Free In The Garden Of The North American Martyrs by Tobias Wolff Page B

when Big John came into the room. If you wanted to get technical about it, he was guilty as charged a hundred times over. It wasn’t as if some great injustice had been done.

Face to Face
    S he met him at a fireworks display. That part of it was funny when she thought about it later.
    Virginia had been set up. Not that anyone really meant to set her up—but it happened that way. The boy, for example. He’d stopped asking questions like “Where’s Daddy?” “Why doesn’t Daddy want to live with us any more?” Lately, he had taken to drawing pictures instead—immature pictures considering his age—with bug-bodied figures and fat suns with long yellow rays like spokes. All the pictures showed the same thing: a man and a woman with a little boy between them, holding hands and grinning off the page. “Ricky,” she said, “why don’t you draw something else?” He wouldn’t, though. For this and for other reasons his teacher had begun to send Virginia strange notes.
    Virginia’s neighbors, Ben and Alice, played their part too. Alice kept telling her that it was a blessing in disguise that her husband had taken off. “You’re free now, hon,” said Alice. “You can find someone nice.” Virginia had to admit that her husband wasn’t any great shakes. But when he left, not saying a word, ittook the life out of her, and she didn’t think much about going out with men. Besides, she had her hands full with the boy.
    Whenever Alice talked about her smart cousin from Everett, though, Virginia found herself listening. Alice always referred to him as “Poor Robert,” and Virginia gathered that he had suffered some great wrong. In late June Alice told her that her cousin would be coming with them to see the fireworks display at Green Lake, and she invited Virginia and her son to join them. Virginia suspected that she had something in mind, but Alice had already told Ricky about the fireworks and he was all set to go; so she agreed.
    Why not, she thought. She could probably do more for the boy if she stopped feeling so bad all the time.
    From what Alice had told her about Robert, Virginia expected a distinguished, confident man, full of opinions and unlikely to be interested in her. Actually, he was shy. And polite. Whenever he reached for his cigarettes, he offered one to her even after she told him she didn’t smoke. He was full of questions about her, though he had a way of looking off when he asked them. Robert’s eyelids drooped and he had dense brown curls. A faint, acrid odor clung to him, like the smell of a newly painted room. He called Ricky “Crazylegs” and by the time they got to Green Lake he had promised to take the boy fishing—“As long as it’s okay with your mom. Maybe she’d even like to come along,” he added, looking out the window.
    â€œWe’ll see,” Virginia said.
    Just after the fireworks started she went back to the parking lot with Robert to get some potato salad. They walked along without speaking, side by side. Finally, Virginia broke the silence.
    â€œAlice says you went to college.”
    He nodded. “For a while, back in Michigan.”
    â€œWhat did you study?”
    â€œMath, mostly. I was going to be an engineer. I didn’t finish.”
    â€œThat must be hard.”
    â€œIt was a long time ago. Grin and bear it.” He laughed.
    â€œI mean the math must be hard.”
    â€œIt wasn’t that bad. I got all B’s, except for some C’s.”
    They got the potato salad from the car and started walking back. The only time they could really see was when a big flare or rocket went off. Robert took her arm gingerly when there were things they had to go around. Once they almost stepped on a couple lying under a blanket. Then a flare went off in descending stages with a big burst like an exclamation mark at the end, and they could see