Knute could hear Tom yelling from his bed, “What in the Sam Hill is going on down there? What broke?!”
And then she left. She ran out of the house and out of the town and past the sign she was supposed to be painting and she just kept running down the highway.
“Hello, sweetheart,” said Hosea from his desk. He saw Knute’s note and smiled. “How are you?”
“Oh, you know, fat,” said Lorna over the phone. “And green.”
“Fat and green?” asked Hosea.
“Pretty much, yeah. I’m hideous.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I feel hideous,” said Lorna. “How are you?”
“Well, I’m fat, too,” said Hosea. “Fat and white. I’m wearing shorts.”
“Well, it’s hot enough,” said Lorna.
“What are you wearing?” asked Hosea.
“Nothing,” said Lorna.
Hosea smiled. “Really?”
“No,” said Lorna, “I’m wearing shorts, too, with a panel.”
“A panel?” asked Hosea.
“Stretchy stuff in the front, maternity shorts.”
“Oh,” said Hosea, “I should get a pair.”
Lorna laughed. “I don’t really need them yet, I’m just trying them out. How’s the plan?”
Hosea cleared his throat. “Remember when I told you that Veronica Epp had left with her triplets?”
“Yeah,” said Lorna.
“That’s actually a shitty thing,” said Hosea.
“But it brings it down to one person, doesn’t it?” she asked.
“Yeah, but it’s shitty for Gord and her other children.”
“I guess it would be,” said Lorna. “But, you know, it might be good for Veronica. Anyway, Hosea, it’s not your fault, you know.”
“I wish I didn’t feel so happy about it.”
“You’re not happy about that,” said Lorna. “About her leaving, specifically. You’re happy that the numbers have gone down enough so that Algren might be the smallest town and you’ll get to meet your dad.”
Lorna was quiet.
“You’re laughing, aren’t you?” asked Hosea.
“No, of course not.”
“Lorna!” said Hosea.
“Well, okay, I am, but c’mon, Hosea, what do you expect?”
Hosea thought for a second. “I don’t know,” he said. He wanted to beg Lorna never to leave him. He wanted her to promise she would never leave him sitting heartbroken on the front step. He wanted her to promise she would never take their baby away from him. “The water tower looks great, though,” he said. “It’s perfect.”
“Is the horse on yet?” asked Lorna.
“Almost. Hey,” he said, remembering the favour he needed to ask of Lorna. “Do you think you could buy one of those backgammon-type briefcases for me and bring it out when you come on the thirtieth?”
All right, okay, thought Hosea as he popped an Emmylou Harris tape into his car deck. That’s taken care of. They’d made arrangements that Lorna would come out on the thirtieth with a bag of clothes and the backgammon briefcase, and after the first they’d move the rest of her stuff into Hosea’s place. Their place. “Huhhhhhhh,” said Hosea, expelling a giant breath of relief. One more’s gotta go. Just one more. I’m happy, thought Hosea. He thought of Gord on his front step. Am I happy or am I sad? he thought. I don’t know which to choose.
He pressed play on his tape deck. Then he changed his mind and pushed the eject button.
Knute ran until she was too tired to run, and then she walked. She thought maybe she’d walk to Winnipeg, to Marilyn’s, or maybe all the way down the Trans-Canada Highway to Vancouver. She walked into the ditch and up to a barbed-wire fence surrounding a field. She lifted the top wire and climbed through the fence and then she walked to a little tuft of bluish long grass in the middle of the dirt and lay down.
Caroline Russo, thought Hosea. Caroline Russo was pregnant with Johnny’s baby. Wild Caroline Russo with the eldorado-coloured lunch kit and the leather flask full of Dr. Pepper. If she and the baby were still alive, they’d be the kind of family that would sail around the world on a homemade boat, and let the kids go naked, and Johnny would have a beard … they’d laugh a lot … Hosea pulled into Johnny’s driveway. Johnny was standing there in his doorway smiling and holding two bottles of beer, like he’d been expecting Hosea. “Am I out?” he asked Hosea.
Hosea smiled. “No, no,” he said. “You’re still in. Soon you’ll be Algren’s new fire chief.”
“Hmmmm,” said Johnny.
“It’s a paid position,” said Hosea. “No more of this volunteering.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Johnny. “Want a beer?”
Johnny and Hosea moved the picnic table into a shady part of the yard and sat down to drink their beer. “I’m glad you stopped by, Hosea,” said Johnny. “’Cause I’m leaving this place day after tomorrow.”
“For how long?” asked Hosea.
“For good. I don’t want to die here.”
“But you’re not that old,” said Hosea.
“I know,” said Johnny. “I don’t want to die here, you know, I don’t want to live here like I’m. Dead I don’t mind dying here, I just don’t want to die. Here do you know what I mean?”
“I think so,” said Hosea. “I didn’t know you hated it here.”
“I don’t,” said Johnny. “I don’t hate. It it’s fine.”
“You might not find another place you like any better,” said Hosea.
“That’s true,” said Johnny. “But I can have a look around anyway and. Besides, I can just keep. Moving I don’t have to stay put in one. Place there’s no reason for me to. Oh, don’t look so. Sad, Hose, it’s a good. Thing I’m excited about moving. On I’m looking forward to it.”
“But what are you going to do while you move around?” asked Hosea. “What about your farm?”
“I’m gonna put out fires,” said Johnny. “There are fires burning out of control all over the. World I’ll get fed, and put up in some place, and I’ll just fight fires all over, until I’ve had. Enough or until my lungs give out.” Hosea stared at Johnny. “And there’ll be other things to do, too, Hosea, don’t. Worry can I tell you something?”
“Yeah,” said Hosea. “Of course.”
“I want to sleep with women,” said Johnny. “Women from all. Over I want to have. Sex, you know? Just a lot of good, happy. Sex I’m tired of Caroline’s memory hanging over. Me I want to remember her, but I don’t want it to stop me from doing stuff anymore.”
Hosea cleared his throat and looked at Johnny gravely. “Do you really think you’ll be happy just moving around and screwing all sorts of women?” At that point both Johnny and Hosea began to laugh.
“Yeah,” said Johnny, “I really do.” Hosea was shaking with laughter now and Johnny could barely speak. “Yeah,” he managed to say, “I think I will be very happy doing that for a while.” Hosea was laughing too hard to say anything but he lifted his beer up to Johnny’s, against the pink sky, and they clanked their bottles together, and he thought he heard Johnny say, “To Caroline.” Or maybe he had said something else entirely and Hosea had only imagined that Johnny had said her name.