AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Alma stole a sip from Memphis’s drink and made a face. “Ugh. What is that?”
“Coca-Cola.”
Evie slid over her glass. “Bourbon.”
Alma’s mischievous grin returned. “I knew I liked you. Now. What are you all talking about over here with your heads bent together like pieces of the same dreary puzzle?”
“Ghosts. Demons. Murder. As one does at the city’s best nightclubs,” Henry said.
Alma choked on her sip of Evie’s bourbon. “I would say don’t stop on my account. But you can stop on my account.” She shuddered, then turned toward Ling again. “Ling. My, that’s a pretty name,” she purred. “How come I haven’t seen you before? Why has my very good friend Memphis not bothered to introduce us?”
“You better stop now,” Memphis chided playfully under his breath.
“I already got one grandmother, Memphis. Don’t need another,” Alma answered in kind through smiling teeth.
“Alma!” one of the chorines shouted, waving wildly. “Get your crown! We’re on!”
“You don’t need to tell me when we’re on—I know when we’re on, Minnie!” Alma shooed Minnie away with a flick of her fingers. “Time to shake a leg.” Alma took the red carnation from her dress and plopped it into Ling’s empty cup, enjoying the matching blush that rose in Ling’s cheeks. “Hope you enjoy the show.” Alma winked, then raced up to the stage just as the band broke into a fast-paced number. Ling watched in awe as Alma danced, all arms and legs and joy. Freedom in motion. For a moment, Ling was envious. But then Alma executed a series of steps, tapping out a complex rhythm with toes and heels, and Ling knew that even if she had never had infantile paralysis, she’d never be able to own a stage like that. There was a word for Memphis’s friend Alma: mesmerizing.
“She’s good. She’s very good,” Ling said, eyes trained on Alma’s shaking hips.
Henry looked from Ling to Alma and back again. His mouth slid into a sly smile. “Oh my.”
Jericho accidentally brushed against Mabel. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Mabel said, and she realized, with sudden clarity, that it was. In fact, for the first time in years, being this close to Jericho didn’t make her stomach quiver or her cheeks flush. It was liberating, like the breaking of a spell.
“How are you, Jericho?” she asked brightly.
“Fine, thank you. How are you?”
“I’m swell!”
“Well, that’s good news.” He was smiling at her, head cocked, as if he could tell she’d changed. For the first time, she had the upper hand. “I’m headed upstate tomorrow.”
“Oh? Where?” Mabel was a little disappointed that she’d just developed her not in love with Jericho anymore muscle and wouldn’t have a chance to flex it.
“Jake Marlowe’s mansion. He’s asked me to take part in his Future of America Exhibition. I leave tomorrow morning.”
“You’re going to be living in the house of the enemy?” Mabel blurted, her voice going high.
Jericho sighed in irritation. “He’s not the enemy.”
“Tell that to his workers.”
Jericho glared. “It’s more complicated than black and white, good and evil. Don’t forget: Jake Marlowe saved my life once upon a time.”
“And for that you owe him your blind loyalty?”
“Okay. You two crazy kids,” Sam said, laughing nervously. “Tell me the truth: What have you both got against fun? Was it a childhood trauma? There is no prohibition against fun. Yet.”
Jericho stood, pushing his chair back. “You’re right. And since it’s my last night here, I’d like to have some of that fun. Evie, would you care to dance?”
Evie glanced nervously at Mabel.
“You don’t need my permission,” Mabel said. “Oh, honestly. Go.”
“Well, maybe just one dance,” Evie said.
