Mary answered, a cigarette in her hand, and immediately read the distress on Junie's face.
'Junie, what on earth? Honey, you look awful. Is that critter kicking up a storm?'
'It's Earl. He was supposed to be back from Hot Springs last night and I haven't heard a thing.'
'He's probably parked in a bar, honey. You give a man a day off and sure as hell, that's where he'll end up. My Phil'd waste his life among the Scotch bottles if I let him.'
'No, Mary, it can't be that. He swore to me he was off the stuff forever. He swore.'
'Honey, they all say that. Believe me, they do.'
'I'm so afraid. I called the police and the newspapers, but they just told me he left late yesterday afternoon.'
'Do you want to come in and wait here, honey? You're welcome. I'm just reading the new Cosmopolitan,'
'I'd like to look for him.'
'Oh, Junie, that's not wise. The baby's due in two weeks. You never know about these things. You shouldn't be off on some wild-goose chase. And what if Earl calls?'
'But I'll go crazy if I just sit around. I just want to drive down to Waldron and then over to Hot Springs. That'd be the way he'd come, I know. We'll run into him and that'll be that. But I just can't sit there anymore.'
'You can't drive alone.'
'I know.'
'Well, let me get my hat, honey. Looks like the gals are going on a little trip. Wouldn't mind stopping for a beer.'
'I'm not supposed to drink, they say.'
'Well, honey, there's nothing to stop me from drinking, now, is there?'
'No ma'am,' said Junie, already feeling better.
'You just watch real good. You have a Coke, and you watch me drink a beer.' She winked good- naturedly.
Mary got her hat and the two went out to Mary's car, a 1938 DeSoto that could have used some bodywork. Mary started the old vehicle, and they backed out of the driveway and headed through the maze of gravel roads in the vets village.
'Do you think we'll ever get out?' Mary asked.
'They say they're building more houses. If you had a good war record you can get a loan. But it'll still be a wait.'
'All that time when Phil was in the Pacific, I kept thinking how wonderful it was going to be. Now he's back and'?she laughed bitterly, her signature reaction to the complexities of the world?'it's not wonderfiil at all. In fact, it plain stinks.'
'It'll work out' was all Junie could think to say.
'Honey, you are such an incorrigible optimist! Oh, well, at least we won the war, we have the atom bomb, our men are back in one piece and we have a roof over our heads, even if it's made of tin and smells like the inside of an airplane!'
They laughed. Mary could always get a laugh out of Junie. Junie was so duty-haunted, so straight-ahead, so committed to the ideal, that Mary was a refreshment to her, because Mary saw through everything, considered every man who ever lived a promise-breaking, drunken, raping lout, and in her day had riveted more Liberator fuselages than any man in the Consolidated plant.
The camp vanished behind them as they hit Route 71 and followed that road's generally southward course as it plunged down the western spine of Arkansas.
There was little enough to see in the daylight and even less in the twilight. Traffic was light.
'You know, we could miss Earl's car. It would be easy to do.'
'I know. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.'
'If it makes you feel better, you should do it. You get few enough chances in this lifetime to feel better.'
Small towns fled by: Rye Hill, Big Rock, Witcherville, little dots on a map that turned out to be a gas station and a few outbuildings of indistinct size and meaning. It grew darker.
'Why don't we stop and get that beer,' said Junie.
'Hmmm, now I'm not so sure. These boys out here, they may think we're fast city gals out larking about. See, all men think that all women secredy desire them and want to be conquered and treated like slaves. I don't know where they get that idea, but I do know the further you get from city lights, the stronger that idea becomes, although it's certainly very strong in the city too. And the fact that you're carrying thirty extra pounds of baby'll just get 'em to thinking you want a last adventure before you're a mama forever.'
Junie laughed. Mary had such a bold way of putting things, which is why some of the other wives in the village didn't like her, but exactly why Junie liked her so much.
She looked at the map.
'Up ahead is a city called Peverville. It's a little larger.
Maybe we'll find a nice, decent place where nobody'll whisde or make catcalls.'
'Oh, if they don't do it out loud, they'll do it in then-heads, which is the same thing, only quieter.'
The land here was quiet and dark; it was all forest, and the gende but insistent up and down of the road suggested they were going through mountains. Occasionally a car passed headed in the other direction, but it was never Earl's old Ford.
'I hope he's all right,' Junie said.
'Honey, if all the Japanese in the world couldn't kill Earl Swagger, what makes you think some likkered-up cornpone-licking crackers from Hot Springs could?'
'I know. But Earl says it's not always who's the best. When the guns come out, it's so much luck too. Maybe his luck finally ran out.'
'Earl is too ornery. Luck wouldn't dare let him down, he'd grab it by the throat and fix that Marine Corps stare on it, and it would give up the ghost!'
Again, in spite of herself, Junie had to laugh.
'Mary, you are such a character!'
'Yes ma'am,' said Mary.
An approaching car looked to be Earl's, and both women bent forward, peering at it for identification. But as it sped by, a much older man turned out to be the driver.
'Thought we had us something for just a while,' said Mary.
'You know, Mary,' said Junie, 'I think maybe we better head on back.'
'Are you all right?'
'Suddenly I don't feel so good.'
'Is that critter kicking up a storm?'
'No, it's just that I seem to be cramping or something.'
'Oh, gosh, does it hurt?'
Junie didn't answer, and Mary saw from the pallor that had stolen over her features that it did.
'Do you want to go to the hospital?'
'No, but if I could just?'
She hesitated.
'Oh, I'm so sorry,' she said. 'I made a mess. I don't know.'
Mary pulled off, reached up and flicked on the compartment light.
'Oh, God,' she said, for Junie was soaked.
Suddenly Junie curled in pain.
'My water just broke,' she said. 'I am so sorry about the car.'
'Forget the car, honey. The car don't mean a thing. You are going to have that damn baby right now. We have to find you a hospital.'
'Earl!' screamed Junie as the first contraction hit, 'oh, Earl, where are you?'
