Lauren Drew Dr. Goodman Contemporary Short Story Shiloh Annotations: 277 - 278 could become reacquainted.

But when the oven timer goes off and she runs to the kitchen, he forgets why he wants to do this. The next day, Mabel drops by. It is Saturday and Norma Jean is cleaning. Leroy is studying the plans of his log house, which have finally come in the mail. He has them spread out on the tablebig sheets of stiff blue paper, with diagrams and numbers printed in white. While Norma Jean runs the vacuum, Mabel drinks coffee. She sets her coffee cup on a blueprint. Im just waiting for time to pass, she says to Leroy, drumming her fingers on the table. As soon as Norma Jean switches off the vacuum, Mabel says in a loud voice, Did you hear about the datsun dog that killed the baby? Norma Jean says, The word is dachshund. They put the dog on trial. It chewed the babys legs off. The mother was in the next room all the time. She raises her voice. They thought it was neglect. Norma Jean is holding her ears. Leroy manages to open the refrigerator and get some Diet Pepsi to offer Mabel. Mabel still has some coffee and she waves away the Pepsi. Datsuns are like that, Mabel says. Theyre jealous dogs. Theyll tear a place to pieces if you dont keep an eye on them. You better watch out what youre saying, Mabel, says Leroy. Well, facts is facts. Leroy looks out the window at his rig. It is like a huge piece of furniture gathering dust in the backyard. Pretty soon it will be an antique. He hears the vacuum cleaner. Norma Jean seems to be cleaning the living room rug again. Later, she says to Leroy, She just said that about the baby because she caught me smoking. Shes trying to pay me back.

What are you talking about? Leroy says, nervously shuffling blueprints. You know good and well, Norma Jean says. She is sitting in a kitchen chair with her feet up and her arms wrapped around her knees. She looks small and helpless. She says, The very idea, her bringing up a subject like that! Saying it was ne- glect. She didnt mean that, Leroy says. She might not have thought she meant it. She always says things like that. You dont know how she goes on. But she didnt really mean it. She was just talking. Leroy opens a king-sized bottle of beer and pours it into two glasses, dividing it carefully. He hands a glass to Norma Jean and she takes it from him mechanically. For a long time, they sit by the kitchen window watching the birds at the feeder. Something is happening. Norma Jean is going to night school. She has graduated from her sixweek body-building course and now she is taking an adult-education course in composition at Paducah Community College. She spends her evenings outlining paragraphs. First you have a topic sentence, she explains to Leroy. Then you divide it up. Your secondary topic has to be connected to your primary topic. To Leroy, this sounds intimidating. I never was any good in English, he says. It makes a lot of sense. What are you doing this for, anyhow? She shrugs. Its something to do. She stands up and lifts her dumbbells a few times. Driving a rig, nobody cared about my English. Im not criticizing your English. Norma Jean used to say, If I lose ten minutes sleep, I just drag all day. Now she stays up late, writing compositions. She got a B on her first papera how-to theme on soup-based casseroles. Recently Norma Jean has been cooking unusual foodstacos, lasagna, Bombay chicken. She

doesnt play the organ anymore, though her second paper was called Why Music Is Important to Me. She sits at the kitchen table, concentrating on her outlines, while Leroy plays with his log house plans, practicing with a set of Lincoln Logs. The thought of getting a truckload of notched, numbered logs scares him, and he wants to be prepared. As he and Norma Jean work together at the kitchen table, Leroy has the hopeful thought that they are sharing something, but he knows he is a fool to think this. Norma Jean is miles away. He knows he is going to lose her. Like Mabel, he is just waiting for time to pass. One day, Mabel is there before Norma Jean gets home from work, and Leroy finds himself confiding in her. Mabel, he realizes, must know Norma Jean better than he does. I dont know whats got into that girl, Mabel says. She used to go to bed with the chickens. Now you say shes up all hours. Plus her a-smoking. I like to died. I want to make her this beautiful home, Leroy says, indicating the Lincoln Logs. I dont think she even wants it. Maybe she was happier with me gone. She dont know what to make of you, coming home like this. Is that it? Mabel takes the roof off his Lincoln Log cabin. You couldnt get me in a log cabin, she says. I was raised in one. Its no picnic, let me tell you. Theyre different now, says Leroy. I tell you what, Mabel says, smiling oddly at Leroy. What? Take her on down to Shiloh. Yall need to get out together, stir a little. Her brains all balled up over them books. Leroy can see traces of Norma Jeans features in her mothers face. Mabels worn face has the texture of crinkled cotton, but suddenly she looks pretty. It occurs to Leroy that Mabel has been hinting all along that she wants them to take her with them to Shiloh. Lets all go to Shiloh, he says. You and me and her. Come Sunday. Mabel throws up her hands in protest. Oh, no, not me. Young folks want to be by theirselves.

When Norma Jean comes in with groceries, Leroy says excitedly, Your mama heres been dying to go to Shiloh for thirty-five years. Its about time we went, dont you think?