Journeyman by Erskine Caldwell

Susan’s,” Dene said, moving towards the door. “I’ll go get him. He’s the wildest thing.”
    Clay stopped her, pushing her back into the room.
    “Let the little fellow sleep, Dene,” he said. “There’ll be plenty of time for Lorene to see him tomorrow.”
    “I’d like to see him now,” Lorene said. “It’s been a year or more since I saw him. Has he grown much since I left?”
    “A little,” Clay said. “I’ll bring him up the first thing in the morning. Just sit down and rest some now.”
    The others had all found chairs by that time. Everyone sat down except Dene; she still stood by the table.
    “Sit down, Dene,” Clay said, stretching out his feet and locking his hands behind his neck. “We’re all of a color here. It’s hard on your feet to stand up so much at a time. Sit down.”
    “You’ve got the strangest smell,” Dene said.
    “Know where I found her?” Tom asked, pointing at Lorene. “Guess where I found her, Clay!”
    “Where? In town?”
    “Right in McGuffin. She was standing on the corner in front of the barbershop talking to some of the boys when I happened to pass by. As soon as she saw me, she asked me where she could find you. I told her out here at home, I thought; and then she asked me if she could ride out here with me. And, now, here she is. The same old Lorene, Clay! Doggone, if it aint just like old times to see her here again.”
    “I’m mighty glad to see you, Lorene,” Clay said. “Aiming to stay a great while?”
    “Oh, I don’t know,” she laughed, glancing at Tom. “You wouldn’t mind if I stay, would you?”
    “It tickles me to have you here, Lorene. But it makes me feel sort of foolish to be sitting in the house with two of my wives. And, on top of that, it might be against the law, or something. I don’t know what the law would say about it.”
    “Oh, it’s all right,” Tom assured him. “Semon, there, is a preacher. He can fix things up to suit. Can’t you, preacher?”
    Clay glanced anxiously at Semon across the room. He could not imagine what Semon could do about it.
    “You can fix things up, can’t you, preacher?” Tom insisted. “Can’t you?”
    “Who? Me?” Semon said, coming back to life. He had been looking at Lorene for so long that he had forgotten that there was anyone else in the room. “You mean me?”
    “We don’t need anything fixed up,” Lorene said. “I didn’t come back to make trouble. I just came back to see Vearl and find out if he is all right.”
    “I’ve got some medicine for him,” Clay said. “Don’t worry about Vearl. He plays so much up the road that I don’t have to bother about him none.”
    “He’s six years old now,” Lorene said.
    “Is he?” Clay asked. “I clear forgot.”
    “It sure feels like old times to see Lorene sitting here,” Tom said, rubbing his hands together. “It makes me feel real good to see her back.”
    “I reckon you like living in Jacksonville,” Clay said. “It must be fine living in a big city like that.”
    “Oh, it’s all right. I get tired of it sometimes, though. I was working in a five-and-ten up to about three months ago. I had to stop working there. I couldn’t stand it. Being up a lot late at night made me sleepy all the time.”
    “The stores down there don’t keep open all night, do they?” Clay asked in amazement.
    “Oh, you don’t understand,” she said. “I worked in the five-and-ten all day, and then I was up late nearly every night. It got so after a while that I stayed up to three or four o’clock every night. That’s why I had to stop working in the store.”
    “Why didn’t you go to bed early, then?”
    “Oh, Clay, you don’t understand. When I started working in the five-and-ten, the men would be coming in all the time and making dates with me at night. That’s when I got so I couldn’t stay up all night and work all day, too.”
    Clay shook his head. He could not understand what she was talking about. He looked at the