Macky looked at his watch. "We only have forty-five minutes. Let's just wait."
"All right, but what are we going to do for forty-five minutes?"
"Should we call her?"
"No, she's on the road and said she had a meeting and would call us when she finished."
"I hope it's what I think it is," Macky said.
"I know you do, but you never know, and if it is what we think, don't offer any advice. Just say it's your decision and whatever you decide to do about it we will support you."
"Norma, I know how to talk to my own daughter. She knows how I feel."
"I know she knows how you feel. Especially about her husband you certainly made that clear, nobody can accuse you of being subtle."
Norma shook her head. "Making a complete spectacle of you. I've never been so embarrassed in my entire life."
"All right, Norma," said Macky.
"You could have at least said something in private and not waited till her wedding day to pull a stunt like that."
Macky got up and went into the den but Norma continued. "Imagine such a thing. It's part of the ceremony. Everyone knows when they say — who gives this woman in marriage, you are supposed to say "I do' and step back." Norma got up and started rearranging the pillows on the sofa.
"But no, you had to say right out loud, "I'm not giving her I'm just loaning her."
"O.K." Norma," he said from the den.
"And then to glare at the groom like that… no wonder they're having trouble. I could hardly face his parents. They thought you were a drunk, or at least I hoped that's what they thought. I didn't want them to think you would do something like that sober. And then to have Aunt Elner laugh out loud like that, it's a wonder that our daughter even speaks to us."
Macky came back in. "Linda knows what I meant. I was not going to stand up anyplace, church or not, and say I'm giving my daughter away… like she was something that we had sitting around the house. And no matter what you and Linda think, I still say it was a rash decision."
"Macky, she had dated him on and off for six years, how rash can that be? You knew she was going to get married sometime, and then to sit there and carry on like that, everybody heard you. I was the mother of the bride, I was the one who was supposed to cry, not you."
"Norma, why are you dredging up all this old stuff?"
"Oh, I don't know, just nervous I guess. Do you want some crackers or something? I have some pimento cheese."
"No, I'll just wait until after she calls."
"But now, Macky, don't get your hopes up, we've had false alarms before."
"I'm not. I just hope it's good news, that's all."
They sat across from each other, waiting, and said nothing until the phone rang and then he got on the extension in the den and she picked up in the kitchen. After they hung up Macky came strolling into the kitchen all smiles but Norma was not smiling. "Well, I hope you're satisfied now."
"I am," he said, looking in the refrigerator for the pimento cheese.
Norma opened the cabinet where she kept the crackers. "Honestly, I never saw a man so happy his daughter was getting a divorce in all my life."
After Monroe's funeral something happened to Bobby. Going back home again had stirred up so many old memories. Being there had made him remember not so much who he was but all the things he had wanted to be.
Yes, he had made good money, had enough in the bank, held good stocks, no complaints there. They had two homes, one in Cleveland and one in Florida. His children had gone to the best schools, he had worked hard, been a good provider, but now those old secret longings came creeping back. That boy who had watched the shadows of a fire dancing on the ceiling of the old bunkhouse and dreamed himself to sleep seemed to be waking up inside him again. He found he hated to put on a tie and sit in stuffy corporate offices in every stuffy corporate town. He found himself staring out windows more and more.
After three months of thinking about it, Bobby walked in the door one night and said, "Lois, what would you say if I told you I wanted to go back to school?" Lois said, without a moment's hesitation, "I would say do it!"
And so Mr. Robert Smith took an early retirement and went back to college and got his doctorate in history and his dissertation, The American West: Dream and Reality, was published and Dr. Robert Smith and his wife went on a lecture tour, and as Lois told their children, "Your father is having the time of his life."
Macky was restless. He walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table across from Norma. "Norma, what do I look like?"
Norma glanced up from her Things to Do Today pad. "What do you mean, what do you look like? You look like yourself."
"No, I'm serious… what do I look like?"
"Macky, I don't have time to play some silly game. I'm trying to figure out how many sandwiches I need to order."
"It will only take a second… Look at me… and tell me what you see."
Norma put her pencil down and studied him. "You look just like you always did, Macky, only older."
"How much older?"
"You look… oh, I don't know, Macky, you look the same to me as you always did. I don't know what you look like. Go look for yourself in the mirror."
"I want an objective view. I see myself every day."
"Well, I see you every day too. How am I supposed to know what you look like?"
"What if I was walking down the street and you saw me coming toward you, what would you say?"
"I'd say, There comes my husband, Macky Warren. What do you think I'd say? Here comes a perfect stranger?"
"Norma."
"Oh, all right. If I didn't know you and I saw you coming down the street, I'd say… Oh, I don't know, Macky, I'm no good at these silly games, you sound like Aunt Elner. Go look at a picture of yourself if you want to see what you look like, go look in the yearbook where we were voted Cutest Couple. That's what you look like now older but still cute."
It was not the answer he was looking for.
"What's the matter? Don't you think a person can still look cute when they're older?"
"How old do I look?"
"Well… you look your age. You look like you're supposed to look, Macky. I don't know what you want me to say anymore. Macky, go ask somebody else. I've got to figure out if we should have potato chips or fruit salad. Just as soon as I decide on chips everybody will say they wanted fruit salad." She went back to her list but said to him as he got up to leave, "I've never heard of anything so crazy in my life."
After Macky left she thought about what he had said. He was obviously worried about getting old, but was he? How about her?
It was hard for her to tell, being with him day after day, year after year. They had never really been separated except for the night she'd stayed in the hospital when she had Linda and the three days she and Aunt Elner had spent in St. Louis visiting Aunt Elner's niece Mary Grace. But little things had started to happen. She found herself going sound to sleep sitting straight up in the chair at night when they were watching television. Macky would more often than not wake her up to go to bed. Her eyes were bad now; she had to wear her glasses almost all the time if she wanted to read or do any close work.