A Farewell to Yarns

stop working now? Jane was torn between curiosity and the fear that Phyllis was going to explain it all to her—at length.
    And what did Chet think of Bobby? More important, what did he think of the way Phyllis knuckled under to the overgrown brat? Surely Chet wouldn’t approve. Or did Chet automatically accept anything Phyllis did or wanted? The loathsome Bobby had to be at the heart of the trouble, but hadn’t Phyllis said that it was Chet who dug up Bobby? What an odd marriage.
    Bobby had wandered into the living room with Willard trailing him. Phyllis covered the mouthpiece of the phone and whispered to Jane, Is a Jag a fancy car?“
    “Very fancy. Go for it, Phyllis,“ Jane said, hoping her old friend didn’t hear the unwitting sarcasm in her voice. Thank God Shelley had wandered off to the guest bathroom and hadn’t heard the exchange. She’d have probably grabbed Phyllis by the hair and beat her head against the wall. Or at least she’d have looked like she wanted to. Where had Phyllis, who didn’t even know what Jaguars were, found a place that rented them? Phyllis’s ways were mysterious indeed.
    “They’re bringing it over in a minute, darling,“ she called to Bobby when she hung up.
    “Phyllis, I’m putting you in the guest room at the end of the hall upstairs. Bobby can take your bags up there,“ Jane said loudly enough that the boy would hear. She wondered if maybe the neighbors could hear, too. “Bobby’ll have to sleep on the sofa bed in the basement.“
    “Oh, no. Let Bobby have the guest room. I’ll be fine in the basement,“ Phyllis said.
    Jane dug her heels in. “No. Impossible. Bobby, take your mother’s things upstairs.”
    Phyllis smiled. “I guess we mothers always think of the children first, don’t we?”
    Shelley, now back from the bathroom, made a noise somewhere between a snort of outrage and the beginning of a coughing spasm.
    Jane was amazed that anyone could utter such a remark without choking on it. “I don’t see why we should, Phyllis. Kids are much more resilient than we are. My Mike could sleep on a pile of rocks and not notice. Come on up, and I’ll show you your room and the bathroom and everything.“ Hesitant to leave Shelley alone with Bobby for fear of what she might do to him without supervision, Jane reluctantly took Phyllis upstairs, all the while fighting the desire to apologize for the accommodations.
    The “guest room“ was really a sort of accidental cubbyhole she usually used for storing cartons (all of which were now “stored“ in her own bedroom). It had a double bed, a chair, a tiny dressing table, and a closet the size you might find in a train compartment. Worse, Phyllis would have to share a bathroom with Jane’s kids, a gruesome fate.
    But Phyllis didn’t find anything odd or inconvenient about the arrangement. She admired the pretty bedspread, commented favorably on the view of the field behind the house from the small single window, and complimented Jane on the felt Christmas banner hanging on the wall over the bed.
    “Phyllis, I hate to be rude, but there’s an errand Shelley and I have to do. I promised to help her take some things out of her car, and I don’t want to stick her with the job. It’ll only take fifteen minutes or so. Do you mind if I leave you here to unpack?“
    “Of course not,“ Phyllis said, giving her a quick hug to emphasize her sincerity. “I don’t want to be the least trouble to you.“
    “You’re not trouble at all. I’m glad to have you here,“ Jane lied. And yet, it wasn’t entirely a lie. If it hadn’t been for Bobby, she’d be enjoying Phyllis’s presence.
     

Five
     
    Bobby was blitzing through television channels, trying to find something to suit his tastes when Jane came back down. Shelley was in the kitchen, pacing. “Bobby, I’m going to run an errand,“ Jane called. “When I get back, I’ll make up your room in the basement. I’ll only be gone a little while.”
    He kept pushing the buttons on the remote control until he finally found MTV. Then he turned up the volume. If he’d been one of her children and ignored her, Jane would have snapped the set off, but he wasn’t hers—thank God!
    Shelley was out the door and had started the van before Jane could even climb in. They rode in silence, the magnitude of Jane’s plight having overwhelmed them both. Once Jane whimpered a little, and Shelley patted her hand.
    Shelley pulled into the curved, hedge-bordered drive