Camptown Lady - @Short Story

Part XII

Camptown  lady                          by sloanranger

Part      XII

Over the next several days Kathy and Tom fell into a routine.  She walked the two miles out to the circus camp three times a week and Tom walked into Goodland twice a week on his two afternoons off.

He only picked her up once at Miss Hurley's house.  The old lady had looked through him like she could see the shade of red his blood was and didn't like that particular color, or him.

After that, Tom and Kathy met at the café. 

Sitting at the little table with the green checked oilcloth, he mostly talked about the circus.  She learned what they fed the elephants: berries, figs, and tree leaves, and how often they had to be fed: a lot. She asked him about all the cities he went to and he told her what he could remember.

Kathy wasn't educated but she wasn't dumb either. She did not expect him to get down on one knee but in his letters, he'd hinted at some kind of future together. He had been different though, since she arrived. Decidedly distant. 

The only time he seemed to care for her was when they sat on the bench near the gas station and he was groping her in the dark. The memory of these scenes would last a long time – enforced by the scent of  hibiscus – coming from the tall, flowery, bush nearby.

One night they were finishing their coffee and he said a bit too casually: "You know, we leave the day after tomorrow."

For a split second her heart leapt and she almost let herself believe that 'we,' meant him and her. But she quickly realized that he meant the circus and him. 

"Where do you go next?"  She recovered.

"L. A., then San Diego."

She knew that.

"Oh," her heart sank into the pit of her stomach.  She looked silently into her lap, fidgeting nervously with her skirt. Finally she looked up - straight at him.

"You got a girl in L. A., Tom?"

"Hell no, what makes you think something like that?" He protested, caught off guard.

He could have added, 'You're my girl,' she thought, but didn't. Tom paid the check and they left. They walked for a while, ending up under the hibiscus bush, at the same bench beside the gas station.

(To be continued).