The Intruders Read Free Page A

screen. That limb-he could take
out the screen, toss down the bags, get onto that limb and climb down to
the ground.
    He could be in a taxi on the way to the airport before they even knew he
was gone.
    He was stiff sitting there staring glumly out the window when Callie
came for him thirty minutes later.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked.
    “Nothing,” he said, rising from the bed and stretching. -Dinner ready?”
    “Yes.”
    “Something is wrong, isn’t it?”
    There was no way to avoid it. “You didn’t tell me your Dad was Mr.
Liberal.”
    “Liberal? He’s about a mile left of Lenin.”
    “He looked really thrilled when I told him I was an attack pilot.”
    “Dad is Dad. I thought it was me you were interested in?”
    Jake Grafton cocked his head. “Well, you are better looking than he is.
Probably a better kisser, too.” He took her arm and led her toward the
stairs. “Wait till you meet my older brother,” he told her. “He can’t
wait for the next revolution. He says the next time we won’t screw it
up like Bobby Lee and Jeff Davis did.”
    “How would you rate me as a kisser?” she asked softlyThey paused on the
top stair and she wrapped her arms around him. “This is for score,” he
whispered. “Pucker up.”
    That night when they were in bed Professor McKenzie told his wife, “that
boy’s a killer.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous, Wallace.”
    “He kills people. He kills them from the air. He’s an executioner.”
    “That’s war, dear. They try to kill him, he tries to kill them.”
    “It’s murder.”
    Mary McKenzie had heard it all before. “Callie is in love with him,
Wallace. I suggest you keep your opinions and your loaded labels to
yourself. She must make her own decision.”
    “Decision? What decision?”
    “Whether or not to marry him.”
    “Marriage?”
    “Don’t tell me you didn’t know what was going on?” his wife said
crossly. “I swear, you’re blind as a bat! Didn’t you see her at dinner
tonight? She loves him.”
    “She won’t marry him,” Professor McKenzie stated positively. “I know
Callie!”
    “Yes, dear,” Mrs. McKenzie muttered, just to pacify the man. What her
husband knew about young women in love wouldn’t fill a thimble. She
herself was appalled by Callie’s choice, believing the girl could do a
whale of a lot better if she just looked around a little.
    Callie was inexperienced. She didn’t date until college and then
couldn’t seem to find any young men who interested her. Mrs. McKenzie
had hoped she would find a proper man while working for the State
Department-apparently a futile hope. This Grafton boy was physically a
good specimen, yet he was wrong for Callie. He was so … blue-collar.
The girl needed a man who was at least in the same room with her
intellectually.
    But she wasn’t going to say that to Callie-not a chance.
    Pointed comments would probably be resented, perhaps even resisted. In
this new age of liberated womanhood, covert pressure was the proper way,
the only way. One had to pretend strict neutrality-“This is your
decision, while radiating bad vibes. She owed her daughter maternal
guidance–choosing a mate is much too important to be left to young
women with raging hormones.
    Secure in the knowledge that she was up to the task that duty had set
before her, Mrs. McKenzie went peacefully to sleep while her husband
stewed.
    At breakfast Professor McKenzie held forth on the Vietnam War. The
night before at dinner he had said little, preferring to let the ladies
steer the conversation. This morning he told Jake Grafton in no
uncertain terms what he thought of the politicians who started the war
and the politicians who kept the nation in it.
    If he was expecting an argument, he didn’t get it. In fact, several
times Jake nodded in agreement with the professor’s points, and twice
Callie distinctly heard him say, “You’re right., After the senior
McKenzies left the house for the university, Jake and Callie headed for
the