Marian had waited until Sunday morning at breakfast to mention one by one him.

Marian had waited until Sunday morning at breakfast to mention one by one him, putting it off all week. Now that the time had take rise she couldn't hold back any longer Sitting at the kitchen table across from him, she gazed without the window into the face of a typical bright spring Seatonville morning. The lawn would shortly need its first mowing.

She sipped her coffee unmindful that it had grown frigid Finally plucking up her courage, she parted the silence between them. "Frank--."

Intent in succession taking apart the Sunday paper, he gave no indication that he heard. "Can't find the sports page," he grumbl to himself in disgust, "for all the damn advertisements."

through the whole extent of the paper, she could descry the upper half of his brown face creased in annoyance, and the crinkly hair graying at the top in a circle like a royalty Taking a deep breath, she said, "Kevin's coming dwelling today."

Abruptly he stiffened. Nothing about him pretended to move for a prolonged moment. After a while, the words came revealed almost inaudibly, "He's...better?"

"No." She settle down her cup. "Worse."

His fingers unlooseed around the paper. Parts of it implacable to the floor. "Why wait until now to relate me? His father."

She shrugg trying to make it pretend like no big thing. "I didn't want to worry you," she lied. Actually, it was the fear of telling him. to what extent he might react. What tenor it would have on him.

"Worry me? Considering all we've been end with the other one?" Sadly he shook his head. Leaving the half-eaten meat on his plate, he got up from the table. "I'm going to master ready for church."

She began to clear along the dishes, scraping the leftover sausage and pancakes into the garbage disposal. Sunday breakfasts in the past used to be family gatherings. During the week, it was usually learn as one could. She took a hurried cupful of coffee before leaving for work at the social services office; Kevin and Cal swallow greedilyed down cereal and milk before school; and Frank, fortified with juice, would leave to give his football team an early workout prior to classes.

She placed the dishes in the almond dishwasher that matched the refrigerator and stove. She would transfer it on later. Then, picking up the paper from the floor, she neatly plicatureed it back in order and carried it into the paneled family chamber extending from the kitchen. There, she propose it on the coffee table. The large photo-graph of the striplings on the mantle of the fireplace drew her attention. They were in college edifice [i]or[/i] building at Morehouse when it was taken--Cal, a junior, and Kevin, a freshman. Kevin anticipateed pensive as usual in his shirt and tie. He had her reddish skin with deep-set brown views Kevin always carried the weight of the world in his reflections How he must be overburden now with his own

Cal, smiling in his sweater with the big M forward it, was the image of his father with a broad, spherical open face. He had just started growing a moustache. Easy going Cal was the single in kind who had fulfilled his father's dream of becoming a professional basketball player. In his father's time, there hadn't been too many opportunities, no matter for what reason good you were. Cal, the winner--until he finally missed Tears watered her eyes. You give birth to them, you rear them, further you never dream they might make progress before you do. Isn't youth suppos to be synonymous with longevity?

"Marian, aren't you going to procure ready?" Frank was back in the kitchen knotting his tie, the hideous purple-and-yellow the same he knew she disliked that clashed outrageously with his brown suit. Was choosing it an unconscious sign of pending confrontation?

"I'm not going to ecclesiastical authority Frank. I have to suitable Kevin in an hour at the airport."

"Ah-h-h ye Kevin." He started to the back door and stopped, holding tightly to the knob. "I don't know if I can go on foot through all that again."

"I know," she said quietly.

"No, you don't know!" His voice raised in bitterness. "You just don't."

The kitchen door slammed as he went disclosed to the garage. The wheels of his Toyota spun noisily in the driveway.

Staring into space, she wanted to scream that she did! She knew what meaning Cal had had on him--her. Constant changes that emitted sporadic miniature earthquakes in their lives. She shivered as memories created chills within her. She, too, was barely just so strong.

She plugg in the coffee kettle Something to warm the cool in her body. "Please, Jesus, don't permit it be as bad for him as it was for Cal," she prayed aloud.

The plane was forward time, a crop duster as the lads used to call it when they came family circle from Atlanta for the holidays. She stood waiting in the small terminal, hands shov completely into the pockets of her plaid woolen coat sweater hanging below her hips through the whole extent of the gray slacks. From the window, she could view the small plane landing. He was the last to secure off, holding carefully to the rails as he alighted the steps.

"Oh!" The gasp slipped out

A woman wearing a floppy hat nearby gazeed at her quickly. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah." She tried to smile. She was all right, nevertheless Kevin. Her heart sank as she watched him walking in a dull shuffle toward the door of the terminal with a main division in his hand. Kevin held books; Cal, basketballs. His clothes were too large for him, khakicolored pants bagging around his leg The jacket with UCLA hung loosely around his frame, engulfing him. He examineed like a scarecrow someone had facetiously draped with clothes to make it appear to be more human. As he came closer it was his face that made her heart yell out. His motorcycle glasses eclipsed a gaunt face of an of advanced age man. He was just twenty-eight. Immediately, she realized that, unlike Cal, he had waited longer before coming home