"I'm Clint Rush. You called about the house?" The man moved farther into
the light. At first, he'd appeared an old man, fine wrinkle lines in his
face, a tired leather look to his skin. But as he moved his head in the
light, the wrinkles seemed to dissolve--and with them, the years lifted
from him.
"Yes, we called," said Ted Graham. He stood aside. "Do you want to look
at the trailer now?"
Martha Graham crossed to stand beside her husband. "We've kept it in
awfully good shape," she said. "We've never let anything get seriously
wrong with it."
_She sounds too anxious_, thought Ted Graham. _I wish she'd let me do
the talking for the two of us._
"We can come back and look at your trailer tomorrow in daylight," said
Rush. "My car's right out here, if you'd like to see our house."
Ted Graham hesitated. He felt a nagging worry tug at his mind, tried to
fix his attention on what bothered him.
"Hadn't we better take our car?" he asked. "We could follow you."
"No need," said Rush. "We're coming back into town tonight anyway. We
can drop you off then."
Ted Graham nodded. "Be right with you as soon as I lock up."
Inside the car, Rush mumbled introductions. His wife was a dark shadow
in the front seat, her hair drawn back in a severe bun. Her features
suggested gypsy blood. He called her Raimee.
_Odd name_, thought Ted Graham. And he noticed that she, too, gave that
strange first impression of age that melted in a shift of light.
Mrs. Rush turned her gypsy features toward Martha Graham. "You are going
to have a baby?"
It came out as an odd, veiled statement.
Abruptly, the car rolled forward.
Martha Graham said, "It's supposed to be born in about two months. We
hope it's a boy."
Mrs. Rush looked at her husband. "I have changed my mind," she said.
Rush spoke without taking his attention from the road. "It is too ..."
He broke off, spoke in a tumble of strange sounds.
Ted Graham recognized it as the language he'd heard on the telephone.
Mrs. Rush answered in the same tongue, anger showing in the intensity of
her voice. Her husband replied, his voice calmer.
Presently, Mrs. Rush fell moodily silent.
Rush tipped his head toward the rear of the car. "My wife has moments
when she does not want to get rid of the old house. It has been with her
for many years."
Ted Graham said, "Oh." Then: "Are you Spanish?"
Rush hesitated. "No. We are Basque."
He turned the car down a well-lighted avenue that merged into a highway.
They turned onto a side road. There followed more turns--left, right,
right.
Ted Graham lost track.
They hit a jolting bump that made Martha gasp.
"I hope that wasn't too rough on you," said Rush. "We're almost there."
* * * * *
The car swung into a lane, its lights picking out the skeleton outlines
of trees: peculiar trees--tall, gaunt, leafless. They added to Ted
Graham's feeling of uneasiness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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