He could have kissed her, and would have before everyone if a young man had not suddenly lost interest in a barbecue he was pricing and turned to admire her; and his pretty wife, catching him in the act, said,“No, George, I’m not going to buy you that even if it is your birthday.”
When she left work that afternoon, Greg was waiting to drive her home. She emerged carrying a potted begonia.“With my regrets ? and D.C.‘s,” she said, handing it to him. “Clara Peabody.”
He inspected the plant with a critical eye.“I’ll accept your regrets but I don’t know about D.C.‘s. Are you sure he’s sincere about this?”
She laughed and, while he held the door, slid into the front seat. She asked solicitously about his bandaged arm. He pretended considerable pain but said, “It’s nothing. Nothing at all.” He asked then, “Are you positive he’s a cat? I mean, well, you know how they get babies mixed up in hospitals. Maybe he was a panther cub and they put the wrong tag on him.”
She sat close to him.“You know only one side of him.”
“You mean there’s another?”
“When he curls up in your lap and starts purring, you know that this little bit of life ? “
He broke in.“Tell me, are we talking about the same cat? Little bit of life? Two hundred pounds of savage fury. And I’ve got an arm to prove it.”
“You’re so prejudiced. If you’d just try to like him
“
“I’ll try. Because nothing could be all bad that you love so much.”
As he drove, the world turned into a fairyland set to music. Even the traffic signals seemed to play a melody. She scarcely heard Greg talking. He was asking about going to the Cocoa-nut Grove at the Ambassador Saturday for the dinner show.
He said,“I’ve got something to celebrate. I got those kids together who wanted a divorce. They came into the office today and you should’ve seen their faces. They just needed somebody to crack their heads together and tell them it was time they were acting like adults.”
He asked then,“How about me bringing my duck over tonignt and you roasting it?”
She stalled, and reality, stark and stern, padded back in. He was immediately suspicious.“I promised Inky I’d go to a PTA meeting,” she lied and, having done so, felt the warmth in her cheeks.
“Tomorrow night then?”
“Could I let you know in the morning? The folks will be home this weekend and
now, Greg, don’t get excited. Don’t be so suspicious. I want to, you know that, even if nights do have a rather peculiar effect on you.”
He turned back the temper admirably, and even produced a half-hearted smile. As he let her out at her front door, they saw the tree movers cleaning up the last vestiges of the apricot they had cut down. “I’m sorry,” he said, “although frankly, I don’t think Blitzy had anything to do with it.”
She thanked him for the ride and said she would give him a ring the next morning. Crossing the sidewalk, she passed Mr. Macdougall, who gave her an old rake smile along with a greeting. We are all bounders together, the smile seemed to say. Hurrying up the walk, she shot a quizzical glance backward. What’s got into him, she wondered.
As Mr. Macdougall let himself into the living room, his wife looked up from the front window where she had been manning the outposts of decency.“Just look at her, all sweet innocence, and her with a man in her room again tonight, and her folks so nice.”
”Terrible, terrible,” Mr. Macdougall agreed.
“I don’t know what this generation’s coming to.”
“Same as the last. No good.”
“Wilbur!”
21
Humming to himself, Greg parked the car in the driveway and walked around to inspect the front yard, which Mike was mowing.
“Nice job,” Greg said. He stripped three one-dollar bills from a roll he was carrying.
“My sister says I can take only a dollar,” Mike announced sorrowfully. “She says you’re trying to corrupt me and I should be ashamed. I thought she’d pat me on the back for being such a good businessman.” He added thoughtfully, “She should encourage me since I’ll probably have to take care of her in her old age.”
Greg said,“She’s a wonderful person, Mike.”
Mike grinned.“That’s what everybody tells me. Oh, well
“
Greg handed him the dollar.“We’ll see what we can do about fringe benefits. Maybe a movie now and then. Your sister couldn’t object. It’s all a part of modern business. You know, pensions, free aspirin, Blue Cross, free haircuts, paid vacations, free bail bonds, and, of course, free psychiatric service since everybody’s nuts these days.”
Mike grinned broadly and headed for the garage to put up the mower. Still humming, Greg entered the house by the front door, picking up a newspaper on the way in. As he closed the door behind him, he was slowed by the abnormal quiet.“Blitzy,” he called, and hurried into the living room where he stopped suddenly, stunned.
Blitzy, curled up on the floor by the divan, looked dead. Greg stood a moment, paralyzed. Blitzy dated to his high school days. In his sophomore year, Greg had sneaked him home one night. His friend, Hal, who lived the next street over, had found the puppy wandering aimlessly about, half-starved, but Hal’s folks refused to let him keep the dog and were going to call the pound.
Now Greg dropped beside the little dachshund, and, with a swell of relief, saw he was breathing.“Blitzy,” he said softly, “Blitzy.” He rubbed the dog’s head gently for several minutes and kept calling his name, but failed to bring him back to consciousness. He then telephoned Blitzy’s old “family doctor,” a veterinarian who had brought the dachshund through several illnesses.
While he was waiting for him to come, Greg sat anxiously on the floor by the dachshund, trying to get him to respond. A half-hour later, the veterinarian, Dr. James T. Newhall, arrived. He was on the pudgy side with a round, beaming face and a boyhood love for animals.
When he finished his examination, he rose, puzzled.“Heartbeat’s good,” he commented, “and as far as I can determine he hasn’t suffered any physical injury. But something has caused him to black out. A shock of some kind.”
Greg was baffled. Blitzy, as usual, had been in the house alone all day.“He’s gotten to an age when he doesn’t like to run around much. Sits here on top of the divan most of the day and watches ? watches.
“
His words drifted away as he stared out of the window.“No ? it couldn’t be,” he mumbled to himself.
“What couldn’t be?” asked Dr. Newhall.
“Nothing.
“You saw something out there,” persisted Dr. Newhall. “Something that might have given him a jolt.”
Greg looked sheepish.“The neighbor across the street ? she had a tree taken out today. It was his favorite tree.”
Dr. Newhall smiled.“That could do it. Happens over and over, same as with people. That tree was his security, part of his life, his world.” He shook his head. “A frightful thing to have happen to you.” He added hurriedly, “That is, if you’re a doxy. Well, we’ll give him whirlpool baths and see if we canbring him out of it.”
His car had scarcely pulled away when Mrs. Macdougall waddled up.“Poor little fellow, we all loved him so. I’m going to miss him sitting in the window when I water my roses. I always looked over ? “
Greg broke in.“He’s going to be okay. He merely suffered a shock. Miss Randall cut down his favorite tree.”
“Oh, I’m so glad ? I mean, that he’s all right. My, what a start that gave me, seeing the doctor carry him out and him looking like he had passed on to his reward.”
All in the same breath, she asked,“And how is poor Miss Randall, is she feeling better? I saw you bringing her home, and with the doctor waiting in her bedroom, I didn’t want to barge in but I’m so concerned for the poor girl, her health never was any too good, too skinny, that kind they can go so fast, I had a cousin the spittin’ image of her