Catching Air Read Online Free PDF

back—she had to act normally! Fifteen steps . . .
    “Ms. Zukoski?”
    She froze. The bank manager was calling her name, and the security guard stood between her and the door, his gaze fixed on her. She knew when she turned around she’d see her boss flanked by a dozen police officers.
    I’m sorry, Tucker, she thought. She felt the bank manager’s hand touch her arm.
    “Lollipop?” he offered, holding out a bright orange one.
    • • •
    “There’s got to be a gas station nearby,” Kira said, peering into the darkness.
    It was close to midnight. They were somewhere near the border of North Carolina at the end of their first day of traveling, and all Kira wanted was a hot shower and a soft bed. At this point, she’d happily settle for a cold shower and a lumpy sleeping bag. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, then resumed searching the road ahead for a sign indicating the way to a gas station, a motel, a McDonald’s . . . anything resembling civilization.
    “Check your iPhone again,” Peter said.
    She glanced down and shook her head. “Still not getting a signal.” All they had to guide them was a map Peter had purchased when they’d set off, and that crinkly rectangle of paper seemed hopelessly antiquated now. It could show them a few different routes to the highway, but not which ones featured gas stations.
    Instead of taking I-95, which cut a straight, industrial path along the East Coast, they’d decided to travel along smaller back roads and stop to visit fruit stands and wineries and antique shops on their way to Vermont. “It’ll be fun,” Kira had said to Peter in what now seemed like one of the more foolhardy statements of her life.
    But it had been fun, at least for a while: They’d sung along to a Miranda Lambert CD, affecting a country twang, while Kira had dangling her bare feet out the window as the stress of the past six years seemed to peel away in the wind. They’d followed the signs to a state park and had spread out a blanket and taken an afternoon nap by a pretty lake.
    The nap had left them feeling so refreshed that they’d decided to drive late into the night, and now they seemed to be the only ones on the two-lane road. Their easy chatter had tapered off into silence as the line on their gas gauge had dipped into the red zone.
    “There!” Kira shouted, pointing at a flash of color in the distance. “A gas station.”
    “Thank God,” Peter said.
    They pulled in next to the single pump, and Peter looked at the small structure with a wooden sign advertising cold drinks and cigarettes in uneven lettering.
    “It isn’t open,” he said.
    “Are you sure? Maybe if you knock on the door, someone will answer it. They could be in the back or something.”
    “Kira, there is no back. And the lights are off.” Peter started the engine again and drove around to park behind the gas station.
    “What are you doing?” Kira asked as he killed the headlights.
    “We need to stop for the night,” Peter said, his voice as low and calm as ever. She’d seen her husband lose it exactly twice—once when he’d dropped a can of juice on his bare toe and once when they’d lost power during an electrical storm and he’d fried an expensive computer belonging to a client.
    “We’re about to run out of gas,” Peter said.
    “Don’t you think we should keep going?” Kira asked. “There could be another one up ahead.”
    “If there is, it’s probably closed, too,” Peter said. “At least this way we can choose where we get stuck. We’ll gas up as soon as they open.”
    Kira exhaled loudly, but she knew he was right. Peter’s logical mind and his steadiness were among the traits she’d always prized most in him. She reached into the glove compartment and grabbed a napkin.
    “I have to pee,” she said. “Yell if anyone’s coming, okay?”
    “Trust me, no one’s coming,” he said.
    She squatted down a few yards away from their Honda, trying to avoid splattering her