The Nice Girl Gets Even novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Last Waltz
I taught him for six weeks, every night after Tuesday class, with one lamp on.
Box step. Rise and fall. One, two, three.
"Look at me," I said. "Not at the floor."
"If I look at you, I step on you."
"Then step on me. Look at me anyway."
Eleven times the first week. Seven. Four.
By the first week of April, it was one, and I think that one was on purpose.
The new sign went up on a Saturday morning in April.
The old one stayed, the painted wood one my grandmother hung in 1971.
THE BLANCHARD SCHOOL OF MANNERS.
Under it, the barber and the shrimper screwed a brass plate into the brick.
OWNED BY THE GOVERNMENT STREET CO-OP.
And under that, twelve lines.
The school. The barbershop. The flower shop. The bakery.
The tailor, the bookbinder, the shoe repair, the watch repair.
The frame shop, the bait-and-tackle, the yoga studio, the cake shop in the old gas station.
The barber stepped back into the street to look at it.
"Crooked," he said.
"It's perfect," I said.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Nice Girl Gets Even are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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