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Show Moon -185 "She isn't as happy as she pretends to be." "So she catches up to the rest of us. Don't worry. She'll polish some silver. She'll thump on the Bible. She'll get over it." Anne didn't think so, but she didn't want to talk about Alice. They walked in comfortable silence. Here she was, with her brother who had used her cruelly when she was a child, and now he was tired and maybe sick and transformed into someone whose presence was intensely comforting. "Where's Gloria?" she said, hoping she wasn't waiting in the car. He set down her bag at the edge of parking lot, stood up tall to get his bearings, perhaps to get his breath as well. He turned to her and smiled. "I had the devil of a time persuading her to let me come alone. That woman, I love her, but she'll drive me crazy with her talking." But Anne could see in his eyes and hear in his voice that he loved his wife far beyond the trivial issue of talking. He spotted the car, picked up her bag. "Tommy has re-enlisted. He requested Vietnam-again. You'd think he's trying to get himself killed." Anne wanted to disagree with him, but she could not. She had long suspected that Michael and Gloria had a marriage so intense that a child would be shut out. Not on purpose. It was just the way of some families. As they drove off, he said, "Td thought of stopping someplace for lunch, just you and me," he said, "but if you don't mind, I'm kind of tired." She minded, yes, because she knew this was going to be their first and last time alone together in this new uncomplicated love. And his tiredness frightened her. "Of course I don't mind," she said. She rolled down her window, ready to catch the first whiff of Lake Michigan. She stared at his nice profile, his |