Chapter 4

Marily drove Fred to the office Friday morning. As she was pulling into the drive way, having deposited Fred at his office, Peter came out of his house and stood and smiled at her. He walked across the lawn, jumped over the small hedge, and yanked open the door on the passenger side of the car. "Hello beautiful," he said, flashing her a cocky, winning smile.

"Not so loud, people will hear you," Marily said, trying not to smile back at him, not wanting her desire of him to show through her exterior.

"One always always speaks to be heard by somebody. Right? Look, the party starts tonight at eight. Why don't you come over to dinner with Vivian and me? You don't want to eat alone, do you?"

She couldn't believe what she was hearing at first. Did he really expect her to sit at the same table with his wife and eat and be aware of her and the food she had cooked and try to carry on a conversation after what had happened between her and Peter? She thought that he must surely be joking. "You're kidding?"

"Not at all. Vivian will see you today about it. I gotta run. Must be in court at ten. Bye Love," he said, slamming her car door and moving toward his own garage. She wanted desperately to call him back and talk to him, get a couple of answers, but she couldn't. What neighbor might be listening, watching her? She drove the car into the garage and got out as quickly as possible and went into the safety of her home. She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down at the breakfast table to drink it. The telephone rang. She almost jumped out of her skin, spilling the coffee in the process. She picked up the instrument and said, dully, "Hello."

The voice on the phone came to her in a rush, seeming to fill her whole head with a loud roar. "Hello, Marily--if I may call you that--I'm Vivian, Mrs. Aiken from next door. I saw Peter talking to you in the drive way and," Marily gasped, an instant vision of her whole world falling in on her, clouding her mind, then stammered without making sound and then listened as the voice continued, "I'm sure he told you about dinner tonight. So, I'll expect you about seven-thirty and we'll have an early dinner and the other guests will start arriving about nine but that gives us time for a drink and a little talk and I have to do a great deal today because I have a meeting with the League of Women Voters in half an hour and I must rush now. See you tonight." The voice stopped as suddenly as it had started. Marily stood several minutes with the instrument still in her hand, then slowly replaced it. She was stunned. The woman sounded over the phone just as she did in the yard, talking and never stopping and making everything into one sentence. She poured herself another cup of coffee and drank it slowly, along with smoking a cigarette--she could get the odor out of the house before Fred returned-- and wondered about the coming party.