Three for the Road by Molly Giles

Author:Molly Giles [Giles, Molly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: She Writes Press
Published: 2014-07-21T00:00:00+00:00

Fenced In

Rue Corker was a bowlegged redhead with an outraged voice, a sour smile, and a flair for fatal diagnosis. She was known as Nurse Hearse on the cardiac unit in Little Rock where she and Patsy Evans both worked, and her clairvoyance carried over into other areas as well: she predicted colleagues’ affairs and divorces with nerveless accuracy. She was, as Patsy’s boyfriend Reeves put it, “no fun,” and yet Patsy often ended up spending time with her, touched by the older woman’s loneliness and flattered, she had to admit it, by Rue’s mysterious devotion to her.

“You’re the only reason I even stay in this town,” Rue said, settling beside Patsy in the hospital cafeteria one winter morning.

Patsy looked up from her coffee, alarmed.

“That’s all right. I’m sure Reeves never makes you feel important. All I’m saying,” Rue raised a bony hand as Patsy started to protest, “is that you’re not full of yourself like every other fool on this floor. You’re modest. So modest,” she paused, squeezing some lemon into her tea, “that you didn’t even brag about winning the scholarship to the surgery seminar at Stanford next week.”

“How do you know I won the scholarship?” For some reason Patsy felt frightened. “I just found out from Dr. Hersey a few minutes ago.”

Rue shrugged, then twisted toward a passing orderly. “Would you watch where you’re going?” she hissed. “Do you think we’re in a skating rink? Nothing’s a secret around here. Look.” Rue pushed her cup back. “You’re going to be gone eight weeks, right? And you’ll need your car in California, so you’re probably driving, right? Well, I want to drive out west with you.”

“That’s impossible,” Patsy said.

“Why? Is Reeves going?”

“No. Reeves can’t leave his…”

“…other girlfriends, ha ha?”

“…his job. Anyway,” Patsy finished, “I’m not even sure I’m taking the scholarship. I haven’t decided.”

Rue made a little spitting noise, and Patsy flushed. Of course she was taking the scholarship. It was the break she had been hoping for all year.

“You’ve decided,” Rue drawled, and then, in the next breath, “Please.”

It was such a surprising word that Patsy stared.

“Puh-leeze.” Rue clasped her hands and lurched forward, and for a horrifying second Patsy feared she was going to actually kneel on the cafeteria floor. Rue’s pale face pointed up at her, green eyes wet with longing. “Please take me with you. I’ve never gone anywhere, I’ve never done anything, I can help with the driving, I’ll pay for the gas, I won’t be any trouble, I promise. Please? Please? Just say yes. Would it kill you to just say yes?”

“It would kill me.” Reeves, who had never done anything he didn’t want to do in his life, sat naked on the bed, strumming “Oh! Susanna” on his guitar as Patsy moped around the apartment, dropping photographs of him into her suitcase. “Three days in a car with a nut case? Why are you doing this to yourself? ”

“She has a good heart,” Patsy said, her voice uncertain. She sank onto the bed and pressed her face against Reeves’s bare chest.

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