COOL IN TUCSON by Gunn Elizabeth

Author:Gunn, Elizabeth [Gunn, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2007-03-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

When she woke up and felt the car moving, Denny thought Mom must have forgotten to put the brake on. Afraid she was rolling around the parking lot, she sat up fast.

The car had a driver, but it wasn’t Mom. Oh, swell, another boyfriend. What was he doing out in the street though, and why were all the horns blowing?

“What happened?” she said. “Where’s Mom?” The guy stammered something about Mom telling him to move the car. That made no sense at all, was he high? She got ready to start screaming. She’d heard once if you felt uneasy with strange grown-ups, the thing to do was yell till some other grown-up came and helped. The logic of such a move felt a little shaky to her─how could you be sure the second grown-up would be any better than the first? But it was the only idea that came to her so she decided to try it at the next red light.

In the meantime, though, because you might as well try everything, she told the new boyfriend she needed her Mom because she was hungry. And right away, instead of telling her to wait, he asked her what she wanted to eat. Now what was that all about? Anybody knew boyfriends thought hungry kids were one of the biggest drags on earth.

But Denny was so hungry by then that just talking about food made her stomach growl, so she pretended to believe he meant it, and asked for two things Aunt Sarah wouldn’t allow and Mom usually couldn’t afford. And this strange man, maybe he really was from another planet because he didn’t even argue, just drove right up to the window and ordered everything she said, even the fries she thought of at the last minute. Then he ordered a second set of everything for himself. Mom had really latched onto something here—but he was way too young for her, what was she thinking?

An even bigger surprise was how he paid for the food, reaching into that grocery sack on the floor to fish out a bill. Denny had seen plenty of flaky boyfriends but this was the first one that carried his money in a Trader Joe’s bag. He didn’t bother her while she ate, though, give him that much. He finished his own food first and said he had to go somewhere, and she went along without any objections because the food tasted so good she couldn’t even think of leaving it.

He made a phone call while he drove and got mad at the person on the other end. She heard him say his name, too, Hector. As if she cared what his name was, but why was he whispering it? Then he dialed another number but didn’t send the call, she could tell by the sound. He sat there like a dork, driving the car and talking into a dead phone, and pretty soon she realized he was pretending to talk to her mother. Mom did have her cell phone in the store, the only phone she had and she carried it everywhere.

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