California, Southern -- Fiction; Motion picture industry -- Fiction; Petroleum industry and trade -- Fiction; Political fiction
Bunny crept into the house at two o’clock in the morning, and no member
of the family was the wiser. But he was equally as late the next night,
and the next—had he not promised Eunice to “make the advances”? So of
course the family realized that something was up, and it was interesting
to see their reactions. Aunt Emma and Grandma were in a terrible
“state,”: but they could not say why—such was the handicap the old
generation imposed upon themselves. They both went to Dad, but could
only talk about late hours and their effect on a boy’s health. And Dad
himself could not do much more. When Bunny said that he had been taking
Eunice Hoyt driving, Dad asked about her, was she a “nice” girl? Bunny
answered that she was the treasurer of the girls’ basket-ball team, and
her father was Mr. Hoyt, whom Dad knew, and she had her own car and had
even tried to pay for the supper. So there could be no idea that Bunny
was being “vamped,” and all Dad said was “Take it easy, son, don’t try
to live your whole life in a couple of weeks.”
Also there was Bunny’s sister, and that was curious. Had some
underground message come to Bertie, through connections with the
“Zulus”? All that she said was, “I’m glad you’ve consented to take an
interest in something beside oil and strikers for a change.” But behind
that sentence lay such an ocean of calm feminine knowledge! Bunny was
started upon a new train of thought. Could it be that late hours meant
the same thing for his sister that they had suddenly come to mean for
him? Bertie was supposed to be dancing; and did she always come directly
home, or did she also park by the waysides? Bunny had got over being
shocked by the parking of Eunice’s car, but it took him longer to get
used to the idea of the parking of his sister’s car. He began to notice,
as he drove along the highways in the evening—what a great number of
parked cars there were!
III
All this was near the end of the strike; and also it was while America
was going to war. So the excitements of sex were mingled in Bunny’s mind
with those of patriotism. The two were not so far apart as you might
think, for the youth of the country was preparing to march away to
battle, and that loosened sexual standards. You might not come back, so
it made less difference what you did in the meantime. The girls found
their hearts softened toward the boys, and the boys were ready to snatch
a bit of pleasure before it was too late.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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