They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Read Free Page B

said.
    ‘Shut up,’ I said.
    I walked away with her, down into a corner, where we slowed up, barely moving along.
    ‘Are you crazy?’ I said. ‘Why don’t you let Ruby alone?’
    ‘Don’t worry, I’m through wasting my breath on her. If she wants to have a deformed baby, that’s okay by me.’
    ‘Hello, Gloria,’ a voice said.
    We looked around. It was an old woman in a front row box seat by the railing. I didn’t know her name but she was quite a character. She had been there every night, bringing her blanket and her lunch. One night she wrapped up in her blanket and stayed all night. She was about sixty-five years old.
    ‘Hello,’ Gloria said.
    ‘What was the matter down there?’ the old woman asked.
    ‘Nothing,’ Gloria said. ‘Just a little argument.’
    ‘How do you feel?’ the old woman asked.
    ‘All right, I guess,’ Gloria replied.
    ‘I’m Mrs Layden,’ the old woman said. ‘You’re my favourite couple.’
    ‘Well, thanks,’ I said.
    ‘I tried to enter this,’ Mrs Layden said, ‘but they wouldn’t let me. They said I was too old, but I’m only sixty.’
    ‘Well, that’s fine,’ I said.
    Gloria and I had stopped, our arms around each other, swaying our bodies. You had to keep moving all the time. A couple of men moved into the loge behind the old woman. Both of them were chewing unlighted cigars.
    ‘They’re dicks,’ Gloria said under her breath.
    ‘… How do you like the contest?’ I asked Mrs Layden.
    ‘I enjoy it very much,’ she said. ‘Very much. Such nice boys and girls …’
    ‘Move along, kids,’ Rollo said, walking by.
    I nodded to Mrs Layden, moving along. ‘Can you feature that?’ Gloria asked. ‘She ought to be home putting a diaper on the baby. Christ, I hope I never live to be that old.’
    ‘How do you know those fellows are detectives?’ I asked.
    ‘I’m psychic,’ Gloria replied. ‘My God, can you feature that old lady? She’s a nut about these things. They ought to charge her room rent.’ She shook her head. ‘I hope I never live to be that old,’ she said again.
    The meeting with the old lady depressed Gloria very much. She said it reminded her of the women in the little town in West Texas where she had lived.
    ‘Alice Faye’s just come in,’ one of the girls said. ‘See her? Sitting right over there.’
    It was Alice Faye all right, with a couple of men I didn’t recognize.
    ‘See her?’ I asked Gloria.
    ‘I don’t want to see her,’ Gloria said.
    ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Rocky said into the microphone, ‘we are honoured tonight to have with us that beautiful moving picture star, Miss Alice Faye. Give Miss Faye a big hand, ladies and gentlemen.’
    Everybody applauded and Miss Faye nodded her head, smiling. Socks Donald, sitting in a box seat by the orchestra platform, was smiling too. The Hollywood crowd had started coming.
    ‘Come on,’ I said to Gloria, ‘clap your hands.’
    ‘Why should I applaud for her?’ Gloria said. ‘What’s she got I haven’t? …’
    ‘You’re jealous,’ I said.
    ‘You’re goddam right I’m jealous. As long as I am a failure I’m jealous of anybody who’s a success. Aren’t you?’
    ‘Certainly not,’ I said.
    ‘You’re a fool,’ she said.
    ‘Hey, look,’ I said.
    The two detectives had left the box with Mrs Layden and were sitting with Socks Donald. They had their heads together, looking at a sheet of paper one of them was holding.
    ‘All right, kids,’ Rocky said in the microphone. ‘A little sprint before the rest period …Give,’ he said to the orchestra, clapping his hands together and stamping on the platform, keeping time to the music. In a moment the customers were clapping their hands together and stamping too.
    We were all milling around in the middle of the floor, all of us watching the minute hand of the clock, when suddenly Kid Kamm of Couple No. 18 began slapping his partner on the cheek. He was holding her up with his left hand, slapping her backwards