Thorneside Stories by Chrstopher Cameron

Author:Chrstopher Cameron [Last, First name]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-77180-557-5
Publisher: Iguana Books
Published: 2022-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Gag Reflex

Nobie was not normally a fast driver.

She thought she was a safe enough one, although her frame was so small and her legs so short that a car of any size seemed to overwhelm her. Her daughters always used to say that she should have blocks tied to the pedals. They repeated this joke throughout childhood as she drove them to their soccer games, band practices, jazz dancing lessons, birthday parties, orthodontist appointments, and sleepovers.

More than once she’d been stopped by the police, who thought she must be too young to be behind the wheel of such a middle-aged vehicle. When they walked to her car window, however, and saw the worry lines in her face, the overtreated hair, the safety-pinned-together bra strap sagging from the armhole of the faded sleeveless blouse and forming an off-white loop on her upper arm, they always realized their mistake and backed off.

And of course, she was never allowed to touch Mike’s 1965 Mustang; he had once told her he loved that car more than life itself, which she assumed included her. It didn’t matter. She was content to drive her Accord, slowly and attentively.

This evening, however, Nobie was speeding west along the highway toward Lockport, forty-five minutes from Thorneside. It felt like her little Honda was flying through the mid-March dusk, not touching anything.

That morning Mike had gone to Lockport to deliver one of his two-day courses about supply chains, and he’d said — as he always said — that even though it was an easy commute, it made sense to stay over since the client was paying for a room anyway. It gave him a chance to network with colleagues in the evening. She’d long ago stopped even raising her eyebrows when he said this.

She had made up for the vacuum at home many times over: bridge, choir, church altar guild — even vacuuming, for that matter. She cared for her two girls when they were small and later tried to support them while they began and then abandoned their various career paths, allowed them to move back home as their relationships disintegrated, and said goodbye to them again as new ones began. Her house was hospital clean, her kitchen productive and pleasing, her linens replaced as needed. She felt as if she’d played by all the rules just so Mike wouldn’t have to.

Yes, ma’am, he’s here, in the bar at the hotel with someone. A businesswoman, looks like.

The private investigator had called while she was drying the dishes. She always did them by hand when Mike was out of town as it seemed a waste to use the dishwasher for just one person. As she stood beside the kitchen sink with the damp towel in one hand and the phone in the other, it suddenly seemed absolutely necessary to confront him. She jumped in her Accord and took off for Lockport.

As she drove into town, the investigator called again.

I just tailed the two of them up to room 434.

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.