5432852385743

“Very welcome. Mimi and I had many pleasant evenings at the Candlewood. Sometimes we only
watched the TV in our pajamas and then went to bed, but that can be as good as anything else when
you get to a certain age.” He smiled ruefully. “Or almost. We’d go to sleep listening to the crickets.
Or sometimes a coyote would howl, very far away, out in the sage. At the moon, you know. They really
do that. They howl at the moon.”
He took a handkerchief from his back pocket with an old man’s slowness and mopped his cheeks
with it.
I offered my hand and Deke took hold.
“She liked you, although she never could figure out what to make of you. She said you reminded
her of the way they used to show ghosts in those old movies from the thirties. ‘He’s bright and shiny,
but not all here,’ she said.”
“I’m no ghost,” I said. “I promise you.”
He smiled. “No? I finally got around to checking your references. This was after you’d been
subbing for us awhile and did such a bang-up job with the play. The ones from the Sarasota School
District are fine, but beyond there . . .” He shook his head, still smiling. “And your degree is from a
mill in Oklahoma.”
Clearing my throat did no good. I couldn’t speak at all.
“And what’s that to me, you ask? Not much. There was a time in this part of the world when if a
man rode into town with a few books in his saddlebags, spectacles on his nose, and a tie around his
neck, he could get hired on as schoolmaster and stay for twenty years. Wasn’t that long ago, either.
You’re a damn fine teacher. The kids know it, I know it, and Meems knew it, too. And that’s a lot to
me.”
“Does Ellen know I faked my other references?” Because Ellen Dockerty was acting principal, and
once the schoolboard met in January, the job would be hers permanently. There were no other
candidates.
“Nope, and she’s not going to. Not from me, at least. I feel like she doesn’t need to.” He stood up.
“But there’s one person who does need to know the truth about where you’ve been and what you’ve
done, and that’s a certain lady librarian. If you’re serious about her, that is. Are you?”
“Yes,” I said, and Deke nodded as if that took care of everything.
I only wished it did.
10
Thanks to Deke Simmons, Sadie finally got to find out what it was like to make love after sundown.
When I asked her how it was, she told me it had been wonderful. “But I’m looking forward to waking
up next to you in the morning even more. Do you hear the wind?”
I did. It hooted around the eaves.
“Doesn’t that sound make you feel cozy?”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to say something now. I hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”
“Tell me.”
“I guess I’ve fallen in love with you. Maybe it’s just the sex, I’ve heard that’s a mistake people
make, but I don’t think so.”
“Sadie?”
“Yes?” She was trying to smile, but she looked frightened.