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Show 101 really asking Benbow was how does it feel to be grown up? and I think he understood me. On the whole, though many people in this town disliked and badmouthed him, he was a good man. Better than the partner he bought out. I peered through the rising haze, not wanting to meet Maybelle's eyes. On the far side of the potted palm, a few feet away from us, Thorneberry sat in a red velvet chair, stuffing pitted olives into his mouth as fast as he could. His jowls worked quickly and mechanically while his little eyes darted here and there all over the room, as if the upper part of his face wanted nothing to do with the work the lower half was doing. "You're thinking what a disgusting sight that man is," Maybelle said. "Well he ain't pretty." She let the eyeglasses drop to the end of their chain and turned to me. "True. But there was a reason I hired you out to him; you could have learned something if you'd wanted, but all you did was turn up your nose because he's ugly, and not as smart as you." She took up the glasses again and contemplated Thorneberry for a long minute. "Don't be too cocky, young feller. Nobody knows what you'll look like in twenty years. Life changes people. I didn't always look like an old lady." She put a hand on my arm and drew me into a corner where the music was less loud by a fraction or two. The |
