Nick left him behind. He was careful not to make a sound as he walked out into the hallway and through the living room. After grabbing his coat off the coat tree, he shoved his arms into it, and quietly opened the heavy front door, the thinner storm door. He closed them both behind him, picked up his duffel from where he’d left it on the porch, and walked down the front porch steps, out into the rain. He pulled his service cap out of his pocket and adjusted it atop his head, trudging down the steps toward the street. He was powerful relieved to be out of that house, but it was a melancholy thought indeed that he would never see that girl again. It made his stomach hurt, in fact, and his head ache. Every cold drop of rain that hit his face burned his skin, and his pack seemed about a thousand times heavier than it had been before. Reaching the bottom of the steps, he turned down First Street, heading for the depot, kicking up water from puddles like a disappointed, wandering child.

Chapter 57

Do you make it easy and pleasant for him to get to work on time? Do you see that his breakfast is prepared (and if possible shared with you) on time? Do you keep his work clothes in order and available?

—“Making Marriage Work,”
Ladies’ Home Journal, January 1950

HOME OF BYRON AND DOLLY MAGNUSON
406 Jefferson Avenue, Pine Rapids
Friday, August 4, 1950

Dolly shook off the guilt of her strange golden dream first thing in the morning while she fixed her face, imagining what her friend Jane would say if Dolly told her of it: “Don’t be such a goose—it was just a dream.”

With makeup in place and Jane’s imaginary reassurance in her ears, Dolly felt better. She had decided not to fret overmuch about Byron, either: She could understand that not talking about things could get to be a habit. She would just have to keep working on him. Meanwhile, it was only reasonable for a husband to dictate his own schedule on household projects, not to mention expect his shirts to be in his closet ready for him. Here she’d been so worried about the so-called distance between them that she’d failed to keep up on her primary responsibilities, and everyone knew that for true intimacy to occur between husband and wife, all the stars had to be aligned, and, furthermore, that the stars would never align if the husband didn’t feel himself properly cared for.