Picturing Will Read Online Free Page B

vacuum and waved goodbye as he went down the walk. Like a child, he looked over his shoulder at the end of the walkway to see if she was still standing there. She was, but not because she was seeing him safely on his way. Mary Vickers’s car had just pulled up to the curb. They were going to the playground to sit and talk while Will and Wagoner played, as they did two or three times a week.
    Will was involved in G.I. Joe’s taking over a new kingdom (a cordoned-off area of the bedroom rug, laid out by Mel during his visit the week before: a swarm of plastic cowboys and Indians, with the addition of free-standing castles that Mel had laboriously cut out of a book and glued together), but when the old Ford coasted to the curb, he began to run down the stairs. He and Wag were still too young to have inhibitions about throwing themselves in each other’s arms and instantly resuming their important talk that had been heartlessly interrupted by Mary or Jody when they last insisted upon parting them. They did make a slight parody of their quick embraces, though perhaps it only seemed that way to Jody and they were not even aware of it. The slightly bumped foreheads and the fingers that tickled as they grabbed each other’s waist might have been true awkwardness, the quickly locked eyes a conditioned response from infancy. In any case, they formed a unit of their own that always made Mary and Jody instant outsiders, so that they moved awkwardly toward each other, conscious of the lack of passion they themselves displayed.
    Mary Vickers was Jody’s best friend, but when intimacies were exchanged, they tended to be said with dropped eyes, and certain topics, such as Mary’s marriage to Wagoner (her son was—and Jody never stopped marveling at this—Wagoner Fisk Vickers III), were never alluded to unless Mary initiated the conversation. Jody was better at not asking Mary why she didn’t divorce her husband than Mary was about not prying into the reasons why Jody didn’t marry Mel and move to New York. Then again, although she would hesitate to say it aloud, Jody considered herself more in control than Mary Vickers. More of a survivor, if truth be told.
    Duncan had been caught in the maelstrom of the arrival. Holding the vacuum aloft, waving to Jody, and exchanging a quick greeting with Mary Vickers, he bowed out, heading toward his car. Of course Mary Vickers and Jody agreed that Duncan was a sweet, harmless soul—someone whose positive attitude they could only be in awe of.
    “Don’t go upstairs,” Jody called, seeing the boys’ feet disappear up the stairs. “If we’re going to the playground, we’re going to the playground. G.I. Joe can win the war when you come home.”
    Will looked over the banister. “I just wanted to show him,” he said.
    Will had a way of always seeming moderate. He also had a way of making her remarks seem too cute. Of appearing adult, while she called out shrilly like a child.
    “Show him for two minutes. Then we’re leaving,” she said.
    Will hesitated. “We can look later,” he said.
    Clever. This meant that after the playground they would return to the house. Jody looked at Mary Vickers.
    “Let’s go,” Mary Vickers said. “We want to get there while it’s still light.”
    Will began to walk down the stairs.
    “Wag!” Mary Vickers called.
    He stomped down, overtaking Will.
    “So is Duncan coming to the park with us?” Will said.
    Wagoner stood at his mother’s side, sulking.
    “Duncan just came to borrow the vacuum. You didn’t express any interest in Duncan when he was here.”
    “I didn’t know he was leaving,” Will said.
    Was Will really hurt that Duncan wasn’t going to the play-ground with them? Will’s acting the part of the perfect host, a little late, was making her feel less than the perfect hostess. She searched his child’s face: guileless. He thought whatever he thought.
    “Duncan’s gone,” she said. “And we’re gone, too, the minute you put on