Homesick Creek by Diane Hammond Page B

Wayside. “I didn’t figure you’d want to bother filling it up right now. You take this one and just drop it by on your way back through town.”
    Anita felt the backs of her eyes prickle with shame and gratitude. They wouldn’t have money for gas until Bob got paid again. She pretended to look out the window until she could trust herself. “That was nice of you, to think about that, Dooley. I’ll take good care of it,” she said.
    “I know you will. You tell that girl of yours to take care of herself. I’ve always had a soft spot for Doreen, ever since she was tiny and used to wear that majorette outfit everywhere.”
    In the Wayside parking lot he left the car idling while Anita came around to the driver’s side. “You be careful. Wind’s a son of a bitch,” he yelled as he made a dash for the Wayside front door.
    Anita hauled the seat belt across her lap, flipped the wipers on high, and turned the car toward Sawyer, cursing Danny for the millionth time. He’d been trouble from the minute Doreen had started going with him five years ago, but try telling that to the girl. When she got pregnant at sixteen, they got married for Crystal’s sake, but you could tell it was never going to work out between them. Then last year he’d gotten in trouble for stealing tools from a body shop over in Sawyer where he’d worked for a couple of months. He said he’d been given permission to take them home for a night or two to work on his old Mustang, but the owner testified in court that that was garbage. Danny had been sentenced to two years’ probation. If he really was involved in this latest thing, he could just hang, as far as Anita was concerned. She’d move Doreen and Crystal home with her and Bob if she had to. She’d figure something out. She always did.
    Anita drove over the cape, fighting every gust of wind. Dooley’s car was nice, though, even if it was small. It had been a long time since she’d driven such a new car. Bunny had a good car, of course, a nice midnight blue Thunderbird with a white landau roof. When they did things together, they never went in Anita’s car. In her next life Anita was going to have a new-model car every two years like clockwork and park it outside her new double-wide, just see if she didn’t.
    At Doreen’s apartment Anita pulled into the parking space next to Doreen’s car. The asshole manager would probably give Anita hell again for taking up someone else’s designated parking place, but that was just tough shit. She was tugging her purse out after her when Doreen opened the door. Her eyes were bloody-looking and puffy from crying, but her makeup was fresh, her mascara as thick and black as iron filings. Her hair was all poufed up too and pulled back into a ponytail. She’d always had thin hair like Anita. The back-combing wasn’t fooling anybody.
    “How come you’re driving Dooley’s car?”
    “Daddy’s got ours.” Anita pulled the apartment door closed behind her. The place was spotless at least. Doreen was a good housekeeper. Crystal came dashing over in footie pajamas and plowed into Anita’s legs. Anita swung her up and gave her a big kiss. The girl giggled and wrapped her legs around Anita’s hips, put her arms around her neck.
    “Hi, sweetie,” Anita said. “You glad to see Grammy?”
    “Uh-huh,” the girl said around a big wad of bubble gum.
    “She shouldn’t be chewing gum,” Anita said. Crystal already had four steel teeth because Doreen used to put her to bed with a bottle of juice every night.
    “Don’t start with me,” Doreen said.
    Anita sighed and gave Crystal a loud, smoochy kiss and let her down. “How about you go and get Mister Bear? Gram’s going to take you home for a visit.”
    Crystal skipped off, looking for her ratty teddy bear. Doreen shuffled a paper shopping bag full of Crystal’s clothes across the floor toward Anita.
    “Did you call the police station?”
    “Yeah,” Doreen said. “They told me I had to come down