Page 145 - Some Dance to Remember

Some Dance to Remember 115

of him turn red with the sunrise behind him. A dust devil, spinning wild
and harmless, pulled sand and sagebrush up into its spout. Ryan woke
Margaret Mary. She looked at the little tornado curiously.
“I’m afraid,” she said.
“No, you’re not,” Ryan said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. This is
how things are out West.”
At the train station in Los Angeles they all threw their arms around
Thom, hugging him, stealing glances at the silent stranger standing shy
and withdrawn ten feet behind him. Ryan took a hard gander. He wasn’t
at all sure at first that the young girl he suspected was the bride-to-be was
the real Sandy.
But she was.
“I thought a California girl named Sandy would look like Sandra
Dee,” Ryan said. “I love her chartreuse pedal pushers.”
Thom blanched. He hated Ryan’s sharp tongue. He pivoted like a
snappy new Marine and called the awkward girl hanging back from the
family group. “This is my girl,” he said. He looked straight at Ryan. “This
is Sandy Gully.”
Ryan could hardly keep a straight face. She was as much a washout as
her name. All she needed was toilet tissue on her heel.
“I hope you’ll like her and learn to love her as much as I do,” Thom
said.
Annie Laurie generously kissed Sandy on the cheek. Their father
shook her hand. Margaret Mary climbed up into Ryan’s arms. “Don’t
let her kiss me,” Margaret Mary whispered to Ryan. “She’s awfully ugly.”
Ryan pulled Margaret Mary’s face close into the crook of his neck.
“I’d kiss you hello,” he said, astounded by the size of Sandy Gully’s nose
coming out from between her deep-set eyes, “but my little sister has my
hands full.”
“You can’t kiss girls anyway,” Sandy Gully said. “Thom told me all
about you being in the seminary and all that. I think it’s, like, wonderful
to have a brother-in-law who’s going to be a priest.”
In the rental car, heading for the motel, Annie Laurie asked Sandy.
“You’ve such a lovely, dark complexion. What nationality are you, dear?”
“Protestant,” she said.
“We’re all in big trouble,” Ryan said.
“Shut up, Ry,” Thom said. “She’s nervous. You’re the one making her
nervous.” He turned to his fiancée. “Tell him you’re just nervous.”
“I’m nervous really. Just nervous. Thom told me how smart you are
and everything, and that kind of makes me nervous. You’ve got so much

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