The Postman Always Rings Twice Read Free Page B

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, back 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, 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 ran it clear back to the shacks. I started back to the car, and then stood there for a little bit, looking to see if it was coming back. A state cop 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?"
          "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. They're always up to something."
          He pulled on his gloves, took a look at the night, kicked his pedal a couple of times, and went. Soon as he was out of sight I dove 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! 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!"
          She went down, and I kept on up. 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 wrists 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."
          "Frank. He'd better not come to."
          "He's got to come to. If he dies, we're sunk. I tell you, that cop saw the stepladder. If he dies, then they'll know. If he dies, they've got us."
          "But suppose he saw me? What's he going to say when he comes to?"
          "Maybe he