They heard a shout from somewhere in the house: "MARY! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"
The woman knew that it was Curly, that he had looked through the house before he began to shout. She was shocked into mental numbness by what she had done, what she had experienced.
But her boy, quickly slipping his PJ pants on, went boldly out his bedroom door and she heard his laughing voice: "Hey, dad! What the heck! Mom went out in the back yard. I saw her, out my window. I think she may have gone around the house to pick up the paper!"
It was enough. It gave Mary the moment she needed to pull on her scant nightie and thin robe as Curly's heavy steps went toward the front of the house.
John Junior's room had a door leading to the back yard, and Mary was down into the back yard in a second, her heart pou
