Chapter 24. Valentine's Day

Lee waked for the morning and rolled toward Arthur.

"Today?" asked Arthur.

"If he's got any romance in his soul," said Lee.

Each knew that they were talking about Rusty and his return from Mexico. A packet of Lee's letters had come back undelivered a few days ago, and nothing from Rusty had arrived in weeks; Lee wasn't worried about him but was at times giddy with deprivation and anticipation. In January she had sent her mother her only picture of Rusty, a headshot of him and Lulu, and her mother, to Lee's amazed dismay, had failed to send it back. She missed having the likeness almost as much, it seemed, as she missed the man; he had a picture of her doing the cobra, head back, breasts in profile, naked.

Arthur was fascinated watching her long for her new heart-throb. So, he knew, she had loved and missed him for four years; she had written him about it dozens of times, and he had heard of it from friends. This very summer she had written in a half a dozen letters that she wanted, needed, a picture of him, but only his own unexpectedly intense response to a picture she sent of herself in a white dress picking red clover had made him stop procrastinating and send her one. She and Rusty were by that time lovers, but in her heart she was still Arthur’s.

"Oh, he's got romance in his soul," said Arthur.

She hugged him. Soon, very soon, she would not roll up against him in the morning. Never again? He could feel it would be never again no more than he could feel the existence of God.

That afternoon Lee shopped at the Co-op. "Is he here?" she asked when she got back at five.

"Who?" Arthur teased, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

At five-thirty she and Bess went to their class in anatomy and physiology. Bess had recently received several encouraging messages through the Rev. Samuels in which she was advised to stay at the books despite the frustration and difficulty of doing so; the spooks had encouraged Lee to do the same.

Toward seven Arthur swung from his desk, where he was studying chess, to answer a knock at the door. He'd virtually stopped writing and was hoping his chess study (he played well but would never be close to expert) would keep his concentration sharp and his mind moderately disciplined. He opened the door and Bjorn entered, followed by Detroit and Lulu.

"Bjorn!" said Arthur. Bjorn had been with Rusty in Mexico, and that he was here meant Rusty was here. Bjorn smiled and came over and hugged Arthur. "Where's Rusty?" Arthur asked. "Not here? I was sure he would be."

"He's in jail!" said Lulu.

"Excellent!" said Arthur.

Lulu looked momentarily shocked, and Detroit laughed.

"Oh," said Lulu, getting the joke.

Bjorn and Rusty had arrived in Tucson about sundown. A policeman had stopped Rusty's truck because a headlight was out; he had issued no ticket for the headlight because it had still been early twilight but he had run Rusty's name and taken him in on an old jay-walking ticket. The fine for the old ticket was sixty-nine dollars and when he and Bjorn had pooled fortunes they had remained sixty-eight dollars ninety-two cents short; Rusty was held.

"Do you have enough now?" Arthur asked, ready to loan them what they needed.

"Yes," said Squint.

"Lee's in class," said Arthur. "She'll be here in an hour or so. I guess you could drop by the school and see if she's out, but I think she won't be yet."

"We'll just go get her man," Lulu said.

"Good," said Arthur, meaning it. "I'll tell her to wait here when she gets home."

Bjorn, Lulu, and Squint left. The skies opened and big rain drops fell mixed with hail. Lee and Bess arrived a half hour later. Lee had given up hope of seeing Rusty today.

"Kind of a surprise I have for you," Arthur said.

She looked at him, hope surging. Arthur wouldn't tease her unless Rusty was in fact back.

"He's here," he told her, "but he's in jail. Lulu and Squint and Bjorn are fetching him."

"Jail? What's he doing in jail?"

Arthur told her as much as he knew; as usual, he had failed to get the story very straight. Lee held her breath in anticipation as the door opened and moaned when Stoner came in.

"Stoner," she said.

"Nice greeting," Stoner said.

A few minutes later a truck pulled up out front; Lee hurried outside, but again it wasn't Rusty, was only Lulu, Detroit, and Bjorn.

"Where is he?" wailed Lee.

"We didn't have enough money," said Lulu.

"But--" said Lee.

"He had more old tickets against him," said Bjorn.

"So he's still there?" said Lee.

"We stopped and got more money but didn't want you waiting here not knowing what was happening," Detroit said.

"You have the whole ransom?" said Arthur.

"Every penny," Detroit assured him, making sure Lee heard as she got what little money she had and a sweater from the bedroom.

"He's probably sleeping," she said. "We'll get there and he'll ask us why we're making a fuss." But she knew he had romance in his soul; she couldn't get to him fast enough.

Stoner and Arthur were alone in the little house. "Damned scoff law," Arthur muttered.

"Has no respect, acts like law and order don't mean a thing," Stoner agreed.

The hard rain had resumed.

"Well," Arthur said, "I guess I'm a single man again."

"You want to go out?" Stoner asked.

"Definitely," he lied. He felt like he should do something, not just wait for Lee and Rusty to return, but he had no energy.

Bess came in, soaked from the 20-foot trip from her front door to his.

"Where shall we go?" asked Stoner.

There were only two likely places, The Unicorn, where Arthur occasionally found a chess game with someone his equal or better, or The Shanty.

"The Sha'n't We," Arthur said.

It felt right to hit a bar now. Healthy.

"Arthur, it's raining," said Bess.

"You want to come?" Stoner asked her.

Bess of late didn't drink and didn't like The Shanty and didn't think people should drink or, she said, understand, really, why they did. She thought they didn't understand it either, since if they did she thought they'd stop. She was proud she had summoned the energy and discipline to quit.

"I think so. I'll be right back," she said.

She felt bad for Arthur.

Stoner fixed Arthur a bowl and then helped him on with an extra shirt and a sweater, opened the door, and stood on the top of the ramp.

“Almost stopped,” he said, looking at the sky; he stepped back indoors so that he could follow Arthur and close the door.

Arthur buzzed down the ramp, again successfully making it to the bottom without going off the edge; he went to the curb where Stoner's van was parked. Stoner tipped the chair far back till the front wheels were high enough to touch the floor of the van, moved the chair forward so they would, then lifted the back wheels off the ground, pushed the chair inside, and wrestled it into place with Arthur facing the back.

"You coming?" Stoner shouted to Bess. He hoped she would. Arthur heard no answer.

"Why don't they like me?" Stoner asked.

"Women?" Arthur said.

"Yeah women," Stoner said. "None of them likes me."

"They like you okay," Arthur said. "They just sometimes don't want to do what you want to do."

“Yes they do,” said Stoner. "Everyone does." Then, “You think?”

The van's front door slammed behind Arthur but he hadn’t heard Bess get in; he guessed Stoner had closed it and that they were about to leave without her. Stoner started the car and they were off through the streaming streets.

"You're not allowed to need 'em so much," said Arthur. "Need 'em too much they sense it and you sound like an importunate pup."

He fell silent and thought about Stoner and his lack of a woman. Stoner and Bess might make a match, he thought; Stoner was not in love with her, but if he were she would like a man to whom she could give direction, and Stoner certainly lacked direction. He’d be a challenge but Bess was formidable. Arthur was sorry she hadn't come tonight. She’d sounded like she meant to. He wondered if Stoner, intent on bemoaning his alleged unattractiveness to women, had deserted one in the act of joining him.

"Yeah!" shouted Arthur, as the van turned right on Speedway, locally acclaimed the ugliest road in the nation. "We're gonna have fun tonight!" Not that he thought they would, but it could happen.

The rain had started again and was pelting on the van roof as Stoner turned left onto Fourth Avenue. What, thought Arthur to himself, am I doing on the road in the rain with Stoner? Stoner’s van was unregistered and neither its brake lights nor turn signals worked. He’d accidentally run a red light last night (he’d told Arthur about it) but no one had seen. Arthur thought about his healing and the death-cure, wondered again if some personal cataclysm would punningly fulfill Dr. Lang’s promise. He thought it best to take no long trips before March two, just take it easy, wait--and avoid going to the bar, especially with Stoner, especially on rainy nights. He looked over his shoulder at the front seat and thought he saw a woman sitting in the passenger seat. His first thought was that she was the angel of death. He looked away, then back. The light from the street lights was reflected from the puddles in the deserted road and shone through the fringes of Death's hair.

Madame Death? It had to be Bess. He looked again. It was Bess. He was happy she had come.

It was a slow night at The Shanty, but in the parking lot at Adams and Tyndall, in Rusty's truck, what tenderness and love! And did the Earth shake? In love or in perplexity?
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