We're just sittin' down to a well-earned meal, when the bell rings
again. Actin' as maid is one of the best things I do around my five
rooms, if you count the bath, so I answered it. They was a man and a
woman standin' there and my heart run up to play with my tonsils when I
seen them. I figured they was a couple more guests for dinner and you
knew what they're askin' for steak these days.
"I'm sorry to bother you," says the dame, "but we are the people who
live in the flat right under yours."
"If you think we're too noisy, moan to the landlord!" I says, "I gotta
right to stage an argument in my flat whenever I so choose!"
She giggles. The guy that was with her don't make a sound.
"Why, I'm sure we never heard any noise from above," she says. "I
think you and your wife are no doubt the quietest folks in the whole
house."
Oh, boy!!!
"How long have you been deaf?" I says.
"You're just like your wife claims," she grins. "Full of life and fun!
But I'm keepin' you from your food, ain't I? I wanted to know if you'd
let Mister Simmons climb down your fire escape."
"Feed him some veronal," I says, "and he'll no doubt be O.K. in the
mornin'. The first day is always tough!"
"Why, what do you mean?" she says. "I merely asked if my husband could
climb down your fire escape."
I seen I had wild pitched the first time, so I tried my luck again.
"Is your joint on fire?" I says.
"Oh, no!" she tells me. "But we are locked out. My husband invented a
new kind of lock--he's always inventing something that will do
everything but work. He put this lock on our door and now he can't
open it himself! Isn't that killing?"
"A riot!" I admits. "Come right in."
The wife is gettin' nervous at me bein' out there so long, and when she
heard a female voice laughin', of course that didn't help matters none.
She meets this dame half way in the hall and the minute they seen each
other they fall together in fond embrace. I found out later they'd
known each other as long as a week and the last time they met was an
hour before.
Well, we get introduced all around and then this bird which invented a
lock that nobody on earth could open, includin' himself, goes out on
the fire escape followed by his charmin' wife. They entered their flat
by the novel method of usin' the kitchen window. This guy didn't open
his mouth from the time he come in till he went out, and when spoke to,
he blushed all over and acted like he wished to Heaven he could hide
under the sofa. His wife, though, had nothin' against conversation as
a sport. She was talkin' when she come in and she went out the same
way. I never seen nobody in my life who could talk as fast and
frequent as this dame and if her husband had hung that trick lock on
her tongue he would of made himself solid with me!
"That's that lovely Mrs. Simmons," says the wife, when they had went.
"It's too bad her husband ain't a live one."
"Gettin' married has buried many a good man!" I says.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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