Orrie's Story Read Free

how long before I can go in and find the body?”
    â€œDepends,” E.G. said, “if he makes any noise or not. I still say we ought to try it with a stray dog or cat, see if they make any noise. My guess is someone doesn’t when electrocuted. I think they’re paralyzed immediately.”
    Esther had a special regard for animals: she could never have agreed to experimentation of that nature. “All right, so if he makes noise, I’ll go in right away. But if he doesn’t, as you think is probable, I’ll wait awhile.”
    E.G. had lighted a cigarette from the pack on the table at his side of the bed and now blew a spurt of smoke at the ceiling. “I got to be someplace where I’ll have a good alibi just in case somebody might think I have a connection with this. So I’ll be at that bar where he always hung out. You know, the Idle Hour. When it’s all over you first call me there and ask for a Mr. Reynolds. The bartender won’t recognize your voice, will he?”
    â€œI never set foot in that place,” said Esther, taking the cigarette from him and drawing on it.
    â€œThen you call the ambulance. I’ll give them time to get there before I show up. Everything’s got to happen in the right order. If you call the ambulance first, there might be some reason why you can’t get through to me, maybe somebody’s tying up the line.” He pointed again. “When things go wrong it’s because accidents haven’t been allowed for.”
    E.G. had had no education beyond high school, but he was naturally shrewd. In acumen he made up for what had been lacking in his father, who had been so outwitted by Augie’s dad. In the sons the situation had been reversed. While Augie was failing, his cousin had done very well. Precisely what he did remained mysterious to Esther, though she knew he had some real-estate interests among others. By contrast Augie on the slightest pretext would run off at the mouth on the subject of his own failure: he had softheartedly given too much credit; the wholesalers who distributed brand-name merchandise would deal only with the big chains, leaving the little guys like himself, in those days before Pearl Harbor, with made-in-Japan crap; the high-school kids whom he hired after school and on Saturdays were never of the caliber of those who set up pins in the bowling alley or caddied, he couldn’t say why, though it was obvious to Esther that the reason was he did not pay enough. But she would rather have cut out her tongue than say a word about his store unless asked, and of course never would he have done that. She was only a woman.
    â€œSo you show up just about the time they’re carrying out the body.”
    â€œYeah,” said E.G. “It’ll still be early enough for a visit under ordinary circumstances. What would be more natural than me showing up to welcome my cousin home from the war? And lucky I got there then, what with this tragedy, a time when you need all the help you can get.” He reached for the cigarette in her right hand, his left forearm across her breasts. Both of them were naked on this unusually warm night for September.
    With one hand Esther placed the cigarette in E.G.’s lips and with the other she pushed his fingers down over her belly and into the damp thicket between her thighs. In a moment, still with the cigarette in his mouth, he had flopped her over as if she were weightless and entered her forcefully from behind.
    * * *
    Next morning, after Ellie finally took her wan self off to school on the two-mile walk she preferred, even in bad weather, to riding with her uncle, Esther repaired to the bathroom to run through the procedure by which her husband would be electrocuted. There was an immediate bit of bad news: the temperature had fallen significantly throughout the night, which could have been expected, but as yet the air gave no suggestion that it would soon rise