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Show Sil LILAC C- TREE f . i By Rnth Thompson " j WNU Features. Y'IC strode ahead into the dert with his suitcase and Marys grey tweed bag. Last night this had seemed such a perfect idea. Vic j and she were dancing when he suggested sug-gested it. "We can be married right away over the line no waiting around. Don't fuss about a lot of clothes," he had said. "Just wait. I'll dress you like a doll." The first time he said that, Mary felt tingly from head to toe. She hated her job in the noisy restaurant. restau-rant. Every day the trays seemed heavier and clumsier to manage. Vic's cheery flirting at the counter had been a welcome diversion. Vic set the bags down beside a long empty bench and she watched him hurry to the ticket-window. How queer, she thought, just two years ago, when she left Pine Creek it was April then, too she had entered the city through this same station. Then Mom had tucked a spray of purple lilac in the strap of the suitcase suit-case "So you'll not be forgetting the lilac tree." Mary smiled. She was remembering remem-bering how she had called even the tiniest shrub a lilac tree. Someone came and sat close to her. Vic, it was, with the tickets in his hand. "What are you grinning about?" he asked. "Oh, nothing," she answered. He let it go at that. He laid his arm across her shoulders, drew her close, while his pudgy fingers kept squeezing her arm. His lips almost touched tiers. Mary turned her face away, try Ing to ignore him. She noticed a woman who had entered the depot , $ i Vic's cheery flirting at the counter coun-ter had been a welcome diversion. The woman carried an armful of hauntingly sweet lilacs. She brushed past Mary. One spray fell near her. "Vic," she said, touching his coat sleeve. "Pick up that lilac for me, won't you?" "You're crazy. That weedl Why would you want that?" he asked. "Just you wait. I'll get you roses, a roomful of red rosei." MARY did not answer. She was seeing lilac trees, purple and white all in bloom back home. She could almost smell their sweetness. Vic swore under his breath. Startled, Star-tled, Mary turned to him. A swarthy man, with hat pulled low, was approaching ap-proaching them. His face was vaguely familiar. "Who is he, Vic?" Mary whispered, whis-pered, as she tried to recollect where or if she had met him. Vic paid no attention to her. Instead he spoke sharply to the man. "What's the big idea, following me here? Didn't I tell everyone to lay low? I meant it. Mary and me are going away to going away to be hitched." Mary noticed uneasily how he hesitated hes-itated as he spoke. The stranger's eyes shifted to Mary. She caught a glimpse of a scar high on one cheek, of shifty, dark eyes. Something clicked. That picture in last night's paper. The column about another hold-up. Mary shivered shiv-ered like when someone dropped a lump of snow down her back when she was a kid. Then "It's like this, boss" He was whispering something in Vic's ear. "Boss." Startled, Mary tried to listen closer. Vic swore again. His voice was harsh. "Nol" he shouted. Mary shivered. She looked around, hoping no one heard him. "Listen, Baby," he said, turning to her. "I've got some business, some mighty important business to tend to. You wait here. I'll be j back, pronto." MARY watched them step into a ! large flashy car. At first she ' was frightened. Then there was no feeling in her body but a queer numbness. Only her brain stirred. It was clearing, like a mist rising after sun-rise. j Suddenly she grabbed up her grey tweed bag and almost ran to the ticket window. There were only two ahead of her. Breathlessly she asked the agent about the train to Pine Creek. "Yes, Ma'am! In three minutes, better hurry," he said as he stamped her ticket. Clutching the bit of paper in her fingers when he handed it to her, all of a sudden she felt as if she had been running through a dark, dense forest and had that minute Istepped out into the warm clean sunlight. |