The super market was crowded; as it usually was on Saturdays. "Don't you wish you'd have stayed home," Mother?" Bobby asked Louise.
Louise Chandler shrugged. "We haven't gone anywhere in the last three months. I was beginning to go stir crazy."
Bobby briefly grabbed his mother's hand, squeezed it lightly and then let it go. "I know, Mother. We were beginning to get on each other's nerves."
Mrs. Chandler smiled ruefully and then chuckled. "That's certainly an understatement."
The two of them were walking down the produce aisle when Bobby suddenly stopped. "Mother!" he whispered as he grabbed her arm.
"What?" she asked.
"There," Bobby said. "At the end of the aisle. That's Becky and her mother."
"Haven't seen nor heard from them since they moved out," Louise commented. "Wonder where they've been?"
Bobby tugged on his mother's arm. "Let's go and ask them," he said excitedly.
"Bobby!" she softly scolded. "You know how I feel about Mrs. Brubaker."
Bobby tugged a bit harder. "I haven't seen Becky in forever," he said. "It won't hurt you to be civil for just a little while."
"Oh, alright," she told him. "But make it short and sweet."
It took about half a minute for Bobby and his mother to close the gap between them and the Brubaker women. Mrs. Brubaker was the first to notice them.
"Hello," April said, her voice mixed with surprise and apprehension.
Becky looked up to see who her mother was talking to. Her face lit up with a smile as she hugged Bobby excitedly. "Bobby!" she shrieked loud enough to cause other customers to look their way.
Bobby hugged Becky and whispered in her ear. "Let's go to Subway and leave them two alone for a while." They quickly disappeared, leaving the two women by themselves.
"When'd you get back?" Louise asked.
"Just a few days ago," April told her. "Been living in a motel room all this time."
"Bobby told me about your deal with your husband. How did that work out?"
"Just fine," April said. "Got most of his money and he got his whore. Fair tradeoff if I do say so myself."
Louise smiled. Despite her reservations about April Brubaker, she found herself warming up to her. "Where you living?" she asked.
"Same old place."
Louise arched an eyebrow. "Thought you had to give that house up as part of the deal."
"Ol' Herman had a change of heart. Signed a quitclaim deed and told me to go fuck myself."
Louise was both shocked and amused at April's language. "Why, April," she giggled. "Six months ago you would have read me the riot act if you'd heard me talk like that."
April smiled a bit wickedly. "I'm a different person now."
"I can tell," Louise said.
"Hey," April began. "Becky and I were going to cook spaghetti tonight. That's why we came shopping." She lightly touched Louise's hand. "Why don't you and Bobby come over? Say about six?"
Louise's hand felt tingly. Alarmed that such a simple gesture would affect her so, she was temporarily speechless.
"And bring your mother-in-law also," April quickly added.
Louise nodded and then cleared her throat. Her heart seemed to have skipped a beat. This woman; the one who, until just recently, had looked down her nose at the whole world, was trying to be friendly. "Uh, sure," she said. "Be glad to."
A second later, Bobby and Becky reappeared next to their mothers. Becky looked at her mother with pleading eyes. "Bobby wants to take me to the drive in. Can we cook that spaghetti some other time? Please, Mother?"
April smiled, looked at Louise and shrugged her shoulders. "Some other time," she told her daughter.
Becky hugged her mother. "Thanks, Mother. You're the greatest!"
Bobby sidled up to his mother and put his arm around her. "Is it alright if I take the car so we can get an early start?"
"And how am I supposed to get home?" Louise asked her son.
For the second time April Brubaker casually touched Louise Chandler, this time on her elbow. "I can give you a ride home. Let them go."
Louise Chandler hesitated a moment, exhaled and told Bonny, "Go ahead, son. Have some fun." Bobby and Becky quickly walked away, hand in hand.
Louise walked along beside April as the Brubaker woman picked up the items necessary for making spaghetti, waited patiently while she paid for her groceries and helped her carry them to her car.
"Mind if we go by my place first?" Mrs. Brubaker asked as she put the car in drive and left the parking lot.. "I can drop the groceries off and then take you home."
Her elbow and hand still tingling from April's touch, Louise told her, "No, go ahead."
====
"I thought we'd never get out of there," Becky said as they got in the car and drove away.
"What movie you want to see?" Bobby asked as he glanced over at Becky's legs, quickly noticing that her skirt had ridden up past mid-thigh.
"Why don't we just go somewhere and park for a while?" she countered.
"I know a place," Bobby told her. "Paddy's Lake."
Becky giggled. "Make out Lake," she said. "I haven't been there in a while."
Bobby raised an eyebrow as he looked quickly in her direction. "Oh?"
"Yup."
Bobby waited in silence for her to continue speaking. Several moments went by before his curiosity got the best of him. "You gonna tell me the rest of the story?" he asked. A quick turn of his head in her direction revealed that she was blushing.
"What makes you think there's a 'rest of the story'?" Becky asked coyly.
"'Cause, you wouldn't be blushing so much if there wasn't."
Becky squeezed his hand. "I'll tell you when we get there."
"Okay, but you'd better not renege on me." He returned the squeeze.
A couple of miles north of town, Bobby turned off the highway and onto a gravel road. Bobby did his best to avoid the holes in the road, but there were too many of them. "Umph!" they both grunted almost at the same time when the car rolled through a particularly wide one.
"I don't remember the road being this rough when I came up here with Junior Grant," Becky said.
