The Deceivers Read Online Free PDF Page B

terribly good until the car started to move and I waved. The last I saw of her was a bright red mask of anguish and a mouth you could have slipped a grapefruit into with no trouble at all.”
    “They grow so fast,” Joan said wistfully.
    “And this here unnatural mother hopes and prays that we’ll wind up with a pair like the Garrett heirs.”
    “That’s nice of you to say that, Cindy,” Joan said.
    “They are good kids. That Kip makes me wish I was fourteen again. He’s turning into a handsome devil.”
    “When does Bucky get back?” Carl asked.
    “He’s on the deal he calls the Big Swing. He called last night to make sure the children got off all right. He’s had the best trip ever, so far, and, on Friday, instead of coming home, he swings down to Memphis to some kind of a convention of industrial chemists. He made the usual wistful request for permission to do some night flying to save time and I gave the usual hearty No. I know what would happen. A lot of drinks with the customers, and then he’d decide to be an intrepid birdman and rack himself up on a mountain somewhere. You kids need some visiting time of your own, so I will now return to my new career of being the compleat slob. When do they excavate, Joanie?”
    “Tuesday morning.”
    Cindy stood up. “I’ll see you again before then, honey.”
    “Cindy, you keep an eye on our house and make sure Carl doesn’t stay up until all hours. He gets his nose in a book and he loses all track of time. If you see the lights on late, call him up and give him hell for me.”
    “I’ll sling rocks at his window. Be good, now.” She strolled out and turned in the hall and smiled and waved.
    “It will be good for her to have a little rest,” Joan said. “But I didn’t know the kids would be gone practically the whole summer. She’s so odd about some things. If mine weregone that long When they were the age of Bobby and Bitsy, I’d have gotten lonesome for them by the second day.”
    “And gone and gotten them three days later.”
    “I suppose so. She’s just like you used to be, Carl. She’s good with them, like you were, but you used to get so impatient sometimes.”
    “I’ll take them at the present ages, thank you.”
    The hall speakers softly announced the end of visiting hours in five minutes. He spent a few minutes looking at the book Cindy had brought and then kissed her good-by and she said, “Dear, please hand me my robe again. No rest for the wicked, I guess.”
    He left at eight-thirty, walking out into the long gray and golden dusk of summer, walking out of the medicinal aromas and electronic efficiencies of the hospital. A pretty nurse stood on the lawn under a tree, smoking a cigarette and talking to a young man in a T shirt and khakis. As he passed them, walking toward the station wagon, the man said something to her in a low voice, and she laughed in a teasing and flirtatious way that was as old as time.
    He went to a drive-in and had a hamburger and a milkshake and listened on the car radio to the Yankees scoring heavily against the Red Sox. He felt restlessly alone in the world. He had gone away many times. He had gone to a war and he had gone on business trips, and once he had gone on a hunting trip to Canada as a guest of the Treasurer of Ballinger. But she had never gone away before. Not in seventeen years of marriage. She had never been in hospital since they were married with the two exceptions of the births of Kip and Nancy. And this time was not like those times. He had been scared then, but not in this way.
    The car next to him was full of teen-age boys. They were kidding the car hop in a noisy and unfunny way, and she was not taking it well. When he blinked his lights she came and got the tray and the tip and said good night, mister.
    He drove home, knowing how empty the house would be, and how empty her bed would be. Sunday evenings had always been a quiet and pleasant time for them. Perhaps the television set would fill