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He had been the one to give in, that time. He had lasted about a week. Then he’d said, “Listen. If we were to have children …” and the sudden, alerted sweep of her eyes across his face had made him feel the way a parched plant must feel when it’s finally given water.
Over supper he talked to Merrick and Redcliffe about how they would have their own rooms now. Redcliffe was busy squeezing the skins off his lima beans, but Merrick said, “I can’t wait. I hate sharing my room! Redcliffe smells like pee every morning.”
“Be nice, now,” Li
“I never!”
“You did when you were a baby.”
“Redcliffe is a baby!” Merrick teased Redcliffe in a singsong.
Redcliffe popped another lima bean.
“Who wants ice cream?” Junior asked.
Merrick said, “I do!” and Redcliffe said, “I do!”
“Li
“That would be nice,” Li
But she was turned in Redcliffe’s direction now, wiping lima-bean skins off his fingers.
It was their custom to listen to the radio together after the children had gone to bed — Li
He spent a while packing his business papers for the move, and then he turned out the lights and went upstairs. Li
“Naw, I’m bound to wake on my own,” he said.
He stripped to his underthings and hung his shirt and overalls on the hooks inside the closet door, although as a rule he would have just slung them onto the chair since he’d be wearing them tomorrow. “Our last night in this house, Li
“Mm-hmm.”
She folded the bureau scarf and laid it in the top drawer.
“Our last night in this bed, even.”
She crossed to the closet and gathered a handful of empty hangers.
“But I can still visit you in your new bed,” he said, and he gave her rear end a playful tap as she walked past him.
She made a subtle sort of tucking-in move that caused his tap to glance off of her, and she bent to fit the hangers into the bureau drawer.
“Junior,” she said, “tell me the truth: where did that burglar’s kit come from?”
“Burglar’s kit? What burglar’s kit?”
“The one in Mrs. Brill’s sunroom. You know the one I mean.”
“I don’t have the slightest idea,” he said.
He got into bed and pulled the covers up, turned his face to the wall and closed his eyes. He heard Li
A few minutes later he heard her pad toward the bed, and he felt her settling onto her side of it. She lay down and then turned away from him; he felt the slight tug of the covers. The lamp on her nightstand clicked off.
He wondered how she had reacted when she first saw the revarnished swing. Had she blinked? Had she gasped? Had she exclaimed aloud?
He had a vision of her as she must have looked trudging up the walk with her two bags of food: Li
He opened his eyes and shifted onto his back. “Li
“I’m awake.”
He turned so his body was cupping hers and he wrapped his arms around her from behind. She didn’t pull away, but she stayed rigid. He took a deep breath of her salty, smoky smell.
“I ask your pardon,” he said.
She was silent.
“I’m just trying so hard, Li
“Why, Junior,” she said, and she turned toward him. “Junie, honey, of course you do. I know that. I know you, Junior Whitshank.” And she took his face between her hands.
In the dark he couldn’t see if she was looking at him or not, but he could feel her fingertips tracing his features before she put her lips to his.
Dodd McDowell and Hank Lothian and the new colored man were due to arrive at eight — Junior let his men start a little late when they worked on weekends — so at seven, he drove Li
As they were pulling into the street, Doris Nivers from next door came out in her housecoat, carrying a potted plant. Li
“I’m just trying not to bawl my eyes out,” Doris told her. “The neighborhood won’t feel the same! Now, this plant might not look to you like much, but it’s going to flower in a few weeks and give you lots of beautiful zi
“Zeenias,” she pronounced it, in the Baltimore way. She passed the plant through the window to Li
“You just better had! Bye, kiddos. Bye, Junior,” Doris said, and she took a step backward and waved.
“So long, Doris,” Junior said. The children, who were still in a just-awakened stupor, merely stared, but Li
“Oh, I’m going to miss her so much!” Li
“You haven’t lost her. You’re moving two miles away! You can invite her over any time you like.”
“No, I know how it will be,” Li
“Li
Li
When he drew to a stop in front of the house, she asked, “Shouldn’t we park around back? What about all we’ve got to carry?”
“I thought we’d have a bite of breakfast first,” he said.
Which made no sense, really — they could eat breakfast just as well if he had parked in back — but he wanted to give their arrival the proper sense of occasion. And Li