When Victoria came out, the man and the woman were standing in the tarred parking lot deciding something between themselves. She couldn’t see the girl or her brother, then turned and saw they were standing together at the corner under the traffic light, looking up Main Street toward the middle of town, and she went on to where Raymond and Harold were waiting for her at the car.
IT WAS SHORTLY AFTER NOON WHEN THEY DROVE DOWN the ramp off the interstate and into the outskirts of Fort Collins. To the west, the foothills rose up in a ragged blue line obscured by yellow smog blown up from the south, blown up from Denver. On one of the hills a white A was formed of whitewashed rocks, a carryover from when the university’s teams were called the Aggies. They drove up Prospect Road and turned onto College Avenue, the campus was all on the left side with its brick buildings, the old gymnasium, the smooth green lawns, and passed along the street under the cottonwoods and tall blue spruce until they turned onto Mulberry and then turned again and then located the apartment building set back from the street where the girl and her daughter would now live.
They parked the car and the pickup in the lot behind the building, and Victoria went in with the little girl to find the apartment manager. The manager turned out to be a college girl not unlike herself, only older, a senior in sweatshirt and jeans with her blonde hair sprayed up terrifically on her head. She came out into the hallway to introduce herself and began at once to explain that she was majoring in elementary education and working as a student teacher this semester in a little town east of Fort Collins, talking without pause while she led Victoria to the second-floor apartment. She unlocked the door and handed over the key and another one for the outside door, then stopped abruptly and looked at Katie. Can I hold her?
I don’t think so, Victoria said. She won’t go to everybody.
The McPherons brought up the suitcases and the boxes from the car and set them in the small bedroom. They looked around and went back for the daybed and high chair.
Standing in the door, the manager looked over at Victoria. Are they your grandfathers or something?
No.
Who are they? Your uncles?
No.
What about her daddy then? Is he coming too?
Victoria looked at her. Do you always ask so many questions?
I’m just trying to make friends. I wouldn’t pry or be rude.
We’re not related that way, Victoria said. They saved me two years ago when I needed help so badly. That’s why they’re here.
They’re preachers, you mean.
No. They’re not preachers. But they did save me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without them. And nobody better say a word against them.
I’ve been saved too, the girl said. I praise Jesus every day of my life.
That’s not what I meant, Victoria said. I wasn’t talking about that at all.
THE MCPHERON BROTHERS STAYED WITH VICTORIA Roubideaux and the little girl throughout the afternoon and helped arrange their belongings in the rooms, then in the evening took them out to supper. Afterward they came back to the rented apartment. When they were parked in the lot behind the building they stood out on the pavement in the cool night air to say good-bye. The girl was crying a little again now. She stood up on her toes and kissed each of the old men on his weathered cheek and hugged them and thanked them for all they had done for her and her daughter, and they each in turn put their arms around her and patted her awkwardly on the back. They kissed the little girl. Then they stood back uncomfortably and could not think how to look at her or the child any longer, nor how to do much else except leave.
You make sure to call us, Raymond said.
I’ll call every week.
That’ll be good, Harold said. We’ll want to hear your news.
Then they drove home in the pickup. Heading east away from the mountains and the city, out onto the silent high plains spread out flat and dark under the bright myriad indifferent stars. It was late when they pulled into the drive and stopped in front of the house. They had scarcely spoken in two hours. The yardlight on the pole beside the garage had come on in their absence, casting dark purple shadows past the garage and the outbuildings and past the three stunted elm trees standing inside the hogfencing that surrounded the gray clapboard house.
In the kitchen Raymond poured milk into a pan on the stove and heated it and got down a box of crackers from the cupboard. They sat at the table under the overhead light and drank down the warm milk without a word. It was silent in the house. There was not even the sound of wind outside for them to hear.
I guess I might just as well go up to bed, Harold said. I’m not doing any good down here. He walked out of the kitchen and entered the bathroom and then came back. I guess you’ve decided to sit out here all night.
I’ll be up after a while, Raymond said.
Well, Harold said. All right then. He looked around. At the kitchen walls and the old enameled stove and through the door into the dining room where the yardlight fell in through the curtainless windows onto the walnut table. It feels empty already, don’t it.
Empty as hell, Raymond said.
I wonder what she’s doing now. I wonder if she’s all right.
I hope she’s sleeping. I hope her and that little girl are both sleeping. That’d be the best thing.
Yes, it would. Harold bent and peered out the kitchen window into the darkness north of the house, then stood erect. Well, I’m going up, he said. I can’t think what else I’m suppose to do.
I’ll be up shortly. I want to sit here a while.
Don’t fall asleep down here. You’ll be sorry for it tomorrow.
I know. I won’t. Go ahead on. I won’t be long.
Harold started out of the room but stopped at the door and turned back once more. You reckon it’s warm enough in that apartment of hers? I been trying to think. I can’t recollect a thing about the temperature in them rooms she rented.
It seemed like it was warm enough to me. When we was in there it did. If it wasn’t I guess we’d of noticed it.
You think it was too warm?
I don’t guess so. I reckon we’d of noticed that too. If it was.
I’m going to bed. It’s just goddamn quiet around here is all I got to say.
I’ll be up after a bit, Raymond said.
2
THE BUS CAME FOR THEM ON THE EAST SIDE OF HOLT AT seven-thirty in the morning. The driver waited, was turned sideways in the seat staring at the front of the trailer house. She honked the horn. She honked a second time, then the door opened and a young girl in a blue dress stepped out into the untended yard of cheatgrass and redroot, walking toward the bus with her head down, and climbed the metal steps and moved to the middle where there were empty seats. The other students watched her pass in the narrow aisle until she sat down, then started talking again. Now her mother came out of the trailer holding her younger brother by the hand. He was a small boy dressed in blue jeans and a shirt that was too big for him buttoned up to his chin.
After he had climbed aboard the bus the driver said: I shouldn’t have to wait for these kids like this. There’s a schedule I got to follow, if you didn’t know.
The mother looked away, peering through the row of windows until she saw the boy was seated beside his sister.
I’m not going to tell you again about this, the driver said. I’ve had it with you people. There’s eighteen kids I got to pick up. She swung the door closed and released the brake and the bus jerked down Detroit Street.