The Girls

Across the Hall

A story by Gene Damon

Thursday evening Jeanine Carson ran up the stairs, laughing a little to herself, and stood fumbling with her key at the door to her new apartment. The building was old, but it was clean and the apartment was larger than the hole she had been living in. Everything comes at the same time, she thought, both good and bad. Last week she had been living in the dingy small room across town spending her evenings reading and walking around the nearest park. Now her new apartment was partially settled and Dan Levitt, the new assistant broker at the office, had taken her out three nights in a row.

It was nearly 6:30 and he was coming by at 8:15 to take her to the fights at the Masonic Temple. Dan was very small and wiry and dark; she had liked his compact way of walking the first time he came through the office. It was really wonderful finding a boy, or rather a man, who was nice, here in Detroit. When she had moved to Detroit, a little over a year ago, her first dates had been either battles royal, or dull. Dan was quiet and pleasant and comfortable. He didn't like her new apartment too well as the neighborhood was thought to be a wild one. He told her this on their second date and she was mad until he explained it away as interest in her safety.

It was true, she was alone on the third floor of the building except for the four girls who lived in the opposite apartment, but so far no one had bothered her. Last Saturday when she moved in, one of the girls had come into the hall and smiled at her, introduced herself as Lee Sorenson, and offered to help carry some of her things up for her. She said "No thank you", and then wondered why, because ordinarily she was friendly. Perhaps it was the peculiar garb the girl Lee had been wearing. Pants were all right, but not men's, and not argyle socks. She had walked in confusion into her apartment and then felt guilty for being so rude.

The next evening, Sunday, she was tired after unpacking and settling things, so she had just taken a shower and settled

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