Zigzag Read Online Free PDF Page B

truth of it hit me like a wrecking ball and I slumped over onto the arm of the couch.
    Mom pulled her arm away from me and sat forward so she could see my face. The look on hers was a cross between shock and horror.
    â€œI hope you don’t really believe that!”
    â€œIt’s true ! I was nobody before I met Chris and when he leaves I’ll be nobody again! I don’t know what to do without Chris!”
    Mom didn’t say anything for a while then. She got the tissue box and sat next to me and let me bawl until finally I was sick and tired of it and just stopped. Little spasms made me shiver and breathe raggedly, but I sat up and blew my nose.
    â€œMaybe you should do something this summer, too,” Mom said finally. “Something different.”
    â€œI’m working at the Tastee-Freez,” I reminded her.
    She shook her head. “No, I think you should get out of this town for a while. See something new.”
    I gave her a sideways look. “Yeah? You wanna send me to Rome?”
    â€œNo, but Dory has a proposition for you—that’s why she called this morning. I didn’t think you’d be interested, but now that Chris won’t be around, I don’t see why you shouldn’t do it. It’s an opportunity.”
    I sniffed and coughed a few more times. “What kind of an opportunity?”
    â€œShe and the kids are taking a car trip this summer—from Chicago to Los Angeles, kind of a zigzag route, stopping along the way to see the sites and the countryside. She’d like you to go with them, to help her drive, but also to keep the kids company.”
    â€œ Me, in a car with Iris and Marshall all summer? I don’t think so.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œBecause I don’t like them. I’m sorry, Mom, I know Dory is your sister, and she’s okay, but her kids are the biggest brats going. Besides which, I have nothing in common with them.”
    â€œYou’ve hardly spent any time with them, a few visits to Chicago and that one time they came here.”
    â€œThank God! No, Mom. I’ll be miserable enough this summer without being trapped in a moving vehicle with those two!”
    â€œIt would be a chance to do some traveling—except for Chicago you’ve never been any place but Iowa. You don’t know what this country looks like.”
    â€œI’ve seen pictures.”
    â€œWouldn’t you like to see the West?”
    I rolled my eyes. “What’s in the West? Cowboys?”
    â€œDory would pay for everything—food, hotels, all of it—just to have the help. I can’t afford to give you a trip like that, Robin. I hate to see you pass up an opportunity.”
    Mom had always wished we could afford to take vacations. She’d gone to New York City once with a girlfriend before she got married, and she often talked about what a great trip that was. Maybe she should help Dory drive to California and I could stay home and be wretchedly depressed by myself.
    â€œJust think about it, will you?” Mom said as she stood up. “It would be good for you to see a wider world.”
    â€œI don’t need a wider world,” I said. “I just need Chris.”
    She sighed and went back to her dusting, running the cloth over the tops of all the books on the shelf. I imagined myself looking out the window of Dory’s minivan for hour after hour, day after day, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, whatever else is between here and California. What a living hell that would be. Except . . . wait a minute. Arizona.
    â€œIf I did go, do you think Dory would stop in Arizona for a few days? So I could see Dad and my . . . brother?” Brother. It was weird to imagine that I even had one.
    Mom smiled. “I think there’s a good chance.”
    Watching Mom get ready for her date was at least comic relief. After her shower she puffed on enough talcum powder to choke herself and anyone who came near