of the irritated workmen as they passed.
“Can we finish early tonight? Not like anyone’s going to be reading. Everyone for ten miles yonder’s already headed to the square,” said Beth, as she pulled her last book from her saddlebag. “Shoot. Look at what those Mackenzie boys have done to poor old Treasure Island.” She stooped to pick up the scattered pages from the floor, cursing.
“Don’t see why not,” said Margery. “Sophia has it all under control, and it’s dark already anyhow.”
“Who is Tex Lafayette?” said Alice.
The four women turned and stared at her. “Who is Tex Lafayette?”
“Haven’t you seen Green Grows My Mountain? Or Corral My Heart?”
“Oh, I love Corral My Heart. That song near the end just about broke me,” said Izzy, and let out a huge, happy sigh.
You didn’t have to trap me—
For I’m your willing prisoner
—broke in Sophia.
You didn’t need a rope to corral my heart . . .
they sang in unison, each lost in a reverie.
Alice looked blank.
“You don’t go to the picture house?” said Izzy. “Tex Lafayette has been in everything.”
“He can bullwhip a lit cigarette out of a man’s mouth and not leave a scratch on him.”
“He is a grade-A dreamboat.”
“I’m too tired to go out most evenings. Bennett goes sometimes.”
In truth, Alice would have found it too strange to be beside her husband in the dark now. She suspected he felt the same way. For weeks they had taken care that their lives crossed as little as possible. She was gone long before breakfast, and he was often out for dinner, either on work errands for Mr. Van Cleve or playing baseball with his friends. He spent most nights on the daybed in their dressing room, so that even the shape of him had become unfamiliar to her. If Mr. Van Cleve thought there was anything odd about their behavior, he didn’t say: he spent most of his evenings late at the mine, and seemed largely preoccupied with whatever was going on there. Alice now hated that house with a passion, its gloom, its stifling history. She was so grateful not to have to spend her evenings stuck in the dark little parlor with the two of them that she didn’t care to question any of it.
“You’re coming to Tex Lafayette, right?” Beth brushed her hair, and straightened her blouse in the mirror. Apparently she had a thing for a boy from the gas station but had shown him her affection by punching him twice on the arm, hard, and was now at a loss to work out what to do next.
“Oh, I don’t think so. I don’t really know anything about him.”
“All work and no play, Alice. C’mon. The whole town is going. Izzy’s going to meet us outside the store and her mama has given her a whole dollar for cotton candy. It’s only fifty cents if you want a seat. Or you can stand back and watch for free. That’s what we’re doing.”
“I don’t know. Bennett’s working late over at Hoffman. I should probably just go home.”
Sophia and Izzy started to sing again, Izzy blushing, as she always did when she found herself singing to an audience.
Your smile’s a rope around me
Has been since you found me
You didn’t need to chase me to corral my heart . . .
Margery took the small mirror from Beth and checked her face for smudges, rubbing at her cheekbone with a moistened handkerchief until she was satisfied. “Well, Sven and I are going to be over by the Nice ’N’ Quick. He’s reserved us an upstairs table so we can get a good view. You’d be welcome to join us.”
“I have things to do here,” said Alice. “But thank you. I may join you later.” She said it to mollify them and they knew it. Secretly she wanted just to sit in peace in the little library. She liked to be on her own there in the evenings, to read by herself, in the dim light of the oil lamp, escaping to the tropical white of Robinson Crusoe’s island, or the fusty corridors of Mr. Chips’s Brookfield School. If Sophia came while she was still there she tended to let Alice alone, interrupting only to ask if Alice might place her finger on this piece of fabric while she put in a couple of stitches, or whether she thought this repaired book cover looked acceptable. Sophia was not a woman who required an audience, but seemed to feel easier in company,