He got home a few minutes before five o‘clock.
Weezy walked in one minute later.
“Hello, Skipper.”
“Hi.”
“Have a good day?”
“It was okay.”
“What’d you do?”
“Not much.”
“I’d like to hear about it.”
He sat down on the sofa.
“I went to the library,” he said.
“What time was that?”
“Nine this morning.”
“You were gone when I got up.”
“I went straight to the library.”
“And after that?”
“Nowhere.”
“When did you come home?”
“Just now.”
She frowned.
“You were at the library all day?”
“Yeah.”
“Come on now.”
“I was.”
She paced the middle of the living room.
He stretched out on his back, on the sofa.
“You’re making me angry, Colin.”
“It’s true. I like the library.”
“I’ll restrict you to the house again.”
“Because I went to the library?”
“Don’t get smart with me.”
He closed his eyes.
“Where else did you go?”
He sighed.
“I guess you want a juicy story,” he said.
“I want to know everywhere you went today.”
“Well,” he said, “I went down to the beach.”
“Did you stay away from those kids, like I told you to?”
“I had to meet someone at the beach.”
“Who?”
“A dope pusher I know.”
“What?”
“He deals out of his van at the beach.”
“What are you saying?”
“I bought a mayonnaise jar full of pills.”
“Oh my God.”
“Then I brought the pills back here.”
“Here? Where? Where are they?”
“I split them up into cellophane ten-packs.”
“Where have you hidden them?”
“I took them into town and sold them retail.”
“Oh Jesus. Oh my God. What have you gotten into? What’s wrong with you?”
“I paid five thousand bucks for the dope and sold it for fifteen thousand.”
“Huh?”
“That’s ten thousand clear. Now, if I can make that much profit every day for one month, I can get enough money together to buy a clipper ship and smuggle tons of opium from the Orient.”
He opened his eyes.
She was red-faced.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” she demanded.
“Call Mrs. Larkin,” he said. “She’ll probably still be there.”
“Who is Mrs. Larkin?”
“The librarian. She’ll tell you where I was all day.”
Weezy stared at him for a moment, then went into the kitchen to use the telephone. He couldn’t believe it. She actually called the library. He was humiliated.
When she came back to the living room, she said, “You were at the library all day.”
“Yeah.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“‘Cause I like the library.”
“I mean, why’d you make up that story about buying pills down at the beach?”
“I thought that’s what you wanted to hear.”
“I suppose you think it’s funny.”
“Kind of funny.”
“Well, it’s not.”
She sat down in an armchair.
“All the conversations I’ve had with you during the past week-haven’t any of them sunk in?”
“Every word,” he said.
“I’ve told you that if you want to be trusted, you’ve got to earn that trust. If you want to be treated like an adult, you’ve got to behave like one. You seem to listen, and I let myself hope we’re getting somewhere, and then you pull a silly stunt like this. Do you understand what that does to me?”
“I think I do.”
“This childish thing you did, making up this story about buying pills down at the beach… it just makes me distrust you all the more.”
For a while neither of them spoke.
At last Colin broke the silence. “Are you eating at home tonight?”
“I can‘t, Skipper. I’ve got-”
“-a business engagement.”
“That’s right. But I’ll make your supper before I go.”
“Don’t bother.”
“I don’t want you eating junk.”
“I’ll make a cheese sandwich,” he said. “That’s as good as anything.”
“Have a glass of milk with it.”
“Okay.”
“What are your plans for the evening?”
“Oh, I guess maybe I’ll go to the movies,” he said, purposefully failing to mention Heather.
“Which theater?”
“The Baronet.”
“What’s playing?”
“A horror flick.”
“I wish you’d outgrow that sort of trash.”
He said nothing.
She said, “You’d better not forget your curfew.”
“I’m going to the early show,” Colin said. “It lets out by eight o‘clock, so I’ll be home before dark.”
“I’ll check on you.”
“I know.”
She sighed and stood up. “I’d better shower and change.” She walked to the hallway, then turned and looked at him again. “If you’d behaved differently a little while ago, maybe I wouldn’t find it necessary to check on you.”
“Sorry,” he said. And when he was alone, he said, “Bullshit.”