Эд Макбейн - Strangers When We Meet

“Nope,” Mr. Harder replied, chuckling. “And never hope to, either, Phil.”

Larry could never understand how his father managed to leave the business whenever anything unimportant came along. Just ask him when it was a matter of life or death and then the shoe-store couldn’t possibly be left in the hands of inexperienced clerks. But take a thing like this, where he was about as necessary as a sixth finger, and there was good old Dad giving advice about airplane travel. Silently, he thanked God that his brother Pete was married and practicing law in Pennsylvania. Otherwise he was sure he’d have trotted along for the festivities, too.

Unfortunately, Eve’s twin sisters were not married. Unfortunately, they were both seventeen, entering their senior year at high school, and very proud of the fact that they at last had breasts, the lack of which up to six months before had caused Eve’s mother to seek the advice of a specialist at Murray Hill Hospital. As was characteristic with Mrs. Harder, she was now disturbed because her daughters wore sweaters which were three sizes too small.

“Eve never dressed that way,” she was fond of repeating. “Eve was sensible. Sensible.”

The twins, Lois and Linda, managed to show a total disregard for anyone’s wishes but their own in the matter. The sweaters they chose continued to be snug and emphatic. Mr. Harder, florid and puffy at fifty-two, was somewhat embarrassed by them. But he could remember the Sloppy Joes which Eve had worn to high school, and he wondered now which was the lesser of the two evils.

“When I get big, can I go to Puerto Rico?” David asked.

“Sure,” Larry said. “Mom, could you take the kids for a walk or something? We’re never going to be packed in time.”

“You should have packed last night,” Mrs. Harder said. “I don’t know why you two always leave things to the last minute.”

“Some neighbors came in last night,” Eve said.

“What time is your plane leaving?” Mrs. Cole asked.

“I’d love to be an airline hostess,” Linda said. “Come here, Chris. Let me blow your nose.”

“It isn’t running,” Chris said.

“What time, Lawrence?” Mrs. Cole asked again.

“Four-thirty,” Larry said, and his mother shook her head and clucked her tongue as if he had just announced the exact moment of his death.

“You’ve got plenty of time,” Mr. Cole said.

“We’re supposed to check in at three-thirty.”

“They always give you more time than you actually need,” Mr. Harder said.

“Don’t you like boats, Lawrence?”

“What, Mom?”

“Boats. Couldn’t you take a boat?”

“Mom, we’ve only got a week. We’re not going to Staten Island, you know. We’re going all the way to Puerto Rico.”

“Don’t get sarcastic,” Mrs. Cole said. “Boats go to Puerto Rico, too.”

“You can’t tell them anything, Louise,” Mrs. Harder said. “They know it all.”

“Well, really,” Eve interrupted, “there is a time element involved.”

“One week,” Larry repeated. “That’s all we’ve got.”

“Ike and Mike,” Mrs. Cole said. “They think alike.”

“Eve, did you take the alarm?”

“Do we need it?”

“I don’t trust hotel switchboard operators.”

“It’s in the bedroom. I’ll get it.”

Eve left the living room, and Lois followed her. She was unplugging the electric clock when Lois said, “Do you think this sweater is too tight, Sis?”

“Well,” Eve said judiciously, “it does make you look a little busty.”

“I am busty,” Lois said.

“Darling,” Eve said, “you’re leggy, too, but you don’t run around in your panties, do you?”

“I guess not,” Lois said dubiously. She studied Eve for a moment and then asked, “What’s it like? Being married, I mean?”

“It’s fun,” Eve said.

“Do you have to do whatever he asks you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, in bed.”

“Lois!”

“A boy kissed me with his mouth open last Saturday night,” Lois said.

“What did you do?”

“I opened mine, too. It was better.”

“I think maybe you’d better have a long talk with Mama,” Eve said, sighing.

“Mama doesn’t know anything,” Lois said. “All she knows how to say is ‘Never, never, never sit on a boy’s lap.’ What’s so terrible about sitting on a boy’s lap?”

“She used to tell me that, too,” Eve said, laughing. “And I haven’t yet figured it out.”

“Did you ever?” Lois asked. “Before you got married, I mean?”

“Sit on a boy’s lap?”

“No. You know.”

“Lois...”

“I mean, with Larry.”

“That’s none of your business,” Eve said. “Listen, when I get back we’d better have a talk.” She wrapped the wire around the clock, sighed, and as she walked out of the bedroom, mumbled, “If it isn’t too late by then.” She handed Larry the clock.

“Take out insurance at the airport, Lawrence,” Mrs. Cole said. “Do you hear me?”

“Will that stop the plane from crashing, Mom?”

“Don’t get smart,” Mrs. Cole said. “I used to change your diapers.”

Mr. Cole laughed and said, “Leave him alone, Louise. He can take care of himself.”

“Certainly,” she said. “That’s why he’s flying in an airplane!”

“Airplanes aren’t really too bad, Louise,” Mrs. Harder said, and Linda turned to look up at her mother in surprise.

Of the two girls, even though they were identical twins, Linda was perhaps the prettier. It was difficult to realize this until you’d known the girls for some time. In the beginning, they seemed absolutely alike, and their sameness nearly drove you to distraction. Later on, you recognized the subtle differences in their faces. Lois’s face belonged to the first born and was more perfectly formed, as if it were the master mold from which both faces were cast. But there was about Linda a quality of serenity which Lois would never possess, a tranquillity which quietly contradicted her sister’s vivaciousness and actually made her prettier.

Combing Chris’s hair now, she said, “You’re very lucky, Eve. I wish I could go.”

Eve turned to her only briefly, but their eyes met in that moment, and they exchanged gentle, almost tender smiles.

“He always wanted to fly,” Mrs. Cole said. “When the war came, I thought he’d drive me crazy. He’d come home from school every day and stick that Air Corps application under my nose, begging me to sign it.”

“Did you?”

“I should say not!”

“I know a boy who’s in the Air Force,” Lois said, coming from the bedroom. “He’s a rear gunner.”

“I won’t let her date servicemen,” Mrs. Harder said.

“That’s very wise, Patricia,” Mrs. Cole said.

“I wouldn’t let Eve date them, either.”

“I was only thirteen when the war started!” Eve said.

“That’s old enough,” Mrs. Harder said. “You were very developed for your age.”

“She’s still developed,” Larry said from the suitcase. “What time is it, hon?”

“I just gave you the clock,” Eve said.

Larry started to look at the disconnected electric clock and then pulled a face. “Dad?” he asked, and both Mr. Harder and Mr. Cole looked at their watches simultaneously.

“It’s almost two,” Mr. Harder said.

The telephone in the bedroom rang. Larry turned and said, “Who’s that?” Impatiently, he strode out of the room.

“He gets very nervous,” Mrs. Cole said. “He was always like that. Peter is calm, but Lawrence is the nervous one.”

“Well, this is a big thing for him,” Mrs. Harder said.

“Do you remember when he won the prize?” Mrs. Cole asked. “I thought he would jump through the ceiling.”