The Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls Read Online Free PDF Page A

an animal rights presentation in the school cafeteria), and apparently a fan of country music. Even when she was obviously wrong, Jill assumed she was right. When she and her mother showed up for book club fifteen minutes earlier than anyone else, Jill insisted that my mother and I had made a mistake about the time. “It was definitely seven-fifteen,” she said.
    Then she followed me into the kitchen and gave me a Coming Attractions summary of the rest of her life, whichwas all planned out: she would go to the University of Delaware for college, join a sorority, and become a nurse. After she graduated, she was going to adopt a greyhound, and she wasn’t going to get married until she’d had a good job for at least two years.
    Jill had a way of inhaling before she talked, sucking the air through her nose. “Nursing is a great profession,” she said while I searched for a can of lemonade. “You don’t have to work in a hospital. You can do home care or private practice, or you can work in a nursing home or do research. There are a lot of different possibilities.”
    “Sounds like you’ve got it all worked out.” I burrowed into the freezer—a wasteland of shattered pie shells, half-empty ice cream containers, runaway coffee beans, and ancient hamburgers dressed up in thick frosted jackets. “But why don’t you want to be a doctor?”
    She inhaled through her nostrils. “Why would I want to be a doctor?”
    “I don’t know. Because they make more money?” I plucked a can of frozen pink lemonade from underneath a package of peas. “It seems kind of weird that you’ve already made those kinds of decisions.”
    “I don’t think it’s weird,” Jill said. “What do you want to be?”
    “I don’t know.” I remembered the rhyme my mother used to recite when I was little: Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief; doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, gentleman, apothecary—out go you . But wasn’t that a rhyme about who you would marry? And what the heck was a tinker? “I definitely don’t want to be a nurse.”
    Jill tossed an ice cube into the pink cave of her mouth. I could tell she was irritated with me; but she didn’t have to listen to the air whistling into my nose. “I’ve been wondering why you invited me here,” she said.
    “I didn’t invite you.” I rinsed out a pitcher; there were several dead fruit flies inside it. “No offense,” I said. “I didn’t invite anyone.” Remembering my mother’s advice about being open-minded and friendly, I shared my current theory: that we might as well have started a reading group with the Virgin Mary, Abraham Lincoln, Oprah Winfrey, and Genghis Khan.
    “Okay. Then I know who Genghis is,” Jill said. “I saw her this afternoon coming out of the drugstore, wearing a tiny white skirt and yellow sandals. You were at the pool with her. What do you think she weighs?”
    “You want to know what CeeCee weighs?” I asked. “I haven’t weighed her.”
    “Probably one-oh-five. I’m good at estimating,” Jill said. “I weigh one thirty-five. You probably weigh, what: one fifty? One fifty-five?”
    I looked at the clock: Only two more hours , I thought, and this first unfortunate evening will be over .
    Jill tossed another ice cube into her mouth. Her face was round and tan and smooth, her skin the color of a light brown egg. “What I heard about CeeCee,” she said, “in case you’re interested, is that her parents have forced her to be in the book club. Which means you and Wallis and I are her punishment.”
    “That’s a nice way of looking at it,” I said. “We’re like a penal colony, with books.”
    Jill pulled her thick black hair into a ponytail. “I’m just agreeing with what you said earlier. We’re not a typical group. Wallis is a miniature prodigy, and I’m into sports, and you—” Jill looked me quickly up and down. “You’ve screwed up your leg or whatever. But CeeCee’s different.