What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: Stories

world. But she had these nice ways about her. She was thirty and had kids. But she was a decent woman, whatever happened.
    "Your mother was always buying from her, a broom, a mop, some kind of pie filling. You know your mother. It was a Saturday, and I was home. Your mother was gone someplace. I don't know where she was. She wasn't working. I was in the front room reading the paper and having a cup of coffee when there was this knock on the door and it was this little woman. Sally Wain. She said she had some things for Mrs. Palmer. Tm Mr. Palmer,' I says. 'Mrs. Palmer is not here now,' I says. I ask her just to step in, you know, and I'd pay her for the things. She didn't know whether she should or not. Just stands there holding this little paper sack and the receipt with it.
    " 'Here, I'll take that,' I says. 'Why don't you come in and sit down a minute till I see if I can find some money.'
    What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
    " That's all right/ she says. 'You can owe it. I have lots of people do that. It's all right.' She smiles to let me know it was all right, you see.
    " 'No, no,' I says. 'I've got it. I'd sooner pay it now. Save you a trip back and save me owing. Come in,' I said, and I hold the screen door open. It wasn't polite to have her standing out there."
    He coughed and took one of my cigarettes. From down the bar a woman laughed. I looked at her and then I read from the ashtray again.
    "She steps in, and I says. 'Just a minute, please,' and I go into the bedroom to look for my wallet. I look around on the dresser, but I can't find it. I find some change and matches and my comb, but I can't find my wallet. Your mother has gone through that morning cleaning up, you see. So I go back to the front room and says, 'Well, I'll turn up some money yet.'
    "'Please, don't bother,' she says.
    "'No bother,' I says. 'Have to find my wallet, anyway. Make yourself at home.'
    "'Oh, I'm fine,'she says.
    "'Look here,' I says. 'You hear about that big holdup back East? I was just reading about it.'
    " 'I saw it on the TV last night,' she says.
    " 'They got away clean,' I says.
    "'Pretty slick,' she says.
    " 'The perfect crime,' I says.
    " 'Not many people get away with it,' she says.
    "I didn't know what else to say. We were just standing there looking at each other. So I went on out to the porch and looked for my pants in the hamper, where I figured
    Sacks
    your mother had put them. I found the wallet in my back pocket and went back to the other room and asked how much I owed.
    "It was three or four dollars, and I paid her. Then, I don't know why, I asked her what she'd do with it if she had it, all the money those robbers got away with.
    "She laughed and I saw her teeth.
    "I don't know what came over me then, Les. Fifty-five years old. Grown kids. I knew better than that. This woman was half my age with little kids in school. She did this Stanley job just the hours they were in school, just to give her something to keep busy. She didn't have to work. They had enough to get by on. Her husband, Larry, he was a driver for Consolidated Freight. Made good money. Teamster, you know."
    He stopped and wiped his face.
    "Anybody can make a mistake," I said.
    He shook his head.
    "She had these two boys, Hank and Freddy. About a year apart. She showed me some pictures. Anyway, she laughs when I say that about the money, says she guessed she'd quit selling Stanley Products and move to Dago and buy a house. She said she had relations in Dago."
    I lit another cigarette. I looked at my watch. The bartender raised his eyebrows and I raised my glass.
    "So she's sitting down on the sofa now and she asks me do I have a cigarette. Said she'd left hers in her other purse, and how she hadn't had a smoke since she left home. Says she hated to buy from a machine when she had a carton at home. I gave her a cigarette and I hold a match for her. But I can tell you, Les, my fingers were shaking."
    What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
    He stopped and studied the bottles for a minute. The woman who'd done the laughing had her arms locked through the arms of the men on either side of her.
    "IT'S fuzzy after that. I remember I asked her if she wanted coffee. Said I'd just made a fresh pot. She said she had to be going. She said maybe she had time for one cup. I went out to the kitchen and waited for the coffee to heat. I tell you, Les, 111 swear before God, I never once stepped out on your mother the whole time we were man and wife. Not