Dorn pushed my coins back across her kitchen table before she counted them. “Is this another request for time?” she asked. I kept my hands at my sides so I would not take the money and turn the visit into another retreat. The sum was small, and I had already spent part of my wages on bread. I said it was payment against what I owed, with no condition attached. Only then did she fetch her notebook. Her pencil hovered while she waited for the condition anyway.
I asked her to speak with Ruth about renting my rooms directly. The pencil stopped. Outside her kitchen window, a delivery boy banged the gate with his bicycle pedal until somebody shouted. Dorn waited out the noise. “You want her to take your place on the account?” I said I wanted my account left in my name. What Ruth might owe would begin with whatever agreement they made. I could surrender space. I could not make my debt become part of her rent.
Dorn counted the money twice and wrote the payment down. “And where do you go?” I had no answer worth making. She shut the notebook before I could offer one anyway. The rooms were hers to rent, she said, but she would not substitute one quarrelsome arrangement for another. Ruth would have to say what she wanted and show what she could pay. I asked Dorn to tell her that herself. Then I carried the receipt upstairs, holding it flat so the ink would not smear.
Ruth was washing a stocking in a basin. I told her Dorn would consider a direct rental, and immediately heard how much like an announcement it sounded. She lowered the wet cloth. “What have you promised for me?” I said nothing about her money or her willingness. She asked what I expected in return. I began saying that I only wanted her safe, then stopped. She had heard enough of my wants. I told her Dorn was downstairs if she wished to ask about the rooms.
She dried her hands, took a purse from her trunk, and passed me in the doorway. I followed at a distance until she turned on the stairs. “You don't need to explain me.” I stayed on the landing while she knocked at Dorn's door. Waiting there was harder than accompanying her would have been. I could hear their voices but not the words. Twice I moved toward the lower steps, imagining some objection I could settle. Both times I made myself stop with my hand on the banister.
When they came upstairs together, Dorn asked me to unlock my rooms. Ruth walked through them slowly. She tested the window catch, looked behind the stove, and asked who would remove the crew baggage still troubling the common rooms. Dorn said it was not included in any rental. Ruth pointed to a stain beneath the sill and asked whether rain came through. I answered only that question. Then I moved my suitcase off the bed so she could inspect the wall without reaching around my belongings.
They discussed the rent while I stood beside the open door. Ruth named what she could pay from her own money and asked when each payment would fall due. Dorn refused the first amount. Ruth did not look toward me. They settled on a smaller set of rooms than Dorn initially proposed: my kitchen and bedroom, with use of the common passage and stairs. Her present room would be emptied after she moved. The numbers were close enough that both women repeated them before either nodded.
“And him?” Dorn asked, turning toward me. I said I would relinquish my rooms if they reached a written agreement, not occupy a corner under Ruth's name. Saying it made the bed behind me look suddenly unavailable. Ruth asked whether I would expect a key. “No.” Dorn reminded me that Eddie's men had obtained access before and that my personal key was not every key. I agreed to bring my belongings down and help clear theirs, but I could not honestly promise that surrendering my key would secure every door.
Dorn said she would put the terms in writing and bring two copies Thursday. Ruth wanted to read them before signing; Dorn agreed. They left me alone in the room I had offered away. I began putting shirts into my suitcase, then carried it downstairs to show Dorn I meant what I had said. She was waiting at the bottom, arms folded. She would attend a tenants' gathering, she told me, but she would not enter a room held by Eddie's men. Unless I changed that, the papers would remain in her bag.