Fireworks

They approached the glare of tiki torches burning around the cottage where shadowy forms danced to the steady backbeat of the stereo within a fiery circle. Jane moved closer to Jamie, and he offered his arm for balance as she pulled on her Keds, her eyes riveted on the scene.

“Will you do what they want this time? Get married and everything?”

“I don’t know… But I like knowing I can pack up and move on if I get tired of a place — or it gets tired of me.”

“Are you tired of Ballantyne yet?”

“Not yet. Good thing, too, since I don’t have my car.”

Jane nudged his ribs. “That’s not very reassuring.”

“Gotta keep you on your toes, sug.” He put on his own shoes and nodded toward the mingling groups, barely distinguishable from one another in the faded light. “What do you think? You want to stick around for awhile?”

“I guess. Dad hired someone to do a fireworks show.”

“You don’t sound excited. Don’t you like fireworks?”

Jane began to thread her way through the people. “It’s just ‘sound and fury signifying nothing’. And no, that wasn’t in True Confessions.”

He laughed and caught one of her long curls in an affectionate tug. “What’m I gonna do with you? Miss Jane, you are too smart for your own good.”

She wheeled in an about-face. “But you still like me, right?”

He was able to see her clearly in the first burst of exploding fireworks. Simultaneously young and old in the kaleidoscope lighting, the little girl fixed him with an expression so full of longing, his first thought was to run away and never look back. Overhead another rupture of color split the sky to a choral accompaniment of “oohs” and “ahhs,” a momentary distraction in which he found an honest answer. “You’re fine by me.”


The Long Black Veil Chapter 14, pp. 104-105