Hot Wheels and High Heels

Author:Jane Graves
Format: mobi
Published: 2010-06-15T21:17:07.734000+00:00

Chapter 13

The next Saturday morning, Darcy put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, stuck her hair in a ponytail, and got down to the business of making her new apartment livable. She had decided to rent a minimal amount of furniture for the first few months until she could collect enough hand-me-downs and garage sale items to furnish the place. Once that was delivered, she ran to Wal-Mart to get glasses, silverware, bed linens, cleaning supplies, dog food, and a couple of sacks of groceries. Her mother gave her an old set of stoneware and a few pots and pans. A microwave was going to have to come after her next paycheck.

By that evening, she had actually created something resembling a place a person could live. As the sun began to go down, the natural light in the apartment dimmed, and if she squinted, she could almost make herself believe her living room looked homey. Pepé wasn’t too sure about the new place, though, spending most of his time under the bed. He’d get used to it eventually. At least she hoped he would. Anything that made Pepé nervous generally resulted in excessive urination in all the wrong places.

Darcy had just started thinking about hitting a Taco Hut drive-through for dinner when there was a knock at her door. She looked out the peephole to find her parents standing in the breezeway. Evidently her father had gotten home from the shop, and her mother had insisted on coming by. Great. She’d moved out to get away from them, and here they were again.

She swung open the door. As they came inside, Lyla looked back over her shoulder. “My God. Who is that awful man in the apartment across from you?”

“Crazy Bob,” Darcy said.

Lyla’s hand slipped to her throat. “Why do they call him Crazy Bob?”

“Because he thinks government satellites are reading his mind.”

“Oh! You know, I read something about that in theNational Enquirer. They beam all sorts of things into a person’s head.” She gave Darcy a knowing look. “He might not be as crazy as you think.”

“Nope,” Clayton said. “He’s definitely as crazy as you think.”

“Oh, yeah?” Lyla said. “You wait until the government fillsyour brain with microwaves. We’ll see who’s the smart one then.”

“So what do you think, Dad?” Darcy said. “Is this a gorgeous apartment, or what?”

Clayton gave the apartment a cursory once-over, the part he could see from the front door, anyway. “It’s a roof over your head. Rangers are on the radio. I’ll be in the car.”

Well, at least her father thought it was okay. Then again, Gertie was his idea of an acceptable mode of transportation, too, so what did that say about his opinion?

Lyla walked into the living room, and her face crinkled with disgust. “This furniture is awful.”

“Rental furniture doesn’t tend to be attractive.”

“The blinds are bent.”

“I’m lucky there are any at all.”

“And look at this dreadful carpet.”

“It has plenty of old stains, so any new ones won’t show.”

“Darcy, why did you insist on moving? You could have stayed with us as long as you needed to.

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