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Chapter 10.
- University of Arizona Press
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57 10 “Jackie?” Bea said, as soon as she awoke. “I gotta see Angie.” He moaned. “I really got to see her. I can’t go another day like this.” He rolled toward her. “I couldn’t sleep so well, just thinking about how somewhere inside, I bet Patsy just feels so alone, like maybe she thinks I abandoned her.” “That’s a heavy word.” “Well, maybe, but that’s what I’m feeling if I don’t go see her.” She sat up in bed and rested her chin on her knees and stared toward the window. “What do you say we poke around for some work this morning, only an hour or two, then head over to see your sis?” “That’s fine,” Bea replied, numbly. “So long as we go today.” “Yeah, of course, we’ll go, baby.” • Standing on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street,Bea looked up at the surrounding buildings,and saw that each of them had a glaze of optimism that made them look important in ways that no building in Los Angeles had ever looked before. It was impossible to tell that this was the same cursed city that only a few months earlier had found Elizabeth Short sliced in half at the midsection and now had women and men alike becoming active members of the local gun club, looking over their shoulders at anyone who so much as hiccupped off-key. Red and white banners were tethered to unlit neon signs and strewn up and down the streets, flapping in the salty breeze that tumbled in from the Pacific Ocean a couple miles to the west. Delivery trucks honked their pardons at one another and parked wherever they pleased, and brawny drivers jumped out and carted off boxes of vegetables and meats to every restaurant 58 on the block. A couple of city workers positioned a ladder, and one climbed up and tinkered with the delicate bulbs of an intricately sculpted street lamp. Below, dapper men in bowler hats and three-piece wool suits clicked their heels along the concrete, kept their gaze on the stretch of sidewalk ahead, and made sure they got to where they were going. Another block over, busloads of tourists yakked and gawked at the buzzing city, the inner parts of a Los Angeles that, while growing up, Bea had had no desire, or business, to be gallivanting around. But here she was now, peering up and down the strip like she belonged there. And for a moment she believed she did, that perhaps this shiny perch atop the golden shoulders of Los Angeles was where she was meant to be all along. She took Jack’s hand as they passed up Chi Chi’s place and made a beeline for the first coffee shop they saw, Melody Lane.They took a seat by the window and shared a cup of coffee, and scanned the want ads of the Examiner. They found nothing except lame offers for hair-growth tonics and sewing machine repairs. From their position by the window they spotted Owl’s Drugstore across the way, and Bea thought they should both try getting jobs there. She could already see it. Jack working inventory, and her pouring drinks at the soda fountain. And since they had nothing else to go on, they paid for their coffee and went over to Owl’s and asked to speak with the manager. A black woman emerged from the back room. She sauntered to the counter and told them that no positions were open, but suggested they try Chi Chi’s. “That place is always looking for folks,” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “Sorry, I just ain’t got nothing for you.” Hand in hand, they walked over to Chi Chi’s and found it closed, so they pounded on the front door. It was a massive slab of wood adorned with brass knobs, and so they had to kick it too, just to be sure they were heard. Which they weren’t. Jack ran around the building and cut into the alleyway to see if there was a back door, but there were a million back doors and none of them marked, so he sat down on a small wooden crate and waited a few minutes to see if someone might come poking out of one. He didn’t have to wait more than thirty seconds before a wiry kid did poke out. He was...