The Pinballs Read Online Free PDF Page B

right,” Mr. Mason said. He put his hand on Thomas J’s shoulder, not to push him forward, just to help him along, like planes refueling in the air.
    â€œThree-twenty. This must be the room,” Mr. Mason said. They entered together.
    The Benson twins lay in side-by-side beds, and beyond them was another woman reading a magazine. Thomas J moved between the twins’ beds.
    The twins didn’t look like themselves. They had gotten thinner. They hardly made wrinkles in the covers.
    â€œHi,” Thomas J said.
    â€œThomas J, is that you?”
    â€œYes’m.” He had been afraid they wouldn’t know him. Sometimes at home they had forgotten him. He would go in for supper, and there would only be two places set at the kitchen table. “Why, Thomas J,” one of them would cry, “we forgot all about you. Get yourself a plate.”
    â€œI’m here for a visit,” he added.
    â€œSister, it’s Thomas J.”
    â€œI see him.”
    There was a silence. Then both twins reached out their hands to him. He could never remember holding their hands before, and it made him feel strange. He glanced over his shoulder at Mr. Mason.
    â€œHave you been back to the house?” one of the twins asked.
    â€œNot since I left.”
    â€œWhat?”
    He turned back to the twins. “ Not since I left .”
    â€œDon’t let things go down.”
    â€œ Nome .”
    â€œThe peas are just coming in.”
    â€œYes’m.”
    â€œYou got to can the peas, Thomas J. You’ve seen us do it enough to know how.”
    â€œI don’t remember, though. I don’t even know where the jars are at.”
    â€œWe’ll stop by on the way home and check on the peas,” Mr. Mason said.
    â€œGet Papa’s gold watch,” one of the twins—Jefferson—said. “You know where it is.”
    â€œYes’m.”
    â€œIf people know it’s there, they’ll break in and steal it. Might have already.”
    â€œYes’m.”
    â€œAnd the gold coins—there’s three of them—you know where they’re at.”
    â€œUnder the mattress.”
    â€œUnder my mattress,” Jefferson said.
    There was a silence. Jefferson closed her eyes. Thomas J cleared his throat. “How are your hips?” he asked.
    â€œThey operated on us. Put pins in.”
    â€œOh.”
    Now both of them closed their eyes. Thomas J took one step forward. He still held their hands.
    Suddenly he wanted to ask about that morning, long ago, when he had come tottering up the road. He felt as if this might be his last chance. He had asked them for details before, but all they had said was “You just come up the drive, that’s all to tell.”
    â€œBut what did I have on?”
    â€œOh, let’s see. What was it, Sister?”
    â€œA diaper and a shirt.”
    â€œDo you still have them—the diaper and the shirt?” At the time he had thought there might be a clue there—a laundry mark or a name.
    â€œNo, we used them for dusting, but I do remember there was a dog’s picture on the shirt.”
    â€œA dog?”
    â€œBecause I’ve seen him on TV. What is his name, Sister? You know who I’m talking about.”
    â€œLassie?”
    â€œNo, a cartoon dog. I’ll think of it in a minute. He’s white with—”
    â€œBut did you go out to the road and look for cars?” he had asked, interrupting.
    â€œSister did.”
    â€œDid she see anybody?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAn accident or something?”
    â€œThere wasn’t a soul in sight.”
    Later, one night when he was watching a Halloween special on TV, one of the twins had cried, “ That’s the dog. That’s the dog that was on your shirt when we found you.” It was Snoopy.
    The twins were asleep now. Their hands slipped from Thomas J’s. Thomas J took a step backward and bumped into Mr.