store without finding anything she wanted to rent. Too much violence,
Irene said. Both women were cigarette widows. Esther could hardly have
missed the orange Public Works dump truck coming down the hill; although
she denied this to the police, to the newspaper, and to me when I talked
to her some two months later, I think it likely that she just forgot to
look. As my own mother (another cigarette widow) used to say, "The two
most common ailments of the elderly are arthritis and forgetfulness.
They can't be held responsible for neither." Driving the Public Works
truck was William Fraker, of Old Cape. Mr. Fraker was thirty-eight years
old on the day of my wife's death, driving with his shirt off and
thinking how badly he wanted a cool shower and a cold beer, not
necessarily in that order. He and three other men had spent eight hours
putting down asphalt patch out on the Harris Avenue Extension near the
airport, a hot job on a hot day, and Bill Fraker said yeah, he might
have been going a little too fast--maybe forty in a thirty-mile-an-hour
zone. He was eager to get back to the garage, sign off on the truck, and
get behind the wheel of his own F-150, which had air conditioning. Also,
the dump truck's brakes, while good enough to pass inspection, were a
long way from tip-top condition.
Fraker hit them as soon as he saw the Toyota pull out in front of him
(he hit his horn, as well), but it was too late. He heard screaming
tires--his own, and Esther's as she belatedly realized her danger--and
saw her face for just a moment. "That was the worst part, somehow," he
told me as we sat on his porch, drinking beers--it was October by then,
and although the sun was warm on our faces, we were both wearing
sweaters. "You know how high up you sit in one of those dump trucks? " I
nodded. "Well, she was looking up to see me---craning up, you'd say--and
the sun was full in her face. I could see how old she was. I remember
thinking, "Holy shit, she's gonna break like glass if I can't
stop.' But old people are tough, more often than not. They can surprise
you. I mean, look at how it turned out, both those old biddies still
alive, and your wife..." He stopped then, bright red color dashing into
his cheeks, making him look like a boy who has been laughed at in the
schoolyard by girls who have noticed his fly is unzipped. It was
comical, but if I'd smiled, it only would have confused him. "Mr.
Noonan, I'm sorry. My mouth just sort of ran away with me."
"It's all right," I told him. "I'm over the worst of it, anyway." That
was a lie, but it put us back on track. "Anyway," he said, "we hit.
There was a loud bang, and a crumping sound when the driver's side of
the car caved in. Breaking glass, too. I was thrown against the wheel
hard enough so I couldn't draw a breath without it hurting for a week or
more, and I had a big bruise right here." He drew an arc on his chest
just below the collarbones. "I banged my head on the windshield hard
enough to crack the glass, but all I got up there was a little purple
knob.., no bleeding, not even a headache.
My wife says I've just got a naturally thick skull. I saw the woman
driving the Toyota, Mrs. Easterling, thrown across the console between
the front bucket seats. Then we were finally stopped, all tangled
together in the middle of the street, and I got out to see how bad they
were. I tell you, I expected to find them both dead." Neither of them
was dead, neither of them was even unconscious, although Mrs. Easterling
had three broken ribs and a dislocated hip. Mrs. Deorsey, who had been a
seat away from the impact, suffered a concussion when she rapped her
head on her window. That was all; she was "treated and released at Home