Part 3 (2/2)

Sweetheart worked as a volunteer at the local hospital so I guess she knew instinctively that Mother shouldn't stand long. She took Mother's arm and settled down with her on a bench. Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Eddie and the kids arrived in a great display of noise. Eddie Jr and Donna Marie bombed into the house as if they owned it and within a minute Aunt Bonnie was chucking a beer down her throat on the gra.s.s and Uncle Eddie was gutting fish over in a corner. It would be fair to say that Aunt Bonnie had made no effort for the party at all. She was at the other end of the sartorial spectrum to Mother. She wore jeans and a T-s.h.i.+rt before even folk singers thought it was a good idea. Father stood uncertainly in the middle of the patio. Now he didn't have Mother to hold up he wasn't sure where to go. Judith minced over to the barbecue and put her arms around Harry's waist. He patted her hand and prodded at his task with a huge fork as flames spat up from the grill.

'Honey,' wheedled Judith, kissing his back after each word. 'Do you think maybe you put the steaks on a little too soon? I mean the fire looks a little hot.'

It had all been going so sedately that Harry's speed surprised everyone. He turned Judith under his arm with one hand and grabbed her by the neck. She kept smiling but sagged slightly as he held her like his own personal Resussa-Annie.

'Darling!' he hissed, smiling. 'What does it say on here?' He held her face close to the words on his ap.r.o.n. Judith laughed as she tried to release herself.

'Oh I know it...'

Harry squeezed his hand closed on the back of her neck. He spat the words through his big teeth.

'In charge. It says I am in charge.'

No one said anything. We all saw, we all watched, and no one said anything. I like to think Father would have but I know he wouldn't. I should have but I didn't. I was too busy thinking about girls not rus.h.i.+ng the plate.

'Harry.' Sweetheart spoke quietly to her son. He looked at her and I thought something was going to explode. Instead he stroked Judith's neck and pulled her to him for a hug like he was just kidding. Judith laughed and moved away to smooth her hair. Harry carried on as if nothing had happened. Happy couple banter.

'Hey, Dorothy, you're not wearing one of those antiwar bracelets, are you? Eddie, you know your Donna Marie has one?'

Eddie shrugged and pulled the liver from a trout. 'Kids.'

'It's not just kids. That G.o.dd.a.m.n Martin Luther King riling up the black people against our boys.'

'He's dead,' said Aunt Bonnie, opening another beer.

'That's not the point. It's un-American. Why, I never even questioned serving my country. When I signed up...

Sweetheart interrupted quietly. 'Don't upset yourself, son.'

'I am not upset, but if those G.o.dd.a.m.n Commie people had never...'

We didn't hear what the G.o.dd.a.m.n Commies should never, because the fire alarm went off on the other side of the harbour. As the siren started, Harry threw off his ap.r.o.n.

'I'll get the car,' yelled Uncle Eddie, divesting himself of fish scales on the run. The hooter carried on giving the signal as Aunt Bonnie counted.

'Three-two-four. Over on Palmer, Eddie,' she yelled after her husband. Harry nodded.

'Come on, Charlie. Sounds like a big one.' He gave Father no choice but grabbed his arm and in a second the men were gone.

Almost every guy in Sa.s.saspaneck was a member of the Volunteer Fire Brigade. It was partly to do with economic necessity in the town and partly to do with some kind of sperm-count display in the men. It was about as macho an organization as it was possible to find. Sa.s.saspaneck was not a rich town. There had been a boom in the twenties when the Burroughs Boot Factories were going full-throttle, but nothing had been the same after the Depression. Fifty miles upstate from the city, it was a little too far to be commuter belt and no industry had ever settled along its sh.o.r.es again. Now the town didn't have the money for a full-time fire brigade. The big horn over at the boatyard would suddenly start blasting and men from all over the town would close down stores, drop fis.h.i.+ng rods and race to be first on the engine. They all wanted to drive the fire truck, or at least race through town clinging on in a yellow hat and big boots.

Each street had a different series of blasts and the council printed a list of them so everyone in the neighbourhood could tell exactly where the fire was. The signals didn't tell you where in the street, as it was generally reckoned if you couldn't see the fire by the time you got there the owners had no business calling out the brigade in the first place. Mr Angelletta from the pizza parlour (Tony's Pizzeria - a slice - Your Mother Should Make it so Good) was nearly always first on the engine as the firehouse stood between the pizza parlour and Torchinsky's (It's Your Funeral) Funeral Parlour. Mr Torchinsky always stayed behind.

'Please G.o.d there are no fatalities,' he would mutter outside his door as the engine pulled away. Then he would turn and polish the bra.s.s plate on his door. 'Still, if it should happen...'

The women sat quietly on the patio. Within a few minutes we could hear the sirens of the first engine pulling out toward Palmer. Judith went to get some sewing to do and Aunt Bonnie grabbed a fresh six-pack out of the garbage can. Sweetheart sat looking at Judith.

'He means well. He's not been himself since...' Judith interrupted with a stab of her needle.

Sweetheart shook her head and changed the subject.

'So, Rosie, isn't this nice? We have time to visit now the boys have gone off to play. What do you do with yourself all day?' she asked. My mother smiled uncertainly. I was curious to hear the answer.

'Oh, you know, the house, Dorothy... et cetera.' The others nodded. It was a full life. Sweetheart smiled. Judith settled down to her Christmas tapestry in the warm summer air.

'Sweetheart works as a candy-striper. You know, a volunteer at the hospital. Kind of fancy cleaner, isn't it, Sweetheart?'

'I work with the patients,' replied Sweetheart quietly. It was obviously an old exchange. Judith hardly took a breath.

'I mean, I think it is wonderful to give your hours but being married I just don't have the time.'

There was some problem here but I couldn't work out what it was. Judith was getting at Sweetheart but I didn't know how. Aunt Bonnie flipped open another beer. Judith stabbed at a festive reindeer and ploughed on.

'I don't know how you stand that hospital. The place is full of people who don't pay their bills. Harry was talking to Doc Martin today. Doc had a woman up there who had been admitted with terrible back pain. Turns out she only works as a furniture remover! She said to the doc, ”What can I do?” He said, ”You can start by behaving like a lady and stay home.”'

Aunt Bonnie nodded. 'Doc Martin, he's a funny guy.'

Sweetheart fanned herself. 'Going to be a hot summer.' She s.h.i.+fted to get more comfortable and sighed.

Judith looked up. 'You still haven't been down to the store, have you, Sweetheart? I keep telling you. Do you have an eighteen-hour girdle yet, Rosie? They are fabulous. Harry can't get enough of them. They just sell the minute they come off the truck into the store. I keep telling Sweetheart. Your own son and you won't go.'

'I like my old girdle just fine,' said Sweetheart, fanning herself.

'A woman shouldn't have to suffer.' Judith pulled herself upright. 'You should try one, Bonnie, might give you a better shape.'

'Who gives a hang?' barked Bonnie into her beer.

Judith eyed Bonnie, who was slumped on the gra.s.s. 'Might give you a shape at all. I'm sure Eddie would like it.

'If Eddie don't like my shape he knows what he can do.'

I looked at the four women, Bonnie, Judith, Sweetheart and my mother, and I knew I didn't want to be any one of them. I wanted to be driving the fire truck.

Chapter Five.

Inside Harry and Judith's house Donna Marie and Eddie were watching TV in the den. I was shunted away from the women's talk 'to make friends'. I stood in the doorway of the small room where the black and white TV blared. Eddie Jr looked at me.

'Hey, English, where's the tie?'

'I took it off,' I answered, trying to make my vowels sound right. He turned back to the TV.

'Made you look like a freak.'

'They got freaks out at the zoo.' Donna Marie never looked up as she spoke. 'Maybe you oughta go out there.'

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