Carmella Commands
Which, being his own sneer turned into his own mother tongue, made him suddenly furious.
“You think you’re mighty bright, don’t you, dishwasher!”
“Most as bright as you, bottle-washer,” she answered, shrewdly, guessing that preparing the bottles was part of his job.
“Say, kid!” he said. “You’re damn uppy this morning. Did you get licked last night?”
“I did not get licked. But I got kept in. So now are you going to take me to the movies some afternoons, or do I go and get me a new feller?”
This was a new idea to Nicolo. He had regarded Carmella as his own for so long that he could imagine nothing else.
“Great Scott, kid!” he said. “Don’t blow up like that. I gotta job, but there’s evening work to it, sometimes. Like enough I can get off afternoons when I want to. Maybe this afternoon.”
“That’d suit me,” said Carmella. “I wash dishes for a while. Then I’ll come out.”
“Righto, kid! I’ll ask Mike.”
Having told Carmella that he was a regular, fulltime employee of Mike he thought it best to stick to the lie and all the forms that followed.
Shortly before two o’clock that afternoon Carmella emerged, clad in the best of her frocks, except the white confirmation dress. Nicolo was again in front of Mike’s house, smoking.
[134]
