A God in Ruins - Leon Uris [8]
“He got hit because he had to deliver a message and there were no phone lines connected yet. It was his own bloody fault. He should have waited.”
Thump, the visit was wearily ended.
Dan and Siobhan and Cliff and Corinne would never forget it. After two devastating hangovers, the O’Connells packed the ’41 DeSoto and pointed it toward the corn and wheat fields of the Great Plains.
Even though it cost a long-distance phone call, Siobhan always made certain there would be food and lodging at the end of the day. Ahead, they moved into an infinity of two-lane roads.
It was here that Siobhan learned to drive. When stopped for speeding, she became Everywoman, coyly explaining their newlywed status, and what with her husband home from the war…
“Never mind, lady, just slow down.”
They drove through Kansas City, then chose the E-Z Inne on the road out of town because it was offering half-price rooms for veterans. There were a lot of big trucks about and a steak house right next door.
Fooled them! Dan thought to himself as he took a long drink from his purchase from a state bottle store. Actually, a dry state, can you imagine? Must not be many Irish about.
He set the glass on the floor and submerged to the bottom of the tub. “Ahhhh!”
Siobhan answered his moose call and scrubbed his back as he kept diving and coming up exclaiming “Ahhhh!”
At the steak house, the two stared at the extraordinary size of the meat. “Sure, I’ve never had a piece of meat like this in my icebox,” Siobhan said in wonderment.
“And it cuts with a fork. I wonder what they do to the meat?”
“It’s not what they do,” Siobhan said, “it’s what we do after we get it.”
Dan quickly shifted his brown-bagged bottle of bourbon as the sheriff strolled in and took a stool at the counter. In a few minutes, their waiter came and presented them with two bottles of beer, compliments of the sheriff.
Ah, now this is living, Dan thought.
“Notice how nice people are out here?” she noted.
“Yeah,” Dan said so sadly he croaked. “Yeah.”
“Dan, I’m trying to be patient and understanding. It’s not a case of merely getting rid of the war. It will always be with you, but it can no longer dominate our lives. We’ve big tomorrows to think about, and you have to shift the Marine Corps and hold it in a place close to your heart but out of the mainstream of our marriage.”
Dan nodded and watched the big trucks speed past, their sound muffled by glass.
“Why are we driving south tomorrow?” she asked.
“I went over and over and over a picture in my mind of you and me standing before that make believe little rail station in Douglass, Kansas. Me, with my arms about you, looking past the lawns to those beautiful dollhouses.”
“You can’t move your hometown because you don’t like its location. You are going to great lengths to fool yourself. If we don’t go, the memory of it will remain perfect.”
“I’m afraid to reach Colorado,” Dan blurted. “I’m scared of seeing Justin Quinn’s parents. My visit might bring them nightmares. They don’t know we’re coming. I avoided writing them. There is something so final about it.”
“Yes,” she said. “It means you are closing the cover of a book. Not that you can ever forget Justin Quinn.”
“We were so close, almost as close as you and me, Siobhan. You cannot say or feel that you actually love a man because that is sinful and unhealthy. But you know, we enjoyed horsing around, jumping each other, goosing each other. Strictly correct, you know. With my baritone and his tenor, we could strike our tent silent. And with the two of us…well, no one ever did anything to my boys. We cleaned out one bar that was clipping. Busted them down like lumberjacks.”
Her hand slipped into his, and she nodded for him to continue.
“Damned shame. His family has this tremendous spread, as they call it, beyond Denver. Justin Quinn, being the oldest son, was due to take over the ranch. First he was going to the University of Colorado, where he had won a football