388
PARTISAN REVIEW
I went to the big white refrigerator and opened its door.
It
had
never before been so completely stocked with edibles. And the cool'
in her haste to be away had apparently crammed every perishable
in sight into the box without thought or care for arrangement or
accessibility.
A long stalk of celery fell out on the floor at my feet. I stooped
to pick it up, and as I rose I found myself looking directly in on the
heap of dead quail.
At that moment I heard, or thought I heard, Virgina Ann's voice
calling my name. I remained staring at the dead birds for a moment.
They were stacked one upon the other in their bloody, feathery dead–
ness in the same shelf with the respectable skeletons of the roast
ducks. I resolved not to move until I had heard Virginia Ann calling
again. Then I should Oh so gladly shut that door on the unwelcome
sight of the birds and all that food for which I knew now I felt no
hunger.
But when presently she called my name again, I could not make
good my resolution. I stood holding the refrigerator door half open.
She had called me, there was no doubt, but there was in her voice
a note of caution. There was too evident a careful gauging of her
volume. She plainly did not intend to disturb me if I were safely asleep
or were safely out of earshot. And now that she had called me twice
without answer, how could I ever answer? It was then that I de–
termined to creep up the little flight of steps that went up from the
kitchen (and joined the front stair on the landing) and to go and wait
in my room. After I reached the small square bedroom with its over–
large pieces of mahogany furniture and metal bedstead I heard not
another sound; and I had waited in the silence there until I thought
I could endure it not another instant.
Mter Father had shut the front door behind Bill Evers, I heard
Virginia Ann's footsteps on the stair. I hurried to the double bed that
Brother and I shared and threw myself across it; but with my face
toward the doorway. Presently she passed along the hallway, her hair
dishevelled, her turban-like navy-blue hat in her hand. I watched
her indistinct daytime shadow that followed her along the plain
wall of the hallway one second after she was out of sight.
In a little while Uncle Jake and Brother came upstairs. Brother
came in the room and pushed his cap back on his head as he usually
did when he came in the front door downstairs. Uncle Jake stopped
in the doorway. I raised myself on my elbows and pretended to yawn.
Uncle Jake said to me, "Tonight's Scout Meeting night and we want
