“Why, for gosh’s sake,” I said. “What for would I want with Amy Mason when I got you? Why, it just don’t make sense, now does it? There just ain’t no comparison between the two of you!”

Rose came all the way over in the seat. She leaned her head against my shoulder, and said she was sorry, but I had acted kind of strange, and it did make her so goddam mad the way some men were.

“That goddam Tom, for example! The son-of-a-bitch just wouldn’t leave me alone until I gave in to him, and then he goes out and screws everything that can’t outrun him!”

“Tsk, tsk,” I said. “I just can’t understand fellas like that.”

Rose squeezed me and kissed me on the ear. She gave me a little nibble on the ear, and whispered to me. Talking about what-all she was going to do to me when we got to her house.

“Myra wants you to stay a while, and make sure I’m all right. Isn’t that nice, mm? We can take our time, just you and me together for hours and hours. And, honey, we won’t waste a minute of it!”

“Oh, boy,” I said.

“It’ll be like it never was before, darling!” She shivered against me. “Oh, honey, I’m going to be something special for you tonight!”

“Goll-ee,” I said. “Goody, gosh-dang.”

She went on whispering and shivering against me, saying that this was one night I’d never forget. I said I bet I wouldn’t neither, and I meant every word of it. Because the way I was feeling, as hollow as a treebark whistle and like my back was broken in six places, there wasn’t going to be no party when we got to Rose’s house. Which meant that she’d know she’d been right about Amy. Which also meant that she’d probably take that gun she’d got today and shoot me right through the offendin’ part. And with a memento like that, I sure wouldn’t forget the night.

I tried to think of some way of stalling her. I looked up at the sky, which was clouding over again for a rain, and I saw a streak or two of lightning, and I thought, well, maybe a bolt would strike me, coldcocking me for the night, so that Rose would excuse me. Then I thought, well, maybe the horse would run away and throw me into a bob-wire fence, and Rose would have to let me off then, too. Or maybe a water moccasin would climb up in the buggy and fang me. Or—

But nothing like that happened. A fella never gets lucky that way when he really needs to.

We reached the farm. I drove on into the barn, wondering how much it would handicap a fella having a hole where I was going to have one. It seemed to me it would mess him up pretty bad in the things he needed to do most, and I climbed down from the buggy, feeling mighty glum.