No Story to Tell Read Online Free PDF

city?”
    “Ya. For a while I did.”
    “And?”
    “I don’t know. Got married. Things changed.”
    “Hmm. So, you live a long ways out this road?”
    “Pretty far. About another fifteen miles back.”
    “I must have gone right past your place then. What side of the road are you on?”
    “The left.” She whispered the words dryly.
    “In the trailer?”
    She cringed. What must he have thought as he drove past the filthy trailer, surrounded by the dilapidated sheds strewn haphazardly around with a complete disregard to order?
    “Ya. In the trailer.” The words drained out of her, revealing at once all that she wasn’t and never would be.
    “Oh yeah. I know your place. You have the most amazing rock bluff behind your field. I’d love to climb it sometime and do some sketching. If that would be okay with you and your husband. What’s his name again?”
    “Bobby.”
    “Oh yes, Bobby. Seen him a couple of times around town. Sounds like he’s quite the mechanic. Benson said there’s not a guy around who can re-build a faster engine. That true?”
    Victoria shrugged. “That’s what they say.”
    “He grow up here as well?”
    “Yeah, more or less.” She felt agitated as the conversation turned to Bobby. Elliot had casually mentioned meeting him, but Victoria could only guess about what sort of performance her husband may have delivered.
    “So, what about you? Where did you grow up?” She watched him, alert to see if he was aware he’d been played, but the telltale muscles of his face revealed nothing.
    “Well, I sort of grew up all over. My dad’s job was better suited to a single guy, so we were always moving.” He shifted in his seat, the words seeming to stir something in him. Wondering what private pain had intruded upon them, she barely resisted an urge to reach across and touch his face.
    “Anyhow, we got to be expert packers. My brothers and I could have a house boxed, loaded and ready to go within two days.” He pulled himself up straight and laughed lightly, looking across at her. “I miss the adventure if I get grounded for too long now, though. After high school a buddy and I spent a couple of years backpacking around Europe.”
    “Really? I’d love to go there. What a great experience that must have been.”
    He laughed suddenly, loudly, startling her. “Well, if you can call sleeping in the rain and half-starving great experiences, then I guess it was! No. Really, it was. I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything.”
    Victoria searched her own mind for memories she wouldn’t trade for anything but found none. Her whole life, thirty-seven years, without one cherished memory. She could erase her whole existence and be just as far ahead. Maybe farther.
    “Tell me about Europe. I’ll probably never get there myself.”
    “Of course you will. Just go. Nothing is stopping you. Except maybe yourself.”
    “You make it sound so easy.”
    “That’s because it is.”
    “Maybe for some people.” She shot him a wry look.
    “Okay. Look, I’ll tell you just enough so you’ll have to go see it for yourself. And seeing it’s only a small part anyhow. You can do that with a good book. The real magic lies in the smells and the sounds and the tastes. The colors. Know what I mean?”
    Victoria nodded a smile, relaxing against the door as he fell into a rambling discourse about his years in Europe. She studied his handsome, almost beautiful face as he glided through his memories with ease, pausing from time to time to remember details that didn’t matter.
    They’d bumped into each other only briefly in the short time that Elliot had lived in the valley. The usual meeting places where the inhabitants of a small town eventually meet up—auction sales, town meetings, weddings, funerals—but she’d never spent any time really talking to him. Watching him now, she couldn’t understand why. Who else would she have moved on to talk to? And who else could have had anything worth talking