Miss Wyoming by Douglas Coupland

Author:Douglas Coupland
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Canada, Fiction
ISBN: 9780006552062
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2000-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

46O

the brief, urbane speeches they gave while donating comically large checks to well-researched and cutting-edge charities.

Vanessa was quite obviously some freak of nature marooned on the shores of the bell curve's right-most limits. "What do you do for a living, Vanessa?" John asked, stretching out his neck as if it would help lob his words around a bend in the wall.

"I work at the Rand Corporation."

This didn't surprise John. "No shit. Doing what?"

" Think-tanking."

"You sit around in beanbag chairs all day and think up military invasion strategies and ways to suppress the development of electric cars?"

She pretended not to have heard that and came in and handed him his Coke. He took a sip and paused. "Hey—this is really delicious!" The sweetness delighted him, and he chugged down half the glass. "Wow. I'd forgotten how good a simple Coke could be."

"It's not the Coke, it's me. I added sugar to it.Two teaspoons."

John hacked. "You added sugar to Coke? That's revolting."

"Don't be stupid." She sat down on an IKEA couch-sofa bed then in the couch mode. "Everybody bitched and moaned when Coca-Cola went and changed their formula in the eighties. If you want 1950s-style Coke, add some bloody sugar to it. Besides, John, you seemed to like it."

They sipped in silence for a minute, and then Vanessa said to John, "Ryan says you think he's gay."

"Well?" Obviously she didn't.

"He's my boyfriend, John." She took a sip of her drink. "Mine's a Diet Coke, but I mixed sugar in with it. It has a really perverse taste." John stared her down. "I love Ryan, and he loves me."

"I love my friend Ivan, but I don't date him." "Oh, shut up. Eros. Agape. Sex. Friendship. All of that. I'm not dense."

"You mean there's some eros in there?"

Vanessa's eyes glinted, but she said nothing. "Well, it's not likeTarzan and Jane, but it's real. He's genuine about me."

John bit an ice cube. "You're obviously the Nurse Crandall type. You know, Nurse Crandall lets down her hair and Dr. Hun-nicutt says, 'Nurse Crandall, good God but you're gorgeous. I had no idea.' "

"That would be me." She looked out the window. "Ryan's car's here. We didn't have this chat, okay?"

Ryan walked in and the trio was off to Long Beach. Ryan leaned in between the driver's seat and the front passenger seat and said to John, "If you want to talk about Susan with Vanessa, go right ahead. She's totally cool."

"Thank God," said John, embarrassed.

"Susan Colgate was an idol for me, John," said Vanessa. "You know, the role she used to play on TV—the smart daughter finding meanings and patterns in this nutty world. It's like my own family."

John said, "I know what you mean. I have this feeling like she's got my keys. You know, like she knows my combination even though I can't get it right."

"That's what Vanessa does for a living," Ryan said. "At Rand. She finds meanings and patterns. Combinations."

"What's your specialty?" asked John.

"Like Ryan said, I'm a finder."

"A finder?"

"Just what it sounds like.

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