Read Spare Change for Free Online Page B

said.
    Just then Ethan Allen remembered his chores and scooted through the
back door, but coincidentally, the disappearing of things suddenly came to an
end. “I know you’re up to something, boy,” Benjamin said several times, yet he
never noticed that less than fifty yards from the house, behind a stand of
Douglas Firs, was a lean-to covered with a black tarpaulin. He never noticed
that late at night, when the only sound he should have heard was the chirping
of crickets, he could listen carefully and hear the sound of a baseball game
being played at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

Ethan Allen Doyle
    M ama is easier
to love than Daddy. He’s got a real serious nature and yells a lot; but Mama,
she’ll carry on and act a fool till we’re laughing so hard our sides are likely
to split open. Daddy usually starts cussing up a storm when she does that, because
he figures she’s making fun at his expense. 
    That’s how Mama is—she’s always getting into some kind of trouble. Mama
needs somebody to stick up for her and who else is there but me? 
    One time I asked Mama if Daddy was mad at her because of me; you know,
because of how I don’t mind so good. But she said Daddy’s trouble was that he
was just born in a pissed-off mood. The way I figure it, if he ain’t mad cause
of me then it’s probably because Mama’s so pretty.
    This one time, Daddy and Mama was fighting so hard, I thought they was
gonna kill each other. I told Mama I was scared of that; but she just laughed.
She said such a thing wouldn’t ever happen. Maybe not, but I hope if it does,
Mama’s the one who kills Daddy ‘cause then maybe we could have fun without
always worrying about how we’re gonna get in trouble.

Passion for Pie
    I f Susanna hadn’t been born with
a fire inside of her, she might have eventually grown tired of traipsing
around, she might have lived to be an old and settled woman, content with her
life and with watching her son grow to a man. But, she simply wasn’t a person to
slip into the rut of sameness; so with each passing year she became more
restless. In the springtime she developed an itch that made her want to shed
her skin; then when winter came, her insides burned like the belly of a
furnace. “I can’t stand the boredom of this life,” she said over and over
again. When she got to feeling she’d scream if she watched another teenage girl
breeze by the cosmetic counter and slip a tube of Tangee lipstick into her
pocket without paying, she quit the job at Woolworth’s. The news, at first,
pleased Benjamin; then she told him she’d now be waitressing at the all-night
diner.
    “Feeding dinner to other folks when you don’t bother to so much as cook
an egg at home?” he said, his words sharp as a butcher knife.“I cook when I’ve
a mind to,” she snapped back.
    “When you’ve a mind to ain’t all that often…”
    “Yeah, well maybe I got more incentive at the diner! You ever heard of
tips?” Susanna said sarcastically. “With my way of pleasing folks, I’ll likely end
up making two, maybe three, times more than I was making at Woolworth’s,”
    “You’ll be gone the whole night long!”
    Susanna wrapped her arms around Benjamin’s neck and wriggled her body
up against his. “Don’t think about me being gone all night,” she cooed, “Think
about what’s gonna happen when I get home in the morning. You’ll wake up and
I’ll be standing at the foot of the bed,” she edged her tongue along the back
of his ear, “wearing one of those lacy brassieres you’re so crazy about.” 
    The first three nights she worked at the diner she did indeed come home
with a glint in her eye and ready for love-making; on the fourth, she claimed
he could just forget about such doings, seeing as how she’d been on her feet
eight hours and was dog-tired. “But you said…” Benjamin moaned. Susanna didn’t
bother to answer, just flopped her head down on the pillow.
    All that summer, Ethan Allen sat across