Nobody answered when Milton knocked on the front door. We crept around to the kitchen entrance, and he knocked even louder. Just as we was about to give up and leave, Joyce finally opened that door. She looked surprised to see us. I was surprised to see her in such a skimpy see-through nightgown with her husky self. She didn’t look the least bit happy to see us. “I figured it was y’all at the door,” she mumbled. “We thought y’all were having supper at Dr. Patterson’s house.”

“We did. But we had to leave in time to be home for our guests tonight,” I explained. “Can we come in?”

Joyce shifted her weight from one foot to the other and glanced over her shoulder. “Odell and I really would like to be alone tonight . . .” Her tone was so stiff, you would have thought she’d been eating starch.

“We won’t stay long,” Milton said before she could throw out another hint for us to leave.

“Well, Odell is resting. I guess I can talk for a minute or two. But do y’all really need to come in? This is not a convenient time.”

I wasn’t going to give up too easy. “We just wanted to drop in and say hello and wish y’all a happy Thanksgiving.” I looked Joyce up and down. She smelled like she had doused herself with two or three different smell-goods. “I can see you already dressed for bed, so I guess y’all won’t be coming to the house for a drink tonight, huh?”

I could tell by the expression on Milton’s face and the way he was fidgeting, that he was getting aggravated. So was I. But when it came to Joyce and Odell, aggravation came with the territory. “Joyce, we’ll let you get back to whatever you was doing,” he muttered. “Tell Odell we stopped by, and that we’ll come back tomorrow.”

“We won’t be home tomorrow. I’m going to spend the day with Mama and Daddy visiting relatives in Lexington. The store will be closed tomorrow, so Odell is going to head out to his daddy’s house early in the morning.”

“Oh. All right then.” Milton snorted. “Do me a favor and tell Odell I’ll be coming to the store on Monday when I take my lunch break.”

Joyce cocked her head to the side and gave us a curious look. “Is there something you need from the store? Let me know what it is so I can tell him to set it aside and not sell it to anybody else. I’d hate for you to make a trip to the store for nothing,” she said with a weak smile.