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Show THE UPSTAIRS PEOPLE-58 The Agency man bought the trays from her for f i f ty cents each and told her she would start getting the checks again. He said he would take her to the beach anytime she wanted to go. He said he would help her sweep out the dead mantisjyand brush the cat hairs off her bedspread, help pick the squash, move the tomatoes off the railings of the porch. But still she would not look at him. The upstairs people had been gone for two weeks. He visited everyday, his gray-green eyes following her. hovering, leaning on his cane. He said, finally, following her as she wheeled back and forth on the brick walkway in the garden. "They didn't love you." She spun away from him. "They used you." She held herself stiff, fixed her eyes on Michael, a black hole in the yellow grass. "I wouldn't do that. I want to be your friend. I'm lonely, too." He stood in front of her, leaning on his cane, his eyes wrinkled and deep around the gray-green light in them. "We could be happy together." He said it like a sigh, as if he knew what she would say. "Why did they make this for me?" she said, her eyes perplexed, on the brick walkway. "I'd like you to share my life," he said. "No " she said. "I need too much now. I think I ought to be alone." Michael leapt onto her lap, a darkness there. |
