Then you must be starving, she said. I’ll get you something to eat.
She seemed very efficient at what she was doing. They sat at the table and watched her moving about in the kitchen, this black-haired girl with the tremendously swollen stomach, and avoided her eyes so much that whenever she turned toward them they seemed to be looking elsewhere. She moved back and forth familiarly, from the refrigerator to the stove, warming their food. When it was ready she set it out before them on the wood table: meat and potatoes, warmed-up canned corn, with glasses of milk and a plate of bread with butter. Go ahead, she said. Help yourselves.
Aren’t you going to eat? Ike said.
We ate hours ago. I’ll sit down with you, if you like. Maybe I’ll have a glass of milk, she said.
While the boys ate, Harold went out to see to their horse. He walked the mare over to the corral and let her drink at the stock tank, then he led her into the barn, hauled off her saddle and wiped her down with a gunnysack and afterward grained her and left the half-door open so she could move back to the water if she wanted to.
Meanwhile Raymond went into the other room to the phone and carried it on its long cord into the parlor and made a call. He spoke in a quiet low voice. Tom? he said.
Yes.
We got em out here with us.
Ike and Bobby?
By God, Tom, they come out here ahorseback. All this way.
I knew they had the horse. I had the police out looking for them, Guthrie said. I didn’t know where they were. I’ve been worried sick.
Well. But they’re here now.
Are they all right?
It appears like it. I reckon they are. They seem kind of upset, though. Pretty quiet.
I’ll be right out.
Tom, the old man said. He looked out into the kitchen where the two boys were seated at the table with the girl. She was talking to them, and both were watching her intently. I just wonder if you don’t want to leave em to stay out here tonight.
Out there?
That’s right.
What for?
I think it’d be better.
What do you mean, better?
Well. Like I say, they seem kind of upset.
There was quiet on the other end of the line.
You could come out in the morning and get em, Raymond said. You’ll want to bring along a horse trailer when you come.
I got to think about this, Guthrie said. Would you hold a minute?
He could hear Guthrie talking to somebody in the background. After a time he came back.
I guess it’s all right, Guthrie said. I have Maggie Jones here with me and she thinks you’re right. I’ll come out in the morning.
Right. We’ll see you then.
But you tell them you talked to me, Guthrie said, and that I’ll be there the first thing in the morning.
I’ll tell em. Raymond hung up and went back to the kitchen.
When the boys were finished eating, the girl made them a bed with blankets in the parlor. The McPheron brothers shoved the old recliner chairs out of the way and she spread the thick blankets down on the wood floor in the middle of the room and found them a pair of old pillows and said, I’ll be right in here.
You boys going to be all right? Harold said.
Yes sir.
Just holler if you need anything.
Holler loud, Raymond said. We don’t hear too good.
You need anything else right now? Harold said.
No, sir.
That’s it then. I guess we better go to bed. It’s getting pretty late. I’m going to say we had enough excitement for one night.
The girl went back to her room off the dining room and the McPheron brothers went upstairs. When they were gone the two boys removed their shoes and set them in place on the floor in front of the old television console and removed their pants, and then they lay down in their shirts and underwear in the thick blankets on the floor in the old room at the far end of the house, and lying on the floor they looked up into the room where the yardlight shone in on the wallpaper and the ceiling.
She looks like she’s going to have two babies, Bobby said.
Maybe she is.
Is she married to them?
Who?
Them. Those old men.
No, Ike said.