Free Do You Promise Not to Tell? by Mary Jane Clark Page A

and, from what I’ve seen and heard, she does have a certain flair. She knew what she wanted and she went for it. I admire that.”

Chapter 34
    Olga struggled to lift the heavy carton of Epsom salts and place it in the small wire shopping cart. It would feel good later to fill the old porcelain bathtub with the salts and hot water and sit in the soothing pool. Her arthritis was really aching today.
    Slowly she finished her shopping in the aisles of CVS. A box of tissues, some soap powder, a package of butterscotch. She made her way to the cash register at the front of the store.
    She waited quietly in line, waiting for her turn to pay. She watched a child cry to his mother for a Milky Way. The mother gave in.
    Olga turned her head away from the spoiled child and his weak mother.
    And then she saw it. Featured on the counter for the world to see.
    On the cover of an American magazine, the Moon Egg glared.
    The teenaged girl at the checkout counter watched as the old lady pointed in the direction of the magazines and crumpled to the floor. Instant hubbub ensued as the other customers on line and browsing near the front of the store, gawked and gasped. A strong-looking man bent over the fainted woman, rubbing her hand and talking to her.
    For a few minutes, the white-haired woman laymotionless on the pharmacy floor. Then, as she began to come to, she was mumbling.
    “
Ma ijtso, ma ijtso
.”
    “What’s she saying?” a blond-haired woman asked, as her four-year-old tugged at her arm.
    “I hope she hasn’t broken a hip,” another woman said with some alarm.
    “
Ma ijtso
.”
    Olga’s eyes opened and began to dart around, frightened.
    “It’s all right,” said the man who bent over her. “It’s all right. You just had a fainting spell.”
    Olga struggled to get up on her feet. She held tight to the man’s arm as she tried to regain her equilibrium.
    “Thank you, mister. Thank you.”
    “Is there someone I can call for you?” he asked.
    “No. No one. I am all right in a little while.”
    “Do you live far from here?”
    “Just a few blocks.”
    “Then, please, let me take you home. You shouldn’t walk home by yourself.”

Chapter 35
    Before closing for the evening, Charlie took the pink ham from the shiny glass display case and shaved off a generous portion. He filled three plastic containers, spooning in creamy potato salad, pickled beets, and rice pudding. He packed everything up in a brown paper bag, along with a couple of seeded rolls.
    He switched off the store lights and locked up. Standing out on the sidewalk in front of the delicatessen, Charlie didn’t have much to look forward to in the night ahead. Maybe he’d stop on the way home and rent a video.
    As he walked in the chilly evening air toward the garden apartments, he realized how much it bothered him that Pat had a date tonight. . . a date
not
with him. He’d be home, sitting in front of the television, and she’d be out with someone else.
    Well, it was his own fault, wasn’t it? He never got up the courage to ask her out for dinner and a movie. He’d watched her for years, admired her, dreamed about her. But he did nothing about it. Nothing to move his dream toward reality.
    So here he was, good old Charlie. Dropping off some food to the elderly on Saturday night.
    He knocked on Olga’s apartment door and waited. He could hear the faint sound of her slow, shuffling progress to the front door.
    “Who is there?”
    “It’s Charlie, Olga.”
    He heard the lock slide open as Olga unbolted the door. The diminutive woman’s old face smiled with pleasure and anticipation at the sight of Charlie and his package.
    “Ah, Charlie. I not know you coming tonight. You good man. So kind to think of Olga all the time.”
    As Charlie reached out to hand the paper bag to Olga, he looked over her head into the apartment. Before Olga closed the door, Charlie caught a glimpse of something gleaming on the table behind her.

Chapter 36
    Pat noticed that