Stardust Miracle Read Free Page B

wouldn’t eat the brownie after all... Maybe if she didn’t, he would sit and eat the brownie and listen while she told him about the meeting.
     “You don’t know about it,” Earl said, “because Becky’s grandpa refused to let us use any of the top choices. Said we’d be a laughing stock on all the comedy shows. That even the news shows would make fun of us.”
    Becky frowned, not surprised. She remembered her dad’s father was always serious. Always ready to give his opinion. Whether it was wanted or not.
    “C’mon, Earl,” Gloria said, “spill. I’ve got a bottle of Merlot waiting for me at home.” 
    “It’s been a while, but the brain box is still ticking.” Earl knocked his knuckles on his head two times. “Here it goes.” Of course it didn’t go immediately. He looked around, his lips pursed, making sure he had their attention. Only then did he nod. “‘Don’t give a damn.’”
    Laughing, Becky put her hand over her mouth. 
    “‘Under the radar.’” He winked at Becky. “If I remember right, that was from your Uncle Sam.”
    Still choking back laughter and with her hand covering her mouth, Becky nodded, though the motto would fit a few dozen villagers. Sam was her mother’s stepbrother, but she and Sarah still considered him to be their uncle.
    “Your mom liked that one,” he added.
    Becky’s laughter stopped. Her hand slid down to her side.
    “Is that it?” Derek asked, which was verbose for him, since he usually never spoke unless asked a question directly.
    “Two more. ‘We can always secede.’”
    “Are you making these up?” Gloria asked.
    “Nope. Ask around. I’m not the only one who remembers. You wanna hear the last one?”
    Becky nodded, an odd feeling building in her chest. Her mother liked ‘under the radar’? She mostly remembered her mother in the last few years. So sick and so needy. Always apologizing to Becky. Making Becky cry because she wanted to help her mom. Wanted to.
    And at the same time she hated helping. She wanted to be like the other girls. With her mom healthy and taking care of her.
    “What are you waiting for?” Gloria asked. “A drum roll?”
    Earl grinned, his face pasty in the dusk, almost skeletal – though there was nothing skeletal about his belly. “‘Screw the government. They’re screwing us.’”
    Derek and Gloria laughed, and Becky even chuckled. She could think about her mother later.
    Or not.
    “That one was from you, right?” she asked.
    He nodded, and his grin turned sober. “Might be a good one for you to remember.”
    Then he opened the door and got in.
    Becky looked at Gloria, who shrugged then mimed someone gulping down a beer and pointed at Earl’s car as the motor of his old Ford revved up. Becky smiled. Earl liked his beer, though she’d never seen him drunk.
    Derek’s car door shut, then Gloria got into her car and Becky got into hers.
    As she started home, she thought of Jim’s surprise when she came home early from the board meeting. Probably the first time in two years.
    She smiled slowly. Thinking of an even better surprise.

 
    Chapter Three
     
    Becky stepped out of the garage and looked up at the stars that had popped out during the drive home, reminding her of last Sunday in the parking lot. Tonight it felt as if the stars were putting on a light show for her. A sign from heaven, telling her life was good and she needed to laugh more, dance more, love more.
    Maybe that was the miracle – for her to enjoy life. 
    Even the wind had died down during the short drive home. A sure message from Mother Nature.
    She laughed softly. She wasn’t delusional. But tonight anything seemed possible. Even miracles.
    She turned to the house, feeling as if a tiny star had slipped inside her chest. Blinking off and on. She felt hot. Hot all over but mostly down there. 
    Okay, she could think it. She could even say it. In her vagina.
    “Vagina,” she murmured low so no one else could hear. Not that there was