Redemption Lake Read Online Free PDF Page B

teach him something. Travis laughed. This was another one of her teaching moments.

Chapter 4
    Travis Highgate
Monday: 6:21 A.M .
    Travis was jolted awake by the slamming down of what sounded like his wife’s toiletry bag on the dresser. Then light spilled onto his face after he heard the curtains being slung open. He slid the pillow over his head.
    When he heard the bathroom door close, he slipped the pillow off of his head and pulled his cell phone off the nightstand. He groaned realizing it was only a little after six o’clock in the morning. Beryl knew he didn’t like loud noises in the morning and hated it when the lights were turned on in his face while he was still sleeping—much less the curtains and blinds being opened.
    Travis figured Beryl was just trying to get back at him and get under his skin. He wasn’t going to let it work. He felt if she wanted out of the marriage, it would be because she gave up on him.
    He turned his back to the window in order to get more rest. Her plan to get him agitated was only going to backfire. He’d stay in bed just to spite her. That would get under her skin. He hoped she’d be dressed and out of the room by the time he did get up.
    It seemed as though only a few minutes had gone by when Travis heard Beryl rustling around the bedroom. After she left and closed the bedroom door, he again pulled the pillow from over his head to peek at his cell phone.
    He shot up in the bed. It was already 8:50 A.M. “What in the world? Why didn’t my alarm go off?” he asked himself aloud, knowing the answer before he finished the thought. He hadn’t set the alarm on his phone. “Shoot!”
    Travis threw the covers off. “I’ve got to get myself into gear.” Hearing his voice out loud helped clarify things for him. He picked up the duffle bag and rummaged through it for some underwear, a pair of jeans, and a T-shirt. Then he remembered not packing any extra underwear, and he also remembered how things had gone the night before when he and Beryl finally decided to call it a night.
    When Beryl came back into their room to turn in for the night, he’d told her about his packing mishap. She’d looked at him with a smirk on her face that asked what do you want me to do about it? He’d asked if she’d packed any underwear or socks for him and she said she hadn’t.
    Then she’d had the nerve to tell him for what seemed like the millionth time that she was not his mama, and he needed to stop waiting for her to do everything. Travis had heard it so many times he was desensitized to the words coming from her mouth. She whined on and on about how she wasn’t appreciated and how she wished he’d take some initiative when it came to their marriage. After a while she sounded like the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoon. The words bounced off his ears without comprehension.
    After she finally paused from her insistent babbling, Travis asked her what he was supposed to do about not having a change of underwear. She’d told him he’d have to drive an hour to a real store to buy some, or the ones he was wearing would have to be washed each night.
    He’d thanked her for the idea and asked where he should put the underwear for her to wash. Beryl had laughed so hard that she’d had to hold her stomach. When her laughing finally calmed down, he’d asked what was so funny.
    She’d rolled her eyes and told him to wash his own funky underwear. After that she continued to laugh as she pulled out her sketchpad to draw. As she sketched God knows what, Beryl’s laughing continued in intermittent spurts until she’d finally gone to bed and fallen asleep.
    Travis had been so upset with her that he’d jumped in the bed and went to sleep also. Now he stood with his jeans, T-shirt, toothbrush and toothpaste, but no clean underwear. He was wearing the only pair he had.
    The bathroom was small but