Shiloh and Other Stories - Bobbie Ann Mason [29]
“Well, I don’t believe it. He’s too overbearing.”
“Debbie Potts has been to Europe,” says Peggy, looking up from the kitchen counter, where she is making supper. “Did you know that?”
“Hooray for her.”
“That don’t mean she’s an expert on anything,” Peggy says apologetically. “I’m sure she don’t know what she’s talking about.”
“For crying out loud.”
“I’m sorry, Louise. I’m always putting my big foot in it. But you know, a lot of guys are coming right out now and saying they’re gay? It’s amazing.” She laughs wildly. “They sure wouldn’t be much use where it counts, would they? At least Flathead ran off with a woman—knock on wood.” Peggy taps a wooden spoon against the counter.
“How can you love a guy called Flathead?” says Louise, irritated. Apparently Jerry Wilson’s nickname has nothing to do with his appearance. Louise has read that the Flathead Indians used to tie rocks to their heads to flatten them—why, she cannot imagine.
Peggy says, “It’s just what I know him by. I never thought about it.”
Peggy is making a casserole, probably one of Eddy Gail Moses’s recipes. The Dixieland tape is playing full blast. Peggy says, “The real reason he run off with that floozy was she babied him.”
“I wouldn’t baby a man if my life depended on it,” says Louise.
She rummages around for a stamp. Too late, she wonders if she should have told Tom about the trouble with the air conditioner. He will think she is hinting for him to come home. Tom was always helpful around the house. He helped choose the kitchen curtains, saying that a print of butterflies she wanted was too busy and suggesting a solid color. She always admired him for that. It was so perceptive of him to say the curtains were busy. But that didn’t mean anything abnormal. In fact, after he started hanging out with Jim Yates, Tom grew less attentive to such details. He and Jim Yates had a Space Invaders competition going at Patsy’s Dairy Whip, and sometimes they stayed there until midnight. Jim, who hit six thousand long before Tom, several times had his name on the machine as high scorer of the day. Once Tom brought Jim over for supper, and Louise disliked the way Jim took charge, comparing her tacos to the ones he’d had in Denver and insisting that she get up and grate more cheese. It seemed to Louise that he was still playing Space Invaders. Tom didn’t notice. The night, weeks later, when Louise threw the Corning Ware at Tom, she knew she was trying to get his attention.
Late one evening, Peggy tells Louise that she saw her husband at the K Mart. He didn’t realize that Peggy worked there. “He turned all shades when he saw me,” Peggy says. “But I wasn’t surprised. I had a premonition.”
Peggy believes in dreams and coincidences. The night before she saw him, she had read a romance story about a complicated adoption proceeding. Louise doesn’t get the connection and Peggy is too drunk to explain. She and Jerry have been out drinking, talking things over. Louise notices that Peggy already has a spot on her new pants suit, which she managed to buy even though she owes Louise for groceries.
“Would you take him back?” Louise wants to know.
“If he’s good.” Peggy laughs loudly. “He’s coming over again one day next week. He had to get back to Paducah tonight.”
“Is he still with that woman?”
“He said he wasn’t.” Peggy closes her eyes and does a dance step. Then she says exuberantly, “Everything Flathead touches turns to money. He cashed this check at the K Mart for fifty dollars. He sold a used hot-water heater and made a twenty-dollar profit on it. Imagine that.”
When Peggy sees Louise polishing her toenails, she says abruptly, “Your second toe is longer than your big toe. That means you dominate your husband.”
“Where’d you get that idea?”
“Didn’t you know that? Everybody knows that.”
Louise says, “Are any of them stories you read ever about women who beat up their husbands?”
Peggy laughs. “What an idea!”
Louise is thinking of Tom’s humiliation the night she struck him with the dish. Suddenly in her memory is a vague impression that the lights