Half of Paradise

“How long was he taking it?”

“What do you want to talk about him for? You haven’t seen me for seven weeks and all you’ve got on your mind is Troy.”

“I take a personal interest.”

“Troy was an ass.”

“I’m on it, too. I found out in Nashville.”

“Rot.”

“I had to hunt all over town to find a pusher.”

“Benzedrine is baby food.”

“My nerves was like piano wire. I thought I was going to come apart.”

April chewed on a hangnail and looked out the window.

“Listen to me,” he said.

“I’m listening.”

“I got a habit.”

“Fly away with the snowbirds.”

“I ain’t on cocaine.”

“The snowbirds stay high in the sky. They don’t worry about the habit.” She bit off the hangnail and took it off her tongue with her fingers.

“Call Elgin. I need some pills.”

“He comes around on Sunday.”

“I need him now. I took my last pills on the train.”

“You can have some of my stuff.”

“I don’t want no cocaine.”

“You don’t have to take it in the arm. Put a little powder under your tongue.”

“Call Elgin.”

She picked up the telephone from the bedtable and dialed a number. She chewed on another fingernail while she talked to Doc Elgin.

“He’ll be over in a little while,” she said. “He has some other people to see.”

“He wouldn’t hurry if I was going to jump through a window.”

“Doc is better than a regular pusher. He don’t cut his stuff.”

“Seth told me something about you and him.”

“I know what you’re thinking, and you can shut up right now. I pay him cash like everybody else,” she said. “He don’t come near me.”

She sat up in bed and fixed the pillow behind her. She held the sheet up to her shoulders with one hand.