Screenland (May-Oct 1942)

seeing that Her Highness had been a dancer, it looked like a sure hunch. They could send them off in style if that horse came in. But it didn't, and so one cold winter day Little Pinks set off wheeling Her Highness in her chair and she looked so grand wearing that ermine coat of hers, everybody stared as they came up to the entrance of the Hudson Tube. The cops stopped them but Her Highness put on such a scene that in sheer desperation they stopped a truck going South and hoisted the wheel-chair up on it with Little Pinks standing beside it like a one-man guard of honor. It was a big break, for it look them all the way to Washington. After that it didn't seem so bad, going through Virginia and South Carolina and Georgia, getting lifts somtimes and someumes walking. For it was getting warmer :.ll the time and though Little Pinks felt the heat pushing the chair, it was good to see Her Highness reaching toward that warm sun as if it were something she could cling to. Sometimes the}' had sandwiches and sometimes hamburgers but one night Little Pinks stole a chicken and cooked it over the fire he'd made in a clearing in the woods. "You're a good cook, Pinks," Her Highness said as she finished eating. "I used to watch the chef all the time." Little Pinks was glowing the way he always did when she was nice. "Chicken wasn't as fresh as this," she said. "They didn't steal it right off the farm," he pointed out. "It was pretty easy, wasn't it?" She put up her hand to cover a yawn. "I didn't like doing it much," Little Pinks confessed. "I told you once, you gotta take what you want," she taunted. "That's the only way you'll ever get anything." "Suppose what you want don't want you?" Little Pinks said, thinking of the enly thing in the world he really wanted. "Push people out of your way," she shrugged. "Step on them. Just figure out an angle." "An angle," he repeated. Suddenly his courage came. After all, wasn't it her own advice he was acting on? "Maybe you're right," he said eagerly. "So I want to say something right now. I got to say it. It's like a balloon that's got to burst. I can't keep it down any more. I'll get you everything that Decatur Reed could. More. Much more ! Tzvice as much more. If I only thought I had a chance — if you — " He broke off abruptly as he looked at her. Her Highness was fast asleep. The next day they crossed the state line into Florida, but it was still a few days before they came to Miami where Nicely Nicely and Violette had settled. Only now they didn't look so conspicuous with him wheeling Gloria clown the boardwalk and she wearing the summer outfit she'd saved for this triumphal entrance. Then suddenly her voice came in a shrill whisper : "Get me out of here ! Quick ! There's Decatur Peed!" Swiftly he wheeled her into the shelter of a store entrance and he turned to see Decatur Reed and a pretty girl laughingtogether as they walked into the entrance of a beach club. "That dame with him goes back to high shoes !" Gloria turned to Little Pinks furiously. "Start pushing, will you? Or do you want me to sit in this sun until I dry up like a baked apple?" It was swell seeing Violette and Nicely Nicely again. Even Gloria brightened a little and Little Pinks was feeling all warm and happy again until she suddenly demanded that he buy her beach pajamas. "I got to get a job right away," Little Pinks said to Violette after they'd taken Her Highness to her room. "I got to get her some pajamas." Violette shook her head. "Pinks, I gotta say this," she sighed. "You're a terrible fool and somebody ought to take your pants down and kick you around the block. But I guess I'm a fool, too. Here!" She opened her bag and took out a bill. "Buy her the gold-darndest pajamas in Miami!" Looking at Her Highness wearing those pajamas was reward enough for Little Pinks. There wasn't a girl at the Beach Club who could compare with her. He wheeled her there every day, getting an umbrella on the sand and depositing her under it while he left to look for a job. He knew she saw Decatur Reed there and that he was getting interested in her all over again, never guessing she was a hopeless invalid. But Little Pinks didn't mind that. He didn't mind anything that would make her happy. That was the way he loved her. Then the day he got the job at the Florida Club and was hurrying back to tell her all about it, he met Horsethief and Professor B., who had come to Florida to see how the horses were doing at Tropical, ambling along the boardwalk, and since it didn't occur to him that anyone, even Her Highness, wouldn't be pleased silly to see those two right guys, he asked them to come along. His eyes were shining as he went over to her. "Look who I found outside," he said. "What did you bring these guys here for?" she demanded sharply. "This is a class joint. Get me out of here and tell those moolies to scatter." "She's only kidding," Little Pinks tried to smile as he turned to the boys, but it didn't go over. He saw that as he leaned over and picked Her Highness up in his arms. "You shouldn't have said that remark to the boys," he said as he carried her toward the entrance. "Shut up!" Her small hand struck at him. "If you had a brain in your head, you wouldn't've brought them here. Suppose Decatur Reed sees them !" "I guess for a moment I just forgot about Decatur Reed." he said, and for the first time he felt annoyed at her. She shouldn't have treated the boys that way. They were his pals. He felt her tensing as he put her in the wheel-chair and felt ashamed of his outburst. Then he saw it wasn't he who had made her shrink. It was Decatur Reed just entering the club with a gay party. He was looking at Her Highness and knowing how she had lied to him, seeing a girl who couldn't even walk, and men like him didn't have use for girls who had to be taken care of. "Hello," he smiled casually. "See }rou soon." But from the wajr he said it, anyone could see that he never intended seeing Gloria again if he could help it. "You did it deliberately," Gloria stormed as Reed went inside. She was in a temper, and Horsethief and the Professor comingafter them just then didn't help any. "Don't kid me. You planned, it like this. You wanted him to see me in this chair. You're my enemy." "Please, Your Highness," Little Pinks begged. "It's all right now. I got a job. I'll make it up to you. I swear I will." "You'll make it up!"She laughed derisively. "You got a job? What kind of a job? A broker maybe? A banker? How about maybe president ! Go on, tell me." "A bus boy," Little Pinks said miserably. "Cleaning tables!" Her lips curled. "Filling glasses. Making with the butter. And you'll make it up to me ! Get out of here !" "I'll get." Little Pinks looked at her steadily. "And maybe I won't come back." She had pushed him too far. 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