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.
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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
Pilgrims Page 24