Free Rock Springs by Richard Ford Page A

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    O n the drive to town Bobby was in better spirits. He and Cherry sat in the back, and Arlene in the front. I drove. Cherry held Bobby’s hand and giggled, and Bobby let her put on his black silk Cam Ranh Bay jacket he had won playing cards, and Cherry said that she had been a soldier in some war.
    The morning had started out sunny, but now it had begun to be foggy, though there was sun high up, and you could see the Bitterroots to the south. The river was cool and in a mist, and from the bridge you could not see the pulp yard or the motels a half mile away.
    â€œLet’s just drive, Russ,” Bobby said from the backseat. “Head to Idaho. We’ll all become Mormons and act right.”
    â€œThafd be good, wouldn’t it?” Arlene turned andsmiled at him. She wasn’t mad now. It was her nicest trait, not to stay mad at anybody for long.
    â€œGood day,” Cherry said.
    â€œWho’s that talking,” Bobby asked.
    â€œI’m Paul Harvey,” Cherry said.
    â€œHe always says that, doesn’t he?” Arlene said.
    â€œGood day,” Cherry said again.
    â€œThat’s all Cherry’s going to say all day now, Daddy,” Arlene said to me.
    â€œYou’ve got a honeybunch back here,” Bobby said and tickled Cherry’s ribs. “She’s her daddy’s girl all the way.”
    â€œGood day,” Cherry said again and giggled.
    â€œChildren pick up your life, don’t they, Russ?” Bobby said. “I can tell that.”
    â€œYes, they do,” I said. “They can.”
    â€œI’m not so sure about that one back there, though,” Arlene said. She was dressed in a red cowboy shirt and jeans, and she looked tired to me. But I knew she didn’t want Bobby to go to jail by himself.
    â€œI am. I’m sure of it,” Bobby said, and then didn’t say anything else.
    We were on a wide avenue where it was foggy, and there were shopping centers and drive-ins and car lots. A few cars had their headlights on, and Arlene stared out the window at the fog. “You know what I used to want to be?” she said.
    â€œWhat?” I said when no one else said anything.
    Arlene stared a moment out the window and touched the corner of her mouth with her fingernail and smoothed something away. “A Tri-Delt,” she said and smiled. “I didn’t really know what they were, but I wanted to be one. I was already married to him, then, of course. And they wouldn’t take married girls in.”
    â€œThat’s a joke,” Bobby said, and Cherry laughed.
    â€œNo. It’s not a joke,” Arlene said. “It’s just something you don’t understand and that I missed out on in life.” She took my hand on the seat and kept looking out the window. And it was as if Bobby wasn’t there then, as if he had already gone to jail.
    â€œWhat I miss is seafood,” Bobby said in an ironic way. “Maybe they’ll have it in prison. You think they will?”
    â€œI hope so, if you miss it,” Arlene said.
    â€œI bet they will,” I said. “I bet they have fish of some kind in there.”
    â€œFish and seafood aren’t the same,” Bobby said.
    W e turned onto the street where the jail was. It was an older part of town and there were some old white two-story residences that had been turned into lawyers’ offices and bail bondsmen’s rooms. Some bars were farther on, and the bus station. At the end of the street was the courthouse. I slowed so we wouldn’t get there too fast.
    â€œYou’re going to jail right now,” Cherry said to Bobby.
    â€œIsn’t that something?” Bobby said. I watched him up in the rearview; he looked down at Cherry and shook his head as if it amazed him.
    â€œI’m going to school soon as that’s over,” Cherry said.
    â€œWhy don’t I just go to school with you?” Bobby said. “I think I’d