The Old Man(62)

When the sun sank and lost its power they didn’t stop. The broccoli would be in better shape if it was harvested at a cool temperature, and they wanted to finish the patch. They worked until nightfall and then got into the two loaded trucks and drove back up the farm road. This time they locked the trucks up for the night with the produce still loaded. They would drive the trucks into town to the predawn market for sale.

Julian made a special effort to say good night to his brothers and sister, his mother and his father. Leila looked at him with a puzzled look on her face, then hugged him. “I’ll see you when I see you,” she said.

Julian climbed into his white pickup and drove into Jonesboro. When he pulled up in front of Ruthie’s house, it didn’t look right. Usually when he arrived the lights in the house were few and dim, but the curtains were open. Tonight the lights all seemed to be on, but the curtains were closed. He looked up the street. Parked just beyond the corner he could see the front end of a big black SUV.

He sat behind the wheel of his white pickup and looked at the house. The short period of unreality was over. The past two months had been as though time had gone backward to when he was seventeen. He had not liked that period of his life, but ten years later, circumstances had put him back in the same place with the same people, and life felt right this time. He had been living in the illusion that he had another chance, and that this time things were different. Ruthie didn’t say no and go off with someone else.

How could he have let himself believe that this could be permanent? People didn’t get to redo their lives so everything was right. That was a delusion. He got out of the pickup, walked to the front door, opened it, and stepped inside. There were four men in Ruthie’s living room waiting for him.

He considered punching someone, but there was Ruthie, sitting on her couch five feet from Harper. He considered running, but there was Ruthie, looking up from the couch, searching his face for an explanation. He couldn’t leave her here alone with them. Two of them were men he had never seen before. They both had buzz-cut hair and that look that soldiers had in suits, like dogs stuffed into clothes.

Julian closed the door behind him and stood still.

Waters said, “Hello, Julian. It’s good to see you. We stopped by to give you a lift to the briefing.” He looked at Ruthie appreciatively. “Mrs. Straughan graciously allowed us to wait here for you.”

“Miss Davis,” she said.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Harper. “Your divorce was so recent that I guess the records haven’t been updated.”

Julian looked at Ruthie. She was clearly waiting for him to let her know what was happening, and what he was going to do. He said, “I hadn’t planned on going anywhere tonight. Miss Davis and I haven’t had a chance to talk about it.”

Harper said, “Well, the time is running a bit shorter than we had anticipated. That’s really all I can say at this time. Miss Davis, I apologize again for the inconvenience and the lack of notice, but the country is at war.”

Julian said, “Let me get my bag.” He took Ruthie by the hand and led her to the bedroom.

Once they were inside with the door shut she said, “I thought you were out of the army, Julian. So how can they come and get you, like you were AWOL or something?”

“It’s hard to explain,” he said.

“It’s hard to explain?” she said. “That’s what you have to say to me after your friends bully their way into my house and sit right down like they own the place?”

“I told you the situation the first night I came here. I’m a civilian but I work for military intelligence. As soon as this is over, I’ll be back.”

She studied him. “I guess I’ve been stupid. You did explain the situation. You were here to have a short visit with your family and have a break from the secret, highly serious work you do.”

“It did start that way, but—”

“Good,” she said. “I hope I helped make your visit more fun. I’ve read how spies—I mean intelligence experts—like to have a new woman to sleep with whenever things get slow. But things seem to be getting busy again, so I’ll help you pack.”

She went to the closet and tossed his carry-on bag on the bed. Then she went to her dresser, opened the first wide drawer, and took out a neat stack of his underwear, and then a double handful of rolled socks, and set them on the bed. “Good thing I washed your clothes today.”

“Stop, Ruthie,” said Julian. “I don’t want to fight.”

“Why not?” she said. “You seem to be great in a fight. Men come from God knows where just to tell me there’s a war on so you have to go.”

“Because I love you,” he said. “We’re finally together like we should have been all along.”

She seemed to be paralyzed for a second, and then she stepped closer so he could put his arms around her. Then her arms came up and she hugged him harder and harder while she cried. “Come home. Then we’ll fight.”

In another minute they were out of the bedroom. He followed Harper and Waters to the front door. When they stepped out he stopped. He put the keys to his pickup truck on the table by the front door, and said, “Bye, Ruthie.”

She whispered, “Bye.”

He stepped out onto the porch and then down the steps after Harper and Waters.