I walked Gail to the hotel’s taxi stand and rode back with her to her lodgings. I took the same taxi directly back to the hotel. She wasn’t the kind of girl I’d ever have made a play for on a first date (if what we’d had was a date). I wouldn’t have wanted her to be. I didn’t even try to kiss her good night. I think the cabdriver may have been surprised by that. In light of all I’d told her, maybe Gail was too.

Chapter 16

16

The Recurring Dream

That night, I had the dream again.

It was the worst dream in the world.

It’s as lovely as a spring day gets in not-so-upstate New York. I am walking through the front door of our small house. My wife, Nancy, is in the kitchen. I hear her doing things with metal pans.

I’ve come from playing at the Bobbin Inn, an unusual job for me since it isn’t in the city but fairly close to home, and for some odd reason my work has ended in the late afternoon.

I walk into the kitchen and I see that Nancy is basting a small roast. The room is filled with the strong, reassuring smells of beef and slightly burnt new potatoes roasted in drippings, and the steam from a pot of big, mealy peas with sprigs of mint. “Nancy?”

She’s holding the roast on a tray. “I can’t give you a hug, honey, my hands are full,” she says.

“So I notice.” I take advantage of her momentary handicap and scoot my arms through the handles made by her arms and firmly cup both of her breasts. She laughs and I gently kiss the nape of her neck.

“Stop that,” she scolds, “it tickles and I’ll drop our dinner.”

“I thought you like when I do that.”

She turns to face me. “Later, I’ll like that.” She looks out the window at the perfect day. “It’s so unusual to have you home at dinner-time.” She sets down the roast and turns around. “Okay, now I can give you a hug.”

She always has the right buoyancy in my arms. She’s the best kisser I’ve ever known. Or maybe it’s simply that I love her more than anyone else I’ve ever kissed.

“Where’s Linney?”

“She’s upstairs, napping.”

“She’s tired?”

“Not one bit. But I’ve made a new rule that if she insists on having storytime with you whenever you come traipsing in from work at two in the morning, she has to take a nap each afternoon. Otherwise she’s going to lose too much sleep.”