Page:Jay Little - Maybe—Tomorrow.pdf/87

 "We'll use it some other time," Blake grinned. "Damn, I wish Dad sold them instead of Fords. This can will go all right but it sure rattles like hell. Sounds like it's falling to pieces."

Gaylord found himself thinking: I wish I would have known you wanted to drive my car … just to have you touch it would mean a lot … Gosh, Bob, if I could only tell you the many times I've wished to be sitting close to you. To be able to talk to you the way we are now. I hope we do it often … it can't be too often …

He was not looking at Blake. He was searching that unknown but familiar road in front of the blinding lights coming toward them. He looked at their brightness swimming past and he thought of water falling from a great height and splashing on rocks below. He was passing down one of the oldest roads of his childhood, the way to the city, and he remembered the many times he had traveled over its pavement. Good trips and bad ones, sad ones and happy ones, but tonight, the passing scene of familiar backdrops and landscapes held a different charm. It was all important now. The trees, the houses behind the trimmed hedges, the flat fields and the lighted billboards were all seen through different eyes.

"Bob?" Gaylord whispered.

"Huh?"

"Thanks for this morning."

"This morning?"

"Yes … this morning … Stud …" He was conscious of Blake gazing at him.

"Oh, that." His bare brown arm reached down and he patted Gaylord's leg. In the moonlight Gaylord saw the wink, the grin. "Ain't nothing," he went on, "nothing … forget it, Gay."

"It was a lot to me … I don't know what I would have done if it hadn't been for you." There. It was said. He tried to smile, a hesitant, little boy's smile, but his voice was full and very serious.

"They wouldn't have done anything. Just a bunch of bullies that get a kick out of doing something like that."

"I'm not so sure. When Stud pushed against me, he had a … well, anyway he sure was repulsive … . I was scared, Bob."

"Guess you got his blood pressure up, huh kid?"

"I don't see how … I'm not a girl." Gaylord was sorry he had