Breathing Lessons Read Online Free PDF Page A

doesn't seem professional." "Now, according to the map," he said, "we could stay on Route One a good deal farther up than Oxford. Serena had us cutting off at Oxford, if I heard you right, but. . . Check it for me, will you?" Maggie took the map from the seat between them and opened it, one square at a time. She was hoping not to have to spread it out completely. Ira would get after her ^ for refolding it wrong. "Oxford," she said. "Is that in Maryland or Pennsylvania?" "It's in Pennsylvania, Maggie. Where Highway Ten leads off to the north." "Well, then! I distinctly remember she told us to take Highway Ten." "Yes, but if we ... Have you been listening to a word I say? If we stayed on Route One, see, we could make better time, and I think there's a cutoff further up that would bring us directly to Deer Lick." "Well, she must have had a reason, Ira, for telling us Highway Ten." "A reason? Serena? Serena Gill have a reason?" She shook out the map with a crackle. He always talked like that about her girlfriends. He acted downright jealous of them. She suspected he thought women got together on the sly and gossiped about their husbands. Typical: He was so self-centered. Although sometimes it did happen, of course.
"Did that service station have a snack machine?" she asked him.
"Just candy bars. Stuff you don't like." "I'm dying of hunger." "I could have got you a candy bar, but I thought you wouldn't eat it." "Didn't they have potato chips or anything? I'm starving." "Baby Ruths, Fifth Avenues ..." She made a face and went back to the map.
"Well, I would say take Highway Ten," she told him.
"I could swear I saw a later cutoff." "Not really," she said.
"Not really? What does that mean? Either there's a cutoff or there isn't." "Well," she said, "to tell the truth, I haven't quite located Deer Lick yet." He flicked on his turn signal. "We'll find you someplace to eat and I'll take another look at the map," he said.
"Eat? I don't want to eat!" "You just said you were starving to death." "Yes, but I'm on a diet! All I want is a snack!" "Fine. We'll get you a snack, then," he said.
"Really, Ira, I hate how you always try to undermine my diets." "Then order a cup of coffee or something. I need to look at the map." He was driving down a paved road that was lined with identical new ranch houses, each with a metal toolshed out back in the shape of a tiny red barn trimmed in white. Maggie wouldn't have thought there'd be any place to eat in such a neighborhood, but sure enough, around the next bend they found a frame building with a few cars parked in front of it. A dusty neon sign glowed in the window: NELL'S GROCERY & CAFE. Ira parked next to a Jeep with a- Judas Priest sticker on the bumper. Maggie opened her door and stepped out, surreptitiously hitching up the crotch of her panty hose.
The grocery smelled of store bread and waxed paper. It reminded her of a grade-school lunchroom. Here and there women stood gazing at canned goods. The cafe lay at the rear-one long counter, with faded color photos of orange scrambled eggs and beige link sausages lining the wall behind it. Maggie and Ira settled on adjacent stools and Ira flattened his map on the counter. Maggie watched the waitress cleaning a griddle. She sprayed it with something, scraped up thick gunk with a spatula, and sprayed again. From behind she was a large white rectangle, her gray bun tacked down with black bobby pins. "What you going to order?" she asked finally, not turning around.
Ira said, "Just coffee for me, please," without looking up from his map. Maggie had more trouble deciding. She took off her sunglasses and peered at the color photos. "Well, coffee too, I guess," she said, "and also, let me think, I ought to have a salad or something, but-" "We don't serve any salads," the waitress said. She set aside her spray bottle and came over to Maggie, wiping her hands on her apron. Her eyes, netted with wrinkles, were an eerie light green, like old beach glass.