Heart of the World Read Online Free PDF Page A

preach. Raise great kids. But first be a person, a complete package, so that when you find a guy it's not a matter of molding yourself into the person he wants you to be, but a blending of souls. Don’t be the one who compromises all the time. I’d thought she was doing fine, growing, learning, starting to emerge on the other side of a sullen adolescence, beginning to accept herself for who she was, strengths and weaknesses included.
    At the Cambridge Street traffic light, I wriggled my toes inside my boots. They moved reassuringly; no frostbite. A green Pontiac, lights flashing, blocked the right lane, engine dead from the cold. I’d been so sure I’d find her this morning, retrieve her, entrust her to a social worker at the high school, go home to deal with the due diligence and the suspect clerk. Instead I took a right, then a left, and turned into the driveway of Marvin's Magnificent Cabs, also known as Black & Blue due to the unfortunate color of the cabs, pulling the nasty rental right into thecab garage, thinking maybe Leroy could take a peek at the heater, tell me what the hell I had to do to get some heat. “Buy something decent,” he said.
    That was another problem. I’d put off buying a replacement car, first waiting for the slow as molasses insurance settlement on my old Toyota, then relying on a great used-car deal that fell through at the last minute. Now I was debating between a Crown Vic ex-cop car I could afford and a brand new Mazda from a dealership recommended by Sam. The guy at the dealership had offered me the car at way below invoice, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to get involved with a business that was undoubtedly a Mob front.
    Gloria, my friend, as well as the chief dispatcher and owner of the cab company, was busy at her console, but she picked up the sound of my slushy footsteps and lifted her head. Her face grew somber when she saw the expression on mine.
    â€œNothing?”
    I shut the door quickly to conserve the heat. The new office is a hundred percent better than the old one, but the cold spell was a challenge to any heater.
    Gloria wore a dress, a robe more like it, of bright printed cotton, like an African tribal gown. Over that, a sweatshirt and a shawl, and the whole thing looked right on her somehow, as right as a dress can look on a 250-pound wheelchair-bound woman with a round pretty face and bright inquisitive eyes.
    â€œWorse than nothing.” I peeled off my gloves and scarf. “Wrong trail.”
    â€œYou found the boyfriend?”
    I unzipped my parka. “Dammit, Gloria, it seemed reasonable. She disappears; he disappears. I thought they’d be together. It seemed logical, goddammit.”
    â€œDon’t get mad, Carlotta, for what I’m gonna say, but do you think this is some kind of challenge? I mean, lost kids are something you do. You think she got tired of waiting for you to look for her?”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œHow much time you spent with her lately?”
    I started to reply, hotly, then shut my mouth. Why get mad at Gloria for telling me the same stuff I’d been telling myself?
    â€œShe's a smart girl,” Gloria said, eyes narrowing. “Maybe she went somewhere she knows you’ll find her.” “Gloria, this isn’t a scavenger hunt.”
    â€œMaybe she told you about it, sometime when you weren’t listening. Maybe she said she had a favorite place or a secret dream or a hideaway.” “I did listen to her occasionally.” “How was she with Sam?”
    â€œShe adores Sam. You know that. What are you saying, that she's jealous of him?”
    Gloria shrugged her massive shoulders. “She knows you always have time for work. Maybe she's making herself your work.” Hit by a car when she was a teenager, Gloria moves fine from the waist up.
    I sat on a rickety stool in the corner. “I hear what you’re saying, Gloria. I know I haven’t been