Part 19 (1/2)
A middle-aged j.a.panese woman in a black kimono came through the steel gate in the wall around McCoy's house, bowed to the black Buick, then went back inside the wall. A moment later, the double gates farther down the wall opened, and Keller drove the car inside.
Mrs. Ernestine Sage McCoy, who was standing outside the door of the sprawling, one-floor j.a.panese house, was also wearing a black kimono.
Pickering decided she was wearing it as a maternity dress rather than a cultural statement of some kind. He also thought that it was true that being in the family way did indeed give women sort of a glow. Ernie looked radiant.
She came down the shallow flight of stairs as Fleming, Jeanette, Hart, and Keller got out of the Buick.
As Ernie hugged Fleming, he could feel the swelling of her belly against him.
”How are you, sweetheart?” he asked.
”I'm fine,” she said. ”The question seems to be, How are the men in our extended little family?”
”Ken's fine,” Jeanette answered for him. ”He looked like a recruiting poster when I saw him. Pick is still among the missing.”
”Ken told me they had missed him by no more than a couple of hours yesterday,” Pickering said. ”They'll find him, I'm sure.”
”Well, come on in the house, all of you, and have a drink. I didn't know how many of you were coming, or when, so dinner will have to be started from scratch.”
”Then I'll have time to take a shower?” Jeanette asked. ”Shower, h.e.l.l, a long hot bath?”
”Come on with me,” Ernie said. ”Uncle Flem, you know where the bar is.”
She put her arm around Jeanette and started to lead her into the interior of the house.
”Wow,” Ernie said, first sniffing and then wrinkling her nose. ”You really do need a bath, don't you?”
”You can go to h.e.l.l,” Jeanette said.
The middle-aged j.a.panese woman and a younger j.a.panese woman were already in the living room when Pickering led the others in. There were four bottles on the bar: bourbon, scotch, vodka, and beer.
The men indicated their choices-two scotches and a bourbon-by pointing. The young woman made the drinks, and the older woman put them on a tray and served them. The younger woman left the room, returning in a moment with a tray of bacon-wrapped smoked oysters.
Ernie came in as the oysters were being served.
”I would really like a very stiff one of those,” she said. ”But I am being the perfect pregnant woman.”
”Good for you, sweetheart,” Pickering said. ”How about an oyster and a gla.s.s of soda?”
”Take what you can, when you can get it,” Ernie said, and said something in j.a.panese to the younger woman, who started to fill a gla.s.s with soda water.
She turned to Pickering.
”Was Ken telling Jeanette the truth about Pick? Or whistling in the wind to make her feel good?”
”The truth, I'm sure,” Pickering said.
”I really feel sorry for her,” Ernie said.
”Ernie, two things. Thank you for dinner, but no thank you. MacArthur has invited me for dinner, and George and Paul have got things to do.”
”Things that won't wait until they can eat?”
”That's the second thing. No, they can't wait. Don't tell Jeanette, but there's been a message from the President; he wants me in Was.h.i.+ngton as soon as I can get there.”
”What's that all about?”
”I really don't know. But he's the President, Ernie. I do what he tells me to do.”
”Don't tell Jeanette?”
”She's a reporter.”
”She's Pick's . . . I was about to say girlfriend, but she's much more than that.”
”I know,” he said. ”But I still don't want you to tell her.”
”About you going to Was.h.i.+ngton, or about anything?”
”This will sound cruel, perhaps, but the less Jeanette knows about anything, the better. Let me, or Ken, decide what she can know.”
”You're going to Was.h.i.+ngton, and Ken's in Korea,” Ernie replied.
”Come to Was.h.i.+ngton with me,” Pickering said.
”No.”
”You could see your parents for at least a couple of days.”
”No.”
”And then come back here, if you'd like.”
”No, Uncle Flem. Thank you, but no.”
”You want to tell me why?”
”Ken's here. This is our home.”
”A couple of days with your parents would be good for all concerned,” Pickering argued.
”They would spend all their time arguing that I should stay with them, and then be really hurt when I wouldn't. It's better the way it is.”
”You don't want your mother here when the time comes?”
”Not unless Ken's here, too. Then, sure.”
”If she decides to come, you can't stop her, Ernie.”
”She knows how I feel. Can we get off this subject?”