Plainsong (Plainsong #1)(55)

But I missed you. I told you that already. He began to kiss her face and to caress her.

I don’t know if you should do this, she said.

Why not?

Because. The baby.

Well, people still do this after she has a baby in her, he said.

But you have to be careful.

I’m always careful.

No, you’re not. Not always.

When wasn’t I?

I’m pregnant, aren’t I?

He looked in her face. That was a accident. I didn’t mean to do that.

It still happened.

You could of done something yourself too, you know, he said. It wasn’t just up to me.

I know. I’ve thought about that a lot.

He looked into her face, her dark eyes. You seem different some way now. You’ve changed.

I’m pregnant, she said. I am different.

It’s more than that, he said. But you’re not sorry, are you?

About the baby?

Yeah.

No, she said. I’m not sorry about the baby.

You going to let me kiss you, then?

She didn’t say anything, she didn’t refuse. And so he began to kiss her and caress her once more and after a while he lay on top of her, holding himself up, and after a while longer he came inside and began to move slowly, and in truth it seemed to be all right. But still she was worried.

Later, they lay in bed quietly. The room was not a very big one. He had nailed a couple of posters on the walls for decoration. There was one window which had a shade pulled down over it and outside the window was the noise of nighttime Denver traffic.

Still later they got up from bed and he called on the phone for pizza and the delivery boy brought it and he paid the boy and made a little joke which made the boy laugh, and after he was gone they ate the pizza together in the front room and watched what there was on television until midnight. The next morning he got up early and went to work. And then she was lonely as soon as he left the apartment and she didn’t know what to do with herself.





McPherons.

Three hours after dark they stopped the pickup at the curb in front of Maggie Jones’s house and got out in the cold and went up onto the porch. When she came to the door she was still in her school clothes, a long skirt and sweater, but she had taken her shoes off and was in her stocking feet. What is it? she said. Will you come in?

They got as far as the front hall. Then they began to speak, almost at the same time.

She never come home today, Harold said. We been driving all over these streets looking for her.

We don’t even know where to start looking, Raymond said.

We been driving the streets more than three hours, looking everywhere we could think of.

You’re talking about Victoria, of course, Maggie said.

There don’t seem to be any friend we could talk to, Raymond said. Least we don’t know of one.

She didn’t come home on the bus after school this evening?

No.

Has she not come home like this before?

No. This is the first.

Something must of happened to her, Harold said. She must of got taken off or something.

Watch what you say, Raymond said. We don’t know that. I’m not going to think that yet.

Yes, Maggie said, that’s right. Let me make some calls first. You want to come in and sit down?

They entered her living room as they would some courtroom or church sanctuary and looked around cautiously and finally chose to sit on the davenport. Maggie went back to the kitchen to the phone. They could hear her talking. They sat holding their hats between their knees, just waiting until she came back into the room.

I called two or three girls in her class, she said, and finally called Alberta Willis. She said she’d given Victoria a note from a boy waiting in a car out in the parking lot. I asked her if she knew what was in the note. She said it was private, it wasn’t to her. But did you read it? I asked her.

Yes. But just once, she said.

Tell me please. What did it say?

Mrs. Jones, it didn’t say anything. Only come see me in the parking lot, and then his name. Dwayne.

Do you know him? I said.

No. But he’s from Norka. Only he doesn’t live there no more. Nobody knows where he lives.

And did Victoria go out to him in the parking lot, like the note said?

Yes, she went out to him. I tried to tell her not to. I warned her.

And did you not see her after that?

No. I didn’t see her again after that at all.

So, Maggie said to the McPherons. I think she must have gone with him. With this boy.

The old brothers looked at her for a considerable time without speaking, watching her, their faces sad and tired.

You know him yourself at all? Harold said finally.

No, she said. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the boy. The kids know him somewhat. He was at some of the dances last year, this past summer particularly. That’s when Victoria met him. She told me a little about that. But she wouldn’t ever tell me his name. This is the first I’ve heard any part of his name.

Did that girl on the phone know the rest of it?

No.

They stared at her again for a time, waiting for anything more.

So she isn’t hurt, Harold said. Or lost.

No, I don’t think so.

She isn’t lost, Raymond said. That’s all we know. We don’t know about hurt.