Heart's Desire by Laura Pedersen

Author:Laura Pedersen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307415462
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-eight

IT’S THE SECOND WEEK OF JULY AND SUMMER HAS OFFICIALLY settled upon the heartland. By nine o’clock in the morning plants begin to droop, birds cancel all but emergency flights, and not a single bee rises above the flowers. The pungent aroma of fresh mint fills the stagnant air around the summerhouse.

It’s also the tenth time Louise is supposed to help me weed the garden and she tries to wriggle out of it by saying that if she is pregnant, it could be dangerous for the baby. Following the Auggie drama, I’m cranky and frustrated and in no mood for her crap. So after asking Olivia exactly how soon you can use one of these pregnancy tests, I hightail it over to Herb’s drugstore on Main Street.

In the store windows are big, red-lettered discount signs that I’ve never seen before. Yet inside it’s empty and quiet, except for some Muzak playing softly in the background. In fact, it would appear that Herb never replaced Jemma and now works by himself as both pharmacist and cashier.

“Hey, Hellraiser,” he greets me. But it’s with none of his usual sarcasm, more just out of habit.

“Hey, yourself. Business still bad?”

“I found this cooperative on the Internet—a hundred or so mom-and-pop drugstores buy in bulk so that we get the deepest discount possible, like the big guys.” He unhappily scans the vacant aisles. “But that Valueland, I’m telling you, they’re selling below cost and taking a loss. I don’t know how long they can keep it up. In the meantime, they’re definitely getting all the traffic. I’m just hanging on through customer loyalty. Only the kids coming up don’t care about that. Same with people on a tight budget.”

I head toward the aisle with all the women’s stuff. Most of the boxes and bottles feature cover art with birds, wings, and big white swooshes. It’s obvious that men were the first to get their hands on designing the packages for feminine hygiene products. Who else would have equated a menstrual cycle with the Age of Flight? Wouldn’t featuring an armchair or a meatloaf dinner on the box be more of a come-on than a flock of seagulls?

There are at least five different kinds of pregnancy tests. I can’t imagine how one is different from another. And they’re all around the same price. So I finally choose the package without the smiling woman on the front of the box. And then I retrieve a bottle of chocolate Yoo-hoo out of the cooler in back.

The one neat thing about Herb is that he never comments on your prescriptions or purchases. He rings up tampons, hair dye, and hernia trusses as if they’re shampoo and toothpaste. Same with itch cream and antibiotics. If I stop and consider it, he probably knows more about people in town based on what they buy than any lawyer, minister, psychiatrist, or even medical doctor.

And though it’s none of his business, for some reason I don’t want Herb to think the pregnancy test is mine.

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