Whiskey Road by Karen V. Siplin

Author:Karen V. Siplin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Published: 2008-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Tuesday evening, Jimi asks Sienna if she can borrow her car, a white Subaru Outback, subtle and unassuming and nothing like Troy’s glaringly obvious Dodge. She tells them she’s going to drive around the area, possibly catch a movie in Moss Bluff. Troy asks if she wants company. Jimi politely turns him down.

She’s going to see Caleb. She’s been craving his company since she left Frenchman’s Bend Sunday morning. He doesn’t look at her the way most people look at her: as if she’s going to take something from him. As if her mere presence in his life will create strife or cause trouble.

She also misses Frenchman’s Bend a little. It isn’t as pretty as Willow Run, but the quaint shops in Frenchman’s Bend aren’t just for show. Locals still shop in them; prices are affordable. When Sienna took Jimi shopping on Monday, Jimi actually wondered what use anyone would have for the cute trinkets being sold on Main Street. Willow Run reminded her of the gentrified neighborhoods in Brooklyn. She told Sienna she thought it was funny how people escape to a place to have time away from home only to turn those places into everything that’s familiar to them. Sienna laughed and said Troy had thought the same thing.

Jimi parks the Outback on a side street and walks along Main Street, taking her time, enjoying the night air. Faces pass her and they’re familiar. Some people say “Good evening” or nod. When she walks inside Fifth Amendment Rose acknowledges her with a slight smile. Before Jimi sits down, Rose sets a glass on the bar and fills it with ginger ale. She says, “I thought we lost you.”

Jimi doesn’t know what to tell her, so she doesn’t tell her anything. She thanks her for the soda and Rose comments on Jimi’s black eye fading, then returns to her place under the television.

An hour later Jimi’s sitting on a stool by the pool table, drinking seltzer, concentrating on the current game. She’s been sticking to soda. Rose charges her for the ginger ale, but makes every other drink a free seltzer. Jimi isn’t sure how much more of it she can drink. She’s sure Caleb isn’t going to turn up. She’s sure she’s given him a chance to forget her. She thinks about calling it an evening.

And then he walks in with his friend Kennedy around nine. Jimi sits up a little bit straighter. They stand by the bar and wait for Rose to acknowledge them. Caleb’s wearing a Chicago Bears cap, jeans and a white T-shirt. She notices how lean he is, how muscular his arms are. He appears younger and livelier than everyone else in the bar. Kennedy also appears vital and fit. He wears tight clothes: black jeans and a thin leather jacket. He stands ramrod straight, pushing at his hair, which is in a ponytail this evening. With his delicate skin and long hair, Kennedy looks like Caleb’s girlfriend. And then he rolls his shoulders back, looks directly at Jimi as if he senses her eyes on him and stares.

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