Page 24 of Pilgrims


  by noon. She was damn near seventy, of course, and although

  she was certainly not a weak woman, not a senile woman, she

  did get tired. So they had given her only those thirteen children

  208 ✦

  The Finest Wife

  so close to her own house. She was doing a wonderful job, a

  truly excellent job. Everyone agreed. She was a careful and

  polite driver. One of the better ones.

  She rode her whole route backward that day, with all of the

  old men lovers on her kindergarten bus with her. She drove all

  the way without seeing one of her children and without passing

  another car. She had decided, with some shame, that it might

  very well be Sunday. She had never made such a mistake before,

  and would not consider mentioning it to her old lovers, or they

  might think she was getting dim. So she rode the whole route

  right back to the very first stop, which was the house of the

  neighbor boy, who lived by the gas station near her own home.

  There was an old man waiting there, too, and he was a rather

  large man. He was actually her husband. The old men lovers on

  the bus, who seemed to know each other so beautifully, did not

  know Rose’s husband at all. They were quiet and respectful as

  he got on the bus, and Rose cranked the door shut behind him

  and said, “Gentlemen? I’d like to you meet my husband.”

  And the look on her husband’s face was the look of a man at

  a welcome surprise party. He leaned down to kiss her on the

  forehead, and he was the first of the men who had touched her

  that day. He said, “My sweet little puppy of a Rose.” She kissed

  his cheek, which was musky, sheepy, and familiar.

  She drove on. He stepped down the aisle of the bus, which

  rocked like a boat, and he was the guest of honor. The old

  men lovers introduced themselves, and after each introduction,

  Rose’s husband said, “Ah, yes, of course, how nice to meet you,”

  keeping his left hand on his heart in wonder and pleasure. She

  watched, in the wide, easy reflection of her rearview mirror, as

  they patted his back and grinned. The veterans saluted him, and

  the highway patrolman saluted him, and Jack Lance-Hainey

  kissed his hand. Tate Palinkus apologized for getting Rose

  pregnant when she was just a South Texas kid, and the white-

  haired Mexican busboys struggled with their English greetings.

  ✦

  209

  p i l g r i m s

  The circuit court judge said that he did not mind speaking for

  everyone by saying how simply delighted he was to congratulate

  Rose and her husband on their long and honest marriage.

  Rose kept on driving. Soon, she was at the double paths

  of railroad tracks that came right before the gravel pit bus

  station. Her little bus fit exactly between those two sets of

  tracks, and she stopped in that narrow space because she no-

  ticed that trains were coming from both directions. Her hus-

  band and her old men lovers pulled down the windows of the

  bus and leaned out like kindergartners, watching. The trains

  were painted bright like wooden children’s toys, and stenciled

  on the sides of each boxcar in block letters were the freight

  contents: apples, blankets, candy, diamonds, explo-

  sives, fabric, gravy, haircuts — a continuing, alphabeti-

  cal account of all a life’s ingredients.

  They watched this for a long time. But those boxcars were

  moving slowly, and repeating themselves in new, foreign alpha-

  bets. So the old men lovers became bored, finally, and pulled up

  the windows of Rose’s bus for some quietness. They rested and

  waited, stuck as they were between those two lazy trains. And

  Rose, who had been up early that morning, took the key out of

  the ignition, took off her hat and her gloves, and went to sleep.

  The old men lovers talked about her husband among them-

  selves, fascinated. They whispered low to each other, but she

  could hear some pieces of words. “Hush,” she kept hearing

  them say, and “shh” and “she” and “and.” And, murmured to-

  gether, those pieces of words made a sound just like the whole

  word “husband.” That’s the word she was hearing, in any case,

  as she dozed on the bus, with all of her old men together and

  behind her and so pleased just to see her again.

  210 ✦

  Document Outline

  Cover Page

  Praise

  About the Author

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication Page

  Epigraph Page

  Contents Pilgrims

  Elk Talk

  Alice to the East

  Bird Shot

  Tall Folks

  Landing

  Come and Fetch These Stupid Kids

  The Many Things That Denny Brown Did Not Know (Age Fifteen)

  The Names of Flowers and Girls

  At the Bronx Terminal Vegetable Market

  The Famous Torn and Restored Lit Cigarette Trick

  The Finest Wife

 


 

  Elizabeth Gilbert, Pilgrims

  (Series: # )

 

 


 

 
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