Nothing but Blue Skies Read Online Free PDF Page A

the pigs.
    He had a daughter, Holly, in college at Missoula and they wenton liking each other tremendously; but the oddness of his house without Gracie made it a strangely formal place for them to spend time together. They did go fishing, but the season for that was closed eight months of the year, which left restaurants. He knew that Holly and Gracie often spoke, but Holly found it best not to discuss those conversations, a numbing artifice.
    He’d had the Millmans over for drinks and it was a waste of time for everybody. Sandy Millman came in her hair all droopy with mousse, far too young for her. Frank could remember when Sandy was the young professionals’ town pump, famed for love noises few had ever heard. Darryl Millman had come to town clearly on a large private income and opened a ski shop; and Sandy clamped on to him. Between the all-nighters and the recreational drugs, Sandy was able to slide Darryl straight to the altar, where his wealthy, lewd face was seen to say all the things that conveyed not only hopes of a happy life but fifty percent of his fortune to Sandy.
    But Darryl was on a back-to-the-earth mission and put everything he had into a huge grain farm. He spent most of his time in his Beechcraft, meeting farm managers and going to agricultural seminars. It seemed a long way from the sap who supplied all the cocaine in the waning days of the seventies.
    Frank had seen more of them since Gracie’s departure because Gracie had barred them from Amazing Grease for attracting narco types, and then from the house itself for “character flaws.” This was after several bitter remarks exchanged between Gracie and Sandy, Gracie getting the worst of a series of inquiries about what “she had ever done.” Finally, the argument appeared to drift away when Gracie said, “All right, Sandy, let’s hear these famous noises that have taken you so far.”
    A moment passed and Sandy spoke in a bell-like contralto: “Thanks for having us over. We see so little of each other. Next time, let’s not let it be so long. Good night!” There was not a trace of irony in her voice. It was wonderfully disconcerting and its effect lingered for a long time. They never saw the Millmans socially after that.
    Once Gracie was gone, Sandy seemed determined that she never come back. She introduced Frank to out-of-town women — wanton lawyers, nervous potters, divorcées of unrelenting ferocity. Frank made no effort to get around. He didn’t have to.
    But Frank’s loneliness had begun to take some peculiar forms.

4
    Frank stretched out on the broad-branched old apple tree with his back to the smooth, cool trunk. Within the canopy of leaves and remaining blossoms of spring he was engulfed in an even deeper darkness than that provided by this still, moonless night. Better yet, he was able to dreamily observe his travel agent, Lucy Dyer, whose office was just down the hall from his and who was one of Gracie’s oldest friends, remove the last of her clothes and stand transfixed in front of the shuddering blue-gray light of the television. She dug her fingers into her scalp and pushed them up through her hair, loosening and letting it fall in a wonderful declaration of day’s end. Frank sighed in his tree and rested his head against the trunk. This was serene.
    Many times Lucy and her current beau had dined with Frank and Gracie, and sometimes Lucy came by herself. One wonderful Halloween, Frank, Gracie and Lucy had gone trick-or-treating together. Now her figure swam with the reflected light of world events on the ten o’clock news. When her window finally went dark, Frank slid slowly to the ground in an excited yet peaceful mood and walked through the sounds of the warm night across the subdivision to the railroad tracks, which he followed until the tall mountains behind the town could be made out against the starlight. To the west a faint flickering of lights arose from theinterstate, and to the east the distant sound of trucks