Finding Bluefield Read Online Free PDF Page A

shift. We should go.”
    Carol-Ann looked at Barbara and then Nicky and then back at Barbara. “It’s you?” she said. “Isn’t it?”
    “Excuse me?” Barbara turned to Nicky.
    Carol-Ann turned back to Nicky. “I thought you gave that stuff up after Mary Beth moved.”
    “I thought so too, but it just happened that way,” Nicky said.
    “Things like that don’t just happen.”
    “They do if you’re lucky,” Nicky said. “And it was my idea, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    “What are your plans?” Carol-Ann asked Nicky.
    “Plans?” Nicky laughed. “Who are you?”
    “Don’t you realize that when Barbara finishes her residency, she’ll leave? She’ll move some place where people don’t know her and get a good job and even a husband if she wants. Where does that leave you? Once this gets around, you’ll never get a husband around here.”
    “You both realize that I’m right here?” Barbara said. She was trying to remain calm, but it wasn’t working. During medical school, Barbara had given up on love. Not for lack of desire, but lack of options. She wanted to be with a woman and she wanted to be a doctor. She spent time at some of the women’s bars on New York’s West Side. She let women take her home, but never gave them a phone number or address, fearing that if they showed up at her work, she could lose her scholarship. She made a choice to go it alone till she had her medical license. But then Nicky and her sparkling green eyes and all her charm and zeal showed up and made her take chances she had not planned to take. And she liked having a plan.
    “I’m not looking for a husband,” Nicky said. “So there’s no problem.”
    “It’s your life,” Carol-Ann said.
    “You finally got something right.”
    “I guess that explains why you didn’t like any of those guys we set you up with.” Carol-Ann rinsed the silverware.
    “No. I didn’t like them because they were assholes.”
    “Did you tell Daddy?”
    “Why would I tell him?” Nicky said.
    “It would kill him,” Carol-Ann said. She looked directly at Barbara. “I’m happy for you if this is really what you want. I just think you need to know what you’re getting into. Bluefield is a small town, and once word gets around it spreads like fleas on a dog.”
    “How would it get around?” Nicky said.
    “C’mon, Nicky. Everything gets around.”

    *

    Barbara shut the car door and let out a deep sigh. “Why’d you do that?”
    Nicky started the engine. “I didn’t plan on it. It just came out. I really wanted her to know about us. And you defended my honor in there. You stood up for me. That was sweet. I can’t wait to get you home.”
    “This is not good. If this gets around, it will sabotage my residency and I’ll have to leave.”
    Nicky pulled the Chevy onto the road and headed back to town. “Carol-Ann’s not going to tell anyone. It would reflect poorly on her and Richard, and she wouldn’t want that.”
    “I hope you’re right.”
    “Besides, you said everyone at the hospital already thinks you’re a dyke.”
    “But that’s just rumor,” Barbara said.
    “So what’s the difference? The worst that could happen is that they’ll think you’re a dyke.”
    “It’s different when they’re sure,” Barbara said. “How the hell did your sister guess?”
    “Weird, isn’t it? It’s like she has some special sense that can tell when people have had sex. She was like that in high school. If Richard ever cheated on her, she would know right away.”
    “So you knew she would know?”
    “No. I honestly didn’t think her powers worked on lesbians.”
    “One more thing,” Barbara said as Nicky shifted the car into high gear. “Who’s Mary Beth?”

Chapter Two
     
    1963

    The lunch rush left and Nicky grabbed her newspaper and a cup of coffee and took them both over to the sinks. She hopped up on one of the counters and offered Leroy a cigarette. He stopped washing the pots and took one. She lit