The Night Travellers

15. Ed

15 Ed Ed Tomkins, who lived east of Kingsbury in an ancient house he had inherited, had a lot of money, but no one would guess it to see the way he lived. He went around in scuffed, laced-up, tan leather boots, generally muddy, and kept bird dogs, black and white setters, who ran in and out of the house at will, had burrs in their coats and fleas to spare. Sally, though she loved him, said she couldn't live the way he did; though according to Kate her own house was a total mess, it was a mess, Sally explained, of a different kind. After Kate's visit, Sally telephoned Ed and drove out to see him. There were woods out that way still, though the town was advancing on them, and new subdivisionswere finally going to swallow him and his old hillside, thick with scruffy, twisty oak trees. A swing still hung from one big tree limb, down near the front gate. Sally had tried to live out there, but it was too lonesome for her. After the boys left, so did she. Today she had called ahead because, for all she knew, he might have some drinking or hunting buddy living with him, or some business prospect. He dealt in tracts of land he had either inherited or started adding way back when: worthless scrub country, it was thought, wrongly. Sally and he let the children visit whenever and wherever they chose, both living in Florida now, though in different cities. Ed would put on a suit that smelled of mothballs and show up with traces of lather back of his ears. As a rule, though, he favored checked flannel shirts in winter, cotton ones in summer, no tie. Sally thought she'd do best not to pry into things. She imagined that at intervals he found a woman willing to stay with him for a while, but 85 86 THE N I G H T T R A V E L L E R S whether it was always the same one, or different ones, or none at all, she didn't really know. When Sally came up the front steps that June morning, Ed was waiting with his foot on the porch railing. He held a glass in his hand already, though it wasn't but eleven. "If it ain't my one and only," he said. A dog marched past him and stood on the top step until Sally approached near enough to have a forepaw placed on either shoulder and doggy breath in her face. "Get him down, Ed," she said, and came to exchange a kiss. She sat down on the front porch to talk with him, having remarked on the dogwood. "So Miz High-and-Mighty Harbison needs a little bit of cash. What's the girl like?" "You remember her. Pretty little thing. She's always had this dancing craze. Now it's come to wanting it for her career." "Dance like in clubs, shows?" "Oh, where it may lead, who knows? But first it was ballet, and programs, now she wants something called 'modern.' I guess they give programs, too." "Is she any good?" "Oh, definitely, yes, she is. I've gone to see her, made her costumes , of course. It's a gift. You have to study, practice all the time like music, violin or piano." "She can't do that in Kingsbury?What's wrong with Kingsbury?" "Well, this is special, some special teacher, famous. I never heard of him, but that doesn't signify. I think myself that Kate wants her away from some boy she's picked up with." "Now you're on to it. I heard something about that." "Well, of course. He came to town with Ethan Marbell. Ethan's into the anti-war business and Kate may even think—oh, I don't know for sure—but she may think that he was behind the mess they made of her lab work. Ed, it's gotten too complicated for her. Kate thinks if Mary Kerr goes, even if the boy follows her, at least he'll be out of town." "Does she want shut of him for a son-in-law or not?" "Oh, Lord, ask Kate. I'd say she was hoping it would blow over." "I got one solution to all that prancing around over this war. They want to rampage, let's us rampage back. Police dogs...