The Smoke Jumper (29 page)

‘So, we’re all hiding out here, Donna’s behind the drapes over there, the front door’s open, the place looks deserted, in he comes. And Donna, be careful he doesn’t see your reflection in the glass, okay? As he comes into the living room, Donna gives the signal and I start to play. And you guys better keep quiet, do you hear? No more beer for anyone who giggles or breaks wind. Ve have vays of making you restrain yourselves. Hank and . . . who? Oh yeah, sorry. Phil. You guys unroll the banner - and make sure it’s the right way up, okay? He may not be bright, but he can read.’

‘Julia, how do you manage to live with this guy?’ Hank Thomas asked her as she came out onto the deck with the tray.

‘Earplugs.’

She could hardly find her way to the table through the smoke. Chuck Hamer was supposed to be in charge of the barbecue and was making a pretty dismal job of it.

‘Hey, Chuck, I thought you were supposed to be a firefighter? What the heck’s going on here?’

‘Honey, I get paid to put ’em out, not start ’em.’

‘Baby, you can light my fire,’ Ed sang.

Having lectured the troops, now he was fiddling with the amplifier for his electric guitar. Julia watched him for a moment and had to smile. He was in full buzz mode, happy as a puppy, and he looked boyish and cute in his baggy shorts and the yellow and black Hawaiian shirt she’d bought him for his birthday. He had wanted to frizz his hair into a Jimi Hendrix Afro but she’d managed to talk him out of it. He’d settled instead for purple shades and a bandanna.

Poor Connor. He thought he was just coming over for a quiet supper with the two of them and Julia still wished he were. But Ed had insisted they lay on this surprise welcome-home party. Julia argued that having just been wounded, it was probably the last thing he would want, but Ed had spoken to him on the phone at his mother’s place and said he sounded fine. There were about twenty guests, mostly Connor’s old smoke jumping buddies and their assorted spouses and lovers. All had been strictly instructed to arrive early and park next door at the Robertsons’ place so that Connor wouldn’t see the cars.

At least he was going to see the place at its best. It was a perfect September evening, balmy and clear, with just a hint of fall in the air. There were apples on the trees and the rambling rose above the deck had flowered a second time and was a blaze of yellow. Anyhow, she reasoned, it was the kind of party that would more or less look after itself. Entertaining smoke jumpers was more a matter of quantity than quality: a big steak and plenty of beer was about as sophisticated as it needed to be.

Nevertheless, Julia had wound herself into a state of mild hysteria about it. She wanted everything to be just right. She had cleaned the place from top to bottom, put flowers in every room and spent far too much time and money getting all the food and drink. She had even bought French champagne and baked a cake and decorated it with a little toy camera.

For days she had been worrying about what she was going to wear and then worrying about why she was worrying about it. What was the big deal? It was only Connor, for heavensake. It was odds on that most of the women would be in jeans and T-shirts, like the men. But for reasons she didn’t let herself explore, she wanted to wear a dress. Nothing in her closet seemed right so she ended up going into Missoula to look for something new.

She found it right away in a store on North Higgins. It was a simple three-quarter-length shift in a shade of pale blue that flattered her tan. She tried it on and groaned when she saw how well it suited her. In fact, damn it, she looked fantastic. But it was a hundred and twenty dollars! Out of the question. Completely ridiculous. She didn’t need it. She thanked the assistant and walked out, got back in the Jeep, sat there awhile, got out again, went back to the store, dithered like an idiot for another fifteen minutes, then bought it, persuading herself that it was really an investment, a dress that would be useful for all kinds of other occasions, such as . . . whatever. She hadn’t treated herself in a long while, so what the hell.

But she still didn’t tell Ed. Not because she thought he would mind. On the contrary, he liked her buying new things for herself. Earlier in the evening, when they were getting ready and he asked her what she was going to wear, she even lied, telling him the dress was an old one that she’d forgotten she had and found at the back of the closet. Touchy-feely guy that he was, he did, however, notice that she’d also had her hair cut and her legs waxed.

There was one more tray of food left in the kitchen, and while Julia was on her way to fetch it, Donna came running through the front door. Ed had posted her at the end of the driveway to keep watch.

‘Does he still drive that old Chevy?’ she said.

‘I guess. A pickup, pale blue.’

‘That’s it. He’s coming.’

Donna ran out and told everyone and Julia followed with the tray and helped her hide behind the drapes. She went to stand beside Ed.

‘Where’s my guitar? Julia?’

‘Don’t panic. I’m right here.’

‘I’m not panicking.’

She handed it to him and he looped the strap over his shoulder and lightly touched the strings to make a final check on the amplifier.

‘Hank? Have you guys got that banner ready?’

‘Yessir.’

‘Okay, smoke jumpers. Stand ready.’

They all froze and after a few moments heard Connor’s truck pulling up in the driveway, then the clunk of the car door and footsteps on the gravel.

‘Jeez, Hank, it’s your mother-in-law,’ Chuck whispered and everyone told him to shush.

There was a knock on the front door and a long pause.

‘Hello?’

At the sound of his voice, Julia felt something quicken within her.

‘Hell, no, it’s that old girlfriend of yours. She’s got a gun!’

‘Shhhh!’

She could hear his footsteps coming into the living room now.

‘Ed? Julia?’

Donna nodded from her spy hole and Julia touched Ed on the shoulder. And on cue he made the guitar howl and launched into the Jimi Hendrix version of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ (quite why, Julia had no idea). Hank and Phil, on chairs either side of the doorway, unfurled the banner. Julia had written ‘Welcome Home Connor’ on it in red and blue glitter-paint and dotted it with silver stars. And suddenly there he was below it, wearing his old cowboy hat and giving everyone that slow grin of his and shaking his head. His blue eyes scanned the faces and found hers and stayed.

Ed stopped playing and everyone cheered and gathered around him.

‘Dear Lord,’ he said. ‘You guys are harder to shake off than a tick on a dog’s backside.’

‘That makes you the asshole, cowboy,’ Chuck said.

‘Hey, Chuck, how’re you doing? Hank, Donna . . .’

He shook hands and hugged everyone, leaving Ed and Julia until last. Finally he came smiling toward them. She noticed he was limping a little.

‘Julia, who
is
this weird dude you’re standing next to? I mean, is this Rockin’ Rudy in person or what?’

‘My man.’ Ed put his fist to chest.

‘Hearts of fire!’ They high-fived and Connor took off his hat and the two friends hugged each other.

‘You sly sonofabitch,’ Connor said. ‘“Just come on over for a little supper.”’

He planted his hat on Ed’s head and turned at last to Julia and she knew there was something different about his face although she couldn’t work out what. He was thinner and his eyes seemed deeper set.

‘Hi, Connor. Welcome home.’

‘Hell, it’s not as if I’ve been gone that long.’

‘It just seems like it.’

They put their arms around each other and she felt his hands grip her back and hold her firmly for a moment and all the breath seemed to leave her lungs. She knew she should say something light and funny but even if she could have found the right words, she had lost the power to utter them. She worried that her feelings might be obvious to the others and quickly let him go and hooked her arm under Ed’s.

‘Just look at the pair of you,’ Connor said. ‘And look at all this.’ He gave a sweep of his arm. ‘The river down there, apple trees, the roses and all. You got your own little Garden of Eden here.’

‘Julia as Eve, I can buy,’ Hank Thomas said. ‘But if that’s Adam, I’m Bambi’s mom.’

‘In those shades he looks more like the serpent,’ Donna said.

‘Here, Donna,’ Ed said. ‘Have an apple.’

The banter went on and grew cruder and Julia dragged Chuck away to the barbecue and told him to get the meat going and then went inside to fetch the champagne. When she came out again they were all teasing Connor about his ‘war wound’ but he was giving as good as he got, spinning a story which she only partly caught but seemed to involve him single-handedly taking on the entire Serbian army. Ed opened the champagne and when all their glasses were charged he proposed a toast. And as Julia uttered his name with the rest of them and drank his health, Connor’s eyes again settled on hers and stayed and she had to look away.

Connor watched her as she walked ahead of him up the stairs, watched the way her hips moved inside her dress and how she trailed her left hand with its plain gold wedding band on the banister. The light outside was fading and the skin of her bare shoulders was dark against the pale blue of the dress. She looked more beautiful than ever, even than on those lonely nights when he’d lain awake listening to the shell fire and thinking of her. Even more beautiful than she did in the picture that he always carried in his billfold, the one Ed had taken of the two of them on the day they went climbing. The one in which they were smiling at each other and looked, for all the world, like a proper couple.

Ed had put some Bob Marley on the stereo in the hope that people might start dancing, but everyone was enjoying sitting and chatting out on the deck and on the grass below. Julia had lit candles out there in glass sleeves and set some more in the trees and everything looked magical. Connor had asked if he could take a look at the house and so she was giving him the tour. They’d started out in her studio in the barn and she’d gotten embarrassed when he told her how much he liked her new paintings. Now they were back in the house. Everyone else was still outside.

As she reached the top of the stairs, she turned to look at him. He hoped that she hadn’t caught him looking at her hips that way.

‘It’s a great place,’ he said clumsily.

‘Yeah. It works real well for us. Though it’d be easier for Ed if we lived in town.’

‘Why’s that?’

‘Oh, you know, he could be more independent, find his own way around more. He has a map of Missoula in his head, whereas out here it’s all new and . . . well, kind of riskier, I guess is what I mean. Not that it stops him doing things, mind.’

‘I can imagine.’

‘Like the other day. This summer we’ve been running together. The trails are pretty good and he knows them by now and when I’m with him it’s perfectly safe. Well, one evening last week, I’ve been into town, I’m driving up the gravel road out there, coming around the corner and there’s this, like, apparition, in an orange hunting vest, in the middle of the road, running right at me. Guess who. He’s got his cane out in front, sweeping it from side to side, and this isn’t some gentle little jog. He’s going like flat-out.’

Connor laughed. He loved the expressive way she used her hands when she was telling a story like this. He figured it must be the Italian in her.

‘So I stop the car and he comes running right up to me and hits the front of the Jeep with the cane and stops with his hands on the hood and do you know what he says? He says, “Well, that’s a dumb place to park!” I mean, Connor, what can you do with the guy?’

‘Keep him in a cage or something.’

‘I tell you, one day. Did he tell you his latest plan?’

‘Nope.’

‘Rock climbing. He took this course down in Colorado where they teach blind people to climb. When your leg’s better he wants the three of us to do that same peak, you know? Where we took all those pictures of each other?’

‘Sounds great. Give me a week and I’m up for it.’

She cocked her head to one side and put her hands on her hips.

‘You know what? You’re as bad as he is.’

They smiled at each other for a moment, Bob Marley singing away downstairs, telling everyone not to worry, everything was going to be all right. Julia switched on the landing light and he wished she hadn’t. The twilight was more intimate.

‘Come on,’ she said. ‘I’ll show you the rest.’

There were three bedrooms and a bathroom. One of the bedrooms was half stacked with unpacked boxes, the other half taken up with weights and a bench where, Julia told him, Ed worked out each morning. The second room was prettily decorated with yellow wallpaper and a dark blue quilt with a towel neatly folded upon it and Julia said this was where he would be sleeping tonight, if that was okay. He said he hadn’t figured on staying over and she looked genuinely upset so he said he would, if she was sure it was convenient. She gave him one of her schoolmarm looks.