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go into the army the next morning, and his wife Merle bound up the foreheads of Dean's two companions with much sympathy. Then all three men rode back into Pine Cone in the back of Mr Weaver's pickup truck, but the Country Squire was left in a drainage ditch, until it was taken away about two months later by someone who wanted the parts.
    Dean left for Fort Rucca, before dawn, without telling Sarah about the accident. She was very surprised not to see the car in front of the house the next morning when she needed to get to work, but supposed that one of Dean's companions had had to drive her husband home the night before, and had kept the automobile overnight. She learned the truth when she talked to the wife of one of these men at the plant on morning coffee-break. If there had been any way of getting in touch with Dean right then, Sarah thought she would have yelled at him for not having told her. An accident was an accident, it was even excusable that he had been drunk, but there was no justification for his cowardice in keeping the news from her. But when she wrote to him that night she could only think how depressed Dean had been about going off to Fort Rucca, and of course there was the possibility that he might not come home alive from Vietnam. Sarah had not had the heart to bring the car up to him, except in passing, asking what she should do about the insurance.
    No insurance money was forthcoming, for Dean had not carried collision coverage. All of Sarah's money went into the household expenses, and she had none to spare, especially not the kind of money that is needed for car payments. Dean's cheques from the army were meagre; he kept half for his incidental expenses, and the other half went directly to his mother. Sarah saw not a penny of these funds, and Jo explained to her daughter-in-law, 'I told Dean you didn't need the money, and you don't. You make a lot more than him. You got your mama and daddy's insurance money laid up somewhere, and if you really wanted a Cadillac Eldorado, I know you could take the bus down to Mobile, and walk right into the Cadillac showroom, and drive that thing right off the floor. There is not a reason in this world for Dean to send you money when you don't need it, and I can't work and I'm not going to be getting Social
    Security for another eight years and four months, unless I go blind first, and then I'll get it sooner
    Sarah had explained to her mother-in-law many times that her parents had left only enough money to pay for their funerals, and to discharge their debts. There had been nothing left over for Sarah herself. Jo had always told Sarah in return that she didn't believe a word of this. Sarah had stopped trying to convince her, and when Jo now demanded, every other day, that Sarah go out and buy them a Cadillac Eldorado, Sarah merely said, 'Jo, I couldn't afford a glove to put in the glove compartment...'
    Sarah was again fortunate in living next door to Becca Blair, for Becca was always pleased to take Sarah wherever she needed to go, and if she wasn't available, Becca's daughter Margaret had strict instructions to make the purple Pontiac available to Sarah at any time. This was no great hardship on Becca, however, for the two women maintained schedules that were quite similar. They went to work and left it at the same time, needed to shop at the grocery store as often (and had just as soon do it together anyway), and whenever Jo bore down particularly hard on Sarah (usually every weekend when Jo and Sarah were in the house together for many uninterrupted hours) Becca was more than happy to drive Sarah around out in the country until she had recovered herself. Sarah grew to think of the front passenger seat as her own, and learned how to open the glove compartment of the car without all the little statues of the Virgin Mary and Saint Christopher tumbling out on to the floorboards.
    Most days, after work, Sarah would ask Becca to drive around Pine Cone once before they