Page 16 of Cocky Origins: May and Jerald Cocker

Sable adjusts her glasses to gain control of herself. “Don’t be too glad. Your Father is on his way right this minute to gather you up.”

Peter leaps from the sofa like it licked him. “Right this very minute?”

“I’d say so. There isn’t much time!”

Hank turns to Gertie, “This looks like goodbye. But I’ll be calling you.” He doesn’t ask if that’s okay.

It’s not for lack of moxie that I walk to ask May, “Can I call on you tomorrow afternoon?” It’s out of respect and because I can’t chance her playing hard to get with so little time on my hands. “You see, the fair is in town and I sure would like to take you.”

Her smile lights up the world, then fades. “Oh but...I’m not sure how Mother will...you know what? Never mind. I’ll be there. I’m not sure how I’ll manage but perhaps I can talk her into it. In fact, I know I can!”

“You sure?”

“Yes!”

Hank grabs my arm to hurry me up. “Say everybody, that’s a swell idea. How ‘bout we all go?”

I look at him as the room all but cheers, the answer a resounding affirmative.

Peter and Marv walk out with us as Hank says, “It’s settled then! We’ll meet you gals by the Ferris wheel at three o’clock sharp!”

As soon as we’re out the door, the four of us break into a run, jumping into two vehicles.

I ask Hank with the choice to turn left or right before me, “Do you know which way May lives?”

“I sure don’t. But if you go right that’s more toward the warehouses, less of a chance that you’ll drive past her father.”

I turn the wheel and stamp the gas pedal.

He chuckles, “How’d you like that Ferris wheel idea?”

Headlights from a Ford passing us on the other side make us tense, but it’s a woman driver, so I relax and tell him, “I was hoping to spend some time alone with May since I have so little time.”

“I could see that. Heck, anybody could!” He swats my arm but I keep my eyes on the road. “Only now she doesn’t have to convince her Mother to let her go! She’ll be with her girlfriends and what Mother would say no to that?”

My eyebrows fly up. “Well look at you.”

“Smart, huh?”

“Looks like you’ve grown up after all.”

Hank laughs, “With you gone so long, someone had to fill your shoes!”

10

MAY

“May, perhaps you better get away from the door,” Gertie warns me.

But I want to watch him drive off, and the convertible makes that easy. “Isn’t he dreamy?”

“May, be sensible!”

“Oh alright,” I sigh, rejoining my friends as if it’s been just the four of us all night long. He’s disappeared anyhow. No use staring at the night sky that’s not the same without him watching it with me. And I won’t let the lonely feeling I just had at his absence creep in. Strangest thing.

Lily leans back, delicately picking at a sandwich. “I’d say that brother of his has some big ideas, hasn’t he?”

Gertie blushes, and turns to me, not wanting to be teased. She doesn’t have the disposition for it. “Say, do you think your Father can give me a ride home?” The telephone rings and we all look over. “That might be my mother now.”

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