The Summer of the Swans (11 page)

“I’m inviting you. Bennie said I could bring somebody if I wanted to. He begged me to bring someone, as a matter of fact. He and Sammy and John and Pete have formed this musical group and they’re going to make everybody listen to them.”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“Why not? Other than the fact that you’re going to have to listen to some terrible guitar playing. Bennie Hoffman has had about one and a half lessons.”

“Well...”

“It’s not any big deal, just sitting in Bennie Hoffman’s back yard and watching him louse up with a two-hundred-dollar guitar and amplifier.”

“I guess I could go.”

“I’ll walk over and pick you up in half an hour. It won’t matter if we’re late. The last fifty songs will sound about the same as the first fifty.”

“I’ll be ready.”

W
hen Sara came up the walk Wanda was standing on the porch. “What is going on around here, will you tell me that? Where is Charlie?”

“We found him. He’s with Aunt Willie, wherever that is.”

“Do you know how I heard he was lost? I heard it on the car radio when I was coming home. How do you think that made me feel—to hear from some disc jockey that my own brother was missing? I could hardly get here because there are a hundred cars full of people jamming the street down there.”

“Well, he’s fine.”

“So Mr. Aker told me, only I would like to see him and find out what happened.”

“He got up during the night sometime—this is what I think happened—to go see the swans and ended up in a ravine crying his heart out.”

Wanda stepped off the porch and looked across the street, leaning to see around the foliage by the fence. She said, “Is that them over there on the Carsons’ porch?”

Sara looked and nodded. “Honestly, Charlie still in his pajamas, and Aunt Willie in her good green dress with a handkerchief tied around her forehead to keep her from sweating, and both of them eating watermelon. That beats all.”

“At least he’s all right.”

Wanda started down the walk, then paused. “You want to come?”

“No, I’m going to a party.”

“Whose?”

“Bennie Hoffman’s.”

“I didn’t think you were invited.”

“Joe Melby’s taking me.”

‘Joe Melby? Your great and terrible enemy?”

“He is not my enemy, Wanda. He is one of the nicest people I know.”

“For three months I’ve been hearing about the evils of Joe Melby. Joe Melby, the thief; Joe Melby, the fink; Joe Melby, the—”

“A person,” Sara said coldly, “can occasionally be mistaken.” She turned and went into the living room, saw Boysie sleeping by the door and said, “Boysie, we found Charlie.” She bent and rubbed him behind the ears. Then she went into the kitchen, made a sandwich, and was starting into the bedroom when the phone rang.

“Hello,” she said, her mouth full of food.

“Hello, I have a long-distance call for Miss Willamina Godfrey,” the operator said.

“Oh, she’s across the street. If you’ll wait a minute I’ll go get her.”

“Operator, I’ll just talk to whoever’s there,” Sara heard her father say.

She said quickly, “No, I’ll go get her. Just wait one minute. It won’t take any time. She’s right across the street.”

“Sara? Is this Sara?”

“Yes, this is me.” The strange feeling came over her again. “If you wait a minute I’ll go get Aunt Willie.”

“Sara, did you find Charlie?”

“Yes, we found him, but I don’t mind going to get Aunt Willie. They’re over on the Carsons’ porch.”

“Is Charlie all right?”

“He’s fine. He’s eating watermelon right now.”

“Where was he?”

“Well, he went up into the woods and got lost. We found him in a ravine and he was dirty and tired and hungry but he’s all right.”

“That’s good. I was going to come home tonight if he hadn’t been found.”

“Oh.”

“But since everything’s all right, I guess I’ll just wait until the weekend.”

“Sure.”

“So I’ll probably see you Saturday, then, if nothing turns up.”

“Fine.”

“Be sure to tell Willie I called.”

“I will.”

A picture came into her mind of the laughing, curly-headed man with the broken tooth in the photograph album, and she suddenly saw life as a series of huge, uneven steps, and she saw herself on the steps, standing motionless in her prison shirt, and she had just taken an enormous step up out of the shadows, and she was standing, waiting, and there were other steps in front of her, so that she could go as high as the sky, and she saw Charlie on a flight of small difficult steps, and her father down at the bottom of some steps, just sitting and not trying to go further. She saw everyone she knew on those blinding white steps and for a moment everything was clearer than it had ever been.

“Sara?”

“I’m still here.”

“Well, that was all I wanted, just to hear that Charlie was all right.”

“He’s fine.”

“And I’ll see you on Saturday if nothing happens.”

“Sure.”

“Good-by.”

She sat for a minute still holding the receiver and then she set it back on the telephone and finished her sandwich. Slowly she slipped off her tennis shoes and looked down at her feet, which were dyed blue. Then she got up quickly and went to get ready for the party.