Accidents Never Happen by David-Matthew Barnes

Author:David-Matthew Barnes [Barnes, David-Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
Published: 2011-07-11T22:00:00+00:00

*

They’d been on the road for an hour. The two women had fallen into a pit of silence. Lily was behind the wheel of the Volvo. She hummed the bass line to the song on the radio, as if she were trying to keep herself alert. Molly was lost in deep thought. She couldn’t comprehend the horrible crime Joey claimed to have committed. How could someone she’d known and trusted for her entire life do something so awful? She wanted to see him, face-to-face, and hear him confess in his own voice.

Lily cleared her throat. “Let’s stop soon.”

“Already?” Molly asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah. I’m craving nachos.”

Molly made a face. “Nachos?”

Lily nodded. “You know the kind with chili and cheese? That’s what I want.”

Molly winced and said, “That sounds disgusting.”

Lily glanced at her and rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re a vegetarian or something scary like that.”

“No. I just don’t eat much junk food.”

Lily shot her a look. “Does it hurt you? To be so perfect all the time, I mean.”

Molly glared back. “I’m not perfect.”

“But you want to be. You’re like a fucking soccer mom in training.”

Molly opened the glove compartment out of curiosity. She found a small tube of raspberry-scented hand lotion. She uncapped the tube and squeezed some into her palm. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with setting certain standards for yourself.”

“Certain standards? Who in the hell talks like that?” Lily asked. “Give me some of that stuff. It smells good.”

Molly leaned over and let a few drops of lotion fall into Lily’s open hand. “Just because I don’t come from much doesn’t mean I need to act like white trash,” she said.

Lily put a smudge of the lotion on both sides of her nose. “I suppose eating chili cheese nachos means I should live in a trailer?”

Molly shrugged. “Eat whatever you want.”

The silence returned as both women slipped back into their deep thoughts. This was the most time that Lily and Molly had spent together. As each mile passed, it became increasingly clear that they had little—if anything—in common, other than Joey.

Lily broke the silence. “You got quiet on me all of a sudden.”

Molly looked out the window. “Why do you think he did it?” she asked. “How can someone kill their own mother?”

“We’re talking about Miranda. She was a hard-ass with a cold heart. She hated me and Joey. She told us so.”

Molly slipped on a pair of sunglasses. “That’s not a reason to kill someone.”

“She turned her back on him, Molly. She rejected him.”

“When?”

“The night of the Bible study group. Remember?”

Molly shook her head. “I only heard bits and pieces of it after. I just thought it was hearsay.”

“Stop using words like that. You’re twenty-one, for fuck’s sake.”

“Sorry. I’ll do my best to sound like I have no class until we get to Chicago.”

Lily grinned with delight and her eyes lit up. “Mom walked in on Joey and Cooper that night,” she said. “And the entire Bible study group heard the whole thing from our living room.

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