He jerked and shook and sweated plenty. I seemed to scare him.
I left them huddled and silent, and collected Miss Wonderly. She seemed scared too. Hell! I
was scared myself.
We ran down the steps, and I slung her bag into the car. We bundled in, and I shot out of Essex Street like a cat off a hot stove.
“Have you thought of a place, honey?” I asked, as we bolted along Ocean Drive.
She shook her head. “No.”
“Well, concentrate or else we’ll be in a jam.”
She banged her clenched fists together and started to cry. She was scared all right.
I looked across the Bay. The opalescent waters of the Atlantic and the Gulf were changing hues as clouds moved overhead. Scattered green islands gleamed like emeralds on an azure field. On the distant horizon the Gulf Stream pencilled a line of indigo, with here and there above it a smudge of grey smoke from the funnels of a passing steamer.
“How about those islands?” I said, slowing up. “Know any of them?”