While We're Far Apart by Lynn Austin

keep cool all summer long.
    “Washing machine is down in the basement. One of them belongs to the landlord. There’s a line to hang the clothes on out back.”
    “Maybe I’ll just do all the washing at my house,” Penny said. “I have to go home every Saturday anyway to help my folks. And the kids can see their grandmother at the same time. Would you like that?” Neither of them replied.
    “Listen, I don’t know how I will ever thank you,” Eddie said.
    Marry me , she longed to reply. Instead, she said, “I don’t mind. Really.”
    “Well . . . I guess I’d better get going.”
    “No!” Esther wailed. “Don’t go, Daddy!”
    “Please don’t make this any harder than it already is, doll,” he said softly. He gave Peter a long hug and kissed the top of his head, then pried his arms off so he could hug Esther. He even gave Penny a brief, stiff hug – a tantalizing glimpse of what it would be like when the war ended and they could be together forever. She would wake him up with a kiss every morning and give him another kiss before he left for work, just like the wives in the movies did.
    Both kids were crying hard, and Eddie silently signaled for Penny to hold them back. Her heart broke for all of them as she watched Eddie hurry away, grabbing his suitcase and closing the door behind him. The children didn’t try to follow him. Instead, they twisted out of Penny’s grasp and ran upstairs to their room.
    Penny couldn’t stop crying, either. She went into the kitchen and washed and dried the dishes as tears continued to roll down her cheeks. Nearly every dish in the house seemed to be dirty, so it took a long time. She tried to figure out where everything went in the cupboards and decided that it didn’t matter for now. The two bowls of uneaten cereal still sat on the table. Should she carry the kids’ breakfast upstairs to them?
    No, maybe they needed to be left alone.
    Penny wandered into the living room and saw pretty lace curtains on the windows and an upright piano that she hadn’t noticed before. She wondered who played it. The apartment was very quiet. She didn’t know what else to do, so she sat down in the rocking chair near the window and gazed down at the street below her. A crowd had gathered to gawk at the burned-out building.
    A long time later the phone rang. Should she answer it? It seemed wrong to answer someone else’s phone, but the kids were still upstairs in their room. Besides, it might be Eddie, checking to see if they were okay. She lifted the receiver.
    “Hello? . . . Um . . . Shaffer residence.”
    “Penny! You were supposed to call me! It’s been hours!” Mother sounded furious.
    “Oh! I’m sorry . . . I-I had things to do and . . . and Eddie was showing me all around and . . . and then I forgot.”
    “You forgot? You would forget your head if it wasn’t attached to your body. Your father and I have been worried sick. I almost called the police. You didn’t give me the phone number so I had to go next door and bother Mrs. Shaffer for it. She’s a wreck, by the way, with three sons fighting in the war now, thanks to you.”
    “Well, I arrived here just fine. I’m sorry I forgot to call. But you have the number now, in case you need anything. I have to go. Good-bye.”
    Penny slammed down the phone, grabbed her shopping bags from the front hallway, and carried them upstairs to Eddie’s bedroom. He had emptied a bureau drawer for her to use, and she carefully filled it with her own neatly folded things. The room was messy but she might not straighten it up just yet. These were Eddie’s clothes. He had slept in this rumpled bed. His scent was everywhere.
    Rachel was everywhere, too, in all of the feminine little touches. The crocheted doilies on the bureau and nightstands, the tatted lace and embroidery on the pillow covers. Penny sat down on the unmade bed. She had made a terrible mistake. What was she doing here? Eddie was gone and his kids hated her. She