64
PARTISAN REVIEW
forgotten him . He supposed he should ask about Ricky . When he
called the second time he started talking very fast as soon as someone
picked up the phone : "Look don't hang up Ijust wanted to know how
he is and all so don't hang up it was only a couple hundred I took
and I got it to put back and we can start again fresh you know? be–
cause I really had some time to think anyway Verna will be happy to
know I gave up ball-playing and how are you anyway?" When he
stopped for a breath, the line stayed open for a minute while he tried
to think of what else to say. Then Verna's voice said, "You shit," and
she hung up .
He got a room at the Y and called this guy he'd been to high
school with, who always needed people to work nights as watchmen .
After a couple of weeks he was feeling pretty well set up. And he
knew not to ask about Ricky any more, but that didn't really surprise
him . It was good to be back, although there were people who gave
him the grim-face treatment , probably because Verna had spent the
whole time telling everybody just what she thought. But it was good
to be back, even though the weather was pretty poor, icy and all. He
kept expecting to run into J o-An at the mall or somewhere but it never
happened. He drove past the house once to see how things looked. A
new paint job wouldn't hurt but he could do that himself in the sum–
mer. He stopped the car and just sat for a while; long enough for the
neighbors to start looking out, as if maybe they should call the police.
Even on a day when there was a thin icy rain falling and sooty snow
stacked in the gutters and somebody's trashcan rolling back and forth
in the wind, making a hell of a racket, he felt good. They really could
start over; and a new Ricky, too, right? Although they'd call him
something else ; no use raking up the past and all . After all you had
to go on .
He stopped in finally on a Sunday when he was pretty sure
she'd be there. Verna's guy opened the door-he had a ring on the
right finger, so it looked like she'd finally suckered him into taking
Frankie the Bastard's place - and Verna and J
0-
An were watching
some movie on TV . Verna's guy - damned if he could remember his
name, and nobody was making introductions - stood there looking
as if he were making his choice between leaving and pasting Kelly
one, just to show who was in charge . Jo-An smoked faster than Verna
and wouldn't take her eyes off the TV set. Verna said, "Well well,
the lord and master ," but Kelly had learned a few things about his
temper. "I brought along some beers," he said, and went to the kitchen
for glasses. When he came back nobody had moved . There was an
