Part 13 (1/2)

Judith looked at the floor. Maybe she didn't even hear. She had stopped crying but she had sunk so far into herself that afternoon that there seemed no getting her back. There was hay on her once-perfect clothes and her mask of make-up had begun to fade away. I thought she looked prettier than before.

'Just lucky, huh, Judith?' laughed Ingrid. 'There's a hunk in the field and you get the thunderbolt from a Christmas dinner.'

Miss Strange looked tired but I think in her own way she was trying to get through to Judith. She looked straight at her.

'Don't be ridiculous. Animals do not love.'

I didn't like the idea of this. 'Mr Paton loves you,' I said and I knew it was true. He was sitting on her shoulder, stroking the indented side of her face.

'That's not love,' replied Miss Strange, getting mad. 'I'm just his meal ticket.'

Cosmos thought for a moment. 'I think we don't want animals to have emotion because then we wouldn't know how to treat them. Anyway, if they have no emotion it makes you feel, like, better than them. More than them. But they feel stuff Did you ever see anything more pa.s.sionate than the excitement of a dog going for a walk?'

Miss Strange snorted. 'That's not pa.s.sion. It's about gratification.'

Cosmos tried again. 'It's not like humans do emotion real well. They can't always express what they're feeling.'

Doreen was trying to follow. 'Yeah, but they do express it, right? That's what makes it different. At least people, what do you call it, communicate.'

'Not always,' said Mrs Torchinsky, who lived among the departed. Cosmos's focus was absolute. She was not distracted.

'If someone from another country didn't speak English and you couldn't talk to them, does that mean they don't feel anything? I mean we speak the same language and... Ingrid, try and find one word for what you feel right now. Better yet, what I am feeling or Sweetheart.'

Ingrid looked bewildered. 'I don't know. Of course, I don't know.'

'No you don't. Can anyone understand the inner landscape of anyone else's life? Do you know what someone else is feeling? Presuming that animals lack feeling is just an excuse for treating them badly.'

Mrs Torchinsky was adamant. 'We are not like animals.'

'No, we're not like animals, we are animals,' replied Cosmos.

Doreen looked out the door again at Gabriel. 'Of course, some men are more animal than others.' Mrs Torchinsky laughed. 'I'm sure you have a point, Cosmos, but I can't worry about this. I can't spend Sundays wondering if the chicken on my table was depressed. How could you tell anyway? Bad posture?'

The women started laughing and Sappho clapped along with delight.

'Yeah, Cosmos, tell us, do chickens have pecking orders?'

'Do penguins have bad days?'

Cosmos smiled. 'Did you ever see two herons courting?' she asked. 'They wrap their long necks around each other and reach such a pitch of emotion that I could have wished to be a heron so I might experience it.'

Miss Strange tutted. 'Heron love. Love! Why do women talk about it all the time? It's no wonder men think we're lame-brained.'

Mrs Torchinsky produced several bottles of red wine and some fresh cups while the discussion continued.

'Men don't know about love,' declared Ingrid. 'All they worry about is size and performance.'

As the subject of size had often come up in many of the women's minds in relation to Ingrid's husband Hubert from the Pop Inn, this gave them pause. He was the only black man in town and even I knew there were rumours about what that meant.

'That's not true,' declared Doreen, defensive of her Tony.

'All right,' cried Ingrid, getting excited. 'What is the difference between men and women?'

'The size of your bowling ball,' volunteered Doreen, and everyone laughed. The women sat and talked and drank. It didn't take long for them to get on to the subject of s.e.x. Miss Strange was getting slightly slurred.

'Camels have very civil breeding methods although otherwise they are rather bad-tempered and I do not recommend them for a pet. If a female in the camel pack sounds like a cigarette ... anyway, if the female goes into heat then the males won't fight for her. They just line up single file and in an orderly fas.h.i.+on to ”service” her. When they're done, they get off and go back to the end of the line.'

Cosmos was getting annoyed. 'Yes, but none of this means animals can't love.'

'Oh, stop bringing love into it,' snapped Miss Strange so sharply that Mr Paton removed himself to the other end of the hay bale. Cosmos would not be swayed.

'Animals love their babies.'

Helen surprised everyone by joining in. 'The female Asian diadem b.u.t.terfly will guard her eggs by standing over them. Sometimes, if the eggs don't hatch, she will do it till she dies. Her rooted corpse standing watch over her offspring.'

'Is that love?' I wanted to know.

'A b.u.t.terfly will do that?' said Sweetheart so quietly we almost didn't hear. 'That's more than Judith will do for Perry.' Perry had fallen asleep with his body moulded to Aunt Bonnie. There was a terrible silence, broken by Joey appearing at the door.

How Joey ever thought he could run for office I'll never know. At any rate he couldn't deal with the crowd of women who turned their attention to him. He didn't really have much to say. He tried to pull his substantial stomach in a little and smoothed back his hair. He blushed as he spoke.

'Oh, yes, h.e.l.lo. Miss Strange. Uh, Judith.' He looked and smiled at the floor in the direction of Judith. 'I have located the entrance manner of the perpetrator and I think if I stay here the night then I could bring the matter to a useful conclusion. What I am saying is that I think the dog will come back and I could-'

Outside the roar of an engine brought everyone to silence. The thud of heavy boots was followed by the banging open of both the double barn doors. There stood the whole of Sa.s.saspaneck Fire Brigade. Defenders of the town and husbands to every one of the women sitting inside. The men were filthy with soot and smoke. At the centre of the group stood Harry. In his fireman's braces, filthy T-s.h.i.+rt and heavy boots, he looked macho in the way that men believe women admire. He eyed the group of seated women. Not one of them felt comfortable. There wasn't a woman in the room Harry hadn't seen naked and bulging in his corset store and he knew it. A dangerous priest who might forget the secrecy of confession. He stripped them down with his eyes and then wandered over to Joey. Harry was considerably taller. He stood uncomfortably close to the little man and looked down at him.

'Well, well, an election rally for the Democrats, eh, Mr Amorato? Cornering the female vote? I think you might be wasting your time, eh, men? I think you'll find the ladies will be good enough to vote sensibly with a little guidance from their husbands.'

'I wasn't ... I was here to...' Joey stumbled over every word.

Harry patted him on the head and dismissed him with a wave. 'No need to explain.' I thought Joey was going to try and punch him again. Instead he just hitched his pants up over and over.

Miss Strange stood up. 'h.e.l.lo, Harry. Thought maybe you had forgotten your way out here. Been a long time.'

Harry pulled himself up tall but a flash of a little boy crossed his face. 'Don't start with me, Miss Strange.' Harry clenched his jaw and turned back to Joey, to safer ground. 'Pity you couldn't join us on our little outing just now, Joey. Oh sorry, I forgot, too short for the brigade, aren't you?'

'I have asthma. You know I have asthma.'

Harry smiled around at his chums. 'Sure, of course. Still, I expect it was a man's work cutting up those pizzas for the ladies.' Harry moved in on Joey. He reached out and snapped his finger's at Joey's bow tie. 'My, you look good tonight. I always forget what a fine uniform that is.

'I'm here on official business,' stammered Joey, stepping back a little. He seemed to shrink even smaller as Harry rounded on him.

'Official business,' repeated Harry. 'Dog catcher to the zoo, huh? Not really a man's job is it, Joey? Animals? Furry animals? I mean, look at all these women. Much more their line, don't you think?' Harry turned back to his brigade for approval. The men were grinning.

Joey pulled himself up as tall as possible. 'Don't do this to me, Harry. You always do this to me. I have a job to do.'

'No!' Harry stepped back in mock surprise. 'What are you catching today, Joey? A dangerous poodle? A pest of a pooch? A schnauzer with a problem home?'

Joey was sweating now. He eyed all the men watching him and then said with as much dignity as he could muster, 'A dog killed a goose.' Harry laughed.

'May the good Lord save us in our beds. And to think we were fighting a fire while all this was going on. Saving homes while our women were busy finding other things to do.' Harry dismissed Joey from his mind and turned to the silent women. 'Now then, ladies, we men are hungry. We drove past our homes and there was no one there. That can't be right, can it, Judith? Judith?'