Maybe the Moon Read Online Free PDF

today?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What does he have in mind?” She had that movie-mad gleam in her eye again.
    “Oh, just…various possibilities.”
    “Great!”
    “It’s nothing definite, Renee.”
    “Still…if you’re dieting…” She gave me a look that said I was just being coy, concealing something truly fabulous. I felt like a total fraud. Frankly, the diet is for my own comfort more than anything. I haven’t gained that much, really, but the extra weight has begun to leave me breathless after short walks. My self-esteem has always been pretty good, but lately, when I look in the mirror, the person who looks back reminds me of a beach ball with legs.
    Renee wanted to take a drive after dinner, so we piled into her clunker convertible and cruised off down Ventura. It was a pearly pink evening, scrubbed clean by the rain, and the air seemed especially warm for April. With her streaming yellow hair and blue angora sweater, Renee played havoc with the teenage boys loitering along our route. Since the little horn-dogs couldn’t see me from a distance, any more than I could see them, they just assumed thatthe solitary blonde with the big casabas was out looking for action. They howled with exaggerated lust whenever we stopped at a light.
    “They’re so awful,” Renee said, the third or fourth time this happened.
    I looked up at her and cackled. “You love it.”
    “I don’t, either.”
    “Any of ’em cute?”
    “No. They’re gross. They’re practically naked.”
    “Where?” I undid my seat belt, scooted to my knees, and peered over the top of the door. Four shirtless skateboarders sat on a wall bordering a mini-mall. They weren’t my type, really. Too Matt Dillonish.
    “How ’bout I moon ’em?” I said.
    “Caaady.” Renee rolled her eyes and giggled.
    “Why not?”
    “You’re almost thirty, for heaven’s sake.”
    I feigned indignation. “Are you suggesting my moon isn’t what it used to be?”
    “Just chill out.”
    “It’d be so easy. We just open the door right here…”
    She reached across and pulled my hand off the handle. “What’s gotten into you?”
    “You don’t think I’d do it.”
    “Oh, I think you’d do it, all right.”
    We exchanged crooked smiles, understanding each other, so I abandoned the game. I wanted to tell her we couldn’t be victims, that we had to take a stand and give that shit right back to them, but I kept my mouth shut. I knew she’d get whiny and accuse me of lecturing again.
    I slid back down and refastened my seat belt. We just drove for a while, making rectangles. The sky became a ripe nectarine backdrop to the palm trees and Exxon signs that flickered past my line of vision. I filled my lungs with the spongy air and sank back against the seat, wallowing in the promise of summer. A tape deckin another car was playing “Kiss the Girl,” a Disney tune that sounded almost pagan on this pseudotropical evening.
    “Where we heading now?” I asked.
    “I dunno. Mulholland? Some place pretty?”
    “Go for it.”
    By the time we reached the hills, a purple twilight had come over them. Renee was so closemouthed on the way up that I began to wonder if something was eating her. If she had any major bombs to drop, I knew she’d save them for the very top, where long-established custom demanded that we get out of the car and watch the lights of the Valley.
    Then, as we wound around a steep canyon curve, I looked up and caught her frowning into the rearview mirror. “What’s the matter?” I asked.
    “Just some guys.”
    “Guys?”
    “In a car.”
    “Following us?”
    “I can’t tell.”
    I chuckled. “How do you do it? Is it a musk or something?”
    Renee didn’t answer, busy watching the mirror again. I could hear them hollering now, a rednecky sort of croon. The only word I could make out for certain was “dick.” Why is it that some guys can’t see a nice pair of boobs without bursting into a love song to their peckers? If it’s boobs they