“Yes, why?” I blurted carelessly.
“Did... she ask you for... money?” Long’s voice suddenly dropped to a stir of fi shing jumpiness. He must have practiced the same words more than a thousand times, and the whole sentence was like a bone that had been stuck in his throat too long, but just then he could fi nally swallow it.
“Yes. Did she ask you for money too?”
“Yes. Did she tell you why?”
“Yes. For the deposit of a new apartment.”
“Oh? Why couldn’t she just tell me then?” Long threw out the words like shooting an arrow without holding the bow properly. This was just one of his characteristics. If someone was challenging his liver and gall, and when there was a time he felt “left behind” or “outside” or “unfair”, his anger layered but only for a second.