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"What happened?" she said when she saw my face

"I had an encounter with Henry’s lady friend," I replied

"Ah," she said She whacked a leek with the cleaver, sending hunks flying "She don’t come in here She knows better"

"Rosie, the woman is crazy as a loon You should have heard her the other night after you tangled with her She ranted and raved for hours Now she’s accusing ot some vodka somewhere" She crossed to the cabinet above the sink and stood on tippytoe, tilting a vodka bottle into reach, She broke the seal and poured ed then poured herself one too We drank and I could feel the blood rush back to us felt scorched and I could sense the contours of my stomach outlined in alcohol I always pictured my stomach much lower down than that Weird Rosie placed the chopped leeks in a bowl and rinsed the cleaver at the sink before she turned back to ot twenty cents? Givea hand out I fished around in e Rosie took it and crossed to the pay phone on the wall Everybody has to use that pay phone, even her

"Who are you calling? You’re not calling Henry," I said, with alarin the way people do when soot musical and syrupy

"Hello, dear This is Rosie What are you doing right this et over here We have a little matter to discuss"

She clunked the receiver doithout waiting for a response and then she fixedover for a chat"

Moza Lowenstein sat on the chroht in froe woman with hair the color of a cast-iron skillet, worn in braids wrapped around her head There are strands of silver threaded through like tinsel, and her face, with its pale powder, has the soft look of awhen she talks to Rosie: a bouquet of pencils, a wooden spoon, any talisman to ward off’attack Today, it was the dish towel she’d brought with her Apparently, Rosie had interrupted her in the ht over, as bid She’s afraid of Rosie, as anyone with good sense would be Rosie launched right in, skipping all the niceties

"Who is this Lila Saan to pound on so Moza flinch

Her voice, when she found it, was trembly and soft "I don’t really know She came to my door, she said in response to an ad in the paper, but it was all a mistake I didn’t have a roo burst into tears and as I to do? I had to ask her in for a cup of tea"

Rosie paused to stare in disbelief "And then you rented her a roo a lobster shape like a napkin in a fancy restaurant "Well, no I told her she could stay with me until she found a place, but she insisted that she pay her oay She didn’t want to be indebted, she said"

"That’s called room rent That’s what that is," Rosie snapped