Free Janet by Peggy Webb

you’re
going to pull it plumb in two.” She swept through his hallway like
the leader of a parade, trailing husband and children and mixing
metaphors for all she was worth.
    Dan plucked Butch off the hall tree, swung
him onto his shoulders for a piggyback ride and took little Samuel
by the hand. “It’s ‘beat around the bush,’ Betty June.”
    The correction was lost on his sister; she
had already gone on to bigger and better things. “Ron, honey, would
you get me a glass of water? Thank you, sweetheart.” She settled
into the rocking chair right on top of Janet Hall’s green silk
scarf. “I declare, a woman in my condition feels just like a
rolling stone that grass won’t grow under—Peter, if you turn that
bookcase over on yourself, I won’t be responsible. I declare—” She
stopped talking suddenly, noticing the green silk scarf that was
trailing down the side of the chair. Lifting one hip, she pulled it
out and rubbed it between her fingers.
    Even from his chair on the opposite side of
the fireplace, Dan caught a lingering whiff of jasmine.
    “Dan, when did you start wearing silk scarves
and perfume?”
    He chuckled. “The scarf belongs to Janet
Hall.”
    “Dr.
Janet Hall?”
    “Yes.”
    Smiling, Betty June folded the scarf neatly
into a small square and laid it on the table beside her chair. “I
had to take Peter to the Emergency Room – when was that, hon?” She
didn’t even wait her son to reply. “Anyway, Dr. Hall was the one
who saw her. My lord, she a fine pediatrician. Beautiful, too.
Well, my goodness...” She gave Dan a big grin. “I’m just as happy
as a jaybird about all this.”
    “About what?”
    “You know... you and Dr. Hall... I wonder if
I’ll still have to call her
Dr.
Hall.”
    Dan leaned back in his chair and laughed.
Betty June could take six eggs and make an omelet big enough to
feed everybody in town.
    “Betty June, when we get ready for the
wedding we’ll let you plan it.”
    “Are you teasing me?”
    “What do you think?”
    “Oh dear, I guess I’ve jumped over the gun
again.”
    “That’s ‘jumped the gun’—or ‘jumped over the
haystack.’“
    “Why would anybody want to jump over a
haystack?”
    Ron came back with the glass of water in time
to hear the last snatch of Betty June’s sentence. “What’s this
about a haystack? Has one of our children set it on fire?”
    “No. We’re just discussing my brother and his
new girlfriend—Dr. Hall.”
    “Our Dr. Hall?”
    “One and the same.”
    “Well, congratulations, old man.” Ron sat
down beside the fireplace, stretched out his long legs and began to
rock. “There’s nothing like a good woman to keep a man happy. I
should know.”
    “Congratulations are premature. The only
thing Dr. Hall and I have in common is a big stray dog.”
    Betty June nodded and smiled in a maternal
sort of way. “Ron, honey, why don’t you run downtown and get us a
couple of large pizzas for lunch? And do you mind taking the kids?
Dan and I have things to do.”
    After Ron and the children had gone, Dan
turned to his sister. “What was that all about?”
    “Can I help it if I want to be alone with my
brother once in a while?”
    “As you so often say, I smell a skunk in
Denmark.”
    Betty June stood up and smoothed her skirt
over her voluminous stomach. “Put a good, slow dance tune in the
tape deck, Dan. I’m going to give you a dance lesson.”
    “You know I despise dancing.”
    “Nevertheless, you’re going to learn how. You
never know when you might get the urge to ask a certain beautiful
lady doctor out dancing.”
    Dan laughed. “Mama didn’t teach any of us
subtlety, did she?”
    He selected a tape of haunting Gershwin
tunes; then, with all the enthusiasm of a man being led to his
execution, he held out his arms to his sister.
    o0o
    After Janet finished studying, she tried to
decide how to spend the rest of her Sunday afternoon. There were
several current fiction bestsellers she hadn’t yet had