Bank Robbers Read Free Page A

a safe, but he’d be back into the house at six the next the morning with the money.
    Now there was a right guy, just like Nathan.
    But did Dottie ever appreciate him? Naw.
    This was not a right woman.
    And now she was coming all the way up here to gloat over her widowhood.
    That was just low.
    Teresa felt her eyes fill again with tears.
    *   *   *
    T ERESA still lived on 106th Street. Although it had been over twenty years since Dottie’d been to Teresa’s, for some reason she remembered exactly which train to take.
    The neighborhood that met Dottie’s eyes when she left the station was frightening. Groups of dangerous-looking teenagers hung out along First Avenue, blasting music and screaming at one another with foul mouths. And the filth of the avenue, and the burned-out buildings—it looked like a war zone. Dottie couldn’t think of anyone Teresa’s age having to make her way through this destruction, and for a second Dottie felt that maybe she didn’t have it that bad on Sullivan Street.
    She kept glancing over her shoulder as she stood in the small hallway waiting for Teresa to let her inside. The buzzer rang and Dottie quickly opened the inside door and shut it, making sure it was locked behind her.
    Dottie slowly climbed up the first flight of stairs in the tenement building. She stopped and took in a deep breath, resting on the second-floor landing.
    She still couldn’t believe she was fifty-eight. Deep down, Dottie was still twenty-four, that was the way she felt. When she looked in the mirror, it was like looking at herself with a mask on.
    It amazed her that climbing stairs had begun to tire her quickly. Not only stairs, any physical activity at all. Dottie stared up at the next set of white stone stairs. Even the exercises they’d given her to do for her bones didn’t help with some things, although she felt a lot better and was a lot more agile now than when she’d first begun them.
    Dottie took another deep breath and started walking again.
    Lord, not only was the outside terrible, she thought, but who could walk up all these flights each day? Especially someone of Teresa’s weight. It must take her hours, she thought, as she continued up the steep steps.
    â€œDottie?” she heard Teresa’s screechy voice echo down to her. “Dottie, you get in okay?”
    â€œYeah.” Dottie exhaled as loudly as she could.
    â€œIt’s the top floor,” Teresa called down to her.
    Dottie leaned on the banister breathing hard.
    â€œWhat floor,” she panted, “is that?”
    â€œSixth.”
    â€œAw, God Almighty,” Dottie muttered under what little breath she could catch.
    By the time she reached the top floor, her throat was dry and she was gasping. Her hip was aching slightly. She slammed against the door and pushed it open with the entire weight of her body.
    â€œWhat’d you do? Run up here?” Teresa asked, apparently stunned to see her so soon.
    Dottie shook her head, just trying to get some breath to stay in her lungs. She shook her head, tried to speak, and staggered over to a chair and looked at Teresa, motioning for some water.
    Teresa turned to the sink, took a glass out of the drainer and filled it with water. She handed it to Dottie.
    She drank slowly, finally getting her breathing back to normal.
    â€œHow do you do that each day?”
    â€œI don’t. My daughter and her husband bring me up groceries twice a week. Way the neighborhood is now, I don’t go out unless I gotta,” she said. “You want some coffee or something?”
    â€œSure.” Dottie said, and watched Teresa turn around. She heard herself gasp, as she really looked at the woman for the first time.
    Teresa had lost an entire person of weight.
    They were the same height, and now Teresa seemed to be almost exactly Dottie’s size. Teresa turned back, looking at her suspiciously.
    â€œTeresa, you’re