“Yes. I can do that. But it’s been puzzling me a lot. I mean, trying to think of what I could do for him.”
“I don’t think you’ll be happy about it, Lew.”
“It can’t make me mad. It gave me a chance to see you again, Ivy. And see my godson. How is he?”
“Husky and half-spoiled, I’m afraid. Lew, the presents you’ve sent have been too expensive, really. You shouldn’t.”
“They weren’t much.”
She started the car again and they began to pass impressive houses which all looked quite new. Then she turned in at a gravel drive. On the lawn sloped down toward the road sprinklers turned slowly.
“Some ranch,” Lew Barry said.
“Isn’t it, though! All complete, too. With view-windows and a wading pool for Chris and a first mortgage and a second mortgage.” He looked at her tense face with shocked surprise. Her voice had been taut and angry.
“It’s very nice out here,” he said uncertainly.
“Very fashionable, they keep telling me.”
She parked by the garage. They got out and Chris came charging across the lawn, whooping and waving a shining revolver. A teen-age girl followed slowly. Chris charged up to Lew, then suddenly turned shy.
“Chris, this is your Uncle Lew.”
The boy did not speak and Lew picked him up, held him high and grinned at him, then tucked him under one arm. The boy began to writhe and yell with pleasure. It was painful fantasy to Lew to think that this solid warm wriggling kid could have been his and Ivy’s — a part of each of them. Flesh of her flesh, and thus inexpressibly precious.
The girl said, “Mrs. Terrance, I got to go now, but I phoned Mother and she said I could be back at seven. You want I should eat before I come?”
“Yes, dear. We’re going out to dinner. I’ll have Chris all fed, of course, and it will be bedtime for him.”
“Will it be okay if I have a girl friend come with me?”
“Certainly, Mary. And Mr. Terrance will drive you both home.”
“Chris had a pretty short nap.”
The girl was introduced to Lew; then she went off across the fields behind the house. Ivy said, “She lives on a farm a half-mile away. She’s a darling. Sitters are at a premium out here. School let out last week and Mary will be available all summer. She’s good with Chris.”
Ivy took him into the house and showed him his room, while Chris stomped circles around them. She told him to come out to the pool when he had freshened up and there’d be a Tom Collins waiting for him.
The room was bright and clean and pleasant, and the small private bath was done in shades of green. The two windows looked out across the gentle hills. When he went out Ivy was sitting near the wading pool. Chris was trying to drown a rubber duck. Lew sat on one of the red enameled chairs across the round metal table from her, picked up his drink and sipped it. It was tart and good.
She said, “You haven’t changed, Lew.”
“Five years. Everything changes.”
“Not you. You’re too durable. Too tough, Lew.”
The shadows were getting a bit longer. In the silence he could hear distant traffic, hear the sound of a brook in the ravine at the end of the yard.
“Jack has changed,” she said suddenly.
He could think of nothing to say. Car tires complained on asphalt and then the gravel of the drive crunched and popped under the wheels. Chris took his attention from the rubber duck and looked quickly toward the station wagon which had driven in. His face was quite still. He returned his glance to the duck and drowned it again.
They got up as Jack Terrance climbed heavily out of the station wagon and came across the yard toward them, grinning expansively. Five years had been unkind to him. The years had widened his body, coarsened his features. He had a cigar clamped in his teeth.
“Well, well, well,” he said, pumping Lew’s hand, punching him on the shoulder, looking hard at him. “By God, you look good, fella. Really good!”
“Nice to see you, Jack.”
“Appreciate the way you cut loose and came out here, fella.” He took the cigar from his mouth; pecked at Ivy’s cheek, replaced the cigar and stood beside his wife. He was beaming at Lew with the pride of ownership, and he had one heavy hand on Ivy’s slim brown arm. “Sorry I had to make a mystery of it this way. Couldn’t be helped. I told Ivy to let me lay the cards on the table. She didn’t jump the gun, did she?” He turned to smile at Ivy, but Lew saw the heavy hand clamp down on her arm, saw the sudden pallor of Jack’s knuckles. There was a quick grimace of pain on Ivy’s mouth. It vanished quickly and she said in a steady voice, “I left it up to you to tell him, darling.”
“Good,” Jack said absently. He frowned over his shoulder at the pool, taking his hand from Ivy’s arm. “Hey, come kiss your daddy, Chris!” he called.
The small boy trudged across the yard, his face cool and composed. For the first time it struck Lew how much the kid looked like Ivy. Chris suffered a kiss and obeyed absently when Jack, squatting, said, “Hug your daddy, boy,” then headed back to the pool. Jack called after him, “No more pool, Chris. Go get yourself dry.”
The boy turned flatly, braced his feet. “I won’t!” he shouted. Lew saw Jack’s face darken. He took two quick steps toward the small boy who stood his ground. But Ivy caught Jack’s arm. She said, “Please. You talk to Lew. I’ll handle it.”
“I don’t know who’s going to teach him to mind if—”
“Please, darling.”
She hurried off, sat on her heels by the boy. She said something in a low tone to the boy. They went off toward the house, hand in hand.
Jack said, “It’s always up to me to discipline him. I have to be the one to fan his tail for him, and he holds a grudge.”
“He’s a good kid.”
“Sure. Best there is. Smart as whips. Come on in while I climb out of these clothes, Lew.”
They went into an obviously masculine bedroom. Jack said, with uncharacteristic shyness, “I got a snore to wake the dead. Ivy had to move out to get some sleep. Sit down. Little knock of Scotch? I keep a bottle here in the closet.”
“Not right now, thanks.”
Jack peeled off his jacket and shirt. His torso was soft, blue-white. He poured himself a drink in a shot glass, downed it, poured another and left the full shot glass on the bureau. He sat on a chair and grunted as he bent over and unlaced his expensive-looking shoes. He pulled the shoes off and sat up with a sigh, wiggling his toes. “It means a hell of a lot to me, Lew, to know that there is one guy in this wide world I can depend on, all the way down the line. But that stuff doesn’t come for free. God, I know that! It works both ways. There are enough double-crossers in this town so you begin to appreciate a real friend when you’ve got one.”
“I guess you better turn the cards face up, Jack.”
Jack gave him a quick, hurt expression. “That doesn’t sound like you, boy. I’m not asking for any handout — get that straight right now. There’s enough in this for you too.”
“I just want to know what it’s all about. I’ve had three days to wonder.”
“Sure, I can understand that. But let me fill in the background for you. Is that okay? I got to show you just what kind of a spot I’m on.”
Lew lighted a cigarette. It had been five years since he had heard the song and dance. It was always something. A big deal, a big angle. And most of them seemed to work, for Jack. Lucky Jack Terrance. “Okay. Fill in the background.”
“You sound like a guy all ready to say no. That’s discouraging. Here’s the deal. In this town you got to have flash, or you’re dead. I took my winnings out of that tanker deal right after I married Ivy and came here and put it into the automobile agency. It’s a good franchise, a money-maker. You’ll have to come down with me in the morning and look around. You’ll see that it’s worth protecting, all right.”