“Well,” Jo said a little later, “we’re not finding him, are we?” She passed Knute her bottle of bourbon.
“Maybe he’s in Cooperstown,” said Knute. Jo laughed and yawned.
“Are you okay to drive, Knutie?” she asked. “Not too sleepy?” She put her head back and shifted her large body around on the seat.
“I’m fine,” Knute answered.
“I’ll just have a quick catnap, then, if you don’t mind,” said Jo, and closed her eyes.
Knute was worried. She was already circling back the way she’d come and if she hadn’t seen him on the way out of town, she didn’t know why she should expect to see him on the way in. Besides, he wouldn’t necessarily be on the road, he might have walked into somebody’s field and fallen asleep or gone into an open silo, a barn, anything. She passed the Hamms’ farm on the left. It had a giant yard light on that lit up the entire area for what seemed like miles. A million moths and bugs flew around the light and a couple of dogs were walking around in the yard. No lights were on in the house. Then Knute had an idea! She stepped on the gas and drove straight into town and out the other side, back onto the dike road and headed for Johnny Dranger’s house.
She peeled into the driveway, pulled right up to Johnny’s front door and left Jo, S.F., and Bill Quinn asleep in the car. She could hear music coming from the house and laughter and low voices and she knew she had her man. She just walked right in and said, “Hello, Max, hello, Johnny, what’s up?” They both stood there, smiling and staring at her, and instead of yelling she smiled and stared back. Johnny said, “Have a seat, Knute.”
“You’re mad at me, aren’t you, Knutie?” said Max.
“Nah,” she said, “I’m here to apologize.” Johnny disappeared into the kitchen then and Knutie whispered, “But why do you keep running away?”
“You ran away, Knute, this time. I didn’t.”
“You ran away after I ran away,” she said.
“No I didn’t,” said Max. “I stayed at your place until Dory came home, like I was supposed to, then I offered to take S.F. back to my house but she said no, she was gonna make pizza with Dory, so fine, no problem, then I left and—”
“And didn’t tell anybody where you were going,” interrupted Knute.
“Why should I have?” said Max. “I’m an adult, Knutie, I’m twenty-four years old. If a twenty-four-year-old doesn’t go straight home after work, is that a problem?”
“I know,” she said, “it’s not, but can’t you understand how I might have worried? You know it’s happened before.”
“Yeah,” said Max. “Okay, whatever, I’m not going to argue anymore, I have too fucking much at stake now, okay? You want me to understand all this stuff about you, fine, why don’t you try to understand some stuff about me?”
Knute didn’t say anything then. What was there to say? Then she thought of something. “Okay,” she said. Silence.
“Well, thank-you,” said Max. He smiled.
“You’re welcome.” Silence. “How’s your leg?”
“Fine, thank-you,” said Max. “How’s yours?” Knute smiled. Silence.
“I know about the phone call,” she said.
“I assumed,” said Max. “Tom told you?”
“Yeah.” Silence.
“I have something to ask you, Knute,” said Max.
“Do you think you and S.F. would like to live here with me? You know, just try it out, see how it goes, we could fight on a more regular basis, you know …”
It was the first time Knute had seen Max looking unsure of himself.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Where?”
Max took a cigarette out of his pack and lit it. “Right here,” he said, blowing out smoke.
Knute pointed to the kitchen. “With Johnny?” she whispered.
“No, no, he’s leaving,” said Max. “That’s the thing. And he’s offered me his place. Us his place. If you want it.”
“Well, sure,” said Knute, “okay,” and then they laughed for a while thinking of themselves as farmers and Johnny came back into the living room with some snacks. Eventually Knute remembered that S.F. and Jo and Bill Quinn were sleeping in the car. Johnny threw them out at four in the morning, said he had to pack. Knute drove Max and Jo home. Bill Quinn went with them. And then S.F. woke up and said she was going with the dog, so that night she slept over at Max’s. And Knute went home alone.
fifteen
Knute slept until noon the next day without S.F. around to wake her up, and when she went into the kitchen there was a note that said:
Dear Knutie, S.F. will stay over at Max and Jo’s for the day. Tom says he doesn’t mind staying alone for the afternoon while we’re at work. And Hosea called, would like you to pick up more cockroach spray and give the petunias one more squirt on your way into the office. Love, D.
P.S. I know about yesterday, so relax. And what’s this about S.F. having a dog? I’m having a few people from Friends of Houdini over tonight.
She had written something else about someone in town stepping on a rusty nail and having a strange reaction to the tetanus shot, but she had crossed most of it out, and written “Oh never mind” underneath.
Knute peeked into Tom’s room and asked him if there was anything he needed before she left. He shook his head and smiled. She told him about Max and her and S.F. moving into Johnny’s house and looking after his farm, and he gave her the thumbs-up sign and said, “That’s great.” He seemed short of breath and she asked him if he was okay and he nodded. She kissed him good-bye and left for work.
When Knute got to the office Hosea was there and he said, “Did you find him?”
“Yup,” answered Knute. “At Johnny’s house.” And then she told him about the plan to move in with Max and he, too, was very happy about it.
“How’s Tom doing today?” he asked, and Knute said she didn’t know.
“It’s hard to know anything about him these days,” she said. Hosea told her that they had the smallest town, they had fifteen hundred people, as soon as Johnny left, anyway. The count would happen in the next day or two and that would be that. The Prime Minister would be coming to Algren on July first.
“Well then,” said Knute, “all is well.”
“Quite,” said Hosea, formally, and kind of sadly, and Knute put up her hand for him to slap, you know, high-five, but he said, “Oh, you’re going?” And he waved back.
Which was one of the funnier things that had happened to Knute in a while.
Hosea sat at his desk and felt the warm midday sun on his back. As randomly as I was conceived, he thought, as randomly as I was named, as randomly as … he heard a horn honking under his window and he got up and walked over to have a look. “Hey, Hosea!” shouted Johnny Dranger. “I’m leaving! I’m gone!” Hosea waved and yelled, “Good luck! Come back alive! And send me a postcard from time to time!”
“I will!” yelled Johnny. “So long!” And he was gone.
The phone rang and Hosea hoped it would be Lorna. “Hello?” he said.
“May I speak to Mayor Hosea Funk, please?” said the voice on the other end of the line.
“Speaking,” said Hosea.
“Ah,” said the woman, “I’m calling from the Prime Minister’s Office. Your town, as you know, is one of Canada’s smallest and is one of the contestants in our smallest town competition.”
“Yeah, yes, I know that,” said Hosea, and added, “thanks.”
“One of our census people will be in your town tomorrow to do an official, uh, count, and who shall we tell her will be the person to contact when she arrives?”
“Oh,” said Hosea, “that could be me.”