Part 10 (2/2)
”If you wanted it, all you'd have to do is ask somebody for it. Just ask the first person in the family you ran up against and they'd write you a check for a million dollars, I know they would.”
”I know they would, too,” said Lilah quietly. ”And you know me, Tommy Lee. You'd know I'd never ask.”
Tommy Lee shrugged. ”I guess,” he said. Melva brought another breakfast on a tray and Tommy Lee moved to a wide chair. When Melva had left, Tommy Lee said, ”Lilah, you want me to write you a big check? I would, you know, and I'd be pleased to do it. I'd keep it a secret, too. n.o.body'd find out about it.”
Lilah looked up and considered this. ”Tommy Lee,” she said, ”would it make you happy if I let you pay for my law school?”
”It sure would!”
”Then I'll let you do it. Don't tell anybody, though.”
”I won't,” Tommy Lee promised. ”But you know, they're gone figure it out.”
141.
”I know that,” said Lilah. ”Just don't you be the one to tell them.”
For a few minutes they ate in silence, and then Tommy Lee said, ”You know what?”
”What?”
”I have been hoping and hoping that you would come back to Perdido.”
”I'm here.”
”I mean for good,” said Tommy Lee. ” 'Cause you know why?”
”Why?”
” 'Cause when you got back, I was gone ask you to marry me.”
”I know that,” said Lilah.
”You did!”
”Of course I knew that, Tommy Lee. Every fool in town knew that. And I'm no fool.”
”So you would have said no?”
Lilah considered this. ”Maybe. Maybe not.” She considered a few moments more. ”Probably I would have said no.”
”Why?” Tommy Lee asked with more curiosity than chagrin.
”Because that's what everybody would have wanted. That's what everybody would have expected. If I had married you, it would have been just like Miriam and Malcolm all over again. I didn't want that. It's not that I think you and I would have been unhappy, Tommy Lee, it's just that I have no intention of hanging around this place doing what people expect me to do.”
”So you married that other man instead?”
”That's right.”
”Is he as smart as you are, Lilah?”
”No. He's not even as smart as you are, Tommy Lee, not when it comes to practical stuff. But Michael knows a lot about plasma physics, and I guess he'll probably be important someday. And he does what I tell him to.”
”Guess he'd have to do that.” 142 They were silent for a few minutes, then Lilah sent Tommy Lee down to the kitchen for more coffee. When he came back up, she had put aside the tray and brushed the crumbs off the covers onto the floor. She sat up straight in the bed, brus.h.i.+ng her hair.
”Don't you be upset now,” she warned him.
”About what?” he asked, pouring coffee into the cup that she had placed on the bedside table.
”About me not marrying you.”
”I'm not upset,” said Tommy Lee. ”I told you, I'm just disappointed. I'm real unhappy, but I'm not upset.”
”Now I'm going to tell you something,” said Lilah. ”But I'm not going to tell you this unless you promise not to breathe a word of it to anybody-not Grace and Lucille, not Miriam, not Elinor, and not anybody.”
”I promise,” said Tommy Lee solemnly. ”You want me to shut the door?”
”n.o.body's around,” said Lilah, dismissing that suggestion. ”I want you to do something for me.”
”Anything.”
”I want you to be smart.”
”Lilah, I'm not sure-”
”I want you to learn everything there is to learn about those d.a.m.ned wells out there, and whatever else it is that makes this family so d.a.m.ned much money.”
”That I can do.”
”And then you come up to New York and you visit Michael and me and tell me all about it. Everything you can find out, you understand?”
”All right,” said Tommy Lee.
Lilah smiled. Indulgently, she condescended to explain: ”I'm going to inherit from somebody somewhere along the line. Maybe from Daddy, maybe from Miriam, maybe from Elinor-who knows? So then I'm going to be rich. I'm also going to be a lawyer. Now what n.o.body else knows here is that at Columbia I majored in business.”
143.
”Business!”
”Shhh! Yes. I told everybody I was majoring in English, but really and truly I majored in business.” Her brush was caught in a tangle of her long hair and she paused until she had drawn it free. ”And what I intend to do is come back here sometime- sometime, Tommy Lee, so don't be getting your hopes up-and you and I are going to show this place what we can do. We're going to have more money than we know what to do with.”
”We have that already,” Tommy Lee pointed out.
”Then we're going to have five times that. And you and I are going to do it together.”
”Are you thinking of a divorce?” he asked innocently. ”Already?”
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