The Urn Carrier Read Online Free PDF Page A

kind.”
    “No shit?” Maybe that’s what Paul left behind.
    Dina removes the magnetic bottle opener on the
front of the door and pops the beer open, letting the top fly into the middle
of the trailer. They laugh. The beer is deliciously cold.
    “I’m gonna miss you.” Dina pushes a lock of Tessa’s hair behind
her ear.
    “Come with me.”
    Dina shakes her head as she takes another swig. “No can do. At
least now. Maybe later in your trip? When you have to hit British Columbia.
That would be fun.”
    “Could you take that much time, two weeks in Canada with me? Maybe
three?”
    “Sure, that’s a couple months down the road. I’ll be free then.
Doesn’t Billy want to go?” Dina smiles. Tessa sees a knowing look in her eyes.
    “Billy.” Tessa sighs and rolls over on her back, her bare breasts
exposed. “You know he’s sweet, he’s just . . .”
    “So boring,” they say together.
    “But you should have seen the delivery guy.”
    “Someone I need to be jealous about?”
    “As if.” Tessa shoves Dina, then grabs her blouse off the floor
and puts it on.
    “As if what?”
    “Xander and you.”
    Dina nods and drinks. “Well, Xander isn’t clueless about female
parts.”
    “And he’s hot.” Tessa takes the beer from Dina.
    “He’s super-hot, but can he work?” That was Dina, always looking
ahead. “I need a steady Eddie. Someone that’s going to be there in the long
haul.”
    “Don’t we all?”
    “Mmm.” Dina finishes the beer. “At least we have each other.”

 
    Chapter 4
     
    TESSA’S BIG MORNING finally arrives. Packing stuff she wants for
after the trip and selling or giving away things, becomes a sort of purging, an
unexpected cleansing. Her senses are more alive, her eyes seem to let in more
light. Even her body seems lighter.
    She needs to stop at her mom’s, just north of Lansing, to pick up
Murphy and then her trip officially begins.
    Twenty minutes later, she pulls up to the white-washed two-story
building, a late forties house, with a big front porch. She gulps. She’s going
to miss 531 Broadway, home of her dreams and games and her childhood. Home of
her beloved cherry tree. Just down the road from Mrs. Bender and her fifteen
cats. Across the street from her lifelong best friend, Holly. Other than Eli,
Holly is still her closest confidante and supporter. But Holly is in Europe
right now—a Fulbright Scholarship to some veterinary school.
    As soon as the truck is off, both Murphy and her mom burst from
the front door. Murphy prances all around the truck joyfully as if looking for
someone else. He totally ignores Tessa and she realizes he is looking for Aunt
Sadie. Well, that made the most sense. He finally approaches her.
    “I know I’m a poor substitute but will you allow me the next
dance?” Tessa ruffles his long soft ears. He noses the door of the trailer, so
Tessa unlocks the door and the deadbolt. Paul had instructed her to lock both
when driving down the road and she promised she always would.
    Murphy leaps into the rig. He looks around and sniffs. His tail
wags as if he senses something familiar. He hops onto the bed. He lays down for
a moment and then jumps off. He runs outside to the truck door and noses the
handle. Tessa opens the passenger door and Murphy climbs up over the seat and
onto the back cab bed made just for him. He lies down, looking perfectly at
home. He jumps right back off and out of the truck to the tailgate and noses
that too. Murphy doesn’t wait for Tessa to get it all the way open before he
jumps up. He sniffs the kayak and looks at her like, “What is this?”
    He puts one paw tentatively into the large open kayak, then
another, then he gets in and lies down. Briefly. He stands up and, wagging his
tail, returns to Tessa.
    “I think he knows he’s going with you,” her mom says.
    “Right?”
    Her mom has Murphy’s day bed and dishes and Murphy watches as they
load it in the trailer. Then he noses Tessa’s hand. Murphy sits, his