Finding Somewhere Read Free Page B

doing better with us.”
    “You wear me out, Hattie.”
    “I don’t mean to.”
    She didn’t say anything. I looked at Delores. She had the water bottle to her lips. People pulled in and pulled out. I heard Speed move in the trailer. We needed to get him out of there soon and give him a break.
    “Do you have some sort of plan for your life other than stealing horses?” Mom asked.
    “I’m sixteen, Mom. I don’t have a life plan.”
    “I just wish you’d think more before you do things. This is the kind of impulsive behavior we’ve talked about before. Delores feeds right into that.”
    “I know I’m sometimes impulsive, Mom. But not about this. Delores and I figured everything out.”
    “I want you to turn around and come back, Hattie,” Mom said. “What in the world do you suppose people will think of a mother who lets her sixteen-year-old daughter wander around the country?”
    “I’m not wandering around the country, Mom. I’m delivering a horse, that’s all.”
    She smoked a little more. Then I heard her start moving around fast like she does when she decides it’s time to get going.
    “You’re doing this against my wishes, you understand that, Hattie?”
    “Yes, Mom.”
    “This kind of behavior won’t lead you any place you want to go. It’s a bad start on your life.”
    “Mom, come on. Don’t go overboard.”
    “I mean it. I don’t know where we’re heading with all this. You’re more than I can handle.”
    “I’ll be back by November at the latest, Mom. I’m going to apply for some jobs, and I promise I’ll look into some community college courses. It will be okay.”
    “Just like that?”
    “What do you want me to say, Mom?”
    “I want to speak to Delores.”
    “She’s inside in the bathroom,” I lied. “We’re at a rest stop.”
    “You tell her to give me a call tonight, then.”
    “I will.”
    “What should I tell the Fergusons?”
    “Tell them I’m sorry. Tell them I didn’t mean it as a whatever to them.”
    “A whatever?”
    “What do you call it? A reproach?”
    “Well, that’s how they took it, young lady.”
    “I’ll be back by November, Mom. Let’s just leave it at that.”
    “You’re lucky they’re not calling the police on you. They like you, Hattie. They’re very disappointed.”
    There was no answer to that, so I didn’t say anything. Mom finally wound down. She said she loved me but I was really testing her. Pushing the envelope. Straining things. She said we needed to have a whole new way of going at things when I returned. A
whole
new way, she said, emphasizing the “whole.” Then we hung up.
    “How did it go?” Delores asked when she saw me finish.
    “Great,” I said, ladling on the sarcasm.
    “She pissed?”
    “Majorly.”
    “But she can’t do anything, can she?”
    “She wants to talk to you tonight.”
    “There’s something to look forward to,” Delores said. “You know what I’m learning? If you do what you want, most people can’t do much about it. That’s worth knowing.”
    She climbed in and started the truck.
    “Let’s find a spot to give Speed a break,” I said. “He needs a good drink.”
    “Okay,” she said.
    “The Fergusons think we’re being cruel to Speed. You think we are?”
    “Anything is better than dead,” Delores said, putting the truck in gear. “Almost, anyway.”
    W E SLIPPED OFF I NTERSTATE 90 SOMEPLACE IN N EW Y ORK State and drove about twenty miles on back roads until we found a small rest stop that looked abandoned. Maybe once upon a time the rest stop sat on an active highway, but now it was grown over with weeds, and the pavement had buckled and broken in about a dozen places. Small picnic tables, with little roofs over them, dotted a grassy section. A creek about the size of a bowling alley ran through the middle of the area. A chipped sign at the western edge of the creek identified it as Blackeyed Creek.
    We backed Speed out of the trailer and let him get his balance. He looked