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ut no takers. Until the Oswalds moved in, I had the Neely Street address entirely to myself. After
the bumptious carnival that was Mercedes Street, that was a relief, although I kind of missed the
jump-rope girls. They were my Greek chorus.
4
I slept in my Dallas apartment at night and watched Marina stroll the baby in Fort Worth by day.
While I was so occupied, another sixties watershed moment was approaching, but I ignored it. I was
preoccupied with the Oswalds, who were undergoing another domestic spasm.
Lee came home early from work one day during the second week of October. Marina was out
walking June. They spoke at the foot of the driveway across the street. Near the end of the
conversation, Marina spoke in English. “Vut is lay-doff mean?”
He explained in Russian. Marina spread her hands in a what-can-you-do gesture, and hugged him.
Lee kissed her cheek, then took the baby out of the stroller. June laughed as he held her high over his
head, her hands reaching down to tug at his hair. They went inside together. Happy little family,
bearing up under temporary adversity.
That lasted until five in the afternoon. I was getting ready to drive back to Neely Street when I
spied Marguerite Oswald approaching from the bus stop on Winscott Road.
Here comes trouble, I thought, and how right I was.
Once again Marguerite avoided the still unrepaired ha-ha step; once more she entered without
knocking; fireworks followed immediately. It was a warm evening and the windows were open over
there. I didn’t bother with the distance mike. Lee and his mother argued at full volume.
He hadn’t been laid off from his job at Leslie Welding after all, it seemed; he had just walked
away. The boss called Vada Oswald, looking for him because they were shorthanded, and when he got
no help from Robert’s wife, he called Marguerite.
“I lied for you, Lee!” Marguerite shouted. “I said you had the flu! Why do you always make me lie
for you?”
“I don’t make you do nothing!” he shouted back. They were standing nose-to-nose in the living
room. “I don’t make you do nothing, and you do it anyway!”
“Lee, how are you going to support your family? You need a job!”
“Oh, I’ll get a job! Don’t you worry about that, Ma!”
“Where?”
“I don’t know—”
“Oh, Lee! How’ll you pay the rent?”
“—but she’s got plenty of friends.” He jerked a thumb at Marina, who flinched. “They aren’t good
for much, but they’ll be good for that. You need to get out of here, Ma. Go back home. Let me catch
my breath.”
Marguerite darted to the playpen. “Where’d this here come from?”
“The friends I told you about. Half of em’s rich and the rest are trying. They like to talk to Rina.”
Lee sneered. “The older ones like to ogle her tits.”
“Lee!” Shocked voice, but a look on her face that was . . . pleased? Was Mamochka pleased at the
fury she heard in her son’s voice?
“Go on, Ma. Give us some peace.”
“Does she understand that men who give things always want things in return? Does she, Lee?”
“Get the hell out!” Shaking his fists. Almost dancing in his impotent rage.