Chapter Thirty-Four
Boiler Room
Madam Karina isn’t asleep when we reach her room. She’s seated in a wingback chair, one leg slung over the arm. Velvet curtains framing a tall window are thrown aside, and she’s looking out across her property, eyes glued on the guesthouses. She doesn’t even turn in our direction when Cain clears his throat and announces our presence.
She waves a hand toward the door, telling him to leave. He looks at me, and I nod. The door closes behind us, and then it’s just Poppet, Madam Karina, and me. She scratches the side of her neck and I notice her middle fingernail is broken. The other four are pink as newborn mice.
“Heard the scuffle,” she says. “Even from up here.”
I step forward. “Madam Karina, I’d like to make a request.”
She finally turns toward me, and my breath catches. She’s been crying.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
Her forehead furrows. “What do you mean?”
I shake my head, realizing she doesn’t want to talk about it. “Nothing. It’s just that you’re awake so late.”
“Well, yes, you woke me.”
I reap some courage and open my mouth. “I’d like to ask for the same favor you paid me before. I’d like permission to move to the third floor if Poppet and I can maintain the first and second place among the Daisies for one week.”
“Why?”
Poppet speaks up. “Because we want to make you happy.”
Madam Karina doesn’t look at her. “Is that true, Domino? You want to make me happy?” Before I can answer, she says, “Why is it that Lola favors you so?”
“What?” I say, confused.
Madam Karina stands from the chair. Her shoulders slump and she appears thinner than she did only days ago. The woman points a frail arm in my direction. “Lola speaks on your behalf every time we meet. Did you pay her some favor?”
“No, we’ve only talked once.”
Madam Karina flinches as if struck. She holds up a finger and mouths the word once as if asking a question. It’s then that I understand the madam has been drinking. A burning sweetness reaches my nose, and I locate the tumbler on her nightstand. “It may be that she wants to leave me.”
“I doubt that’s true.” I have no idea what Lola wants, but right now I’ll say whatever the madam wants to hear, because I need her to grant Poppet and me this favor. No more chances elsewhere. No more fresh starts. We leave this place with enough cash in hand to survive on our own. That’s how this story ends.
Madam Karina spins away. “Could be you’re trying to leave me, too.”
Her voice causes the hair on the back of my neck to rise. I sense Poppet moving closer to me. Outside Madam Karina’s window, I hear a girl giggling. A man’s voice chases hers.
“I want only what’s best for you, Domino,” she says.
The lie slithers from her mouth, sucking on the two of us like plump, slippery leeches.
“I don’t want to leave,” I whisper, returning the courtesy she’s paid me. “Poppet and I just want to make you happy. Why should Lola get all that alone time with you, when no one wants it the way Poppet and I do?”
“Is that what you told her? That you wanted her place?”
“I said what I said.”
Madam Karina covers her mouth like she’s overcome with relief. She closes the distance between us, lets her hand fall to her side. Poppet stands behind me like a forgotten plaything. I want to reach out for her, but Madam Karina is looking at me with such intensity that I’m hypnotized, a pocket watch swishing back and forth before my eyes.
Count backward from ten.
“My sister thought she was so successful when she opened that home in Detroit,” the madam says. “Left me here in Pox like I didn’t mean a thing. Said she was doing me a favor giving this place to me, though Mama and Daddy left it to her. Still, I’m getting my revenge. Girl by girl. Eric finds the best ones before she can, most of them from my sister’s own city.”
Madam Karina takes hold of my shoulders and lowers herself until her face is inches from mine. She smiles with her whole face. But then, slice by slice, that smile slips away. In its place blooms vulnerability and anger. “You may think you can play me for a fool, girl,” she says, “but I know what it is you want.”
“Tell me what I want.”
She grips my shoulders tighter. “You want that boy. You want to earn enough to leave and get him out of jail. You only want him.”
Surprise must drip from my face, because she reaches up with a thumb like she’s wiping something away. “Don’t look so shocked. You used my phone to make those calls, did you not?”
I recover quickly, try to pull away from her, but it’s no use. This thinning, frail woman is stronger than she appears. “If you know who it is I called and why, then you know what was said, too.”
“Yes. He didn’t call you after he got out, so why do you need this money so badly? Where have you got to go? Where will you ever have to go? You think you’ll make enough here to live on forever? Eventually, you’ll need a job. Who would give you one?”
I don’t speak, and though my jaw aches from clenching my teeth, my chin still quivers.
“This world isn’t for you. But that’s okay. It isn’t for me, either.” She strokes my hair. “Stop dreaming of a life past this one. This is it for you. This is it for me, too.”
“Domino, I’m tired,” Poppet says quietly from behind me.
“Do you hear what I’m telling you?” Madam Karina pushes.
For once, Wilson doesn’t speak. And I really need him to, because Madam Karina is reminding me too much of someone from my past. She’s in my head and eating my insides and I can’t think because I just want her to smile again. I’m suddenly sharply aware of what Wilson said when we first arrived.
Out of all the places you could end up, Domino, this is the absolute worst.
When I speak again, it comes out as a whisper. “I won’t leave you, Madam Karina.”
She pushes me. It isn’t hard, but I still bump into Poppet and we nearly tumble to the floor. Madam Karina’s face opens with alarm when she realizes what she’s done. She reaches for me. Stops herself.
“Of course you’ll leave me. That’s what people do. They leave and leave and LEAVE, LEAVE, LEAVE!”
Madam Karina is crying now, great rivers of pent-up sorrow escaping her soft starlet eyes.
“I won’t leave you,” Poppet says. “I promise, Madam Karina. I won’t go anywhere.”
Madam Karina turns away and sobs into her hands.
It’s maybe three seconds, five at the most, before Mr. Hodge is barreling through the door, reaching for the madam. She pushes him harder than she pushed me, but he’s unmovable.
“Get away from me!” she yells. “Go back to your precious phone. Go back to calling whoever it is you call.”
“Shhh, puppy. Hush, now.” He wraps his arms around her and this time she doesn’t fight him. Mr. Hodge is grossly overweight, and sweats profusely, and smells like fish left in the sun. But Madam Karina quiets in his embrace. As for me, I’m letting Poppet pull me up and trying to pacify the shock of what happened here.
Mr. Hodge turns to Poppet and me, concern in his eyes. “Go to your room. The Daisies won’t give you any more problems tonight. I’ll take care of Madam Karina.”
“I’m sorry for…” Poppet says, referring to the madam.
“Just go to bed,” he replies.
Watching Mr. Hodge care for Madam Karina makes me wonder if I judged him too quickly. The madam showed us she’s every bit as explosive and unhinged as the rest of us. But here he is, steady in her aftershocks.
Poppet strides toward the door, and I follow close behind.
Our bare feet crunch over dried violets on our way to bed.