An Ocean in Iowa by Peter Hedges Page A

of a career soldier, but as he watched her, he began to rethink what he had held to be true.
    “Scotty,” the Judge said, “I want you to stay off their property.”
    “Why would she throw out all that money?” Scotty asked the Judge.
    “I don’t know, Scotty,” the Judge said, even though he had a pretty good idea why.
    ***
    Scotty wore only underwear as he watched the morning cartoons. He sat with his hand on the channel knob. He flipped from show to show—
Heckle and Jeckle
(the know-it-all magpies),
Scooby-Doo
, and
H. R. Pufnstuf
—until the doorbell interrupted him.
    He found Tom Conway standing on the Oceans’ porch, smiling big. Scotty had hardly opened the door when Tom spouted, “Our yard’s off-limits. That’s what my mom says. She’s got a surprise planned.”
    Tom’s father was a sergeant in Vietnam and he rode in tanks. In honor of his return, Tom dressed in the same pretend army uniform he wore on Halloween, minus the bloody headband.
    Scotty asked Tom if he wanted to come inside to watch cartoons.
    Tom said, “No—a soldier has to be ready at all times.”
    So Scotty put on pants and a T-shirt and they stood around the Ocean front yard.
    “The men get to wear uniforms.”
    “Yeah,” Scotty said.
    At the Conway house, the phone kept ringing and Liz Conway scurried around getting her daughter Donna ready. The Conway women were wearing identical dresses, which Liz had made out of the same flowered fabric. She started sewing when she got word that Sergeant Conway was coming home, sewing round the clock to finish them in time.
    “She’s got some kind of special surprise,” Tom said. “My mom’s been smiling all morning.” Tom bent down to tie Scotty’s tennis shoe.
    Standing at the base of the Conway driveway, Liz shouted, “Tom!”
    The boys turned and saw Liz Conway. With a large pink bow in her hair and wearing the flowered dress, she looked gift-wrapped.
    “Tom, time to go!”
    Tom sprinted home.
    Scotty waited in the yard and watched them drive away. Then he sat under the big sycamore tree, and even though it was forbidden, he pried bark off the tree trunk with his fingers. As he broke it into small pieces, he thought how nice it would be to be covered in bark.
    Back in the house, he flipped channels. Cartoons were over. It was either
Wide World of Sports
or college football or an old movie on Channel 5.
    Maggie fixed herself a bowl of ice cream and watched from the sofa. At a commercial break, she went to the bathroom and Scotty moved closer to the TV. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
    He stared at the TV, studying every move, memorizing every detail: her blue-and-white-striped shirt, her shoulder-length hair pulled back with a red bandanna. She sailed with a man, in a white boat with a light brown deck—the trees were bright green and the water an unbelievable blue. As a Glenn Campbell-like voice sang about Salem and springtime, the wind blew the boat and the couple floated around the large lake. So much can happen in thirty seconds. The television showed this woman slowly bring a lit cigarette to her mouth—done as if there were nothing better on this earth. When thecigarette touched her lips, she inhaled—the camera cut away before she exhaled, so Scotty exhaled for her.
    “Does Scotty have a girlfriend?” Maggie said from the hallway.
    “No,” Scotty snapped.
    “Does too.”
    Maggie pushed Scotty out of the way. “My turn,” she announced. “You’ve hogged the TV all day.”
    Scotty, stunned, moved away from the TV as Maggie turned it to
American Bandstand.
Dick Clark was announcing the musical guests for the week.
    “Claire,” Maggie shouted, “Peaches and Herb! The 1910 Fruitgum Company!”
    Scotty knew he was outnumbered. He was climbing the stairs as Claire rushed by him screaming as if at an actual concert.
    The Oceans’ second television, a black-and-white model with old-fashioned rabbit ears (a gift at the Judge and Joan’s wedding in 1953) sat