Freeing Finch by Ginny Rorby

Author:Ginny Rorby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

CHAPTER 22

I

According to MapQuest, Eureka is 133 miles north of Fort Bragg. We left the coast an hour ago and have been driving through giant redwoods for an hour and a half. I’m beginning to think we missed a turnoff or something. “Did you check to see how long it takes to get there?” I ask Deanne.

“I don’t really care how long it takes. Do you?”

I definitely do. My mouth is dry and my stomach is in knots, but I say, “I guess not.”

“We need gas.” Deanne glances at me in the rearview mirror. “We’ll stop in Garberville and ask, okay?”

While Sherri fills the tank, I go into the mini-mart to buy chips and sodas and ask how much farther to Eureka.

“About an hour.” The woman behind the counter hands me my change. She’s watching a customer in the big convex mirror at the back of the store.

I look at the clock behind her head. It’s already three thirty.

“What’d she say?” Sherri says when I get back in the car.

“An hour.”

“You excited?”

“Kind of. Maybe I should have called first. He might have moved, or he could be at work.”

“I’ve gotta pee,” Sherri says.

“Me, too.” I climb out again.

We get the key from the lady behind the counter. Sherri goes first and I wait outside. When it’s my turn, I’m washing my hands and glance at myself in the cracked bathroom mirror.

My hair is in a windblown ponytail. I can’t let my father see me as a girl. I open the door. Deanne has pulled the car over in front of the bathrooms. Sherri’s in the backseat.

“Did either of you bring a pair of scissors?”

They look at each other and shake their heads.

“I can’t show up with my hair like this. I have to cut it off.”

“Why?” they say in unison, then Sherri gets it. “Never mind,” she says to Deanne. “We’ll find a drugstore and buy a pair.”

“It doesn’t look that bad,” Deanne says. “Just brush it.”

Sherri smiles at me. “The last time Finch saw her dad, she had really short hair. She wants him to recognize her.”

I hug her and climb into the backseat. She’s even kept my secret from her sister.

Sherri uses her sister’s cell phone to Google drugstores in Garberville and gets directions to Pharmacy Express inside Ray’s Food Place. Deanne waits in the car with the radio playing. Sherri and I go in, buy scissors, and go to the restroom. I pull off the scrunchie and put it in the bag with the receipt for the scissors.

“You sure?”

I nod and blink back tears. “He’s got to think I’m his son, not a Nancy boy like he used to call me.”

“He thought you were gay?”

“Uh-huh. Mom did, too.”

“Are you?” Sherri gathers my hair in her fist.

I’d never really thought about it. “I don’t know.”

“It’s simple. Would you rather date a boy or a girl?”

“A boy.”

“Then you’re straight because you’re a girl.” She holds up the scissors. “Ready?”

When I nod a single tear dislodges and splashes in the rust-stained sink.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.