Early Warning

Joe gave her away. He looked very handsome — Lois had basted some alterations into his rented tux, and he had gotten a good haircut. When they were standing in the vestibule, watching the girls follow Jesse (who did succeed in balancing the rings on the pillow all the way down), he put his hand on her shoulder and kissed her on the cheek and said that he was very proud of her, and then he squared up and off they went, and tears leapt into her eyes when Paul turned and watched her come, smiling happily. Then he grabbed her hand when she got there, as if he might have missed her at the last moment, and so, when it came time to say, “I do,” she said it a little loudly. On the way back up the aisle, she saw that her new in-laws were smiling at her as if they meant it, even Dr. Evan. Then Arthur had to leave, rush back to Washington all of a sudden, but Lillian said that was the Kennedys for you — they always wanted everything right now, no matter how unimportant it was. “If people only knew what they are really like. Shocking.” But then she made a lip-zipping gesture and rolled her eyes.

Lois managed the reception perfectly — the whole house was lit with candles, and there were plates of food everywhere, all of it delicious. And when Claire stood on the landing of Lois and Joe’s staircase, and tossed her bouquet, Debbie made sure to catch it. Moments later, they were off in Paul’s cream-colored Oldsmobile, Dr. and Mrs. Paul Darnell, 1209 Ashworth Road, West Des Moines, Iowa.

1963

EVEN THOUGH Richie had said several times that he would like to move back to the old house, Mommy and Daddy either laughed at him or didn’t say anything, and finally Janny came into his room one afternoon and said, “Stop talking about it. They are never moving back to the old house. This house cost sixty-two thousand dollars!” Now it was better, and Richie was willing to admit that he liked his room — having it to himself, and also that he could keep his train set up all the time. And it was his train set. All of the engines had been given to Richie, and if you owned the engines, then you were the boss.

Donna Fitzgerald’s house was on the way to a pond they liked, so they had to pass it if they were going to play at the pond. The pond had plenty of frogs and also lots of fish, and the most fun was to throw stones at the frogs. Richie had hit a frog three times in the fall (Michael had hit four). Throwing stones at the fish was fun, too, but because of refraction, you could not actually hit one. Nedra had said that they should have a fishing pole or two if they promised not to poke each other’s eyes out, but they didn’t get any fishing poles, and now the pond was frozen, and so it was much more fun to run and slide from one side of the pond to the other.

Donna Fitzgerald had skates, and one day she yelled at Michael and said that the pond was her very own. But there was a fence between her house and the pond, and the next day, Michael had watched in secret as Donna came out of her front door, walked to the road, turned right, and went toward the pond, her skates slung over her shoulder. If the pond were hers, she would not have walked there by the road. So the pond was not hers, according to Michael.

Richie said, “Well, it’s not ours, either.”

“But she can’t stop us, and we can go there whenever we like.”

She was a big girl. The other kids said she was eleven, or maybe twelve, but she was heavy-shouldered and she had breasts, and she also had big feet. She went to the public school, and the other kids also said that she should be in seventh grade but she had been held back twice, and she was still in fifth grade. Michael grabbed Richie and pushed him through the opening in the fence, and then kind of poked him so that he would walk along ahead. By this time, Donna was on the far side of the pond, lacing up her skates. The ice was a foot thick. It was pure white, with lines of cracks in it that had frozen over, and it ran smoothly into the snow on every side. There were two places where you could climb to the top of a little hill and run down through the snow, then launch yourself, sort of leaning back, and slide to the middle of the pond. Richie had gotten most of the way to the other side once.

Now Donna stood up and made twisty steps to the edge, then lifted her arms and one leg and slid onto the ice. It was not like that girl in Snow White and the Three Stooges, though, because Donna Fitzgerald was so fat.

The pond was tear-shaped, and the tip of the tear was long and curved. Donna headed in that direction. Richie could hear the sound of her skates scraping on the ice — it was that still today. Nedra said more snow was coming. Donna disappeared.