18
PARTISAN REVIEW
River and stand around listening to the toads singing and looking at
the moonlight and kinder hemming and hawing mostly. He did his
best to keep his hands off her. Having that dose made him feel awful
ashamed.
The minute the doctor said he was cured it was different, but
she said, George ... she'd found out his real name was George and
always called him George now ... she couldn't unless she was mar-
ried, she didn't know why but that was how she'd been brought up.
So before Ike knew what he was doing he'd said they'd have to get
married, then, and had bought her an engagement ring for fifteen
dollars from a Jew salesman he met in a poolroom.
The old folks raised holy hell when they got wind of it and
the old woman called up the sheriff and tried to get Ike arrested but
the sheriff must have said the girl was free, white and twentyone and
it wasn't the law's business who she married, because the old woman
hung up the receiver and ran screeching into the old man's bedroom
yelling that he had to throw Ike out of the house. Ike felt sorry for
the old geezer when he tottered in with a blanket round his shoulders
coughing as he came and waving a big Colt in his shaky blueveined
hand. "I guess you folks want me to get out of here," Ike said with
a grin and turned and walked out of the house. He never turned
around as he walked down the dusty hill towards the bridge but his
back sure tickled at the thought of that damned automatic shaking
in the old man's hand,
Next morning when he went to work there was Jinny waiting for
him outside the shop. He went in and told the boss he had to have a
day off to get married and they went right down to the Justice of
Peace and took the fatal step. Ike had had the license in his wallet
for a week in case he might need it quick.
Jinny. said they'd have to go someplace else than Phoenix be-
cause she'd be scared all the time on account of her aunt Maggie who
she knew was crazy as a hootowl. She said she'd always wanted to go
back to Kansas City where she'd been raised when she was little.
Ike hated to give up that good job now that he was just beginning to
learn something about electrical work but it had to be done. Ike
didn't have enough jack to get sleepers so they sat up in the day coach
all the way happy and kidding and giggling and holding hands and
looking out at the scenery like a couple of schoolkids. "In K. C. we'll
settle down and plant ourselves among the weeds," he kept telling
Jinny.
Kansas City sure was a mistake. Jinny's folks had all moved away.
The electrical workers local wasn't taking in any new members on
account of the slump and before Ike could say Jack Robinson there
