None of us had been seeing much of Lois, apart from Betty, who had near enough adopted little Sandie.
‘Lois is a restless soul,’ Betty said to us one time. ‘She’s one of those girls derives no pleasure from a shelf of home-made preserves or a stack of nice ironed sheets, so she may as well go out and commune with nature…’
Audrey spluttered her coffee all over us. ‘Commune with nature? That’s a ten-dollar word for anything Lois might get up to.’
Betty turned pink.
‘I don’t care what she does,’ she said. ‘Point I’m making is, she’s a girl who can’t be cooped up inside four walls. You know what she’s like when she gets a mood on her. If I can babysit I’m probably sparing the poor child getting the rough side of her tongue. Heck, Sandie toddles around after me, got her own little duster and pan, just like Deana used to do. She’s no trouble at all.’
I walked with Audrey to the PX.
I said, ‘You have any idea what Lois is up to? Driving off the base all the time.’ She sure seemed to have got over her fear of getting scalped out there.
‘Don’t ask,’ she said. ‘Don’t tempt me. The germ of gossip may be likened unto a cancer. Gospel according to the CO’s wife, Chapter One, Verse One. All I’ll say is, I never would have taken Lois Moon for such a outdoors kind of girl. Kath ever say anything to you?’
I said, ‘Such as?’
‘’Bout Lois up there visiting all the time?’
Far as I could make out, it was just speculation. I was with the CO’s wife all the way on the dangers of idle talk. Made no sense to me, what a girl like Lois’d be doing with a eel-trapper always looked like he’d got a dirty secret, the way he smiled, always fiddling with his fingers and pacing around. I wasn’t convinced John Pharaoh was playing with a full deck of cards. Still, I was afraid for Kath. She was such a trusting soul. And I was missing Lois, too. We never hung out any more. Never had any laughs. When friend husband is gone for days on end, you need somebody, help you take up the slack.
Audrey was at the Wives’ Club all hours. She loved bridge afternoons and setting up rosters for Red Cross Clothes Closet, and all that stuff. She was always on Gayle’s case to get involved. Said if she wanted Okey to get ahead she had to be seen playing her part too. But Gayle hated the Club. The one time she tried it she was taken to one side and told officers wives don’t chew gum. She never went back.
There couldn’t have been two girls less suited to be neighbours than Audrey and Gayle. And when Benedetto died of his injuries, they had a real ruckus. Gayle said it was plain cruel, the way his widow got three weeks’ notice to clear the post.
Audrey said, ‘Oh, Gayle, grow up why don’t you? You know how many E-5s are waiting to get on base? You can’t have the DW of a deceased sitting around, occupying quarters. Hell, she’s not even military any more.’
For a whole week they managed not to speak to each other, even though their houses were joined together. Then just when I hoped the Easter Bunny might deliver a little love and forgiveness, Carol Benedetto hanged herself. They found her in her quarters. The place was all scrubbed out and shipshape ready for the final inspection. Just scuff marks on the wall where her feet had scrabbled, at the end. When Gayle heard, she went on a bender. I found her down in her broke-back cottage, still in her robe, and I’d say she’d been drinking all morning.
‘I want to go home,’ she said. ‘I wanna go home, see my kid brothers. Get a little house in Boomer. I want Okey. Can you get Okey for me?’
But Okey was at the pad, and when a man’s standing the alert, he can’t be reached, don’t matter if the sky fell in. I put her to bed and as soon as she was asleep I went round to ask Lois to sit with her, while I put Vern’s shirts through the washer. Course, Lois wasn’t home. Good old Herb was there, feeding Sandie on grilled cheese.
‘Hey, c’mon in,’ he said. ‘See what I’m making for her birthday.’
He was carving a long piece of wood. ‘See?’ he said. ‘It’s a African geeraffe. She always loved them dopey-looking creatures. What’you think?’
I guess when he stood it up it did have a kinda animal shape to it.
I said, ‘She’ll be thrilled, Herb. You happen to know what time she’ll be home?’
‘Couldn’t say,’ he said. ‘She likes to drive around some when I’m here to watch Sandie. Get out and about, looking for wishing-wells and newborn lambs and stuff.’
Sandie’d finished her sandwich and was starting on the wood chippings so I left Herb to clean up.
‘Peggy,’ he called after me. ‘Don’t forget now. The geeraffe is a secret.’
Audrey and Betty were just coming out from the OWC. They’d been helping set up an Easter candy trail for the kids.
‘Time for a truce, Aud,’ I said. ‘This Benedetto business has hit Gayle real hard. I’m afraid she’s cracking up.’
Betty said, ‘I have a good nourishing soup at home. I’ll go fetch some. That girl needs a mother.’
Audrey said, ‘Yeah, and I’ll come straight down, see Gayle. Maybe I was a little hard on her. You didn’t tell anybody else?’
I said, ‘Tell anybody else what?’
She lowered her voice. ‘Why, that she’s drinking, of course. What we have here is a damage-limitation situation. Wife starts to run off the rails, there goes a man’s career and Okey’s good troop.’
Seemed to me the main thing was to make sure Gayle didn’t come to any harm.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘while we’re on the subject of problem wives, Lois is out on the loose again. Herb’s home playing Mr Mom.’
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I’ve been thinking about that too.’
Gayle was still on the bed, where I’d left her. Audrey climbed in beside her, gave her a hug.
‘Baby,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry I yelled at you. Can we make up? Be friends as well as neighbours?’
Gayle didn’t look too good. Far as she was concerned I think the room was still spinning.
‘Now listen,’ Audrey said. ‘I understand how you’re feeling. I mean, it’s a real tragedy about Carol Benedetto, but you know, maybe she would have done it wherever she was. Or maybe they should have sent her home sooner than three weeks. You ever think of that? Maybe the military has got it right, forcing people to pick theirselves up and get on with the rest of their lives. Hm? And as for us, we’re wives of the 96th. Whatever turns up we got to do our bit, keep the military machine humming ’cause those Soviets sure aren’t gonna give us any compassionate leave.’
Gayle just lay there listening.
‘Now, you take my advice,’ Aud said, ‘you’ll close your eyes and play possum, ’cause Betty just pulled upside with a thermos of that ham-bone soup of hers.’
That raised a groggy smile.
We left Betty coaxing spoonfuls of broth into her.
I said, ‘She’ll be okay.’
Audrey said, ‘She better be. Now. You wanna try and do something about the Lois situation?’