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.Go figure.She’d crammed the car with the leftover stuff no one knew what to do with—small boxes full of questionable necessities, trash bags stretched with clothing yanked from the closets, house plants, puzzles and games for Lacy, pillows, an old comforter, and last but not least, Skunk, the beloved pet rat.Finished at last, there’d been just enough space left in the car for her and Lacy.The cross-country drive took them five days, one fuel pump, and part of Kelly’s leather checkbook, which Skunk had feasted on during an escapade through her purse.Now, Monday morning, Kelly’s energy reserves were depleted.“Never again,” she swore out loud, turning right at Granada.“The next time I move, I’m torching the house and selling the car.” She glanced at Lacy, who dozed in the seat next to her.Good God, I’m even talking to myself.They had spent the night at The Glades, settled the bill this morning, and dropped Skunk off at the house on Cabana Court.Even empty, the little cinder block house looked as good to Kelly as it did the day she’d signed the lease.Home at last.Their furniture wasn’t due to arrive until sometime after five today, and Lacy had been reluctant to leave her pet, afraid the rat would be bored in the empty house.Kelly assured her one day with a lid on his tank wouldn’t hurt the rat.Skunk might even enjoy the quiet and sleep all day, and when Lacy got home, he would be rested and ready to play.Silly as it sounded, her explanation had worked, and Lacy voiced some excitement about her first day at the new school, making new friends of the human type.Kelly dropped Lacy off at school, made a stop at the donut shop, then merged into the traffic flow.Ted Willis expected her at the paper this morning, and she wasn’t going to disappoint him twice.She’d left thirty minutes early, determined to arrive on time—even if it meant taking catnaps in the ladies’ room and holding her eyelids open with paper clips the rest of the day.She groped around on the seat for the bag of warm donut holes and stuffed one in her mouth, washing it down with a slug of coffee from her travel mug.Once over the bridge, she decided to take the river road for a few miles.She had plenty of time to get to work.She cruised along, enjoying the colors and sounds of her new surroundings, inhaling the gentle morning breeze through the open window.On her left, the intercoastal waterway meandered toward the sea, its smooth surface mirroring the vibrant blue sky above.Mullet leapt from the water in their ritual dance, rippling the surface, then plunging back into the current.Her mind drifted with the flow of the lazy current.It was the first time in weeks she had relaxed, until something thumped beneath the car’s rear wheel, yanking her attention back to the pavement with a surge of adrenaline.She glanced in the rearview mirror, seeing nothing in the road behind her to cause alarm.Maybe an orange or a pinecone.Returning her attention to the lane ahead, she caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror.Powdered sugar coated her upper lip.She laughed and wiped it clean with the back of her hand, thinking how embarrassed she would have been if she had strolled into work with a white mustache.Fifteen minutes later, she pulled into the News Journal’s lot and slipped into a parking spot.She killed the engine, got out, hit the door lock and closed the door.Immediately she glanced down at her empty hands.“Oh, no,” she moaned.She peered through the car window.Yep, there they were, car keys dangling from the ignition.“I don’t believe this!”Unable to scare up enough energy to care, she shrugged.What would worrying get her anyway? The car wasn’t going anywhere.She cut across the parking lot, entered the building and headed upstairs, knowing it would be one of those days.When she reached the newsroom, one of the reporters looked up from his computer.Waldo, wasn’t it? He even looked like a Waldo, not a compliment by any stretch.He might have been a prime date candidate for Kelly—if she dated.A non-threatening type, Waldo was intelligent and had exhibited an interesting sense of humor when they’d talked before she’d flown back to San Francisco.All in all, he seemed nice, might even end up her friend.Just the way Kelly preferred it.“Hi, Kelly.Welcome back to civilization,” he greeted her.“I think you’ve got it mixed up.” She flashed him a weary smile and crossed to her desk, slipping her purse strap over the back of the chair.“I just left civilization to move here.”“Oh, a big city snob,” he teased.“How was the trip?”“Well, if you’re fond of kids, rats, and old cars, and firmly believe suffering heals the soul, then the trip was a great success.”He suppressed a chuckle.“That bad, huh? You do look a bit crumpled at the corners.”She gave him a second glance.He’s a fine one to talk.His shirt was in dire need of ironing, and the fingerprints on his glasses were so thick it was a wonder he could see the computer monitor.“Watch out.I’m feeling cranky,” she warned.“I just locked my keys in the car.” She dropped into her chair.“I thought the trip would never end.Looks like today might not be much of an improvement.I swear I’m taking a bus next time.”“Next time?” He raised one eyebrow in question.“Where are you going now?”“Nowhere.But when I do, I’m taking a bus.”“What about your keys?”“They’ll be there when I get ready to leave.I’ll figure out what to do then.”“Okay,” he said, rolling his chair across the aisle separating their desks.“Don’t worry about it—”“Not worried.” She cut him off.“I’m too tired to care right now.”He grinned, revealing an overbite.“I was just going to tell you it happens all the time around here.Call maintenance.They’ll open the car in a jiffy.”He didn’t just say “in a jiffy” did he? My grandmother used to say “in a jiffy,” and he doesn’t look much older than me.She fought a grin.“Thanks for the insider information.”Kelly stayed busy until early afternoon, poring over the newspaper’s archives and searching the Internet for information on the endangered manatee.She wasn’t surprised to find they looked nothing like cows, but rather a tusk-less walrus.Packing up her things, she signed off the computer, and went to look for the maintenance department where she found an elderly gentleman willing to help her.Armed with a coat hanger, he unlocked her car door with ease.She headed for the local library, somewhere fewer people bothered to go nowadays due to the Internet.As a journalist, she spent long hours, every day, in front of a computer monitor.Kelly loved libraries, loved the quiet stillness synonymous with “library.” Today she hoped to enjoy a bit of that peace and quiet—compared to the newsroom—and find some archived magazines with photos of manatees.By three-thirty, content with the knowledge she’d accumulated, she left the library and picked Lacy up from school.After a quick stop at the grocery store for supplies to fuel their stomachs and fill the empty refrigerator, they grabbed hamburgers at Steak ‘n’ Shake, a local burger place [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]