still living down in Florida then. That’s where she went when she left Daddy and me. She left Daddy foranother man when I was seven years old, but she didn’t stay with him either. She couldn’t be satisfiedwith nothin’ . . . she was the restless type. I think that’s one of the things that got on her nerves aboutDaddy and me: We were both content to stay in the same place and do the same thing. Not a restless bonein our bodies.”
“Hmm,” Lily said. “I think a lot of women in your mother’s generation were probably dissatisfied,always thinking they’d be happier with some other man, when the source of their unhappiness was reallya lot deeper than that.”
“Huh,” Jack said. “You think a lot.”
Lily blushed. She hadn’t meant to get all theoretical, but she had just the same. All those years ofliving with a college professor, maybe. “I guess I do. Maybe it’s because I’m a writer. Of course, I don’ttend to philosophize like that in my books, since my usual audience is made up of seven-year-olds.”
Jack grinned. “You know, when you asked me if you could come along on some farm calls, I kindawondered if you’d be a nuisance, since I’m so used to being by myself. But having some company for achange is nice.”
“We’ve not even gotten to the farm yet. I’ve still got plenty of time to be a nuisance.” It occurredto her that she had absolutely no idea what to expect when they arrived. “Say, when you called you saidthere was a sow in trouble. What did you mean by that? It sounded like she’d been caught writing badchecks or something.”
Jack laughed. “No, a pig’s too smart to get caught writing bad checks. This sow’s in labor, but shecan’t get one of the piglets pushed out. It happens sometimes — a baby’ll get turned the wrong way in thebirth canal. And the mother panics cause she doesn’t know what’s going on. It’s really just a matter ofgetting the piglet turned around the right way. It’s not hard if you know what you’re doing.”
Jack pulled the truck into a long gravel driveway at the end of which was a small, white framehouse. The house was dwarfed by the huge, unpainted barn that sat behind it.
A craggy-faced man in a John Deere cap and overalls began talking to Jack before she could evenget out of the truck. “She’s in the barn over yonder. I done got you some soap and hot water.”
“Thanks, Ed. Let’s go take a look at her.”
Jack was apparently in an all-business mood, since she didn’t bother introducing Lily to thefarmer. Figuring that manners took the backseat in a medical crisis, Lily grabbed her sketch pad and