I Would Rather Stay Poor

They forced their way through the crowd until they reached the crane bucket. They paused by the bucket to look up. Kit flicked her cigarette butt into the air. They watched the tiny white end come spiralling down to the ground. It seemed to take a long time before the crowd parted slightly to let it fall on the sidewalk. A souvenir hunter pounced on it.

‘You okay for heights?’ the sheriff asked looking at Calvin’s white face. ‘Better not go up there if you’re not. It’s a long way up.’

Calvin climbed into the bucket, ‘I’m all right,’ he said. ‘Just get me up there.’

‘Don’t look down and don’t lean your weight on the sides… it could tip. Good luck,’ and the sheriff signalled to the crane driver who was perched even higher than Kit in his small, glassed cabin.

As the bucket moved slowly upwards, the crowd gave a great sigh of excitement. They looked from Calvin, standing in the bucket and then to Kit who was watching him as he was lifted towards her.

The crane driver took him up gradually. Finally, Calvin swung exactly opposite Kit. They were within twenty feet of each other.

Because of the steel scaffolding, it wasn’t possible for the crane driver to get Calvin closer. Calvin, gripping the edge of the iron bucket, was sickeningly aware of the awful drop below.

‘Hello,’ Kit said. ‘I’ve been waiting for you. I knew you would come.’

‘Well, here I am,’ Calvin said, forcing his voice into steadiness. ‘What the hell’s got into you? Can you get over here? I’ll see you down.’

Kit laughed.

‘Come and fetch me. You’ve only to get out of that ridiculous thing and walk along that rod and then duck under this one and you’re with me. Come on: you and I could take the quick way down.’

Calvin wiped his face with the back of his hand.

‘What’s got into you? What’s the idea – puling a stunt like this?’ He scarcely knew what he was saying. ‘It’s not going to get you anywhere. Come on. Cut this out! I’ll help you if you’ll come.’

‘When I’m ready,’ Kit said, ‘I’m jumping, but I’m not ready yet. You’ve made me suffer, now I’m going to make you suffer. I’m staying here until I’m good and ready, then it’s going to be the quick way down. When I hit the ground, you’ll have about twelve hours – not more – of freedom. It’ll take my attorney about that long to remember the letter I left with him. When he opens it, you’ll be on the run. That’ll be the moment, when you begin feeling as I’ve felt these past weeks.’

Calvin stared at the white, drawn face.

‘I have the money,’ he said. ‘Three hundred thousand dollars. It’s in the boot of my car. We can still get away with this, Kit. Easton has promised to be our best man. He’ll get us out of Pittsville. Tell you what I’ll do: I’ll give you three quarters of the money if you’ll chuck this and come down. How’s that?’

Kit opened her bag and took out a pack of cigarettes. With a nonchalant disregard of her position, she lit a cigarette and then flicked the spent match down to the staring crowd.

‘Didn’t you hear what I said?’ Calvin said, raising his voice. ‘Think… by the end of the month, we’ll be out of this – you and I, with money to spend. Come on: what’s the sense of getting so far and then doing a thing like this?’

She blew a long wisp of smoke at him.

‘I’ve told you… but you don’t seem to understand. I have to live with myself, and I find I can’t do it. I didn’t think it would be like this.’ Her pale lips parted in a cynical smile. ‘I have Alice on my mind: day and night. I see the poor thing in my dreams. I can’t get her out of my mind. So… I’m taking the way out that you’ll have to take before long.’

‘Okay, if you’re that gutless,’ Calvin snarled. ‘Go ahead, but why involve me? That letter of yours… do something about it. Look, I’ll…’

Kit’s jeering laugh cut across his frenzied voice.

‘That’s the trick in this,’ she said. ‘You thought you had it all fixed, but you’re not getting away with it… as I’m not getting away with it. When I go… you’ll follow. You shouldn’t have involved Iris in this. That’s something I’ll never forgive you for. We’ll settle this thing together… I’ll go first, but make no mistake about it, you’ll go second.’

Then for no reason that Calvin could see, her foot slipped and she dropped her bag as she snatched at the nearest steel pole. She missed and fell. Calvin involuntarily shut his eyes, feeling a cold wave of blood surge through him. He heard a loud moan come up from the crowd: a woman screamed. He forced himself to look.

Kit had fallen no more than ten feet. She had caught hold of a scaffolding pole and was now hanging in mid-air.

Calvin was now above her, looking down at her. He watched her swing herself from an impossible position into a safe position with the carelessness of a monkey swinging from tree branch to tree branch. In the moment that had chilled his blood, she was once again settling herself into the precarious safety of yet another apex of yet another triangle of steel.