summer. After he had listed the names of each of the eight birds in the project and related the story of how each name was chosen, he realized that he had been talking for ten minutes straight and he stopped himself. He said, “I’m sorry. You get me started talking about my project and I don’t shut up.”
Odette said, “No need to apologize, it’s nice to hear that you like your work.” Then she laughed. “But tell me, Chick, what is it with you and birds?”
He grinned, then stuffed his hands inside the pockets of his coat and shrugged his shoulders. For a moment, he was once more the shy, pretty boy they had met almost forty years earlier.
No one said anything for a few seconds. Barbara Jean, Odette, and Clarice did some throat-clearing and fidgeting. Chick stood staring down at the floor, making it apparent that he had prepared only a few lines of dialogue for this meeting and, having exhausted them and followed them up with some nervous rambling, had no more conversation left in him.
Barbara Jean filled the silence with something that surprised them all. She said, “I saw you after Big Earl’s funeral.”
Startled by her own words, Barbara Jean let out a little gasp and her eyes grew large. She looked back and forth from Odette to Clarice several times in quick succession. Clarice thought for a moment Barbara Jean might ask which one of them had spoken. Of course, it would never have crossed either of her friends’ lips. Clarice and Odette had carefully avoided discussing the day of Big Earl’s funeral—the day of Lester’s death—for months. And they had never once told Barbara Jean that they had seen her staring out of the window at Chick just before Lester decided to perform those ill-fated electrical repairs.
Chick and Barbara Jean locked eyes, but said nothing. Clarice began to prattle on about what a good friend Big Earl had been to all of them. Odette nodded in agreement. Barbara Jean clasped her hands together in her lap to stop them from shaking.
Finally, Chick said, “Well, I’d better get going.”
Odette made him promise that he would come by her house for a visit, and polite goodbyes were exchanged. Then Chick took a couple of steps in the direction of the door that led out to the hallway. Before leaving the room, he turned around and added, “It’s really nice to see you all looking so lovely.”
It seemed to both Clarice and Odette that his last remark was aimed directly at Barbara Jean.
As soon as Chick left the room, Barbara Jean slumped forward in her chair and buried her face in her hands. She took two or three deep breaths and then sat up straight again. She announced, “I’m going to get some coffee. Anybody else want some?” Before either of her friends could answer her, she rose and rushed toward the door. Odette gestured with her head for Clarice to follow, and she did.
Clarice found Barbara Jean standing with her forehead pressed against a window just down the hall, her breath fogging the glass with each exhalation. She walked up to Barbara Jean and stood beside her.
Clarice asked, “Are you all right?”
Barbara Jean replied, “He looked good, didn’t he?”
“Yes, he did look good. Grew up to be a handsome man.”
“No, I mean he looked like his life was okay. He didn’t look like his life was sad or ruined or anything.”
Clarice said that yes, Chick looked as if his life had been fine, not knowing where Barbara Jean was going with all this.
Barbara Jean said, “Yes, he’s done all right. He’s done real well. Works for the university now. Teaches. Likes his work. Ray’s all right.” It sounded to Clarice as if Barbara Jean were trying to convince herself.
It is truly a wonder, Clarice thought, how that old devil inconvenient love can rear its head and start messing with you when you least expect it. She’d have bet a million dollars Barbara Jean didn’t want to feel anything for Chick, the man she’d loved before she was old enough to know any better. But it was written all across her face. Game over, story ended. Barbara Jean was stuck with affection that just wouldn’t die, no matter how hard life and time had tried to kill it. Oh sister, Clarice thought, I know just how you feel. Barbara Jean and Clarice stayed there for several minutes gazing out of the window. They had a view of the