To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal

Author:Tom McNeal [MCNEAL, TOM]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316175449
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2011-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

2

Willy Blunt dropped by early Saturday afternoon, and this time, when Judith led him into the backyard to say hello to her father, the conversation was uneventful. Judith pointed out the lime tree in its terra-cotta pot, and her father pointed out the blossoms that would turn to buds that would turn to limes. Willy stared at it for a moment and said, “Mr. Toomey, if you were to get one more of those little trees, it’d probably make you the biggest citrus grower in the state of Nebraska,” which to Judith’s relief earned him a small, puffing laugh from her father and, better yet, provided them an easy means of going back into the house.

While her father puttered in the garden, Judith sat at the kitchen table letting Willy teach her a card game called casino, until her father, stepping inside for iced tea, accepted Willy’s invitation to join them, both of which—invitation and acceptance—Judith found irritating. Still, with her father there she learned the game, and took spiteful pleasure when the toothpicks they were playing for began to accumulate on her side of the table.

Around 3 P.M., Willy looked at his pocket watch and said he had to drive down south of town to see a farmer about a job. “Joe L. Minnert,” Willy said. “He wants me to build a room on for him.” Willy let his gaze move from Judith to her father. “Would the two of you want to ride along?”

Judith’s father smiled—he seemed to appreciate Willy’s ruse even while seeing through it—and said he was sorry, but he’d already made plans to go to campus this afternoon.

“Would it be okay if I go?” Judith asked.

“With me down to campus?” her father said mildly. “Of course, if you like.”

“You know what I mean. With Willy.”

Her father looked at Willy, then back at Judith. “I don’t see why not.”

It occurred to Judith that if her heart were hooked up to a monitor, a wild spike on the running graph paper would just have been observed.

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