Today's Reading
CHAPTER ONE
TUESDAY
JUNE 1932
SEA BLUE BEACH, FLORIDA
The sight of the Starlight just on the edge of her kitchen window eased her lingering regret over her fight with Leroy last week.
Even though she deserved an answer, she hated his pained expression as she called him a scallywag, declaring how he'd let her and their boys down. "I've never been more disappointed. Where do you go each week? Tell me now."
More disappointed? Those words were not true. Tuesday Knight had been disappointed plenty in her life. Leroy was least of them all.
Still, after three years of his clandestine activity, she had a right to know, didn't she? He must work hard at whatever he was getting up to because he brought home cash, enough to pay the grocer and keep the lights on. And in these lean times, that was saying something.
Ever since the Crash and the Depression sat down on everyone, Leroy Knight had changed. Her hero, her knight in shining armor, a Great War soldier with chest full of medals, had become 'way' too friendly with the Memphis and Chicago gangsters passing through their beloved Sea Blue Beach.
Wiping her hands on a stained dish towel, she stepped onto the porch and into the humid evening heat of Florida summer. At six o'clock, the day remained summery bright, with a bit of the Starlight's neon light in its ribbons.
"It's been too long since I visited you with my skates." She'd been speaking to the rink as a friend ever since she was a girl. Shoot, the rink was her 'family' before Lee and the boys.
The Starlight gave her comfort. Skating helped her think through things. And she needed to 'roll' her way through this turmoil with Leroy.
"Why can't I know where you go every week? I'm your wife, the mother of your sons. Is that too much to ask?"
"Well it is, Tooz, so drop it. I'm here now, aren't I?" He'd pulled a few greenbacks from his pocket. "This ought to square our account with Old Man Biggs at the grocery store. There's a bit more here to stock up on what you need."
"I won't touch a penny of that until you tell me where it came from. 'Cause if it's blood money or from running booze—"
"It ain't blood money. Holy shamoly, Tooz, can't a man provide for his family without the third degree?"
That's when he'd left without a by-your-leave. Since they didn't have a phone, he couldn't call. And Leroy was not one for writing letters. So she had no idea if he'd return home as usual this Friday.
"Beg pardon, Tooz." She glanced around to see Drunk Dirk, as everyone called him, coming up the shell-and-sand driveway.
"Dirk. What can I do you for?"
Not much older than Leroy, Dirk was also a Great War veteran who played the Wurlitzer at the Starlight. It was a darn shame his reputation, lovely wife and two sons, along with his touted musical ability, was eclipsed by his drunkenness. Lord only knew where he got the hooch in the first place. Sea Blue Beach was a dry town.
"I's just wondering if Lee was around. You seen him lately?"
"Sure haven't." Giving Dirk the once-over, she wondered if it was her husband supplying Dirk's habit. Another second passed before she pointed to the kitchen's screen door. "Care for some dinner?"
"Naw, naw, Tooz, but thanky. I got a hankering for...something else." He sloughed off without another word, tripping as he entered the street, turning left, then right toward the Starlight.
That's it, Drunk Dirk, get to the Starlight. That'll soothe your soul. Maybe help you to stop drinking. Besides, the evening session started in an hour, and Dirk was scheduled to play.
Back in the warm kitchen, Tuesday removed the pork and beans from the old potbelly, which glowed with burning logs and turned the whole house into an oven. She set the table and stirred up a pitcher of iced tea, using the last bit of ice from the icebox. She'd have to make up a list, send Leroy Junior to Biggs tomorrow.
...
