“Ye-ap. Betty had too much fun, and got herself in a family way. Had to marry Charlie Miller right away. That was too bad for Forest.”

“Forest?” Vera asked. “Your Forest?” Forest Sadler’d been the one who laughed the hardest when Marvin Taggart told them all he had to divorce his wife, Mildred, because turns out she was already married.

“Yeah.” Zella was starting to sway gently back and forth as she sat on the top step of the porch. She stared off into the distance and her words began to get a little slurry.

“Betty wenn with Foress before Charlie. But Foress should’ve known it wouldnn go nowhere, not with Betty and her parents, and what with Foress working at the Sohio station, smellin’ like gasoline all the time. It was funny, he took that job ’cause the Sohio was on the north side, and he wanned to see how many of those rish bishes he could meet. I guess he never spected to really fall for one. Those two had a spark, all right.”

Vera had more than half of her drink left, and swirled it around in the glass. She shook her head and tried to follow Zella’s ramblings. Maybe if she drank a little faster.

“I might juss be his consolation prize. Same gene pool, differen breeding, you know?”

“Unh-hunh,” Vera agreed, but was thinking about how she’d nearly fallen over when she’d heard who Marvin Taggart’s wife, Mildred, was already married to.

Zella had settled into her liquor and lemonade.

“Oh, Forest ain’ too much to look at now, I know. An’ he drinks too mush. He didn’ start on the bottle until Betty an’ Charlie got hitched.”

“He took it hard, did he?”

“An’ how. Now, Vera,” Zella said, turning her swaying head toward Vera and reaching out her fingers to tap on Vera’s forearm. “I woulnnet spread it around, but I was never too sure Margie was Charlie’s, you know? She mighbe Forest’ssss.” As she extended the s’s in Forest’s name she began to laugh.

Vera laughed along with her, but let her thoughts drift back to Marvin Taggart sitting at the table in her dining room, eyes bulging out of his head as he shouted about “Mildred that double-crossing, no-good dame.” Marvin’s face had been beet-red, fists clenched, showing them all just how steamed he was about his ex-wife who was already married to “some guy named Edward Dalton.”

Zella’s laughter had tapered off along with her drink, and when it finally stopped she became philosophical again.

“Yeah, they had ‘it’ back then. Betty used to love goin’ to the Sohio station to see him there inniz lil uniform withiz cap oniz head. She said she loved the smell of the gasoline.” Zella hiccupped. “Said idwas zexxy.” She rolled her eyes and circled a finger around by her ear. “She’s real differen’ now. But we still talk on the phone from time to time. If I got a good story or sumthin’.” She rolled her eyes again and sighed.