Nobody's Fool

and given her room. It wasn’t that Janey was ugly, just plain, like Ruth herself, and it was that plainness that always gave boys courage. And of course they couldn’t keep their hands off her. At thirteen she’d had the bust development of a twenty-year-old, and at fourteen Ruth had come home late one afternoon to find a boy groping her on the living room sofa, both hands caught underneath Janey’s bra by Ruth’s sudden appearance. To Ruth, her daughter was still that vulnerable teenager whose body was well out ahead of her brain. She wasn’t innocent, exactly. Janey enjoyed the groping, had been enjoying it even that afternoon when Ruth had interrupted. Her problem was that she couldn’t seem to put the groping into perspective. Ruth sympathized. Her daughter came by her limitations rightly.
    â€œI don’t suppose I could get you to watch Birdbrain while I go out for a couple hours?” Janey said from the doorway.
    â€œOut where?” Ruth inquired before she could stop herself.
    â€œOut of here,” Janey explained. “Don’t be nosy. I’m grown up.”
    â€œYou just got out of the hospital.”
    â€œAnd you’re afraid I might have some fun. You decide to swear off men, so I’m supposed to do the same thing.”
    There was enough truth to this to bring Ruth up short. Having decided to try celibacy, she’d have preferred company. Lots of it. Rather than admit this, she reminded her daughter, “I’ve got an early morning tomorrow. I could use some help.”
    â€œI thought Cass was going to be there.”
    â€œShe is,” Ruth admitted. Cass had promised to guide her through the rest of the week to ease the transition with customers and deliverymen, both of who seemed anxious for the diner, which had been closed for almost a week since Hattie’s death, to open again.
    â€œThen you won’t need me,” Janey said, throwing on her coat.
    â€œYou think you’ll take my old job?”
    â€œHard to say,” Janey responded, as if this too were an unwarranted intrusion into her private affairs.
    â€œVince will need to hire somebody. He won’t hold it open for you forever.”
    â€œYes, he will.” Janey grinned. “He’s got the world’s fattest crush on me.”
    Ruth considered this. It might, she decided, be true. “You could do worse. Vince is a sweet man. He’d be good to you.”
    â€œHe’s an old man, Mama.”
    â€œHe’s younger than I am.”
    â€œYeah, well …” she came over to the sofa and lifted Tina, rubbed noses with the little girl. “Mommy’s going out for a while, Birdbrain. Be a good girl for Grandma.”
    â€œShe’ll be fine,” Ruth said. “
You
be a good girl for Grandma.”
    â€œGrandma was never a good girl,” Janey pointed out. “I don’t know why I should be.”
    â€œSo you won’t end up like Grandma?” Ruth offered.
    Janey grew suddenly serious, though the glow of anticipated groping lingered on her features maddeningly. “I don’t know what I’d do without Grandma.”
    When her daughter was gone, Ruth let the tears come. She weptquietly so Tina wouldn’t know. The little girl, who was studying a picture in the magazine intently, as if she expected to be tested on its contents later in the day, hadn’t even looked up when her mother left. When she finally allowed Ruth to turn the page, Tina broke into a big grin, and her small hand reached up and found her grandmother’s earlobe.
    Pointing to the picture, she said, “Snail.”
    The clock in the Lincoln said three-thirty A.M ., and Clive Jr. couldn’t remember the last time he was awake at such an hour. And not just awake. Wide awake. Full of wakefulness. Alert down to his pores. Trees were flying by, big ones, raked by his headlights. He imagined his brights as laser beams slicing through bark and wood effortlessly, imagined the giant trees, severed, crashing into the road behind him, cutting off pursuit.
    Not that there would be any actual pursuit for a while. Maybe never, in the conventional sense. Perhaps his trail of credit card purchases might be tracked through a computer, but not Clive Jr. himself and not the Lincoln. Still, he was enjoying the sensation of flight and pursuit. As a boy he had run from bullies, but then he’d been humiliated and it had never occurred to