The Fort Peck press., 1935-10-31

!, way Jimmie and I work it and you'd
t brings"
Pats very words! Joan did not
accept the peace offering for she was
: suddenly and firmly convinced that this
was indeed a peace offering. This
woman was in love with Pat! Of course
Hadn't she and Pat and Jimmie been
Cnree OF the five members of an all
circus which had transformed the
small towns up to a few months before
she, Joan, and Pat were married?"
I'll try it," Joan's smile was too
polite. But you can't realize, being
a flyer yourself, how hard it is to wait
Tor some one to come back to earth"
Well, Jimmie and I aren't exactly
IN the habit of flying tandem" Marion
told her. ut isn't often we're in the
air together"
Maybe it's because you've been mar
RED a long time" Joan wanted to be
sure. How long have you been mar
ried?"
Pat"
She knew it! She saw it all as clear
~ as If Pat had confessed it to her.
He and Marion had been in love. They
had quarreled and Marion had mar
ried Jimmie. Pat, frantic, had made
violent love to the first girl he met and
married her. She, jean, had caught
Fat on h rebound!
Let me help with the dinner"
Marion offered.
THANK you," Joan refused stiffly,
there isn't a thing left to do"
"BoSh!" Marion thrust aside her re-
fusal. There are always things left to
90 till the last dish is washed and the
last drink drunk. I'm really not bad
in a Kitchen"
1t was true. Marion was good in a
kitchen. She was good at helping to
serve. She was good after the dinner,
TOO. Somebody had to be because Joan
wasn't. The recent shock of learning
OF Pats narrow escape from death and
now her conviction that he and Marion
had been in love with each other sent
her into what Pat would have called a
tallspin. The tailspin had ended, as a
lot of tailspins do, in a crash. Joan
slid softly out of her chair and when
she woke up again Marion was undress-
ing her on the bed while Pat bathedl
her temples with a damp towel.
Soak the towel again, Pat" Marion
calmly ordered and when he had gone,
have you told him your newS?" she
asked.
mo" Joan confessed.
We'll, you'd better tell him. And,
Joan, women do get ideas. I know, in
conditions like yours. But please don't
get any about Pat and me-. There never
was any man for me but Jimmie. You
tell Pat he's going to be a parent. It will
be a new idea for him to play with.
I'll bet he's never thought of it,"
So that was that and Joan never
spoke of it, but it was a long time be-
fNr~n IL yuor r11rO 41zo& hh.~ I-I
told her the truth that night. After
ward she wished she had realized it
sooner. 1t would have given her a
longer period of happiness with her
husband.
Pat was at first bewidered and then
full of plans. He hadn't a job at the
moment but several people were look
ing for a flying instructor. Some of
these students materialized and Pat
made enough for eats. But they fell
off during the winter as usual.
1t was not until Pat Junior was near
ly a year old that Joan found out the
for their continued prosperity.
Pat had been making dive demOnstra-
at the rate of one a month. 1t was
here that joan gave up all thoughts of
protesting and resigned herself to wor-
and waiting. She had become a
complete pilots wife.
A pilots wife did not parade her
anxiety and sorrow to the world. She
quiet and still, beside the tele-
phone while her husband was doing
power dives and prayed to God that it
wouldn't ring or, if it had to ring, it
would be Pat on the other end. She
idn't even show her husband she had
,een worried because if she cried when
kissed her he would say: Don't be
oft. Don't be a. sissy"
She had been a terrible sissy once,
)ut she wasn't any more. She could
axe it. Nobody had to know how she
cit, even now when-When she would
re this near to Pat for the last time,
or the last time, for the last time. ITO
lell with them"
The quiet, sad faced attendants came
nto the room and she knew they were
bout to close the casket, to close Pat
bought, will I look at him for this
asst time so I'll never, never forget
imp" And she thought, GAS if I could
orget him. But I'd rather remember,
i'm as he was when he left me the
Their day, when he kissed me and said,
This is my last dive, Joan. Honest.
.fter this I'll only talk about it. I'll
all you when it's over" 1t was such
bright day and the sun lit his taught
lg lace. so Sne memDe MIN
aughing. If she looked at him now
e would be serious and-different.
She got up and put her hand on the
asket and pressed it. She touched an
rchid and her hand found the stem
nd she lifted the exotic flower from
lie spray. An attendant advanced re-
oectfully and she turned away, toward
lie door. She walked steadily to the
NOR which another attendant opened
rher. She walked along the corridor
the outer door and as it opened she
ok a deep breath.
John Andrews, the student flyer from
all street, stood in the small yard
it'll the others, waiting for the cortege
start. He was thinking about pro-
flyers. He was wondering
neither flying itself made them stoical
I'd callous or whether it was that fly
g drew to itself this kind of men and
omen. But no matter what the an
7er was it wouldn't cover Mrs. Pat
arron. She was not a flyer at all.
lere was no excuse for her. Smiling,
S winking at her husbands funeral.
dn,t che - fny. DotO Or woo che