And with this business today . . . well, I’m dead on my feet.”
“Sure,” Liz said. “I understand. I won’t keep you on the phone for an
hour.
Get some rest. Call me tomorrow. We’ll make plans for the summer.
It’s going to be a blast, kid. We’ll make some memories and blow out
all the candles for our last summer together. I’ve already got a
couple of guys in mind for you.”
UI don’t think a guy is exactly what I need right now,” Amy said.
“Oh, not in the next ten minutes,” Liz agreed. “But after you’ve had a
couple of weeks to recover, you’ll be ready to get back in the swing of
things.”
“I don’t think so, Liz.”
“Sure you will. You’re not going to become a nun, for God’s sake.
You need to get some of that old salami once in a while, kid. You need
it the same way I need it. We’re two of a kind in that respect.
Neither of us can do without a guy for long.”
“We’ll see,” Amy said.
“Only this time,” Liz said, “you’re going to do what I tell you.
You’re going to get a prescription for the pill.”
I really don’t think I’ll need it,” Amy said.
“That’s what you thought the last time, dope.”
A few minutes later, in her room, Amy knelt at the side of her bed and
started to say her prayers. But after a minute or two she stopped
because, for the first time in her life, she had the feeling that God
wasn’t listening. She wondered if He would ever listen to her again.
In bed she cried herself to sleep, and no one woke her for dinner or
for Mass the next morning. When she opened her eyes again, it was
eleven o’clock Sunday morning, and scattered, white clouds were racing
like great sailing ships across the sea-blue sky beyond her window.
She had slept eighteen hours straight through.
As far as she could remember, this was only the second time she had
missed Sunday Mass since she was a few months old. The other time had
been when she was nine and in the hospital, recovering from an
emergency appendectomy. She had been scheduled to be discharged on
Monday, and her mother had argued with the doctor about letting her out
one day early so she could be taken to church, but the doctor had said
that church wasn’t the best place for a child recuperating from
surgery.
She was relieved that Mama hadn’t forced her to go to church this
morning.
Apparently Mama didn’t think that her wicked daughter belonged in a
church anymore.
And maybe Mama was right.
The following day, Monday, May 26, two sign painters went to work on
the large billboard at the entrance to the county fairgrounds, just
outside the Royal City limits. By midafternoon they were finished.
COMING COMING COMING ** JUNE 30
THROUGH JULY 5
** THE ANNUAL ROYAL COUNTY FAIR *HARNESS RACING *ARTS & CRAFTS SHOW
*LIVESTOCK AUCTIONS *GAMES, THRILL RIDES MDWAY ATTRaCTION BY: A MONTH
AFTER the abortion, the last week of June, Amy was working at The Dive,
nine-to-five Monday through Friday, and noon-to-six on Saturday. The
place was jumping every minute with a tanned and energetic crowd of
teenagers.
At six o’clock Saturday evening, as Amy was getting ready to go home,
Liz Duncan came in, looking like a million bucks in tight red shorts
and a white T-shirt, no bra. “I’ve got a date with Richie tonight.
He’s going to meet me here at six-thirty. Want to wait with me so I
don’t get lonely?”
“You wouldn’t get lonely,” Amy said. “If you sat down alone, every guy
in the place would be hanging on you in two minutes.”
Liz looked speculatively at the kids in The Dive, then shook her
head.
“Nope.
Once I’ve dated a guy and then dropped him, he knows it’s over for
good, he knows it isn’t worth his time to pitch me for a rematch.”
“So?”
“So most of the guys in here wouldn’t bother me if I sat down alone
because I’ve already screwed most of them.”
“Gross,” Amy said.