Car Pool Read Online Free PDF Page B

but right now she wouldn’t go back inside to get one.
    She watched the Oakland Tribune building’s red neon lights flicker on and off until she was shivering. She thought she was cold, but when she went inside the shivering didn’t stop. She was shivering with anger. Control, she told herself. If you lose control there’s no telling what you might do. Don’t risk it.
    Lois was in jeans and a T-shirt… the black T-shirt that made Anthea want to slide her hands under it, up, unhook Lois’s bra… . Anthea shook the image out of her mind. Lois didn’t want her anymore. She stomped from the garage to the bedroom again, and Anthea kept out of her way. Her hands itched for something to do, but she wasn’t going to offer to help, so she made a salad and forced herself to eat it. She forced herself to do the dishes. She forced herself not to watch as Lois carried yet another box out to her car.
    Well, this departure would be quick. Having lost everything in the fire that had swept across the East Bay hills, Lois had been renting all her furniture when Anthea met her. Since they had moved in together a few months later, Lois had
    never replaced what she lost. She had preferred spending her money on clothes and her annual solo vacation… and tae kwon do classes.
    Why had she forgiven Lois that first affair? Was forgiving it permission to do it again?
    Lois appeared with a paper bag from the top of which peeked the hair dryer and a bra. I guess I’ll be using the travel dryer, Anthea thought. Lois paused for a moment, the door to the garage open, and Anthea looked up from the sink.
    “Monica is putting me up until I find a place.”
    That figures, Anthea thought. Monica had been the first affair.
    “Well,” Lois said, “I wish you the best of commuting by yourself. I’m guessing you won’t want to ride with us. I’m sure you’ll find some new people for a pool.”
    “The car pool pass is in my name. It’s been in my name for six years.”
    “Don’t be childish. It’s two against one. It should be ours.”
    “Possession is nine-tenths.” The car outside was locked and the alarm system was on. Anthea swept a crumb from the counter into the sink. She dusted her hands. I’ll be damned if I’ll give it to them. All she needed was to find one more person and she’d be back in car pool business again… it only took two to use car pool lanes on this side of the bay and to get a parking pass at the refinery.
    Lois swept out of the kitchen, yanking the door closed after her.
    The vibration from the slamming door knocked a
    porcelain sconce off its hook. Anthea jabbed her thumb on a sharp edge as she cleaned up the shattered pieces.
    She wished she had said, just for the record, that Lois wasn’t leaving her, she was throwing Lois out. It seemed an important distinction. She dabbed a little peroxide on the cut, then carefully wound a Band-Aid over it.
    There. Now everything would be okay. Her thumb throbbed for a while, then it went numb. She wondered when she would start missing Lois. She smoked one cigarette after another in between spoonfuls of a pint of Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk, telling herself all the while what she was really upset about was having to commute alone.
    She would not cry. She hadn’t cried since she was seven and she wouldn’t start now.

2
Compression Check
    Anthea stomped on the gas pedal. The Legend surged forward, covering the unexpected two-car length gap ahead of her in moments. She slammed on the brakes and stopped a few inches short of tapping bumpers. “Only another fifteen minutes to the bridge at this rate,” she said aloud, glaring in the rear view mirror. Behind her — and ahead as well — was the usual massive line-up to get on the frontage that bypassed some of the freeway leading
    to the Dumbarton Bridge. It was slightly faster than taking the freeway all the way. Even though there was no toll this direction, it still took longer to get on the bridge going