On both sides of the street they were traveling two-family houses began to appear, and then trees, and then a few open lots, and they were nearing their neighborhood. He stopped for a light and stretched his sunburned legs and only now noticed that the sky was darkening. His eyes felt gritty and tired.

‘I guess the day’s over,’ he said quietly.

She glanced skyward through her window and remained silent. He started ahead again with the green light.

Darkness was falling very fast. A fine need to get home pressed his foot down on the accelerator … home and the lights on, he thought, and all quiet and known. Uneasily he noticed the happenings outside the car. Two fellows hurrying across the street all dressed up, a small group of old people waddling home from church, a tall man pushing a baby carriage and dragging a puppy which skidded unwillingly on its haunches, two ice cream vendors jangling the little bells over their white refrigerator boxes …

He frowned, remembering the carousel, the white and colored swans, the yellow swans jerking ahead and then back, and underneath them in the ground that terrible rumbling …

The street lights burst into glow. Night. Now it was night. He switched on his headlights.

He turned right into a sidestreet. Three blocks straight ahead was home. His lights swept the deserted sidewalks on each side.

She stirred. He heard her stockings whisper as she uncrossed her legs. ‘When Fred goes hunting he takes Elsie to a place in Jersey somewhere. Why don’t you find out where it is? Maybe we can go there. Although that hotel wasn’t too bad.’

He nodded, ‘All right.’

‘You won’t do it.’

‘I will,’ he lied.

He was crossing over into his block when he saw Mrs Depaw in her starched white dress standing in front of the candy store, whose windows were dark. The store always kept open Sunday nights. The old lady was talking to a man who kept shifting as he listened, while she leaned forward and spoke excitedly into his face. Passing, Mr Newman glanced beyond her at the store, wondering why it was closed, when the flash of his lights crossed the large window and he saw the long strips of adhesive tape stretched the length of the pane.

Gertrude seemed to awaken, and turned around to look at the tape. He swung wide, approaching his house, and turned into the sloping runway and stopped the car before the open doors of the garage beneath the porch.

He switched off the engine. She turned to him. ‘Something must’ve happened,’ she said worriedly.

He got out of the car and opened the rear door and took the valises out. She went up onto the porch and stood looking toward the corner. He passed her and carried the valises into the house without turning at all. His mother was sitting on the back porch and he called hello to her and carried the valises upstairs. He opened them and put the clothes away in exact order, then neatly set the bags up on the closet shelf. He got under the shower before turning the water on, to save hot water and the gas that heated it. It was half an hour before he came downstairs, his face shiny and his hair combed flat across his head. As he reached the livingroom he saw Gertrude going out onto the porch. He went out and found her standing at the railing, looking toward the corner. She turned as he came up to her.