The Great and Secret Show

His murmur was almost drowned out by the din of complaints from behind him but she caught its menace clearly enough. Having spoken he turned his back and returned to the car. She couldn’t see the mollifying smile he was putting on, but she could imagine it. Mr Golden, raising his arms in mock-surrender, knowing his captors didn’t have a hope.

‘What was that about?’ Howie said.

‘I don’t exactly know. He’s been odd since –’

She was going to say since yesterday, but she’d seen a canker in his beauty moments ago that must have been there always, except that she – like the rest of the world – had been too dazzled to recognize it.

‘Does he need help?’ Howie asked.

‘I think it’s better we let him go.’

‘Jo-Beth!’ somebody called. A middle-aged woman was striding towards them, both dress and features plain to the point of severity.

‘Was that Tommy-Ray?’ she said as she approached.

‘Yes it was.’

‘He never stops by any longer.’ She had come to a halt a yard from Howie, staring at him with a look of mild puzzlement on her face. ‘Are you coming to the store, Jo-Beth?’ she said, not looking away from Howie. ‘We’re already late opening.’

‘I’m coming.’

‘Is your friend coming too?’ the woman asked pointedly.

‘Oh yes … I’m sorry … Howie … this is Lois Knapp.’

‘Mrs,’ the woman put in, as though her marital status were a talisman against strange young men.

‘Lois … this is Howie Katz.’

‘Katz?’ Mrs Knapp replied. ‘Katz?’ She removed her gaze from Howie, and studied her watch. ‘Five minutes late,’ she said.

‘It’s no problem,’ Jo-Beth said. ‘We never get anyone in before noon.’

Mrs Knapp looked shocked at this indiscretion.

‘The Lord’s work is not to be taken lightly,’ she remarked. ‘Please be quick.’ Then she stalked off.

‘Fun lady,’ Howie commented.

‘She’s not as bad as she looks.’

‘That’d be difficult.’

‘I’d better go.’

‘Why?’ Howie said. ‘It’s a beautiful day. We could go someplace. Make the most of the weather.’

‘It’ll be a beautiful day tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that. This is California, Howie.’

‘Come with me anyway.’

‘Let me try to make my peace with Lois first. I don’t want to be on everyone’s hit list. It’ll upset Momma.’

‘So when?’

‘When what?’

‘When will you be free?’

‘You don’t give up, do you?’

‘Nope.’

‘I’ll tell Lois I’m going back home to look after Tommy-Ray this afternoon. Tell her he’s sick. It’s only half a lie. Then I’ll come by the motel. How’s that?’

‘Promise?’

‘Promise.’ She began to move away, then said: ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Don’t want to … kiss … kiss me in public, huh?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘How about private?’

She half-heartedly shushed him as she backed away.

‘Just say yes.’

‘Howie.’

‘Just say yes.’

‘Yes.’

‘See? It’s real easy.’

In the late morning, as she and Lois sat sipping ice water in the otherwise deserted store, the older woman said:

‘Howard Katz.’

‘What about him?’ Jo-Beth said, preparing herself for a lecture on behaviour with the opposite sex.

‘I couldn’t think where I knew the name from.’

‘And now you remember?’

‘A woman who lived in the Grove. ’Way back,’ she said, then turned her attention to wiping a ring of water from the counter with her napkin. Her silence, and the effort she gave to this minor mopping, suggested she was happy to let the subject drop if Jo-Beth chose not to pursue it. Yet she’d felt obliged to raise the issue. Why?