1.

Graduation day, June 14,1946, was upon the Archer family without warning. Standing in the living room, cap and gown in place, Max smiled for the picture her mother tried to take.

"I think the light is too bright from the window," Ruth said, staring down at the camera. "Let's close the curtain."

"I'm getting hot," Max complained.

Lorri closed the curtain and then checked her sister's hair.

"This hat looks awful, doesn't it?"

"It's a cap, and yes it does," Lorri replied.

Max didn't expect this. She burst out laughing just as her mother snapped the shutter.

"Raine!" she protested. "She got me with my mouth wide open."

"Well, then it will really look like you."

Again Max was taken off guard and laughed. Dean came in, a box in his hand, and waited for the women to turn.

"Well," he said to Max, "you look almost ready."

"What's missing?" Max asked.

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Dean gave her the box. Inside was a beautiful iris corsage. Max gave him a huge hug and went to the mirror to put it on.

"That was sweet," Ruth told him.

"I'm a sweet guy," Dean teased.

"Have you seen the othersweet guy thatusually hangs around here?" Ruth asked dryly. "We're going to be late."

The doorbell rang on cue. Rigg was in a suit, ready for this grand occasion. In his hand was a gift.

"Gifts now or later?" he asked Max once he'd bent to kiss her cheek.

"We're a little late, so it had better be later. But," she stopped him before he could get too far, "you can tell me what it is."

"Not a chance" was all he was able to get out before Dean hustled them all to the car. Rigg sat in the back with Lorri and Max, pushing thoughts of his departure from his mind. Instead, he concentrated on Max.

"How's the job hunt going?" he asked her. Max had decided against school right away opting to work for a time.

"I've got one at Brennan's if I want it."

"You don't sound like you do."

"I'm still hoping to get in at one of the hospitals. That's the only way I'm going to know if I'm cut out for nursing." She sounded discouraged. "Brennan's wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

She was quiet for the rest of the trip. Once they were there, last-minute hugs were given before Max scooted away to join her cla.s.smates.

Rigg and Lorri were side by side for the ceremony. The speeches were too long, as usual, but once the grads started across 296.

the platform, Max's name was the third one called. Ruth held up nicely, but Lorri found tears pouring down her face.

"Are you thinking of Josie?" Rigg whispered to her.

"Yes, and it's so silly. How can I feel sorry for her missing this when she has heaven?"

Rigg took her hand, knowing he didn't need to answer.

"You look great," Johnny told Max when it was all over. They had done it-they had graduated from high schobl.

"So do you," Max said warmly, smiling up at him. "How are you doing?"

"Better," he told her, knowing that the changes in him were confusing to her. He had gone from speaking to her every day to speaking to no one. Now he was smiling again, in church each Sunday but not falling all over her every time they met "I was looking for happiness in all the wrong spots," Johnny explained for the first time. "I thought if I just had a girl who loved me, I wouldn't feel so lousy. It took a long time to find out I was wrong."

"My grandpa says you're meeting with Pastor Higgins."

"Every week."

"How is that going?"

"It's going well. I thought I knew a lot about the Bible, but I don't. I thought just believing was enough, but it's only the beginning. There's a whole life to be lived in submission to G.o.d, and I don't do well with that sort of thing."

"It's nice that we don't have to go through it alone," Max said, thinking of the way G.o.d's Spirit lived inside of each believer.

"Yes, it is."

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Johnny's family had arrived.

"I'll let you go," Max said with a hand to his arm before starting away.

"Max" Johnny stopped her. "Can I stop and see you sometime?"

"Yes, Johnny," she was able to say for the first time. "Td like that."

Not ten steps later, Max's family found her. They hugged her with great enthusiasm, a.s.suming that the tears in her eyes were all about graduation.

i 298'Teumty'Ttoe The Fourth of July, 1946, was on a Thursday. Americans everywhere celebrated the nation's one hundred and seventieth birthday, and the Archers were no different, working all morning on the food they would take to the church picnic that afternoon.

Lorri was kept especially busy. Rigg was done with the military. His belongings were packed, and he was leaving for Santa Rosa in the morning. His job with Bankman and a.s.sociates would start on Monday. Lorri was pleased for him, but her heart still hadn't taken it in. He was leaving. She didn't know how she would stand it, so she tried not to think about it.

"How are those potatoes coming?" Ruth asked, peering into the pot "Just about ready," Lorri told her. "I hope you know that every woman in the church will bring potato salad."

"That's why we're not taking it," Ruth said, pleased with her planning. "I'm always exhausted after the Fourth of July, so that salad is for tomorrow. We're taking the fruit salad Max is working on."

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Lorri laughed at her mother's satisfied tone.

"What else are we taking?" Max asked.

"Two pies, and those little rolls with ham and cheese."

"Oh, my favorite," Max said dramatically.

"Hey, m.u.f.fin " Lorri said sweetly to the cat that curled around her legs. "Are you behaving yourself?"

"She doesn't know how," Ruth said wryly, having wrestled a sock from her just that morning.

"She thinks she's a great hunter" Max declared. "She would have made a good lion."

"If lions lived on socks and underslips," Ruth put in.

"And bras!" Max added.

"Oh, that was awful!" Lorri groaned. "I may never get over it."

"You're going to marry the man, Raine, and then it won't matter "

"I think you forgot that he's leaving, Max."

"G.o.d can work these things out, Raine; just you wait and see."

Lorri tossed her sister a tolerant glance, but if the truth be told, she had done far more worrying than praying lately. With the school year ended, she was out of a job, and there was way too much time to sit around and worry about Rigg's departure. Lorri knew better but wasn't finding it easy to trust these days.

When the eggs and potatoes were done, Lorri pushed her thoughts aside to make the salad, once again choosing to ignore the situation rather than deal with it.

"Hey, Max."

Max wondered at the way her heart thudded at the sound of his voice. She turned to find Johnny behind her. They hadn't i 300.

spoken since graduation, and she had not a.s.sumed he would be here this day.

"Hi, Johnny. How are you?"

"Fine. Yourself?"

"Fine."

"How's the job going?"

"It's all right-better than I thought it would be. How's your job?"

"It gets pretty hot on the job site during these months, but the pay is good, and I need the money for school."

Max^was about to ask Johnny something else when she spotted someone behind him.

"Johnny, is your family here?"

Johnny's face lit with pleasure he did nothing to hide.

"They are here."

"Johnny," Max had to ask, "why did you stop coming to church a few years ago?"

"Because my parents never changed. They made my sister and me attend church with them each week and sit through sermons we found boring, but all they did at home was fight and spend too much money. I didn't see the point, so I started refusing to go. Then my sister stayed home with me, and eventually my whole family gave up."

Max nodded with compa.s.sion, seeing how easily it could happen. She had more questions for Johnny, but Arlene was coming.

"Maybe I'll see you later," Johnny said, turning back toward his family just after Arlene arrived and greeted him.

The two girls looked at each other, questions in Arlene's eyes, but Max gave a small shake of her head, telling her friend she couldn't talk about it right then.

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Rigg and Lorri had driven separately from the family. The picnic complete, the fireworks over, Rigg drove Lorri home in silence. He found himself wishing he'd not already started to pack the car-it only reminded them-but knew it would not change the inevitable. Rigg pulled into the driveway, and they stood and talked for the last time.

"It was a fun day," Lorri started.

"Yes, it was," Rigg agreed, thinking she had never been sweeter or looked lovelier.

"What would you have done in Santa Rosa today?"

"Probably the same thing-picnic with the church family."

Lorri could only nod, her throat suddenly tight. She had so much to say but forced herself to be brief.

"I'll miss you, Donovan Riggs, but I wish you the best, and I want you to take good care of yourself."

"I'll see you again," he said to her, having heard this note of finality in her voice before. "Iwillsee you again, Lorraine."

Trying to picture weeks and months without him, Lorri nodded and wasn't able to stop the tears that flooded her eyes.