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Show I! fgQsH CORNER II 51 I MESSAGE FOR THELMA I I By ROBERT ARTHUR lege and trying to be a reporter. And Tom, spending more and more of his time with her until Anne, with her own need for him so strong had, in her disappointment and Inability In-ability to guess what was wrong between be-tween them, provoked that scene which could not be made up. So now he was taking away his things . . . Anne looked at her wrist watch. In the turmoil of her thoughts, more ! I,' rpOM's note said that he would j come at 11 for his things. By ' ; 10:30 Anne had packed all of his personal belongings into the three j ' .pigskin bags and the wardrobe trunk, which she dragged empty jj ; Into the foyer of the apartment and filled there. Tom was never punc-II punc-II tual. He might come half an hour early or half an hour late, and she wanted to have everything ready In time so that she could be out j ; when he came. She did not linger over the pack ing or allow herself to feel anything, even when she put the set of culf ' : links and studs which had been her g ,: wedding gift to him and the silver- i mounted military brushes she had 6 given him on their first and only 1 anniversary into the last bag. I wonder if anyone else In New York uses military brushes, she 1 before the elevator could reach her floor. It didn't stop, after all. But the fear of being caught there by Tom's arrival stayed with her until she was outside and hurrying across to Washington Square. , Only when she reached the small park did she slow her pace. ' She found a bench In the cool sunshine and sat down. Then, watching the placid pigeons, the screeching children on skates, the mothers pushing carriages and the old men playing checkers, she tried to keep her thoughts turned from what was happening. But it wasn't possible. Why? The question persisted in asking itself. What went wrong? Why didn't it work out? She'd known it wouldn't be easy. A sports writer, Tom often had to than an hour had passed. She rose and thankfully started back toward the apartment. Tom certainly would have come and gone by now. Anyway it was over. She could start rebuilding her life somehow. At least, she was thinking as she put her key into the door, she had kept her emotions in control. Then she opened the door. And all thought fled. He had not left. His trunk and bags were still there, and he was standing beside them. "Anne," Tom said, as woodenly she closed the door behind her, holding to the knob for support. "Anne!" He took a step toward her. Hii voice was rough with urgency. She : : caught herself thinking. I never (. knew any other man who did. A l brief mental picture came to her of i.i Tom before the mirror, making a 1! determined effort with the brushes to force his sandy hair to stay in place. Then as quickly as it had come she banished it. ' Surgical operations should be neat and clean. Even if it was something you were cutting ont of i' your heart you musn't linger over ' it. Only when the three bags were standing beside the trunk, in their scuffed sturdiness, strangely reminding re-minding her of Tom, did she have time to feel the emptiness within her. As if, in emptying the closet and bureau of his things, she had taken something from inside herself and packed it too. To escape the curious numbness 'which gripped her, she turned swiftly swift-ly and went for her hat and coat. In getting them from the closet beside be-side the front -door she saw the large pad which hung there where Thelma, the maid, could not help Swift panic assailed her as she heard the elevator begin its humming hum-ming rise. He mustn't find her here. She left the message unfinished and hurriedly fled. , tried to turn, tried to open the door to flee, but his hands caught her. "Anne, we've been fools. Or at least I have. I need you. I know it. I never stopped knowing It It was just that you didn't seem to need me." "Didn't need you, Tom?" In surprise sur-prise she ceased her blind efforts to release herself, to look up at him in astonishment. "But I do. I've always needed you. The times when vou were awav " seeing it both on arriving and leaving. leav-ing. Thelma was a good worker, but forgetful. "Thelma Please defrost de-frost refrigerator," said last Thursday's Thurs-day's note, reminding her that this was Saturday, and Thelma would do no marketing for the weekend unless un-less told. But Thelma might be gone before Anne returned, and Anne hesitated. Then, do everything every-thing just as always, she told herself. her-self. If you let go now, it'll just hurt worse and longer. be away for several days, sometimes some-times even for weeks. And-the time when he was gone was just a series of empty days and nights in which she missed him so much the sense of his absence was almost a physical physi-cal ache. But she'd known how it would be, and knowing, had accepted the job of making their marriage work. She had never fretted or wept when Tom had to be away. She'd kissed him goodby lightly and welcomed him goodby lightly and welcomed him back in the same spirit. She hadn't clung to him when he left or fussed over him when he returned. re-turned. Men hated that. She had never let him guess the horrible loneliness that stayed with her when he was away on an assignment, as-signment, lest it make him feel guilty for leaving her alone , so much. And she'd kept her job, writing store copy, not because she liked or needed it but because it helped fill the days of waiting when he was away. But she hadn't let the job come between her and the home she was trying to make for him. With the help of Thelma and much forethought, fore-thought, she had kept it Imning so smoothly the mechanics of housekeeping never had obtruded upon the time they did have together. togeth-er. And yet She still could not analyze it. Why Tom gradually had become dissatisfied dissatis-fied and restless. Had taken to making excuses for staying away even when he was not on an assignment. as-signment. Then had come the blonde girl, Marion something, fresh out of col- She slipped into her coat, forced herself to put on her hat with care. Then she took up the pencil that was tied to the pad by a red string and tried to think what she would need. Tomatoes, lettuce, oranges, bread, milk, coffee, she thought. Soup maybe. I don't know. I don't care what I eat. Her fingers were curiously stiff as she wrote carefully, in neat capitals: capi-tals: NEEDED. She underscored the word, drew a line after it, then had just begun to write down the items she wanted Thelma to buy when she heard the elevator begin its humming rise. Swift panic assailed her. It was early, but it might be Tom. He mustn't find her here. To see him again, not knowing even now what it was that had gone wrong, would be more than she could face. Her carefully maintained self-possession probably would go in a flood of . tears and with it the last remnant of her pride, all that she had left, would be stripped from her. She dropped the pencil, leaving the note for Thelma barely begun, ran out the door and down the fire stairs And then, without warning, the tears came. It was the first time she ever had let him see her cry. Men hated weepy women, but when the tears were over, something cold and dead inside her had been washed away. She dried her eyes on Tom's handkerchief and held her lips up J for his kiss. And she knew then, somehow, what he meant. She had! made their marriage a thing light and gay and it had been too light, too gay. With her casual goodbysi and her bright welcomes she had hid her emotions too well. That men hate emotion had been her1 guiding principle. But a good marriage has depths. A woman must feel needed; but so must a man, too. In avoiding one extreme she had gone to another. Tom tried, in awkward sentences, to 'explain. Tried to tell her about the blonde Marion, whose need for his help and advice had almost made him think that he But he didn't have to explain. She understood under-stood all he said, and more. Only, when he finished was she bewildered. bewil-dered. ' "If VOU hflHn't lf TYia t. ; If you hadn't let me know, -though," Tom' said then, his square, i nicely ugly features twisted in a! grin that was tight with the knowledge know-ledge of how close their escape had1 been, "if you hadn't put it where I couldn't miss it" But she was able to still the question ques-tion on her lips before it was spoken. For she saw the direction of his look, and followed it to see the message for Thelma which she, had begun, directing her to buy tomatoes and other Items, but had not stayed to finish. And what the abruptly broken-off message said now, instead was: "NEEDED TOM." |