Chapter Seven Noblesse Oblige

Independence Day, 1917

She did not know whether the sound of baby Maxines gurgling brought her to drowsy consciousness or if it was the morning sun warming her eyelids, but as she awoke, Kathryn Holmes, ne Kitty Holland, felt herself wrapped in a blanket of good fortune. She had become Mrs. William G. Holmes, her dreams of a year ago fulfilled by a vow that she and her husband would love and honor each other forever. Warmth emanated from his body in the bed beside her. Like a cat awakening from a nap in the shadow after the sun passes, she stretched from the tip of her toes to the ends of her fingers and smiled. The bed springs sang out of tune, shifting as

she sat up on the edge to face Maxine, fully awake and grabbing one foot with both hands while drool glistened down the side of her cheek and into the creases of her neck. Wearing nothing more than her gauzy cotton nightgown, Kitty got up and leaned into the crib. She swept Maxine up in a fluid gesture and held her above her head, causing the baby to giggle and squirm enthusiastically, before bringing her close into her embrace. Then she lay back onto the iron bed beside her husband. She forced her engorged breast over the scooped and ruffled neckline of her gown, the pale skin of her breast gleaming bluish-white below the surface. Holding her nipple between her fingers, she nudged it towards the babys lips. Maxine smacked her lips and gazed, wide-eyed, at breakfast. Bill became aware of the morning with the movement of the mattress on the noisy springs and recognized the uselessness of his morning erection when Kitty returned to the bed with the baby noisily slurping at her. The beauty of mother and child was lost to his head, which throbbed from too many drinks the night before. He tossed aside the sheet that covered his nakedness, brought his legs over the opposite side of the bed and sat up, locating yesterdays overalls on the floor beside the bed where he had dropped them the night before. Stepping into them, he hitched a still-fastened strap over his right shoulder, leaving the other, unfastened strap to dangle down his backside. Without speaking he arose and walked barefoot from the bedroom to the kitchen. Kitty watched him leave, otherwise occupied with the baby at her breast. Leftover coffee waited for Bill on the kitchen stove top. On the table he found a cup with a brown stain on the bottom and he filled it with the opaque brew. The coffee was cold, but he took it anyway and stepped onto the stoop where he found the chamber pot, pissed noisily into the bucket, replaced the lid and walked back into the kitchen. He rolled a smoke and sat at the kitchen table. When he finished his cigarette and coffee, he put the cup into the kitchen sink and

returned to the bedroom where Kitty held Maxine over her shoulder, waiting for a burp to come. Kittys breast was still exposed, the ruffle of her gown beneath it, the aureole and nipple moist and dark. When do you think we need to leave? Kitty asked. Maxine burped and Kitty rose to put her back into the cradle. She turned to Bill, adjusting her gown to cover her breast. Is there any hurry? Ill have to be down by 8 oclock or so to help set up. A group of young men Bill played ball with had volunteered to put together the booths for the Fourth of July Celebration. Bill and Kitty had rooms in a simple rented house a few blocks from the downtown district. He would only need to put on shoes and a shirt to be ready to leave. Then we have plenty of time to get together, dont we, Honey? Kitty purred. She pulled the straps of her nightgown down over her shoulders, but the gown did not fall to the floor until she pulled the neckline over her breasts. Then she stood completely uncovered in front of her husband. She stepped over her gown and moved towards him. Lets not start something we cant finish. What if Maxine wakes up again? Shell entertain herself. Besides, I saw you making a tent bneath the sheet a while ago. Cmon, Kid. Give your girl a present this morning. She stepped closer to her husband and pulled his overall strap off his shoulder. Bill caught it with his arm as it fell, but Kit pushed the bib down his chest and stomach, caressing the trail of hair that fell from his navel, and his overalls slipped to the floor. She stepped onto the puddle of denim and brought her arms up around his back, paying particular attention to the angles the muscles carved into his sides. Bill submitted, though he felt nothing much more than pity for this woman whom he had married scarcely a month before to give their child his name. That Kitty loved him was plainly

apparent. She believed she could love him enough for both of them, that she could love him into loving her. But in the first month of their marriage, Bills emotional responses to Kitty ranged from benign to hostile. He resented her now for the trap he felt caught up in. The only salvation to this arrangement slept in a cradle beside their marriage bed. The little baby girl captivated Bill, whose dark auburn brown hair and black eyes were clearly his own.

Later, Bill carried Maxine while he and Kitty went down to Main Street to gawk with a throng of onlookers as the Fourth of July parade passed by. Men in shirtsleeves wearing straw hats and suspenders held the arms of women in long dresses and button shoes and extravagant hats wrapped in yards of white tulle. Youngsters played peek-a-boo, hiding behind their daddys legs. Some sat atop their fathers shoulders while older brothers in knickers and hose chased girls in pinafores to try to pull their braids. The RenoCountyHigh School band marched in the front, playing brassy and loud. A Ford truck followed, festooned with red, white and blue buntings. On the back of the truck bed, in heavy wooden chairs, sat a few old men, veterans of the Civil War. They looked uncomfortable, some in old Union uniforms, white hair and white beards glowing in the late morning sun. Behind them marched veterans of the Spanish American War. Middle-aged men now, they had stories of yellow fever and survival in Teddys Rough Riders. They received a scattering of applause from the crowd as they marched by in uneven rank and file, out of step. The Mayor of Hutchinson and his wife rode in the back seat of an open touring car driven by the local Buick dealer. More cars carried the legislative delegation to the Statehouse, each of whom smiled widely and waived at their constituents. Members of the

Womens Christian Temperance Union marched in front of the Ku Klux Klan, which marched in front of the delegation of Womens Suffragettes. At the back of the parade, men on horseback cantered their horses that sometimes left round green road apples in their wake. After the parade Kitty walked with Bill to the park. He carried the baby, she a blanket and a picnic lunch in a wicker basket. Booths had been set up around the perimeter of the park. Church women offered bake sales and a cakewalk. Some groups offered musical chairs, from which the winner carried off a crisp fruit pie. Bill did not enter the pie-eating contest in favor of a baseball game that afternoon in which he would play. The crowd was large and amiable. By noontime, the smoke from the barbecue pit where plump pigs had turned on a spit since before dawn gave up a feast for all present. While the hoi polloi shared and ate homemade food, groups of men formed barber shop quartets and took turns singing songs in four-part harmony. Children ran off to play games, mostly tag and stickball. After finishing their meal, Bill left Kitty with Maxine on a bench in the shade of an ancient tree. He wanted to watch a three-legged sack race organized on the grassy pike that ran the length of the park. Teams formed consisting of young men and women in pairs. The women hiked up their skirts to plunge a stockinged leg into a burlap feed sack with the trousered leg of their partners. The whole idea shocked the Baptist women, who stood apart but watched, disapprovingly. Standing on the sidelines Bill recognized a familiar voice. Got a partner for the race, yet, Stranger? It was Rosa. They had not seen each other in months. Radiant in white, her ginger hair glistened in the midday sun, piled up in a knot at the top of her head. She held a stylish, if not fully functional parasol that shaded her blue eyes. Bill was tongue-tied.

Cat got your tongue? Better hurry, or well be late. Cmon! What do we have to lose? Bill fell in behind her, dumbstruck. She walked on her heels to the starting area, expecting him to follow, and he did. They found a good gunny sack and Rosa put her hand on his shoulder as she modestly stepped into it, exposing her silk-stockinged leg in the process. He pulled the sack up the inside of his leg and together they held it up with their outside hands as they wrapped their inside arms around each others waists. Then they took tentative practice steps to learn their rhythm in preparation for the race. What are we doing, Rosa, Im a married man, you know. So I hear. Hows married life treating you? Well, its an adjustment and all. Bill did poorly masking his disappointment at his circumstances. They continued walking, three leggedly, in circles behind the starting area, picking up their pace gradually. What about you, Rosa? Anyone in your life? None but you, Bill Holmes. Never has been none but you. Bill flushed at her candid and inappropriate admission. He wondered what had prompted her to be so forward and what people who saw them together might think. But suddenly he did not care if their presence together offended anyone. The moment was too sweet. The announcer called the teams to the starting line. Bill and Rosa hobbled enthusiastically to the front of the crowd. On yer mark, the announcer cried. Get set tree about 25 yards ahead. Hearing the hubbub from the race, Kitty craned her neck unsuccessfully to see. She carried Maxine to the sidelines and watched. Caught up in the enthusiasm, she looked for Bill in GO! The racers ran to and from a

the crowd first, and then saw him among the participants. To her horror, Kitty recognized Rosa Kelley arm in arm with her husband. She stood silently, mouth agape watching the racers as they passed heading for the finish line. Meanwhile, Bill did his best to stay in pace with Rosa, oblivious to everything but the tiny waist his arm circled and the well-formed leg that shared the gunny-sack with his. Rosas hand clutched her partners side as they strained to gain the lead in the race. They laughed at the foolishness of their struggle and their coordination failed. Rosa geed as Bill hawed and they fell together into the grass. She rolled over him, her petticoats flying immodestly as the pair came to rest on their backs, laughing out loud, their arms still around each others waists. Bill rose and gallantly offered Rosa his hand, which she accepted as their eyes met. For that moment in the summer sun they were completely alone. They might as well have been in the pasture dell ten years before. They said nothing, but their intentions were finally known, each to the other. Kit turned and walked back towards the bench, clutching her baby. Her eyes welled with tears as she gathered their things and began the walk home, one arm wrapped around Maxine, who rode on her hip, the other arm over-burdened with their picnic basket and the blanket.

Rosa had moved to Hutchinson to take employment at Pegues-Wright Dry Goods Store on Main Street. The pay included rooms above the store in which she had set up housekeeping by herself. The Kelleys saw their daughter becoming a spinster if she remained in Langdon. They hoped she would find greater opportunities in the county seat, primary among which, a husband. A good Catholic man. It was dangerous for a single woman to live alone in the city.

Not so much physical danger, but greater the danger to her reputation. She could not be too discreet about the ways and circumstances in which she met eligible men. She would have to rely on introductions from new friends she was only just starting to meet. She had not encouraged the opportunities she had with anyone thus far, so gradually the invitations waned. Her commitment to isolation grew and became more evident to those who knew her. And so her first year in Hutchinson had been one of acute loneliness. She could not have more blatantly endorsed the singleness of her life had she entered a convent. Bumping into Bill on the Fourth of July was pure happenstance. But her decision to take matters into her own hands was both impulsive and instinctual. The chemistry of their meeting overwhelmed them both. So when he appeared at the dress shop just before closing two days later on a Friday afternoon, it was not that her corset was drawn so tightly that she could not catch her breath: His sudden and totally unexpected presence in her midst became her undoing. At first she pretended not to notice him. She tried desperately to slow her racing heart, to catch her breath. He watched her like a lad with no money, standing outside the candy shop. She bustled about in the shop, where she had been left alone to close for the night. She could not hold out much longer. Well, good evening, Sir. How may I help you this afternoon? Rosa. Bill could find no other words as he gazed at her like a schoolboy. Something for the little lady? She failed to mask a touch of sarcasm in her voice. She doesnt know Im here. I told her I would be out this evening. Did she see us in the park? Yes. That must have been a shock.

Im afraid so. They faced each other, standing quietly in an aisle between two display tables arranged with ladies delicate things; neither had words to speak. Finally Bill stepped forward and pulled her against his body, kissing her long and hard. She collapsed into his arms, her skin tingling, face flushed, and returned his kiss, then stiffened, remembering where she was. She freed herself and left him standing in the aisle as she walked briskly to the front of the store and changed the sign from OPEN to CLOSED, pulling the shade and locking the door before returning. Bill distinctly heard the clack of the bolt as it set into place. She caught Bills hand and pulled him urgently into the back of the store where they found stairs to her apartment overhead. No sooner had the door closed than the two of them became the embodiment of desire. They wanted each others mouths, and had them. They wanted each others flesh, and their clothes came off. She wanted this man whom she had always loved, the only man she would ever love, to take her long-preserved virginity. And he did. They wanted the bed and they had it. They wanted him to be inside her and he was. And she was inside him as she had always been, buried deep in his imagination. They made love for hours and forgot about supper, hungry as they were only for each other. And that love, so long denied and suppressed, was now finally and completely and unabashedly theirs if only for this one night. Deserted streets awaited Bill when he finally left Rosa well after midnight. He walked the blocks to the little house he shared with his wife and daughter as if he were an invisible night creature. He saw no one on the street. The only sounds came from the heels of his boots, echoing from the sidewalk as if inside a cavern. No cars passed; no dogs barked. Only fireflies twinkled and winked as he found his way home. When he entered through the back door he

removed his shoes and left the house darkened. He heard his wifes deep and rhythmic breathing from the bedroom, but he did not join her there. Instead, he lit a cigarette and collapsed in the comfortable, overstuffed living room chair. When he finished his smoke, he let himself drift off to sleep, aching and angry and sad, but buoyant, wondering what he would do now, knowing that somehow he had to put everything right.

Even after the humiliation of seeing Bill rolling in the grass with Rosa Kelley in front of the whole town, Kitty refused to give up on her marriage. She took up cleaning and cooking with a ferocity that passed understanding. She made sure she was clean and fresh when he came home from work, and she always had a good meal cooked for him. But Bill often either stayed away or went out after meals and came home after she had fallen asleep, usually with Maxine in her arms on the bed. In Hutchinson, the long days of summer drifted in and out. Bill worked at the plant weekdays and occasionally cut hair at one of the local barbershops on Saturdays. He enjoyed the comradery of the men who came there, but barely eked out a decent living. He found ways to surreptitiously be with Rosa a few times a week. Their emotional dependence on each other grew and deepened. At home, Kitty threw herself at him with every opportunity. But he only felt disgust for his wife; he stayed away more often now and drank when he could not be with Rosa. Together, Bill and Rosa felt much more than just a physical attraction. He did not drink before, after, or during their times together. They talked about the children they would have

together if he left Kit. She encouraged him to sponsor a baseball league for boys in Hutchinson. He still wanted to find work that would challenge him and make him proud. She encouraged him to go to high school. There were night classes for adults who wanted to improve themselves. And finally they found the satisfaction of physical intimacy that neither had ever known before, despite their differences in experience. Bill dreamed of seeing Rosas strawberry blonde hair and fair complexion first thing in the morning when he woke up. Would it ever be so for them? By fall Kitty gave up her illusions of a happy home with her husband. She promised herself to keep up appearances and maintain some semblance of dignity. And so for the next few months she managed. Then she found a friend in the next door neighbor lady, May Brown, an older, single woman wizened by marriage and divorce, who sympathized with Kittys plight. Mrs. Brown came to sit with Kitty on those fall evenings when only darkness came earlier and stayed later. You ought to catch him in what hes up to, Mrs. Brown advised on one such visit at the first part of November. Why, May, whats to catch him at? Kitty feigned innocence. Hes only drinking beer with his friends. I dont want to be a nag. Hell find his way home. Bah! Men! Find his way home, indeed! You mark my words, Honey, hes got a little something on the side, you ask me. Its that shop girl, aint it? Mrs. Browns words stung because Kitty knew that her tactless friend had gotten it right. Tears welled up in Kittys eyes and overflowed. I dont know whats come over him. She was his childhood sweetheart, before I ever knew him. But it was all over between them. His mother swore him not to have nothing more to

do with her, ever. Even now theres nothing he can do with her that wouldnt kill his mama, if she knew. But I know theyre carrying on. Oh God, I can feel it. Then catch him and his filthy strumpet and make a clean break of it! And then what? What would I do? with Maxine and all? How could I be a mother to Maxine if I drive off her father? How would I raise her on my own? Looks to me like her fathers already done run hisself off, Sweetie. Youre not the first womans ever had to raise the whelp of a wayward man. And whos to say that it will come to that. Dont you want him to wake up and remember what hes got waiting at home? As a result of that conversation, Kitty decided to find out once and for all just what was going on with Bill on his evenings out of the house. So on a cold afternoon, the week before Thanksgiving, with Maxine napping and Mrs. Brown ensconced in the apartment reading an old issue of Ladies Home Journal and listening for the child, she visited Pegues-Wright, where Rosa worked. Bill had advised her before leaving that morning not to wait supper for him that evening, so she had reason to believe that he would be keeping an assignation with his old girl friend that very night. The wind stirred up the dust and sand on the pavement in front of the shop and Kitty struggled to open the heavy door. A jingle announced her entrance when she finally succeeded. Everyone inside looked towards the door as Kitty made her entrance feeling very self-conscious. She browsed the displays at first, coming to rest at a table stocked with ladies handkerchiefs and little beaded purses in tidy stacks. Rosa approached Kitty, one eyebrow raised inquisitively. Something I can help you with? Just looking for the moment.

We have a table full of handbags on sale. Rosa gestured towards a display near the back of the store. Ill take a look at them. Hows the baby? Maxine, isnt it? Oh, shes a bundle of joy, all right. They change quickly, dont they? Rosa tried to be cordial, but she felt her face flush. Was it guilt or anger? Every day. Say, Kid, is there a changing room in back where I might try this on? Kitty held up a camisole that might have been near her size a year before. Rosa gestured to an opening in the back wall covered with heavy drapes the color of evergreen trees. Then she turned her attention to another customer who carried items she had selected for purchase. Rosa would be engaged for a few minutes with her buyer while Kitty took the camisole to the back room. Stepping into the dim back room, Kitty smelled dust and packing boxes before her eyes adjusted and she observed the layout. A door to the alley anchored the far end of the room; a dirty, double-hung window gaped on one side. Seizing the opportunity she moved like a shadow to the rear of the room and opened the lock on the window, lifting it enough to assure it would not stick. Then she returned to the drapes that separated her from the front of the store, regained her composure and emerged through the curtains into the shop, still breathing heavily with anxiety charged by her covert activities in the back. She had not tried on the garment, but handed it, crumpled, to one of the other shop girls before walking towards the front of the store. Ill be thinking about that little camisole, Rosa, she piped as she reached for the doorknob a few feet from the cash register. And Ill be back to see if theres anything else I want, later.

Rosa looked up from her business with her customer and smiled falsely, nodding in Kittys direction.

The weather deteriorated though the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. Kitty had soup with Mrs. Brown and tended to Maxine, getting her ready for bed early and rocking her to sleep before putting her into her little bed and leaving Mrs. Brown in charge. Then she walked the several blocks to hide herself in the alley behind the dress shop. She shivered in the dark, pulling the collar of her black wool coat up around her ears, and waited until well past seven oclock. Her feet felt nearly frozen and her hands like ice. Just as she was about to give up and go home feeling foolish, she heard movement in the alleyway behind the dress shop. She made out her husband, even in the darkness. He knocked on the door, which Rosa soon opened to meet him. Kitty waited another fifteen minutes in the cold before making her move. She approached the sabotaged window like a cat burglar. It did not easily open from the outside, but she prevailed and stepped up onto an abandoned crate that had been left at the back door. Though her entrance was neither graceful nor quiet, no one came to investigate the slight noise she made entering the building. Composing herself once inside, she brushed off her coat and removed her gloves, flattened her hair, and held her cold hands beneath her armpits for a little while, reinforcing her determination. The time had come to find out what was going on in the apartment overhead. As Kitty felt her heart pounding and heard her own breathing as she climbed the stairs that strained quietly, making ghostlike noises beneath her feet. From outside the door of Rosas apartment,

she heard the sounds of lovemaking within. She waited a moment longer, fought back tears of rage and mustered her determination, before grasping the unlocked door knob. Finally, with all her strength tied into a knot of guts and bile, she turned the knob and opened the door. Rosas bedroom was only a few steps away, flickering in the light from the coal oil lamps, across a large room that served as kitchen, dining and living rooms. No one gave notice as she walked across the room to stand in the door of the bedroom. Rosa saw her first. She emitted a stifled scream, like a bird caught in the jaws of a predator, though she did not immediately recognize the intruder. Bill rolled off his lover and stared at his wife. Whats this? You crazy bitch! Get out of here! Dont you know I want nothing to do with you? GO! Leave! Bill leapt up from the bed like a wild predator and came at Kitty with all his naked fury. Ill leave, if thats what you want, Kitty said in a quiet voice, her eyes staring blankly at nothing and everything in the room. Bill reached the doorway with his right arm cocked across his chest, ready to slap his wife. Had he not held his swing, he might have knocked her across the floor to the door. But Kitty turned and left indignantly, her head held high masking the shame and humiliation she felt when confronted with the horrible tableau she had just witnessed. When she reached the bottom of the stairs she did not close the window that had served as her entrance, nor the back door as she stepped out into the night. She reeled down the alley and flinched when the wind blew the door shut behind her with a loud, clamorous bang that echoed in the cold air like the report of a rifle.

In Europe, the winds of war blew across the battlefields in France where the Allies awaited the arrival of American troops. The American Expeditionary Forces committed by the President to the European arena would not deploy en masse for another six months. The Yanks mustered when Congress declared war early in the fall of 1917, but the States were not prepared for war and the buildup would take time. Meanwhile the armies of Europe continued to pummel each other with new technologies of death and destruction. Dogfights between dual-winged aeroplanes had become a new way of conducting warfare. While artists and writers romanticized these airborne duels and their aces, many pilots died horrible deaths when enemy gunners hit these primitive planes and they caught fire, plunging to earth. Fighter planes with machine guns strafed enemy infantry cowering in muddy trenches behind the lines of battle where oversized rats feasted on the rotting remains of dead soldiers left in the grisly death swamps. The nations and kingdoms of Europe had long since lost the will to fight, but could not find the nerve to surrender. In early December the tensions of war had found their way into the rural heartland. The draft board in RenoCounty had already stepped up its meetings, and searched out the names of eligible young men who could serve in the army they would help recruit. Bill had begun giving military service much thought when, two weeks after Thanksgiving, six months to the day after he married Kitty Holland in Kansas City, he turned onto the street that led to her parents home in Turon. Towering black trees loomed at the sides of the streets. Overhead, stripped of their summer foliage, their limbs poked random fingers at the grey December sky. He heard the rattle of dry leaves as he pulled his car to a stop in front of

the Hollands two-story white Victorian home, parking under one of those menacing trees whose shade would not be provided until another season. He had come to see about the undoing of his marriage by his own hand. He had no illusions about the probability of saving the marriage. He saw his marriage now only as an arrangement that had given his child her birthright. Still, he felt uncomfortable as he opened the car door and stepped onto the street. He took a final deep drag off his cigarette and flicked the butt into the path in front of him. Exhaling heavily, he mashed the embers of his discarded smoke beneath the sole of his shoe lest its embers ignite the dead grass and leaves that covered the grounds. James Monroe Holland met Bill at the door and eyed him with suspicion before letting him into the house. Once inside, Bill wished he had taken a snort before leaving his car. Kitty stared across the carpet that covered most of the floor, sitting on a brocade sofa with her mother, OPhelia, on the opposite side of the room. She neither made eye contact nor so much as looked up to acknowledge his entry. Maxine was nowhere in sight, possibly taking a nap or perhaps in the care of others lest tempers got out of hand during the meeting. OPhelia glared coldly at Bill as he took off his hat and entered the parlor. She offered no beverage to extend hospitality. No other family members appeared to be at home. J.M. motioned for Bill to sit and he sat, tentatively, without touching the back of the chair, like a tomcat poised and ready to leap if necessary. He held his hat, a charcoal colored fedora, tracing its brim nervously in a circular motion between his two hands. J. M. opened, Im not sure what your intentions are here, son. For the benefit of the child, Kathryns mother and I think it would be best if the two of you found some way to work out your differences. Im not sure if that would be possible, Bill said, quietly.

Of course you would have to stop seeing that woman and you would certainly have to curb your appetite for drink. It was as if J. M. had not heard Bills initial response. I think we should take this arrangement for what it is, Bill said, looking from face to face around the room. Kitty wept into her mothers shoulder. Mr. Holmes, you know that Kathryns mother and I wanted you to have nothing to do with our daughter from the beginning. Now youve given her a child and you have some responsibilities in all this. I dont want nothing from him, Papa! Kathryn, mind your tongue, her father snapped. No! She fairly screamed at her father, as if Bill was not in the room. Let him go to blazes with his Catholic whore! Ill have no part in it. Bill Holmes no longer exists as far as Im concerned. Kathryn! Her mother looked shocked at her daughters curse. J. M. Holland recognized the futility of any effort that would try to effect a reconciliation of the two. He admitted to himself that he felt relieved. He had followed Bill Holmes progress through life and continued to believe that his daughter could do better, even though it would be difficult with a child in tow. Sir, will you then agree to a quiet divorce? A quiet divorce meant that both parties would walk away from the marriage without prejudice. In 1917, a divorce would reflect much more poorly on the woman who let her man slip through her fingers. The unspoken charge would be that she had failed in marriage, since a man could do almost nothing that would cause a marriage to fail. Financially, a wife and child amounted to chattel that could be quietly disposed of without recourse. Mr. & Mrs. Holland would become the primary providers for Maxine, at

least for now, until their daughter could seek her way in the world alone, mustering whatever dignity, if any, she could find. I know a lawyer who can make the arrangements, Bill said. What terms are acceptable to you? The women in the room had just become invisible. Neither mother nor daughter offered any terms to the emerging settlement. Clean break. No looking back. Kathryn will allow her mother and me to raise the child. I have no objections to that. A child should be with its mother. Then were agreed. Agreed. I guess if theres nothing more, Ill be on my way. He turned to his wife who stared into her hands, folded in her lap. Kitty? She did not respond. Bill waited awkwardly as if something more needed to be said, but he found no words. J. M. rose and guided him towards the front door. He had been in their home for less than ten minutes and in no more time than that, reached an agreement to terminate his marriage. He placed his hat back onto his head, pulling it down sportingly to one side, and glanced at the mirror in the hallway as he walked to the door. Bill extended his right hand to Kittys father who ignored the gesture as he held the door. Once outside with the door closed behind him, he heard Kitty wailing on the inside. Bill sighed and returned to his car. Having agreed in principle to the terms of the arrangement, Bill decided it was time to look to the future.

The future waited for him when he got to the post office on Monday morning. Bill had registered for the draft six months earlier, in June, two days before his marriage took place. He had assumed that his marital status would earn him an easy deferral; in fact he doubted that he would have made the trip to Kansas City under other circumstances. Now, the letter in his hands ordered him to report for induction within two weeks at the Selective Service office in Hutchinson, to enlist or show cause why he should not be drafted. Would their ill-begotten marriage count for anything now? Thoughts of Rosa had kept Bill preoccupied for the intervening weeks since his wife had intruded on their tryst at Rosas apartment. Nothing loves life more than a good story, so of course, word about the love affair had gotten out. Gossip cost Rosa her position at PeguesWright, and her rooms above the store. Her circumstances left Frank and Margaret Kelley appalled. Rosa did not want to return to Langdon. They did not offer to take her in. A sympathetic girlfriend from the department store, Della Mae Reese, lent her a spare bedroom and an ear for her troubles. To help with the rent and to keep body and soul together, Bill gave Rosa the five dollar gold piece she had handed him when he closed his account at the Langdon State Bank months before. Alas for Rosa, prospective employers showed little interest in her application once they found out about her indiscretion, which her former employer, Mr. O. W. Wright, was not loath to discuss. Communication between the lovers proved difficult. Above all, no one should see them in public. Nor could what remained of Rosas reputation stand the risk that someone might see her entering or leaving his place in Hutchinson. But love could find a way when Rosas roommate had an assignation of her own. And thankfully for Bill and Rosa those occasions came, if barely so, often enough. They pledged their love to each other, no matter how long it

took to disentangle themselves from the pickle they found themselves in. Bill would soon enough have a divorce and after an appropriate time they would marry. Though they still had not resolved their religious differences, they had found them easy to ignore since the Fourth of July. Bill had not yet figured out how to sort out that last problem. His mothers convictions had not changed and he doubted that any amount of pleading or cajoling would change them. For Josies part, she would hold her head up, ignoring the whispers among the members of the Christian Womens Society when she appeared. Nor did she discuss the scandal with her son. Jonas had brought the story home with him as his Masonic Lodge brother had shared it, so that he would know whats going on. Josie preferred to ignore what she did not know for certain, rather than deal with whatever her son might offer in the way of explanation. After all, he had become a grown man. Would he be of a mind to take her advice if she offered it? And what if he put himself in the position of outright defying her words of wisdom? No, better to pray and put a good face on the matter than confront her son and risk alienating his affections for good and all. Looking at his summons, Bill wondered whether he could receive a deferment with a divorce pending. He would have to tell his parents. Would his wife sign an appeal? Or should he use this opportunity to find a great adventure somewhere on the other side of the civilized world?