to lift him. I had a hell of a time. He was slippery with soap, and I had to stand in the water before I could raise him at all. All the time I could hear her down there, talking to the operator. They didn't give her a doctor. They gave her the police.

I got him up, and laid him over the edge of the tub, and then got out myself, and dragged him in the bedroom and laid him on the bed. She came up, then, and we found matches, and got a candle lit. Then we went to work on him. I packed his head in wet towels, while she rubbed his hands and feet.

“They're sending an ambulance.”

“All right. Did he see you do it?”

“I don't know.”

“Were you behind him?”

“I think so. But then the lights went out, and I don't know what happened. What did you do to the lights?”

“Nothing. The fuse popped[52].”

“Frank. He'd better not come to[53].”

“He's got to come to. If he dies, we're sunk.[54] I tell you, that cop saw the stepladder. If he dies, then they'll know.”

“But suppose he saw me? What's he going to say when he comes to?”

“Maybe he didn't. We just got to tell him a story, that's all. You were in here, and the lights popped, and you heard him slip and fall, and he didn't answer when you spoke to him. Then you called me, that's all. No matter[55] what he says, you got to stick to it. If he saw anything, it was just his imagination, that's all.”

“Why don't they hurry with that ambulance?”

“It'll be here.”

Soon as the ambulance came, they put him on a stretcher and shoved him in. She rode with him. I followed along in the car. Halfway to Glendale, a state cop met us and rode on ahead. They went seventy miles an hour, and I couldn't keep up. They were lifting him out when I got to the hospital, and the state cop was giving orders. When he saw me he gave a start[56] and stared at me. It was the same cop.

They took him in, put him on a table, and wheeled him in an operating room. Cora and myself sat out in the hall. Pretty soon a nurse came and sat down with us. Then the cop came, and he had a sergeant with him. They kept looking at me. Cora was telling the nurse how it happened. “I was in there, in the bathroom I mean, getting a towel, and then the lights went out just like somebody had shot a gun off. Oh my, they made a terrible noise. I heard him fall. He had been standing up, getting ready to turn on the shower. I spoke to him, and he didn't say anything, and it was all dark, and I couldn't see anything, and I didn't know what had happened. I mean I thought he had been electrocuted or something. So then Frank heard me screaming, and he came, and got him out, and then I called up for the ambulance, and I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't come quick like they did.”

“They always hurry on a late call.”

“I'm so afraid he's hurt bad.”

“I don't think so. They're taking X-Rays[57] in there now.

But I don't think he's hurt bad.”

“Oh my, I hope not.”

The cops never said a word. They just sat there and looked at us.

They wheeled him out, and his head was covered with bandages. They took him up and put him in a room. We all went in there and sat down. Somebody said something, and the nurse made them keep quiet. A doctor came and took a look, and went out. We sat there a hell of a while. Then the nurse went over and looked at him.