A Notion of Love Read Online Free PDF

and of course Jo wanted to stay longer, so I hitched a ride,” I explained. “Jackie is a little banged up, but otherwise just fine.”
    Mom stuck her head out the porch door and confirmed, “I just got off the phone with Patricia. Seems like the boys were getting into trouble again.” She sounded affectionate, as though they’d toilet-papered a yard rather than risked their lives. But that was Jackson, always pushing things and talking everyone around him into doing the same thing.
    â€œYou getting excited for the prom?” Minnie asked then. She grinned at me, drawing her braid over one shoulder with her free hand and twisting its length. “Joanie showed me your dress, doll. I love that color. Reminds me of a skirt I had once upon a time.”
    â€œI wanted blue,” I told her. “But this one is pretty. I think I’ll wear my hair up in a twist.”
    â€œI can help you with that,” Minnie went on. “We’ll get some roses for your hair.”
    â€œWhy in the hell would Joelle choose a black dress for a school dance?” Gran wondered aloud.
    â€œIt’s stylish,” I replied.
    Gran harrumphed and lit another cigarette.
    â€œSo what’s your fella doing this evening?” Minnie asked, anchoring her smoke between her teeth and beckoning to me. I turned my chair so she could have access to the back of my head, and she proceeded to play around with fixing my hair.
    â€œHelping his dad clean out their garage,” I told her, little shivers racing over my scalp as she worked. I loved having my hair touched. Chris loved to run his hands through it, wrap its length around his fingers. He told me once I looked like a mermaid, with her hair trailing all along her waist.
    â€œHe’s a kind boy,” Minnie said. “He’s good for you, Jilly Rae.”
    I smiled and said, “I think so, too.”
    She released my hair and cupped my temples for a moment, lightly, her hands going at once still. I was facing away, so her expression was hidden from me. Instead I studied Flickertail as night descended over its surface, turning the water to ink. Above our heads, silhouetted against the silvering sky, brown bats began to appear, fluttering around in their choppy, erratic flight, feasting on the wealth of mosquitoes. My great-aunt’s hands were gentle against my skull; I waited patiently. At last she sat back with a small, soft sigh and pronounced, “You’ll be all right.”
    I knew better than to ask her what she meant; if she wanted me to know, she would tell me. Minnie had always known things. The expression she used was having ‘a Notion.’ I always thought of the word with a capital letter and I’d never questioned her statements, because they’d always proven true. And besides, I had Notions too. Never when I expected, never when I tried to force it; the knowing would hit me with the unexpected nature of a lightning flash in the distance, on a night you thought was only clear. Or, more often, I would have a dream. The first time it happened I’d told Minnie, no one else. I had been six and dreamed that a white tree had fallen onto the café, smashing through the roof. Just a nightmare, Mom would have assumed. Except that it wasn’t. It was more, and I could only explain that I’d known this in my gut. Minnie had listened, holding me tightly on her lap, brushing the sweaty hair back from my temples as I described the dream. By morning I’d all but forgotten; Minnie, however, had walked around the café with a critical eye and later that day she’d arranged for the ancient birch tree near the north side of the building to be removed.
    I curled my hands around my knees as she resumed playing with my hair. She’d said I would be all right, and I trusted that, whatever she meant exactly. But there was a sadness flowing from her fingers that I didn’t understand, and again, I knew