3
The rain outside still poured down as though the Biblical flood was deluging the earth in its waters. She stuffed the bag as well as she could manage beneath her coat and hurried home. The hour was much later than she thought and she worried that Brutus would be waiting for her at home. He sometimes did that, and she suspected it was because he feared one night she wouldn’t come back. They lived in a dingy apartment building a few blocks off the nice streets, and when she climbed the five stories to their floor she saw there were lights beneath their door. He was up.
Alma stopped in front of the entrance and pondered whether to run or go inside. He might be drunk and waiting for her with a flyswatter. That was his special weapon he used against her when she supposedly misbehaved
