—Duchess?
—In the flesh. And Woolly too.
He still looked dumbfounded.
—But how . . . ?
I laughed.
—That’s the question, right?
I put a hand to the side of my mouth and lowered my voice.
—We hitched a ride with the warden. While he was signing you out, we slipped into the trunk of his car.
—You can’t be serious.
—I know. It’s not what you’d call first-class travel. What with it being a hundred degrees in there and Woolly complaining every ten minutes about having to go to the bathroom. And when we crossed into Nebraska? I thought I was going to get a concussion from the divots in the road. Someone should write a letter to the governor!
—Hey, Emmett, said Woolly, like he’d just joined the party.
You’ve got to love that about Woolly. He’s always running about five minutes late, showing up on the wrong platform with the wrong luggage just as the conversation is pulling out of the station. Some might find the trait a little exasperating, but I’d take a guy who runs five minutes late over a guy who runs five minutes early, any day of the week.
Out of the corner of my eye I had been watching as the kid, who’d been sitting on a hay bale, began edging his way in our direction. When I pointed, he froze like a squirrel on the grass.
—Billy, right? Your brother says you’re as sharp as a tack. Is that true?
The kid smiled and edged a little closer until he was standing at Emmett’s side. He looked up at his brother.
—Are these your friends, Emmett?
—Of course we’re his friends!
—They’re from Salina, Emmett explained.
I was about to elaborate when I noticed the car. I’d been so focused on the charms of the reunion that I hadn’t seen it hiding behind the heavy equipment.
—Is that the Studebaker, Emmett? What do they call that? Baby blue?
Objectively speaking, it looked a little like a car that your dentist’s wife would drive to bingo, but I gave it a whistle anyway. Then I turned to Billy.
—Some of the boys in Salina would pin a picture of their girl back home on the bottom of the upper bunk so they could stare at it before lights out. Some of them had a photo of Elizabeth Taylor or Marilyn Monroe. But your brother, he pinned up an advertisement torn from an old magazine with a full-color picture of his car. I’ll be honest with you, Billy. We gave your brother a lot of grief about that. Getting all moon-eyed over an automobile. But now that I see her up close . . .
I shook my head in a show of appreciation.
—Hey, I said, turning to Emmett. Can we take her for a spin?
Emmett didn’t answer because he was looking at Woolly—who was looking at a spider web without a spider.
—How are you doing, Woolly? he asked.
Turning, Woolly thought about it for a moment.
—I’m all right, Emmett.
—When was the last time you had something to eat?
—Oh, I don’t know. I guess it was before we got in the warden’s car. Isn’t that right, Duchess?
Emmett turned to his brother.
—Billy, you remember what Sally said about supper?
—She said to cook it at 350° for forty-five minutes.
—Why don’t you take Woolly back to the house, put the dish in the oven, and set the table. I need to show Duchess something, but we’ll be right behind you.
—Okay, Emmett.
As we were watching Billy and Woolly walk back toward the house, I wondered what Emmett wanted to show me. But when he turned in my direction, he didn’t look himself. As a matter of fact, he seemed out of sorts. I guess some people are like that when it comes to surprises. Me, I love surprises. I love it when life pulls a rabbit out of a hat. Like when the blue-plate special is turkey and stuffing in the middle of May. But some people just don’t like being caught off guard—even by good news.
—Duchess, what are you doing here?
Now it was me who looked surprised.
—What are we doing here? Why, we’ve come to see you, Emmett. And the farm. You know how it is. You hear enough stories from a buddy about his life back home and eventually you want to see it for yourself.
To make my point, I gestured toward the tractor and the hay bale and the great American prairie that was waiting right outside the door, trying its best to convince us that the world was flat, after all.
Emmett followed my gaze, then turned back.
—I’ll tell you what, he said. Let’s go have something to eat, I’ll give you and Woolly a quick tour, we’ll get a good night’s sleep, then in the morning, I’ll drive you back to Salina.