Tomorrow's Bread by Anna Jean Mayhew

Author:Anna Jean Mayhew
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Mr. Griffin’s got something special planned for our Monday off, and I’ve gone to Lamarr Beauty Shop, got my hair heat treated and styled, got a manicure and pedicure. I’m feeling shiny.

“You’re gorgeous,” he say, when I get in the car.

“Been to the beauty parlor.” I touch his leg.

He drives out of town, the sun setting behind us.

At a sign saying Matthews five miles, he turns onto a dirt road. We stop at a lake, silver in the dim evening. Mr. Griffin say, “You stay here while I set things up.”

I roll down the window, listening as he opens the trunk, walks back and forth down to the water, carrying stuff. The air is full of sounds I don’t recognize. I’ve heard night noises all my life, living near Little Sugar, but out here in the country a band of critters is playing strange music. No traffic, no radio playing next door, nobody out on the street talking. Frogs, crickets, a hooty owl and other birds settle down for the night.

Mr. Griffin call me, “Okay.”

I get out and walk to where he got a blanket spread on the ground. “Wine,” he say, “cheese, boiled shrimp, fruit . . . a sunset picnic.”

I can’t tell him how happy this makes me. I sit down on the blanket. It’s almost dark, but the sky glows with a moon rising. “You plan for the moon, too?”

“Of course.” He hands me a glass of wine, clinks against mine. “To us.” He takes a sip. “How’s Hawk doing? When are the stitches coming out?”

“He’s grumpy, can’t wait to be done with it. We see Dr. Wilkins Tuesday afternoon.”

“Have you heard anything else from the lady who brought y’all back to Charlotte?”

“Mrs. Marshall? No. We talked a lot in the car coming home, but that trip was a one-time thing and we both knew it.” The wine is cool and sweet. “She took us all the way home, I tell you that? I mean, she could have let us off anywhere in town we could catch a city bus, but she wouldn’t have it. When we pulled up in front of the house, she tell me something like, ‘You have a lovely home.’”

“Did she come in?”

“Oh, no. I grabbed our bag, got Hawk. I thanked her for saving us such a long trip. That was that.”

We sit in the dusk, in all those sounds coming through the trees, touching each other, drinking wine.

He say, “I wish we never had to sleep.”

“You being silly. We got to sleep or we couldn’t work. Be too tired to do anything.”

“But what if we didn’t need to sleep and never got tired? We could work eight or ten hours, and have all the rest of the day to read or play or make love.” He kisses me good. “Think about that.”

I can’t think about anything but kissing, anything but his hand slipping down from my shoulder till I’m shivering. “Listen! I never knew critters made such commotion.” We’re in a bowl of night noises.

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