Suds In Your Eye by Mary Lasswell Page A

comes outa the navy, they’d have this place an’ his pension. He could open up a nice little business, an’ they could build ’em a classy house. She’s not the kind to run my friends off if I was gone! They could just move the Ark over where the junk yard is now, an ‘still have plenty o’ room for all of ’em.’ Mrs. Feeley’s passion for managing things extended even across the grave. In spite of her defiant words in the tax collector’s office, she realized that the task would have been utterly impossible for her alone; she would always be grateful to them, even after death.
    Mrs. Rasmussen came out of her room with some mending and joined Mrs. Feeley.
    ‘I was thinkin’: if we’d a turned to sooner and worked the way we been doin’ lately, we sure would a been rich! We could a bought some fine lot o’beer! But ‘tain’t no use to talk about that; we aint’ out o’ the woods by a long shot yet!’
    ‘Yeup,’ Mrs. Feeley agreed. ‘I been settin’ here studyin’ about the same thing. If we make it into the clear, do you know I’ll be practically outa business? The yard’s picked naked as a jay bird now!’
    ‘Well, I wouldn’t worry none if I was you. You can always make your keep an’ the taxes from your boarders.’ Mrs. Rasmussen always seemed to be able to see over the top of obstacles.
    ‘I’ll think o’ somethin’ when the time comes; by rights you ought to live rent free for a couple o’ years till I get you paid back.’
    ‘Pshaw, we ain’t thinkin’ about gettin’ paid back! All we want to do is get the money in that there jar so we can go back to our old ways…carefree an’ only worryin’ where we can snag a case o’ beer the cheapest!’
    Miss Tinkham came in from the garden to report that the flowers were drying up fast and if the gladiolas didn’t hurry and open up she’d be reduced to using marigolds in the leis next week. And the boys flatly refused to buy them; said they smelled bad.
    ‘That letter on the table come for you a little bit ago,’ Mrs. Rasmussen said.
    Miss Tinkham opened it excitedly; it was from her lawyer back home.
    Soon she looked up, beaming:
    ‘The house is rented again, and next month have ten dollars coming to me! He had to spend two hundred dollars on repairs and they are paying it back at twenty dollars a month, so it only leaves ten for me. But even that will help in raising our quota, as every cent is going to count.’
    ‘It’s a downright shame to take your money,’ Mrs. Feeley said.
    ‘After all the time you and Mrs. Rasmussen supported me? When I didn’t have a penny? I hate to think what would have become of me!’
    ‘Not changin’ the subject,’ Mrs. Rasmussen broke in, ‘but that trip to Tia Juana Miss Logan’s plannin’ for the class in closin’ week sure sounds like a good binge. I sure love to go to Old Mexico! Them hot tomollys—’
    ‘—sure go good with the beer,’ the other two finished laughingly.
    ‘Yeup! Me an’ Mr. Feeley used to go to the races down at Cally-Enty…used to come home with a fistful o’ money some Sundays! Miss Logan says it won’t be but thirty-five cents apiece for the dinner, on account o’ she’s orderin’ it at a place she knows an’ they’re makin’ a special price for her…bein’ so many an’ all!’
    ‘Them that went last year said it was sure fine,’ Mrs. Rasmussen said wistfully. ‘Had six or seven different dishes an’ a bottle o’ wine for each table!’
    Miss Tinkham said she would love to go too. The trip would be so cultural, and maybe she would get to see her friend who was a bartender at the Foreign Club. The other ladies looked with new respect at someone who knew a real live bartender.
    ‘But in our present emergency, we had best not even consider going…I suppose it really is out of the question, isn’t it?’
    ‘Well,’ Mrs. Feeley said sadly, ‘I dunno. Teacher said they wouldn’t be no transportation problem on account o’ she’s got