Return to Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

plate-glass window of his office, Seth Buswell looked at his watch and made a threatening come-in-here gesture at Norman, but Allison stuck her tongue out at him and Seth laughed, and Allison and Norman crossed the street to the diner.
    Norman Page no longer used his crutches when he walked, and Peyton Place marveled at his recovery.
    â€œGot guts, that boy,” they said.
    â€œYep. Nobody'd ever think he'd been hit during the war at all.”
    â€œIt certainly was a terrible thing, his getting all shot up like that.”
    â€œAyeh. But he come through it good. Walks just like everybody else now.”
    When Peyton Place discussed Norman Page, Matthew Swain and Seth Buswell did not take part in the conversation, nor did they look at one another lest a glance betray the terrible secret they shared with Norman and his mother, Evelyn.
    â€œExcept nobody has to worry about Evelyn giving anything away,” said Seth Buswell. “She's told herself that lie so long and so often that now she really believes that Norman was wounded in the war.”
    â€œLess said about the whole thing the better,” said Matt Swain gruffly.
    Norman Page had not received a leg wound in battle. He had been discharged as a psychoneurotic, and Evelyn had made the trip, alone, to bring her son home. She had taken him directly from the Army hospital to a large, midtown hotel in New York City and there she had begun to school him in the things he must say and do at home. Norman had been wounded in battle. His right leg had been practically shot out from under him. He must practice with the crutches she had bought for him and never, never let anyone know that he had been discharged from the Army for any other reason than his leg. When Norman had protested she had screamed at him.
    â€œDo you want everyone in Peyton Place to think you're crazy? Think of me, Norman. At least, spare me this!”
    And Norman, weaker than he had ever been, sick and tired and beaten, had come home to a hero's welcome.
    It was Matthew Swain who realized almost at once that there was nothing the matter with Norman's leg. He had confided in Seth, and the two of them had contacted an old friend of Matt's who was a doctor in the Army. They had learned the truth, then, and had done all they could to protect Norman. No photographs of Peyton Place's hero appeared in Seth's newspaper, lest some other paper pick up the story and reprint it for its human interest.
    â€œIf that happens, someone who was in the service with him might recognize him,” said Matthew Swain.
    So the legend that Norman Page was a war hero persisted in Peyton Place. Eventually, Norman discarded his crutches for a cane and at last he used nothing at all for support and walked upright by himself. But Evelyn Page had so thoroughly convinced herself of the truth of her own lies that often, when it was cloudy and looked like rain, she would ask her son, “How does your leg feel?” Norman always said, “Fine.”
    â€œTell me all about it, Allison,” said Norman, as Corey Hyde put coffee cups down in front of them.
    â€œThere's nothing much to tell, really,” said Allison. “I started reworking a book I had written in New York right after I came home, and now my agent has managed to sell it. It sounds so simple when I say it that way.”
    â€œWho?” asked Norman. “I mean, who bought it?”
    â€œA house called Lewis Jackman and Company. In New York.”
    â€œI never heard of them,” said Norman. “But then, that doesn't mean anything. About the only publishers I ever heard of are Lippincott in Philadelphia and Little, Brown, in Boston.”
    â€œJackman is a very small house,” said Allison. “Brad—that's my agent, Bradley Holmes—says I'll be much better off with a small house because they'll have more time to spend on my book.”
    â€œWhat's your book about?”
    â€œIt's always hard to describe what a