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Show THE UPSTAIRS PEOPLE-57 He brushed the back of his hand across her forehead and went away. There were too many tomatoes. They ripened on the vine and every day the three of them sucked on them, the juices and seeds spurting out, dribbling on their chins, forming pink puddles on their plates. "Why don't you can them?" Betty said. "No time," said Schilly. John blushed and asked Betty if she would like a bath. Later they talked about the ramp they would build for her to the porch. The porch railings were lined with tomatoes that would keep for a long time because they had been picked hard and green. One afternoon at the beach Betty thought she saw the giant mantis again, but it was only a V of geese, the edges of it serrated, shimmering, against the humming sound of the sun. The shadows from the sand fence were deeper, nearly purple, and the waves at dusk thickened and shone like mercury, calling up the new obliqueness of the light. That night they sat outside wearing sweaters and watched the moon spin out tj»w double haloe$ that trembled at the edges because of the cold. Michael leapt out of the darkness onto Betty's lap, making her gasp. ( ' > "We are going next week," said Schilly. "We winter on the gulf," said John. "Dolphins." "You'll be back come spring?" There was a silence and then Schilly said, "You can have the tomatoes. And the squash, it will be coming in for at least a month yet, don't you think John?" |
