Free Boys and Girls Together by William Saroyan Page A

fine.
    â€˜It cost a hundred, but we’ve got so many debts anyway I thought you wouldn’t care. Do you like it?’
    â€˜Yes. You look fine.’
    â€˜I bought some other things, too. I’ll show them to you afterwards.’
    â€˜O.K.’
    â€˜They cost about a hundred, too, but they’re things I need, shoes and stockings and brassières and perfume. You won’t make me send them back, will you? It’s so humiliating. Just this once more. I’ve got everything now.’
    â€˜No. You can keep them.’
    â€˜Some women spend a
thousand
for one dress.’
    â€˜You look fine in this one.’
    â€˜I thought you’d be angry.’
    â€˜No, it’s O.K. I’m glad you got the stuff.’
    â€˜Really? How come?’
    â€˜Take it off now and get supper for the kids. You and I’ll eat after they’re in bed. I’ve bought lamb chops for them and sirloins for us.’
    â€˜All right,’ the woman said. ‘Johnny, Rosey, go to your room and play until Mama gets supper.’
    The children went down the hall to their room. The woman closed the door behind them, then came to the man and put her arms around him and said, ‘I love you so much. I love our life together so much. I love Johnny and Rosey so much.’
    The man held her gently, then tightly, and kissed her.
    â€˜Wait till you see me tonight.’
    She was happy because she had new things to wear and she’d been to the beauty parlour and her friends from New York would be in town tomorrow and she would get all dressed up and go and see them and let them see her.

Chapter 14
    The woman made them a good supper of broiled lamb chops, boiled spinach, stewed fruit out of a can, and milk. They didn’t finish everything but they did pretty well. She gave them each two teaspoons of the thick brown syrup that was supposed to have everything in it, that they seemed to like to take, that she had been giving them every night after supper for more than a month. It had a name that made it sound like it ought to be something somebody had figured out carefully.The doctor said it was a good thing. He gave it to his own kids, he said. It looked like molasses but didn’t smell as good. It didn’t smell fishy but it didn’t smell like candy, either.
    â€˜Can I have a bath tonight?’ the boy said.
    â€˜Ask Papa.’
    The boy went into the living-room and said, ‘Can I have a bath tonight, Papa?’
    â€˜Ask Mama.’
    The boy’s face winked.
    â€˜Papa,’ he said, ‘I
asked
Mama. She said ask Papa. I’ll ask Rosey.’
    He ran back to the kitchen, to keep up with the joke.
    â€˜Rosey,’ he said. ‘Can I have a bath tonight?’
    The little girl looked at him sideways, knowing it was a joke.
    â€˜Not tonight,’ she said, ‘because I’m too tired.’
    The boy watched her.
    â€˜Because you was a bad boy,’ she said.
    He watched some more.
    â€˜Because you hit your little sister,’ she said.
    He just had to watch a little longer.
    â€˜Because there’s no water,’ she said.
    Would there be more?
    â€˜Because you’re a poopoo,’ she said.
    More?
    â€˜Pohpoh,’ she said.
    She ran into the living-room with the fun.
    â€˜
Isn’t
Johnny a pohpoh, Papa?’
    â€˜Is he?’
    â€˜I
saw
him. He’s a pohpoh and a poopoo and a piepie. That’s why he can’t have a bath tonight. He’s a paypay.
    â€˜He’s a peepee,’ she said and laughed.
    â€˜Peepee?’ the boy said. ‘I’ll peepee you if you say
I’m
a peepee.’
    â€˜Shall I give him a bath?’ the woman said. ‘Shall I give them both a bath? I bathed them both night before last.’
    â€˜Bathe them,’ the man said. ‘I’ll straighten out the kitchen.’
    â€˜What about their sheets? I haven’t changed them in days. It must be a week at