She had carefully planned how to say it. “College is supposed to be preparation for life, right?”
“That’s what they keep telling us.”
“Then, isn’t it true, Johnny, that in the everyday world people like Mitch, because they do so many things so well, earn the right to get off with a reprimand, and the Joe Nowheres get it in the neck? Because we’re in college, do we have to be idealistic and unrealistic?”
He looked at her strangely. “Do you really believe that?”
“Of course!” she said, too vehemently.
He shook his head. “Then call me a fanatic. That’s not my kind of morality. That’s pragmatic morality — if it works, use it... I’m applying to your Mitch the same standards I use on myself, Jane Ann, right here and later on. Anything you have to cheat to get isn’t worth having, because you diminish yourself.”
“You certainly take yourself seriously!”
He leaned back and grinned at her, infuriatingly complacent, and said, “Woman, I’m the only thing I’ve got.” She tried three other times that week and could not move him, and went almost tearfully to Mitch and confessed failure. But Mitch gave her a sleepy smile and a little pat and said, “So go charm the jerk, sweetie. Use the girl tools. Flap those eyelashes.”
She stared at him. “Are you serious?”
“Baby, the way to win is to win. Once it’s in the record books, who cares how?”
It was a voice vote at the meeting. When it came her turn she looked directly at John Foley, directly into his unreadable gray eyes. She hesitated for several seconds. “I vote for suspension,” she said in a small voice — and saw his small nod, as though he had known all along.
When the meeting was adjourned, the vote unanimous, he caught up with her in the corridor. “Now what happens to our little discussion group?” he asked.
She stopped and looked at him. A gangling guy, trying to seem confident but actually ill at ease with her. Gray eyes uneasy in their appeal. And suddenly she had a strange sensation, as though her waiting heart had opened. He was suddenly dear. Her cheeks felt hot.
“I guess we make up a new agenda,” she said...
Now, back from the hospital, surrounded by the artifacts of love, eased of the fear of his death, she had a luxurious expectation of sleep for the first time since the call had come from the hospital.
She went to the kitchen and fixed tea and toast for herself and for Irene, humming to herself as she worked.
They sat, and she told Irene about the last visit, about what the night nurse had said, about how they were going to start to feed him orally, with broth and maybe some juice.
Then Irene reported the small happenings of the day.
“Who is Tom Haskell?” Irene asked.
“A good friend. And I guess you could call him our lawyer. The few things we’ve had, we’ve gone to him.”
“He phoned at eight thirty. He’d heard Johnny was out of danger, and he asked when he could talk to you.”
“I guess I’d better phone him tomorrow. And find out about the car insurance. And talk to Don at the office. All those things.” She yawned and stretched and ran her fingers back into her auburn-gold hair, and grinned at her sister. “The business of living again, Irene. The business of caring about the odds and ends. Thank God for that.”
“Do you think it’s going to be easy?”
Jane Ann stared at her. “You sound angry.”
“I’m not angry. Maybe I’m a little impatient with you, dear.” Irene was a tall, handsome woman in her middle thirties. She was tailored and immaculate, with the bloodless look of a person who sees a thousand things that warrant his disapproval.
“Impatient because I haven’t been charging around seeing lawyers and insurance people? For goodness sake, Irene, I’ve been spending every minute with—”
“I understand. I don’t mean that. I mean you don’t seem to comprehend the seriousness of what’s happened.”
Jane Ann stared at her. “Are you out of your mind?”
“My dear, the state police are charging Johnny with reckless driving, with not having his car under control and driving while under the influence of alcohol. He went to a cheap highway bar and picked up a cheap woman and killed her when he smashed the car. That woman’s family is going to sue. And you certainly do not have enough liability insurance to cover it.”
“Now, wait a minute!”
“Jane Ann, I know a little bit about how these things work. Do you think he still has his job to go back to?”
“So you’re condemning him, just like that silly newspaper did! Really, Irene! Johnny hasn’t had a chance to explain anything.”
Irene’s smile was thin and cool. “Do you think there’ll be very much to explain? Husbands do get drunk, and they do pick up women, and some of them have very bad luck. That’s the way the world is, my dear. I admire your bravery and I admire your loyalty, but I think you would be a great deal better off if you faced facts.”
“Irene,” Jane Ann said after a pause, “I am so grateful you could come here. I just don’t know what I would have done without you. And I do not think I can get along without you this summer. But I love Johnny and I trust him. I do not believe it happened the way everybody seems to think it happened. Johnny just isn’t that sort of man. Until he can explain just what did happen I am not going to have anyone, not even you, sit here and say bad things about him.”
“If he was only fifty miles away, why didn’t he come home when the day was over, and go back the next morning if he hadn’t finished his business?”
“That’s the sort of thing I mean. You just cannot say things like that in our house, Irene. I’d rather try to manage without your help.”
“Are you challenging me, dear?”
“Believe me, I’m just telling you how it has to be.”
Irene nodded. “Just as long as you understand my motive. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I’m trying to keep you from... being too badly hurt, that’s all.”
“If Johnny had died, people would go right on believing something that can’t possibly be true.”
“I won’t say another word, Jane Ann. Just remember, I’m standing by you no matter what.”
Jane Ann Foley made an appointment with Tom Haskell. She stopped at his office in the early afternoon of the following day. Tom was a pleasant, pink-and-white man with thinning blond hair and a small, plump smile. He expressed pleasure that Johnny was going to recover. He made social small talk for a little while and then looked unexpectedly serious and said, “I wouldn’t want you to think I was chasing ambulances, Jane Ann. Actually it isn’t the sort of problem a lawyer is going to go looking for, but you folks are going to need help. I’ve been telling people I represent John Foley. Do I have that authorization?”
“Of course.”
“I talked to Lester Maynard.”
“Oh, about the insurance?”
“Yes. The collision thing is easy enough. The car was a total loss. The salvage bid is two hundred dollars. I think we can accept that. The check will come to... I’ve got the figures here somewhere... sixteen hundred and ten dollars. The time-payment contract can be closed out for seven twenty-one thirty-three, leaving you eight eighty-eight sixty-seven. Lester says it will be all right if you sign this. The check will come made out to Johnny, but you can deposit it in your joint checking account. Lester has the personal things that were in the car, and he’ll drop them off at your house.”
“It seems so strange to be without a car. Tom.”
“Can you get along without one for a while?”
“Oh, yes. I’m using Irene’s.”
“Irene?”
“My sister. She’s staying with me. Irene Sherman.”
“The one I talked to. Yes. It’s the other aspect of the insurance, the liability angle, that’s going to give us fits. Johnny just wasn’t carrying enough, Jane Ann. Ten and twenty. That’s an absolute minimum. Ten thousand for each person, twenty thousand for each accident. Lester thinks, and so do I, that the insurance company will make no attempt to defend this one. They’ll just take their ten-thousand-dollar loss and call it a day.”