“Why?” he asked, as his eyes met mine.
“For the same old reason,” I told him.
“Reasons,” he said, “are like shoes: Time has the trick of wearing them out.”
“When that happens, we have to get new ones,” I reminded him.
“Then what is the new one?” he asked, with an unexpectedly solemn look on his face.
“My husband has just asked me to join him in Calgary,” I said, releasing my bolt.
“Are you going to?” he asked, with his face a mask.
“I think I am,” I told him. For I could see, now, how Peter’s return had simplified the situation by complicating it. Already he had made my course plainer to me. I could foresee what this new factor would imply. I could understand what Peter’s presence at Alabama Ranch would come to mean. And I had to shut my eyes to the prospect. I was still the same old single-track woman with a clear-cut duty laid out before her. There were certain luxuries, for the sake of my own soul’s peace, I could never afford.
“Why are you going back to your husband?” 271 Peter was asking, with real perplexity on his face.
“Because he needs me,” I said as I stood watching the children go racing down the slide.